TRAVEL STORIES

MEMORIES OF CANADIAN ROCKIES – BANFF, JASPER

by luvurpassion March 11, 2019

Canadian Rockies spanning over Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia was the focus of our trip this time. We visited the beautiful alpine cities and national parks of Banff, Jasper, Yoho along with the bustling city of Vancouver. Several friends asked me about the trip details, so this is a sincere effort to document the same, hoping it would help others. This blog is also a tribute to my dad who loved writing regular updates during his trips and tours.

Ok, enough of introduction, now let’s get down to facts. We planned the trip two months back and wanted to drive 10 hours to Vancouver to cover the city and visit Yoho and Glacier parks on the way. Our Delta airlines flight landed at Calgary almost at 1 AM and we were so relieved to find the car rental still open. Typically, Calgary is an easygoing city and rental car offices close by 1 AM. The GPS acted weird and was taking us back to some San Jose address; it took a while to understand that it was outside US.

DAY 1 JUNE 26: CALGARY DOWNTOWN AND DRIVE TO BANFF

Our first visit was to Calgary tower in the downtown. This is a standing observation tower with a height of around 40 stories and provides views of the city skyline. It has a glass floored observation tower where you can see the city underneath. We visited an old friend in downtown where we found the interesting superstition about number thirteen – the elevator had no 13th floor, the floors went straight from 12 to 14. After a hearty lunch and a good deal of chit chat, we left for Banff. Calgary has extreme weathers and summer months of June thru August are hot, the temperature was above 80 that afternoon.

It was a 2-hour drive on Trans-Canada highway 1. Lake Minnewanka was a short off route from Highway 1 located just before entering Banff. It was a picturesque lake with multiple short hikes. The afternoon sun was shining bright; we did not venture out to the hikes but had small snacks at the lakeside. Google maps has collected extensive data in Canada parks and the street view camera offers details of every trail. We had looked at many of these trails while planning the trip. Highway 1A took us to the Johnston Canyon resort, which was located right by the side of Johnston canyon trail. Using the coordinates in GPS (Latitude: 51.245, Longitude: -115.839) proved helpful to locate the place. We dined at the Cabin Bridges restaurant while listening to the creek flowing by the side. Castle Mountain looked gorgeous in the afternoon sun. Sunset time was 10 PM (Alberta follows mountain time zone), and we had to draw the blinds before going to bed.

DAY 2 JUNE 27: JOHNSTON CANYON, LAKE MORAINE, ICEFIELD ADVENTURES

We started early morning to hike to Johnston canyon falls. The lower falls was 1.5 km one way from parking lot but our hike was less, as the cabin was 1 km from the parking lot. Note that Canada follows the metric system. The upper falls was another km uphill. It was a moderately steep hike with the Johnston River flowing alongside. A jacket was needed, as the morning was foggy. Our destination that night was Jasper and we had planned few stops along the Icefields Parkway, also known as highway 93. This highway is a scenic drive traversing the rugged mountains between Banff and Jasper and is full of majestic viewpoints of pristine mountain lakes, ancient glaciers, broad sweeping valleys, rivers and waterfalls.

Lake Moraine is one of the popular tourist spots in this area. It is a glacier fed lake in Banff National Park and reflects a distinct shade of blue green. A short 10 mins hike on Rockpile Trail provides the famous photographic spot of the lake. It was the first Saturday after summer break started in Alberta schools and resulted in huge tourist inflow. The ranger helped us park in the roadside overflow area. Paddling the rental canoes in the peaceful lake was in great demand. We took a short trail up the hills and had a peek at the top view of the lake.

