Wandering The Rocky Mountains - Alberta, Canada

Calgary - Banff - Lake Louise - Jasper - Calgary

Banff National Park and Jasper National Park

Overlooking the township of Banff

Since leaving Montreal, we’ve been exploring the Rocky Mountains, just north west of Calgary. It is another moment of awe, just like the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls. Words just don’t do justice. We were standing looking at one view and Sophie says, "it is just like in the pictures that I’ve seen”. We had to remind her that it is better than the pictures; that she needed to pinch herself because this is real and to soak it in.

From Calgary, we headed towards Banff. The township of Banff is inside the Banff National Park and is the beginning of the area known as the Rocky Mountains. As you depart Calgary, you can see these mountains, far, far in the distance, all hazy and right on the horizon. Within just 90 minutes, you were right in amongst them. This is 'leaning forward in your seat and stretching to gaze upwards’ kind of views. They are just so high.

The Rocky Mountains are considered “new” mountains, so only a few hundred thousand years old, as compared with the mountains back in Quebec (they are old - a few million years old). New mountains are much more jagged; more pointed. The years of erosion haven’t had a huge effect yet. They still have rocky, exposed areas and many, many glaciers. Most surprisingly, there is just so much snow on the peaks of the mountain ridges. We’ve done a few walks up high and we’ve seen several patches of snow still lingering. We also took a gondola ride at Banff and it was rather chilly at the top of the mountain - about 2400m above sea level. Banff is a very cute little town, very much aimed towards the tourists who ski or those who hike & cycle, depending on the season.

Overlooking the township of Banff

Banff National Park

Johnston Canyon

From Banff we headed north, via Johnston Canyon, which is a well known “hike”. We would like to reconsider the use of the word hike. It is a walk, about 5km, along paved path and boardwalk, but also highly popular. No hiking through bush and nature, escaping the world and sharing the moment with wildlife! It was very busy which detracted from it somewhat. We also experienced big crowds at the Banff Gondola and are thankful that we’ve had so many experiences outside of the busy peak season.

From Johnston Canyon, we continued to Lake Louise. This place has been on my bucket list, so being in Canada, it was our aim to come here. It did not disappoint, for several reasons - most unexpected reasons! Yes, the lake itself and the Fairmont Chateau are stunning. But, we took the gondola to the top of the ski resort, which is on the opposite side of the town. It was pricy, but they said there was a good chance of seeing bears in their natural habitat; plus its one of the few places in Lake Louise where you can view the surroundings from elevation - in this case, ???? m above sea level. 

That's Lake Louise in the middle!

But unexpected experience #1: We drove to Lake Louise Ski Resort, and it was so cool! Very rustic; great variety of runs, mainly at level blue, which is intermediate and suits our family; the view is back towards Lake Louise and the Fairmont Chateau and the mountains right in the background are just jaw dropping. The top 20% of the mountain peaks are still covered in snow. Tony and I are very keen to come back here and ski …. so, just as we cross Lake Louise off the bucket list, it goes straight back on! We then took the gondola halfway up their mountain, where we decided to join a guided hike.

Our first grizzly!

Unexpected experience #2: As we went up the gondola, we saw a mother bear and her cub. We had been told that at the bottom, so were excited about seeing her, right at the top of the gondola lift. We had gone up to partake in the guided walk. I’m very scared of bears so have been too apprehensive to venture off the tourist track too much … I’m so scared that we are unprepared and we could get into a “bear” situation. This guided walk was short and focused on learning about bears, as well as taking us through a wildlife corridor.  That was great and the guide as a young Australian guy, who basically lined up work experience with Tony when he returns home! So we got quite friendly, thus didn’t leave the Interpretation Centre for a while.

