We flew in late on a Friday night and got a hotel near the airport. This was both good and ended up being a bit eye opening later in the weekend. On the way out of the airport, we purchased our Discovery Canada passes. You can get these at the park entrance, but it saved us from having to wait in line at the gate by picking them up at the information desk near baggage claim 7. This was also along our route to the rental car center, so it was a good thing to have known.

The official first day started with breakfast at the Blackfoot Diner, a local landmark for being the first trucker diner in the area, decorated with Route 66 and local rodeo memorabilia. The food was good and it felt like we were enjoying something a little off the beaten path. You likely wouldn’t even know this place was here if you’d driven right by it because of it’s orientation off the main road a bit.

Our next stop was The Military Museums. This museum covered the history of the three services of the Canadian military and highlighted the four local regiments that have answered the call since the Boar Wars in the late 19th century. One of the most interesting exhibits they had was a small recreation of a prisoner hut and tunnel used during the escape from Stalag Luft III during the second world war that was made famous in the movie The Great Escape. There was also a room dedicated to the men who served in The Devil’s Brigade, made up of American and Canadian troops that were also made famous by a movie of the same name.

Another day of work, another car trip to drop Miranda off at her conference, but on the way back I caught site of some elk hanging out in the park near the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel. I got a couple of quick pictures of them and the sunrise, got breakfast at Tim Horton’s and got back to the hotel room for work. At the end of the day, we were off to Johnson Canyon trail. This one was a little longer than the previous day, 3.5 miles out and back and again mostly up for the first half. The big difference is that this hike ran along Johnson Creek and had a number of sections with scaffolding along the cliff walls. We approached the lower falls at about the half-mile mark but decided to skip it because the draw appeared to be a small tunnel that came out at a secluded picture spot, which had a pretty long line to get to. We found out later that the pictures from down there were pretty underwhelming because you end up pretty close to the falls and can’t capture much context. We passed several other smaller falls as we made our way to the top, the entire hike stays within site of the creek, so we never lost the sound of running water through the rock formations. The Upper Falls was a little more spectacular but a little bit of a disappointment from a picture perspective. The only way to see the bottom was to walk down a scaffold path and the only clear shot of the falls was the one spot at the very end. Luckily, we got there as a crowd started to build behind us, so we got our shot and proceeded on the path to the top of the falls. The pictures were much better towards the top, rewarding us for taking the last few uphill steps. The walk back was pretty uneventful.

This was an early early day for us; we were up at 4:30 am to catch a 6 am shuttle to Lake Louise. This was a big one for us, probably the most amount of planning for this trip went into this one day. There is very little parking, and it’s first come, first served. Other options are to get a Roam ticket or book a private tour. We’d missed the initial opening period for the Roam ticket and had a few backup plans if we missed the final one, but we managed to get our passes and made it up to the lake in time for sunrise. The bus ride was only about 40 minutes, and we got to the shoreline with enough time to find a good spot, setup our selfie stick for the time lapse, and then just defend our ground for the next hour and a half.

On our walk back from the bus stop, we dropped in on the IGA to check out their prices and see if they had any wine. We noticed that the prices weren’t all that different than what we had seen in Calgary, so there was one place that wasn’t going to gouge us just for being in a tourist spot. They didn’t sell alcohol, so we stopped at the liquor store on our way back and grabbed a bottle from Pyramid Winery in British Columbia. It was a red blend that was pretty good, we might have to look that region up for our next wine trip. Since this was the earliest we’d been done hiking all week, we decided to head next door to the Canoe Hotel & Suites, which is owned by the same management group that owns the Dorothy. Here we were allowed to use the hot pools to soothe some aching muscles. We had the place all to ourselves for about an hour before we headed back for some wine and leftovers for dinner.

We were back to our usual schedule of dropping Miranda off at her conference, me stopping at Tim Horton’s, and then working from the hotel. We saw the elk again on the way up and got a couple of good pictures. That afternoon we set out for the Tunnel Mountain trail for a 2 mile roundtrip hike that included 800 ft of elevation gain. The payoff at the end was an overlook of Banff and the surrounding mountains. We took plenty of breaks on the way up because this hike just didn’t seem to let up. There was a little bit of a haze in the valley, we had smelled smoke earlier, so it could have been from one of the numerous fires the region had this year. We also ran across our first set of red chairs. These are all over the area but we hadn’t spotted any yet. Unfortunately there was a couple occupying them and they didn’t get up the entire time we were at the top, so we got our pictures and moved on. For dinner, we stopped at the Canadian Brewhouse and enjoyed the view of Banff Ave and the mountains in the background. The food was good and they had a number of local beers on tap.