Columbia Icefield Discovery Center is situated almost halfway between Banff and Jasper along Highway 93. We bought the package for 3 attractions – Glacier adventure, Skywalk and gondola ride for 99 CAD per adult. The glacier adventure took us to Athabasca glacier situated in the 90 km long, 1 km wide and 300 m deep Columbia Icefield. The special glacier bus with 5 ft high tires drove 15 mins over the glacier to a flat area. We were allowed to roam around for 20 mins on the ice where we drank fresh glacier water. Though we came prepared with gloves etc, a jacket was sufficient in the sunny afternoon. The Glacier Skywalk is a recent addition and gives a 360 degree view of the Rockies from a cliff edge walkway with glass floor observation deck. Unlike the pictures at the discovery center, the view had no snowy peaks and frankly, we were disappointed. It might be breathtaking in winter. The Gondola ride was planned for later at Banff. We stayed at Jasper for next two nights.

DAY 3 JUNE 28: JASPER

Day 3 was a relaxing day at Jasper with not much activity planned. Our hotel had some beautiful rooms facing the mountain but unfortunately, we did not get one. Some research in the morning indicated an interesting Lake Maligne and a canyon hike. Lake Maligne is 22 km long lake in Jasper National Park; it is a two hours drive from Jasper city. As with any other lake area, there were numerous hiking trails and water sports. We took a short moose loop trail and had lunch at the boathouse restaurant. Jasper is well known for its abundant wild life and we were lucky to spot big horn sheep on the roadside, a moose and a caribou among the trees and a black bear crossing the road. It is an exciting experience to spot wild life while driving – someone suddenly spots an animal and all cars in both lanes come to a halt and people are clicking cameras. Spotting the caribou and the moose was the event of the day; we had passed the spot when our 8 year old shouted with excitement. We made a U turn and found the duo still posing for us among the bushes. It was hot that afternoon and we preferred to be in the car with the air conditioner turned on and dropped the 2 km canyon hike. Back in the hotel, our son was very happy to spend some time in the pool. In the evening, we visited the nearby Lake Patricia and Lake Pyramid, a 10 mins drive in the city and dined along one of them.

DAY 4 JUNE 29: DRIVE TO BANFF ALONG SCENIC ICEFIELDS PARKWAY

Monday was a drive from Jasper to Banff along Icefields Parkway Highway 93. The weather forecast was not very promising with whole day thunderstorms forecast at Banff. We were bid farewell by a herd of caribous while leaving Jasper. As usual, a bunch of cars stopped on the road to shoot them and the caribous posed gracefully for all of us. Athabasca canyon and falls was our first stop. Athabasca River originated from Athabasca glacier, formed a canyon and fell in full force to change the course of the river. The lower river is a favorite water rafting spot. There were numerous other lakes along our way to Banff but we had time to stop only for a few. It had started raining, so we could not take any hike and had to be contended with viewing the Bow Lake, Waterfowl Lake, and Hector Lake from parking lot. Peyto Lake was a short 10 mins hike from parking lot that provided a good view of the entire lake.

We stayed at Douglas Fir Challet at Banff for next two nights. Banff is a beautiful city with streets, houses and shops decorated with flower baskets. The rain had stopped and we had a beautiful view of Cascade Mountain from the balcony. The streets in Banff are named after animals; we saw Deer St, Otter St, Moose St, Bear Ave, Fox Ave etc.

DAY 5 JUNE 30: BANFF

Day 5 was for local sightseeing at Banff. It had rained the previous night and sun came out little late in the morning. We had a leisurely breakfast at our hotel kitchen and started around 9:30. First stop was at Vermillion lakes. This lake was supposed to be very picturesque at sunrise with abundant wild life but we felt it unimpressive, may be because we had seen so many beautiful lakes so far. Next, we went to Surprise point which is a location for taking photographs with Banff Fairmont hotel in the backdrop. This luxurious castle shaped hotel reminds of Harry Potter Hogwarts. The first two floors of the hotel is open for public viewing and does not require visitors to be hotel residents. Then we went for the gondola ride that goes to the top of Sulphur Mountain. This is a very busy tourist spot; a gondola leaves every 30 seconds. The top of the ride gives a bird eye view of the city of Banff and six mountain ranges surrounding it. Banff Upper hot springs is very near to the gondola ride and is a pool made out of natural mineral water coming from springs. The temperature is kept around 40 degrees Celsius; this water is beneficial for medicinal healing treatments. We spent the afternoon walking down Banff Avenue and shopping few local souvenirs. The hotel had a kid zone with a water slide and our son had a blast there. We made a trip to local Safeway store and had home cooked dinner in our studio kitchen.