Because we lingered and chatted to our guide and new friend, Ben, we asked whether the bear and her cub were still there, only to be told they had wandered off. As soon as walked out of the Interpretation Centre, we spotted the bear and her cub! She had meandered quite some distance and was now within 100 metres of us. I must preface this now by saying this felt so safe and so calm. We stayed and watched her and the cub … just doing their thing, not bothered by anything. It was an amazing experience and we were so glad that we got to observe. Just as interesting as watching the bear was watching the staff handle the situation. The guideline is to not be closer than 100 metres to bears, so we were right on that border. We were at the Interpretation Centre, which was 300 metres from the gondola lift down; and the bear was wandering in between. After a short time, Ben and his staff, who were now equipped with bear spray and walkie-talkies, moved us towards the gondola - more because it was 5pm and the last lift down was 6pm … if the bear had come much closer, we wouldn’t have been able to cross her path and could have been stuck in the Interpretation Centre for a few hours! It was a bit like a fire drill - making sure everyone was out of the building!

The grizzly bear is the black dot on the road! It's closer than the photo implies!

So for close to an hour, we sat and watched the bear and her cub, continued talking to Ben and learning more. This is what real-life learning is about - we told the children that this is much better than a classroom for learning about bears! So while initially thinking that taking the gondola ride up was too pricy; we ended up with a priceless situation.

Lake Louise - and yes, the colours truly were this bright.

We eventually dragged ourselves away, as we’ve had the most amazing views and observations. Our goal was to see a bear; we thought it would be a glance on the side of the road. Instead, we watched for an extended time. We were on such a high!

The next day dawned very cool - everyone was too cold to get out of bed. In an attempt to avoid the crowds, we headed to Lake Louise as early as we could manage - just after 9am.

We walked to Lake Agnes, which was 4km up from Lake Louise - we gained 380 metres in elevation. As this was a much steeper walk than Johnston Canyon, there were significantly less people doing it. The kids were great and mostly managed without too many complaints. Along the walk, you pass Mirror Lake before reaching Lake Agnes. They are both stunning places and picture perfect views. At Lake Agnes, part of the motivation for the hike was the temptation of a Tea House at the top. It was a very quaint tea house which has been operating since the 1905, when the railroad workers wanted somewhere for their cuppa’s when they went walking! So we aren’t the first generation to want a coffee after our walk! We had the added bonus of apple crumble, poppy seed cake and scones to go with that coffee!

Chilling at Mirror Lake

Mirror Lake

Morning tea at the Tea House

The Tea House is small; has no running water or electricity. They rely on propane gas for heating and major supplies are helicoptered in 1-2 times a season (June - October). Fresh supplies are hiked in by the staff and horses on a daily basis. The staff sleep up there and are on a 5 day on/ 2 days off roster: remember, no running water or electricity up there! On their two days off, they have access to a house in the village of Lake Louise where they can shower/do washing etc. How is that for tough! We gave a good tip as that truly is a great service for us after 4kms uphill!

The hike down was much easier!

We had a stunning day at Lake Louise, with perfect blue skis and a few fluffy clouds, matched with temperature around 22 degrees. We spent the afternoon canoeing on Lake Louise, which was perfect. The colour of the water comes from the rock flour. Rock flour is tiny particles that is worn away from the surrounding rocks and washed into the lakes. At the source of the infill to the lake, the water is even bluer than these pictures show! Unfortunately you can't swim in Lake Louise. It only completely defrosted from winter in mid-May and the water temp is still 1-3 degrees celsius.

From Lake Louise, we continued further north up the road. There is only road north and it is called the Icefields Parkway. Along our whole trip, we have been listening to an audio guide. This small investment on iTunes has been fantastic. It gives a commentary roughly every 10 kms or so. We’ve learnt the name of the mountains and lakes that we drive past; we’ve learnt about the early explorers of the area - which only happened in the early 1900’s; and how the geography of the land has been formed. We’ve all loved it. 

From this commentary, we were advised to stop into Peyto Lake. It is a short 10 walk, but steep, so many people miss it. It gives one of the most amazing vistas of the Rocky Mountains and is often an image used in advertising about the Rocky Mountains. It is comparable to Lake Louise, but the water, if possible, is even more blue. Just stunning. The colours in the photo are not lying, nor are they enhanced: the water truly was the brightest blue you could imagine.

Lach is quite insignificant in size compared
to his surroundings - in age and in size!

Livvy is the same height as the tyre!

The Icefields Parkway takes you past amazing glaciers and is quite a climb. We were at about 2200 m at the highest point. We stopped at the Columbia Icefields, which is a massive tourist attraction. You go out onto the Athabasca Glacier which is the largest glacier in the area. We had every statistic about the glacier told to us, but it was information overload! Some of us enjoyed the experience; I found it a little underwhelming.

