Jasper

Maligne Lake

The only way to see this lake is via a boat tour.  It was a bit cloudy but it was nice to sit back and enjoy the scenery without a multi-hour hike to get there.

The tour included a stop at the famous Spirit Island.

Whistlers Summit

This day started with a trip up a Skytram which took us to our highest altitude yet.  After the Tram, it was “only” a 1.4 km hike to get to the summit but involved quite a bit of elevation change and we all noticed the taxation of altitude.   Let’s just say that we did this hike way slower than our normal hiking speed.  We felt it was a good trial run for Peru which will be another 1,000 meters higher!

Quite the contrast above the tree line: wonderful wildflowers and lots of bees to melting snow fields.

With views like this in every direction, pictures just don’t do justice to the majesty that surrounds you while you are up there.

Mount Edith Cavell

This was a fun switch-back drive up to the trail head for one of the more famous mountains in the Jasper area.  Julia and I had visited here pre-kids and we both remembered the glacier being larger back in the day.  The mountain is so huge and we were so close, you can’t really capture the whole thing, even with a wide angle lens.  Again, I feel these pictures don’t properly capture how large this is and how small you feel next to it.

We could hear the ice cracking and even saw a piece fall off!

Marika’s panoramic shot is the closest to capturing it.

Athabasca Falls

Mount Robson

We stopped here on our way out of Jasper.  The hike up to the mountain was over 6 km round trip and was too long for us to take since this was mostly a travel day and we didn’t have the time (and energy) for such an endeavor.  We did, however, get to enjoy the views from the Information Center.

Oh Wow! (Moraine Lake and Lake Louise)

The last two days have been packed with sight seeing and LOTS of hiking.  The most common phrase out of everyone’s mouth is “Oh Wow!”.  It seems like everywhere you look and every turn you take is picture worthy and it was difficult to narrow them down (so you get a lot of of them for this post!).

As we reflect on the rest of the trip ahead, it is hard to imagine that there will be other places in the world with natural settings quite as majestic as this.  It is truly a stunning part of God’s creation.

Johnston Canyon

This was one of the more popular trails in Banff and it was quite busy.  There was a backup at the Lower Falls waiting to get into a little tunnel that let you get right up next to the falls.

The Lower Falls

Upper Falls

Along the hike there was a lovely mountain melt stream that was extremely cold.  The girls were super excited to try out our water filter on it and to get cold fresh mountain water rather than our stale hotel water.  The girls were right; it was delicious! 

After the canyon, we visited Banff with the Vermilion Lakes just outside of town.

Moraine Lake

We thought this would be a quick in and out however we were captivated by the beauty.  It felt like such an iconic Canadian scene with the turquoise lake, the mountains, the pines and even canoes!

A family tradition: “falling” off the cliff!

Lake Louise and Lake Agnus Tea House

Another iconic scene with good hike up to nice tea house in the mountains (which though you can’t see it, it is located on the right side of the “beehive” rock above and to the right of Marika in the picture below)

Icefield Parkway

Peyto Lake – on par with the more famous lakes in Lake Louise.

Even though we had seen a bunch of waterfalls already, we couldn’t turn down stopping at a few waterfalls in “waterfall alley” along the parkway.  This one is aptly named Weeping Wall Falls and is one we got from a guidebook from a friend and is definitely not a published stopped.  This involved an unmarked pull-off, crossing the road, and a scramble up a rock trail but it was worth it to get right up against the wall!

Nigal Creek Falls – Just this super impressive falls that go under a bridge on the main road that you really can’t see from the road.  There is no official exit for this one, you just need to know from the guide books it is there and pull off on the shoulder and walk back onto the bridge to view it.  There are so many waterfalls, they can’t showcase them all.

The last falls that we hiked to was on the North Saskatchewan river.

Columbia Icefields

It was getting later in the day when we arrived at the icefield information center so the air was already getting cold.  Add the blast of air off the icefields and let’s just say everyone was glad it was only a 1km hike.  It was interesting to see how much it has receded in the last number of decades and Marika even got in a few “oh, we learned about this in French Geography”, and then confirmed it in both French and English when reading a number of the signs.

Wildlife!

The girls where hoping to see some larger wildlife on this trip and the opportunities already presented themselves.  We got to see a mother grizzly and her cub from the the shuttle bus back down from Lake Louise.  The park ranger was already there and was just starting to scare them off when our bus driver slowed down so we could get a picture.  Thirty seconds later and we would have been too late.  We also got to see a black bear and an elk on the drive up the Icefield Parkway.