Today was moving day, eventually. We started with our usual routine of me dropping Miranda off at her conference, but on my way back to the Dorothy, I was greeted by a huge herd of Elk in the spot I’d become accustomed to spotting a few of them at. Because we’d already started to pack the car up, I had the big camera and the 300mm lens available. The large male bull of the herd seemed to be staying on the periphery, and I soon realized it was because he was pushing the herd across the street up a hill away from the river. This meant they would walk right past me. I stayed at a respectful distance as one by one they descended the small hill towards Spray Ave, right at the intersection of Bow Falls Ave and crossed in front of me. The bull crossed the Bow Falls Ave and stayed at the corner until almost all of the herd had crossed. Once he got across Spray, he waited but finally had to let out a loud bulge that caused the last female and her calf to hurry up. After a few minutes they were mostly out of sight.

Once the conference was over and we were checked out of the Dorothy, we made a couple of stops in town that we hadn’t had a chance to visit yet including the Cascade of Time Garden, Bow Falls Viewpoint, and then BeaverTails back in town to try one of their products by the same name. These thin fried pastries are a conduit for getting the toppings into your mouth and they were delicious!

The drive out got a lot less crowded once we turned west. Highway 1 from Canmore to Jasper is the area most frequented by tourist, every stop was inundated with tour buses and rental cars, and we weren’t even there during the high season! The only stop we made on the drive to Golden was Takakkaw Falls, which is just inside Yoho National Park. Although the falls are just a short walk from the parking lot, the drive from the highway to the lot took about 20 minutes. At over 1200 ft high, Takakkaw is the second tallest waterfall in all of Canada. The path from the parking lot leads down the river a bit to a bridge, and then a short walk up to near the base. There are several spots along the way to walk down to the water for pictures and then one very obvious area that most people stop at for selfies before turning around.

After dinner we checked in to our home away from home for the next five nights. We didn’t meet our host right away, but the lady subbing for her showed us around and explained the breakfast process, where to park, and showed us our private room with its own bathroom. There was also a hot tub that we could use at any time. B&B’s can sometimes be a crapshoot when you’re sharing space with the host and other guests, but we could not have been happier with this pick. If you’re looking for it on Booking.com, it’s called Canyon Ridge Lodge. You’ll read more about it over the next several pages because we really did enjoy our time staying here.

Our first full day in Golden and we got to sleep in a little bit, but not too much. Our host offered breakfast between 7:30-8:30 and we had a lot of driving ahead of us today. Breakfast here really blew our expectations away. Around a table that seated twelve, our host had cereal, coffee, tea, juice, milk, and fresh fruit. She also prepared eggs with toast or English muffins. This morning, we learned that the two other couples in the rooms next to us were both there to attend the same wedding. They’d met the night before at a reception for the guests but had arrived at different times and didn’t realize they were staying in the same place.

We finished breakfast and set out for Revelstoke. Our host had warned us that many of her guests over the past few weeks said traffic had been stopped for long periods of time as road crews dynamited sections of the cliff near the road for work that was being done. We made it through the first construction site with no issues before stopping at Hemlock Grove Boardwalk.

Hemlock Grove Boardwalk is right off the highway and is only about a quarter of a mile, but it’s great on a wet day like it was for us. This trail was our first one in Glacier National Park. The wooden boardwalk keeps you off the ground and out of the mud while walking through the forest. We didn’t see much for wildlife but it was good to get out, stretch our legs, and read a little bit about this area on the signs along the way. This would have been completely redundant if we’d done Giant Cedar Boardwalk first, but with the weather, we were happy to take any opportunity to get some steps in.

Our next stop was the Giant Cedar Boardwalk, which is supposed to be a loop, but at some point recently a few trees came down and destroyed a section of the boardwalk. This stop was our first one in Mt. Revelstoke National Park. The cedars here are very impressive and offered a number of cool photo opps. Still no wildlife but the pictures were good and it was another chance to stretch our legs.

I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d stayed at one of our last two stops just a few minutes too long, because after less than a mile back on the road we ran into a line of cars. We were close enough to the front to realize that we’d only missed the window to get through by a few minutes. It took about a half an hour before the road crews cleared the debris from the dynamiting they were doing ahead, presumably to widen the road. We pressed on through to Revelstoke and drove through town before proceeding to the Mt. Revelstoke National Park entrance. Even though we would end up traveling to five different national parks on this trip, we only passed through a handful of park gates. The honor system seems to be in effect in most areas where access can’t be as easily enforced. The pictures we had seen led us to believe that we’d get an amazing view from the top, but we tempered our expectations, given the thick cloud cover in the area. It was hard to tell, but we likely only made it about halfway up before we couldn’t even see the trees on the side of the road anymore. We turned around and got pictures from a couple of the overlooks before making our way to Mt Begbie Brewery for a snack and some beer. The beer was pretty good but some of the merch designs really stole the show for us. Unfortunately, it was pretty late in the season, so they didn’t have our favorite shirt in a size or color that we really liked, but we did end up getting matching hoodies.