The distinction between an ice field and a glacier can be compared to a river and a lake. A glacier is like a river, running down the sides of the cliffs, into the ice field, which is similar to a lake. The glaciers feed the ice field. It was much colder out on the ice field, despite it being a brilliant sunny day with a temperature around 13 degrees.  

Jasper National Park

Once past the Columbia Icefield and Athabasta Glacier, you enter Jasper National Park. We are now about 4 hours north of Banff and the traffic has dropped off significantly. We are in the wilderness of the west up here! Interestingly, the amount of snow on the surrounding mountains is much less, despite being same elevation. Temperatures are much warmer too. We can’t work out the why of that!

Jasper is a lovely small town. It has a permanent population of 4 500 but obviously winter snow and summer hiking influences the number in the town. We were there at lunch time and an outdoor yoga class was occurring in the park where we had lunch. There would have been 40 people in this class: I thought this was huge for a small town at lunch time on a weekday. There had to be a lot of visitors partaking in it.

Maligne Canyon

Unfortunately, Jasper is often compared to Banff but doesn’t get the visitor numbers that Banff does. It would have to be the location. Banff is the gateway to the Rockies and often the first, and only stop, for many visitors. The traffic and the crowds decreased the further north we’ve come. Jasper has many more small boutiques and restaurants, whereas Banff has many more big name shops. We really liked the feel of Jasper. It is cold for about 9 months of the year though - and has snow for about eight of those, so the locals are hardy creatures!

We did a hike along Maligne Canyon, just outside of Jasper, in the hills, which had been recommended. Maligne Canyon is extremely narrow and and has much less water at the top of the canyon than the bottom. It is fed by a huge number of springs as it falls down, so the amount of water increases significantly. The canyon has a path along the side, which includes 6 bridges which criss-cross the canyon. We set out to do this hike. 

We beat the tourist bus rush and set off. The walk was all down hill ….not so long today, but all downhill, which only means one thing….. we have to come back up! We managed most of the hike, but unfortunately Bridge 5 was closed so we were diverted back. We took an alternate route back, not following the edge of the canyon directly. This meant about a 500 metre climb of ridiculous steepness - all of us found it tough - but then we walked along the plateau and had outstanding views and a flat walk back to the car park. As we arrived back at the car park, there was a tourist bus rush on …. the tourist groups generally walk over Bridges 1 and 2 - a total of about 600 metres and 10 minutes. We felt rather proud of our 5 km hilly hike!

As Jasper is rather flat, we decided to hire mountain bikes for the afternoon. We had canoed and hiked thus far, so decided bikes were the next activity. It was easy to arrange and we were off. As Canada is renowned for its lakes, we decided to head towards them and possibly link in a swim and ice-cream along the way.

Yes, they are about!

Ice-cream time at Lake Annette

The first part of the ride was a true mountain bike path - and way too rough for us! This path was soon aborted and we stuck to roads. We were all cruising along happily, when Tony and Lach decided to stop and ask some people what they were looking at …. umm …. that would be a bear! Yes, another grizzly, happily sitting and munching away on the furtherest out hole on the golf course! The golf course at Jasper is actually fenced in … lucky for us as the grizzly was inside the fence and we were outside, feeling quite safe. Once again, we were in close proximity - probably 60 metres this time and with a growing number of interested observers!  After our first experience with bears and a long chat with the park guide Ben, our children are quite knowledgeable about bears and can tell the difference between a grizzly and a black bear (no such thing as a brown) so the other observers were rather impressed as our children rattled off the differences!

The children complete Junior X-plorer activity booklets
in the National Parks - kept them focused!

Our bike ride continued and it did include a swim in Lake Annette, just outside of Jasper. It was freezing! And this was supposed to be one of the warmer lakes! It was quick, although Lach and Tony did manage to go completely underwater. We loved getting back on the bikes as we rode through some beautiful woods and saw three stunning lakes.

We had a long drive back to Calgary, which took most of the day. We had a night at Calgary, returned our RV to the depot and then flew to Vancouver for the next area to wander around.