Amy Scott's Thoughts

Here is the final leg of our journey! If you missed Part 1, you can find it here. If you missed Part 2, you can read it here. Days seven through ten, here we go!

Day Seven – Canmore, AB to Cardston, AB
We woke to drizzly rain on our final day in Canmore. The original plan was to head to Calgary and hang out for a bit. We had hoped to do the Calgary Tower, which is slightly taller than our Seattle Space Needle. We thought we would see the sights of the city and surrounding area. But, the weather had other plans! The rain created a foggy, mist all the way to the ground. The city was socked in with drizzle. We decided to skip the Calgary Tower and head south to Waterton Lakes National Park. It wasn’t originally on our itinerary, but it was near our destination for the evening and the weather was better that direction. In Waterton Lakes, we found multiple red chairs, beautiful lake views, and Red Rock Canyon. At the start of the Red Rock Parkway, we saw a grizzly bear! Luckily, it was in the distance and seen safely from inside our car! We ended our time at Waterton Lakes National Park with a drive through their bison paddock. We had tacos for dinner in Cardston, did a little grocery shopping (we bought so much cereal on this trip), and then the boys spent the rest of the evening at the hotel pool. This hotel pool had a water slide, so that made it a huge hit!

Day Eight – Cardston, AB to Columbia Falls, MT
We had an early breakfast at A&W because it shared a parking lot with our hotel. After breakfast, we took off for the border crossing and back onto American soil. Our destination of the day was Glacier National Park. We had reservations to take the Going-To-The-Sun Road across the park. We stopped at the St. Mary’s Visitor Center to pick up Junior Ranger books and hit the road for this iconic drive. Our favorite spot was a hike down to Baring Falls. Our animal sighting of the day was a bighorn sheep grazing near the road. The St. Mary side of the park started out quiet, but as we drove on the park got busier. We couldn’t find parking at Logan Pass or the Trail of the Cedars. We were able to find parking at Red Rock Point and Lake McDonald. Outside of the Apgar Visitor Center we stopped for lunch and let the kids work on their Junior Ranger books. We turned the books into the rangers at the Visitor Center and the boys became official Junior Rangers of Glacier National Park. Crowds and bad road caused us to leave the park sooner than we expected. We went into Whitefish so the boys could run off some energy at a playground. We hit a Safeway for dinner supplies before heading to our house in Columbia Falls. Our house had a very steep descent to the Flathead River. We made it down to the river after dinner, but it was a bit treacherous. The boys took a wild life drive to end the day while I folded and repacked clean laundry.

Day Nine – Columbia Falls, MT to Spokane, WA
We took off early and left the Rocky Mountains behind us. We made it to Coeur d’Alene, ID in time for lunch. When in Coeur d’Alene, Meltz Extreme Grilled Cheese is a must. We shared our favorite local lunch spot with my family. Jeremy and I attend an annual conference in Coeur d’Alene so we thought it would be fun to show the boys where we stay when we travel to the area. We showed them the lake, boardwalk, a local playground, and took a walk through the Coeur d’Alene Resort lobby. Then it was Grandpa’s turn to give a tour. He took us into Spokane and gave the boys a tour of Gonzaga University, his alma mater. It was fun to see the campus and hear stories of where my dad lived and worked during college. The boys had a lot of fun each picking a souvenir from the huge Zag Shop. After the college tour, we checked into our final hotel and spent over an hour in the hotel pool. Dinner was Applebees across the street from our hotel.

Day Ten – Spokane, WA to Home
The final day! Our travel day home! We enjoyed breakfast the hotel. I had the fanciest hotel waffles ever. 3 mini waffles with blueberry batter and mixed berries and whip cream on top. Yum! We stopped at Starbucks for Jeremy to get a pumpkin spice latte and then hit the road for home! We made a quick Taco Bell stop in Yakima for lunch and then the we started the final leg of journey. We had a stretch break at Clear Creek Falls on White Pass and that sums up the highlights of this familiar territory. We made it home by mid-afternoon. It was nice to be back with enough time to unpack and make some headway on the laundry.

We are thankful to be home, but the kids will tell you they miss Canada and they wish the adventure had just kept on going. We are definitely raising explorers! Our family was so blessed by this opportunity to see some of the most stunning countryside in North America. We will never forget this experience!

Let’s hit the road again as I continue to chronicle our expedition through the Rocky Mountains! Here’s the highlights from days four through six. If you missed the first three days of our adventure, you can catch up here.

Day Four – Kamloops B.C. to Canmore AB
Our day started with breakfast at Tim Hortons! Yum! I got a tasty apple fritter which might be my new favorite treat at Timmy’s. It was fun to introduce the kids to Canadian staple. We took off for the rugged Rocky Mountains on this leg of the journey. Outside of Golden B.C, we saw a moose from a distance. According to Jeremy, it was a bull, but I didn’t get a great look at it. We stopped at McDonalds for a second Squishmellow treat in Golden for lunch. This travel day with filled with scenic views and looming mountains. We saw a herd of bighorn sheep outside of Golden. We drove through Canada’s Glacier National Park and stopped at the Yoho National Park Visitor Centre. Because it was a big travel day, we made only one stop in Yoho – Takakkaw Falls. It was a beautiful waterfall and a scenic drive. Jeremy wanted to find the iconic red chairs at the falls for a photo opp. This inspired me to find quite a few more sets of red chairs along our journey. Parks Canada has over 200 sets of chairs set in scenic view points. It felt a bit like a scavenger hunt to find them. We crossed into Alberta and changed time zones to Mountain Time. Our final destination was our condo in Canmore A.B. Dinner was Pizza Hut directly under our condo and a quick to Safeway and Canadian Tire to end the day.

Day Five – Banff National Park, Icefields Parkway, Jasper National Park
We took a scenic drive up the Icefields Parkway which starts in Banff National Park and ends in Jasper National Park. The entire day took us about 12 hours in total. It takes about it’s about 6 hours of driving total and then add in all the stops along the way. We saw the Columbia Icefields, Sunwapta Falls, and Athabasca Falls. We had a picnic lunch at Mount Christie, where we found a set of red chairs. We walked a bit around Jasper Townsite. The kids loved seeing the trains in Jasper. The Icefields Parkway is known as one of the most beautiful drives in the world. Unfornately, we had some smoke haze so it wasn’t clear, blue skies. The mountains were still visible and certainly still impressive! Outside of Jasper Townsite, we also saw huge bull elk. It was the animal find of the day! After a full day of exploring the parks, we had a late dinner at a burrito shop in our condo building.

Day Six – Moraine Lake, Lake Louise, Banff Townsite, Bow Falls
Jeremy discovered that the only way to see Moraine Lake was to book shuttle tickets in advance. He was on right when they live to ensure we had this experience. We parked outside of Lake Louise and took the shuttle to Moraine Lake first. Such a beautiful turquoise lake! We did a short hike up a nearby rock hill to get an elevated view. Then we hiked a bit around the lakeshore. After poking around the lodge gift shop, we loaded up into the shuttle bound for Lake Louise. Yet another stunning lakeview awaited us. Lake Louise was much busier than Moraine Lake and our lunch supplies were back at the vehicles. We took a few pictures and then loaded up for lunch. We took the Bow Valley Parkway toward Banff Townsite. We stopped to have a picnic lunch along the parkway and to find another set of red chairs. We explored Banff Townsite, did a little souvenir shopping, and enjoyed a snack break at Tim Hortons. We took a short drive across the Bow River to see Bow Falls before heading back to Canmore for dinner. We selected A&W, another Canadian staple. We reserved the roof top hot tub at the condo with 360 views of the valley to end the day.