DAY 6 JULY 1: LAKE LOUISE

July 1st is celebrated as Canada-Day representing the union of three colonies into a single country. This was a national holiday and the lake was heavily crowded. We picked up sandwich and elk stew from a local cafe and had lunch beside the Bow River. Canada day celebration had a Red Indians dance performance in Lake Louise village. After lunch, we took the hike to Mirror Lake and Agnes tea house. It was a moderately strenuous one-hour hike uphill to mirror lake similar to Mission peak hike for bay area folks and we did not go to the teahouse. The evening stroll around the lake was calm and quiet with the crowd having thinned out by now. We were staying at Chateau Lake Louise run by Fairmont group of hotels. This wing of the hotel was hundred years old and did not have AC, though there was no need of it with the cool breeze coming through the windows. One worth mentioning fact about the dinner at the Chateau restaurant was the great quality Indian dish of butter chicken that our son had ordered. The restaurant was continental and we were skeptical about having a Indian dish there, but the chef left us surprised with the chicken and super soft naan.

DAY 7 JULY 2: YOHO NATIONAL PARK AND DRIVE TO KAMLOOPS

Last night’s stay at Chateau Lake Louise was a lifetime experience and definitely worth the price. It was very expensive but the view was breathtaking from our 6th floor lake facing room and worth spending the money. The lake’s beauty changes at various times of the day and offers stunning views during sunset, dusk, sunrise, morning and day time. It was possible for us to enjoy these views right from the hotel room. We left Lake Louise around 11 for our drive towards Vancouver. We wanted to cover Yoho and Glacier national Parks, so the itinerary was to drive along 1W. This is a 10 hours’ drive and we added a night stay at Kamloops. There is also another route to Kamloops from Jasper down Highway 93 but that would not have allowed visit to Yoho.

We visited Emerald Lake and Natural Bridges in Yoho, both were a short stroll from parking lot. We had packed our lunch and ate it beside a roadside river. Highway 1W towards Kamloops is a single lane highway. Though the speed limit was 100 km/hr, there was heavy traffic with numerous trucks. We saw road construction projects to add another lane underway at several places. There were huge lakes in almost every city we passed along the road. The lake at Salmon Arm was comparable to Lake Tahoe in California and hosted various water sports activities. Kamloops was very hot with temperature almost in 3 digits.

DAY 8 JULY 3: VANCOUVER

We reached Vancouver around noon, almost an hour was lost due to an accident on the way. Science Museum was the first stop though we did not spend much time there. There were lot of interesting models/toys/projects encouraging kids on basic electrical, optical and mechanical concepts. Street side cafes are abundant in the city with versatile variety. We hopped on one “aquabus” boat in False Creek that took us to different stops and we stepped out at Granville market. The fresh food market with band music outside made a lively atmosphere. The city skyline seen from the boat was very picturesque. We also drove through Stanley Park, which is among the top 5 attractions in the city. We then drove to a friend’s house in Delta and faced heavy downtown traffic on the Friday evening.

DAY 9 JULY 4: VANCOUVER AND FLY BACK HOME

The last day of our hectic 9-day trip was very relaxing at our friend’s place. Post brunch, we visited nearby Surrey area which is a predominant Punjabi area. One huge shopping center felt as if we were in Punjab. Our friend drove us through an interesting street named Street to the Heaven, which had temple, mosque, and church, one after the other on one side of the street. The final touch to our trip was the San Francisco July 4th fireworks; we saw that while the plane was touching down.

We hope to go back someday to the Canadian Rockies again!