We made two stops on the way back and the two hikes couldn’t have been any more different. Our first stop was Meeting of the Waters trail, a nearly 1 mile flat loop that led to a violent collision between the Asulkan Brook and the Illecillewaet Rivers. The hike passes through heavily wooded areas with openings that have the remanence of some of the early glacier houses in the area. Where they meet has a nice little opening with some chairs and a bridge to enjoy the sound. The entire area has moss/lichen covered trees and rocks in a forested scene straight out of a fantasy novel; we were just glad there were no bears.

After a short drive, we arrived at the trailhead of our second hike, a .8 mile long, straight down and then straight back up trail. At the bottom was a pretty solid waterfall, but as we approached it, we realized we’d left our bear spray in the car. This made the rest of the hike interesting as we continued to look around hoping we didn’t get cornered on the path. On the drive home we ordered pizza from Turning Point Restaurant, it wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t our favorite of the trip. Luckily we also stopped at the liquor store and had grabbed a couple of bottles of British Columbia wine. The first bottle was so-so, but the second one was good enough that we went back for more!

For our second full day in Golden, we decided to do Quartz Lake trail, a fairly long trail with a pretty solid incline to a beautiful lake in the mountains. We started the morning at breakfast again; this time our companions were a Swiss couple and a couple from Ontario. Breakfast was excellent again and we were out the door for our hike. We knew that the sign for Quartz Lake was right off the highway and were feeling comfortable enough in our directions that we didn’t use GPS. This turned out to be a huge mistake. The one thing we didn’t notice on our trek the day before is that the Quartz Lake turnoff is in an area where the highway is divided. Having blown past the sign and being free of any construction delays due to it being a Sunday, we managed to make it nearly 40 miles down the road before agreeing that we had to have missed it. Annoyed at ourselves, we turned around and started heading back. The one thing you have to think about on some of these roads is gas, and although we thought about it before leaving, we hadn’t taken into account the extra 80 miles we had just put on the car. We started to monitor the range closely as we approached the Quartz Lake trailhead and decided we needed to be very careful on the drive home so that we didn’t find ourselves on E.

The drive back included a stop at the Natural Bridge, which was just before we got back to the highway. We were initially greeted by what was becoming a pretty common sight: tourists blowing past signs that said “Do Not Enter” so that they could get that perfect picture, at the expense of everyone else trying to get photos of the feature. In this case a woman walked out on to the rock formation while her husband took pictures of her. The other 50 people trying to take pictures had to just wait patiently, although one Russian tourist let her have it and started yelling. Once the lady moved on, and before anyone else got an idea to do the same, we got our pictures and moved on to the town of Field. This town is just a small rail depot with one restaurant and a small visitors center.

Our day ended at the Whitetooth brewery again, and this time we managed to get a pizza from Red Tomato Pies, which restored our faith in trying pizzas while traveling. Their pizza was delicious and we even ordered some cinnamon sticks to go with them… you know, just in case.

It was moving day again, today we were headed from Golden to the Saskatchewan River Crossing and The Crossing Resort on the Icefields Parkway. The drive itself would only be about an hour and a half with no stops, but we had plenty of stops scoped out.

We bid farewell to our host at Canyon Ridge Lodge. Again, we couldn’t say enough great things about our stay here, from the excellent breakfast to the cool multi-room setup, laundry room, hot tub, fridge, coffee/tea/water station, and the excellent tips we got from our host. This stay really was a value add for us.

Once we turned onto the Icefields Parkway, our first stop was Herbert Lake. This wasn’t one of ‘the big ones’ but it was the first one we’d see along the parkway so we gave it a go. With it being right off the road, the stop cost us almost no time, but the pictures weren’t great with the conditions, the wind kept us from getting anything reflective.

Our next stop was one of the big ones, Bow Lake. The first overlook had a sizeable layer of trees between us and the lake, but we did manage some pretty good pictures. The selfie stick came in handy more than once on this trip, not just for selfies, but also the extra 6 ft of height it gave us while holding it directly up. The second overlook was right on the lake and offered a different angle. We’d stop here again and get pictures at the lodge on our way out of the park. We knew we were back to the main tourist thoroughfare with a tour bus and a couple of RVs parked here.

Our third stop in the span of 25 miles was Peyto Lake, and it was finally time to get some steps in. There are two paths up to the top, a longer less steep path and then a shorter one with a pretty solid angle up. The overlook was pretty crowded, but our host had clued us into a secondary overlook down a poorly kept trail that had a lower perch but usually went unnoticed by tourist.

This one wasn’t one of the tourist created paths right next to the sign that says not to pass, it was actually an older path that isn’t as well maintained since the building of the overlook. There is a sign warning people that it’s steep, but the payoff was well worth it as we had the area all to ourselves.

Our last two lakes of the day were the Waterfowl Lakes. Two lakes that are separated by a short river run and the only bathroom without a huge line for miles. The parking lot for the lower lake isn’t very big, and this area is mostly used for camping, but the campground was closed for the season. We walked along the small river to the Lower Waterfowl Lake for a few pictures with the mountains in the background. Once we made it back to the car, we traveled down the road a bit for pictures from an overlook of the Upper Waterfowl Lake.

Just before we made it to the Saskatchewan River Crossing, we stopped at Mistaya Canyon. There’s a short steep path that took us down to a bridge over the river and across to the side that was a little easier to climb down. There were plenty of vantage points for pictures and we had to wait out an Instagram model to get the fun one of us looking out at the river with our feet dangling.

Back on the road and across the Saskatchewan River, we stopped at Howse Pass Viewpoint. This viewpoint looked back across the river and down the valley towards Glacier Lake, but the lake itself is just out of sight. It felt like if we starred at the grasslands by the river for long enough we’d see an animal snacking but, like most of the rest of the trip, the wildlife seems to have moved on.

The parking lot on the east side of the road was empty so we grabbed a spot and started walking. From the parking lot, there are two paths to the glacier, one is the road, and the other is a hiking trail. We took the trail in and fought the wind most of the way, which made it feel 15-20 degrees colder. We hadn’t actually packed for a cold hike, but our jackets and rain gear kept us warm enough to keep on going. As we got closer to the Athabasca Glacier, we noticed a small lake at the base and we realized that we probably couldn’t get around it. The viewing area itself was empty, the only folks who were in the area were the people going up on the ice cats and a hiking group that looked like they were geared up to be up there all day.

Once we got to the viewing area, we realized that the whole “step foot on a glacier” thing was actually either via one of the ice cat rides or by heading up with a guide and ice spikes. We got our pictures and then returned to the parking lot, this time via the road. Along the way we spotted to markers that showed where the glacier was over the last 100 years.

Not far after the glacier, we stopped to take a look at Tangle Creek Falls. There was a small parking lot that made it easy to stop and get pictures. We’d passed the Columbia Icefield Skywalk, the large tourist trap that offers a glass viewing platform for about $50 a person. We’d already decided against doing this, but the large amount of fog also made it less appealing.

Our next stop would be Sunwapta Falls with its upper and lower viewing areas. The lower area is just a few short steps down a poorly maintained hill with lots of rocks and tree roots exposed. The upper area offers a better view of the falls and the river as it runs downstream. There is another path that goes further into the woods, but we didn’t really know what the payoff would be so we bailed and headed back to the car.

Our last waterfall stop of the day was Athabasca Falls, a large well-kept area with paths that crisscross over the water as it runs through the rocks past the falls. The water empties into a blue lake with cliffs on one side and burned-out trees on the other. This was another popular tour bus stop, and we could see that it would probably be packed during the high season. That can be interesting because some of the path was very narrow.

Back on the road to Jasper, we only had about 20 minutes to drive to reach the outskirts of town. As we approached, we were greeted by a landscape full of burned-out trees and not much else. On the way into town we passed by hundreds of construction sheds and trailers being used by workers who are rebuilding the infrastructure and resorts in the area. The town of Jasper itself seemed to have been spared from the fires over the past two years. We parked near Jasper Brewing Co. for lunch, a beer flight, and then to wander around town. The fish and chips were good and we really enjoyed the beer. Luckily we caught the bar between meals because it was packed by the time we left. We found shirts we liked here and then wandered around before hitting the road.

Our drive back was mostly uneventful, we stopped at the Columbia Icefields Glacier Center for a bathroom break and to look around. It was much busier now with plenty of tour buses, RVs, and cars. We did spot a few mountain goats along the way, just tiny white dots and not too much better with the 300 mm lens. That night we did chicken fingers, fries, and added our easy mac again, why change what isn’t broken? We tried to catch the northern lights again but it was too overcast.

Back in Calgary we revisited the idea of stopping at Tool Shed Brewing & BBQ and we ended up being very glad we did. This was the brewery that was closed for an event at the beginning of our trip, but they were open for business when we rolled through this time. We sat at the bar and chatted with the bartenders and one of the owners while we enjoyed their three-meet platter, a flight of beer, and then we both had a pint each. We knew we only had probably one brewery left in us today, so we relaxed and took our time. We made another stop at Walmart so Miranda could pick up some of the maple cookies she’d found earlier in the trip.

Our last brewery ended up being a slight letdown. Not that the brewery was bad or the beer wasn’t good, but with a name like Tailgunner Brewing, I guess I was hoping for a little more of a military theme like Buffalo 9. Instead, it was a bit of a hipster spot with a handful of military items on the wall and pretty limited merch. This was also the last brewery on a two weeklong trip, we were feeling done.