True North

Stampeding Through The True North

Our trip to Calgary & the Canadian rockies was originally envisioned in 2019 & planned for the summer of 2020. The rough plan was to fly into Calgary, head back down to the US Glacier National Park in Montana, then cross the border into back into Canada and head up through Banff & Jasper in Alberta. I think most people have a pretty good guess as to why that trip didn’t pan out the way we had hoped. 2020 saw us take road trips across Pennsylvania in search of some local treasures. In 2021, with the Canada-US border still closed, we took a US-based tour and dreamed of the day we would finally get to cross over to the Canadian side and see the rocky mountains in all their glory. Finally, in July of 2022, we made it there, and this post will tell the story of how the trip unfolded.

Our travel began in Newark, New Jersey, bound for a 9:55 AM flight to Calgary. For once in our lives, the flight actually arrived on time, no travel issues at all, and we arrived in Calgary at 12:40 PM local time.

After dropping our bags off at our hotel, the first stop is of course Tim Horton’s (which is a theme of this trip in general).

After getting good and caffeinated, we wandered a few blocks over to the Calgary Tower. Built in the ’60s, it has vibes similar to the Space Needle in Seattle and the CN Tower including an observation deck, which seemed like a fine way to get a good look around!

The river pictured here is the Bow River, which little did we realize would become much more familiar to us later in the trip.

In the distance here you can see the Saddledome, the fairgrounds, and the grandstand for the Calgary Stampede, for which we had tickets the following day/evening.

After that, we headed back to the hotel to clean up a bit before heading out to get some food. Free gin and tonic samples in the lobby were much appreciated.

After we ate, we snagged some good cocktails at Stable, the hotel bar and talked to the bartender about life growing up in Nova Scotia.

There was a bin of records to pick from to choose your own music and I found this gem that a friend had shown to me back in our college days, which was a real joy to rediscover many years later. What an apt title for the journey we were on- Beautiful Rivers and Mountains.

By this point, it was getting into evening time and and the jet lag had caught up to us, so we called it an evening before the exciting day ahead of us, tomorrow.

Our second day in Calgary started with us driving all around town to check out hockey memorabilia/card shops in search of some rare/odd NHL goodies.

After dropping off some of the trinkets that we had found, we had lunch and then headed downtown to the Calgary Stampede!

The Stampdede is held annually in Calgary, starting in the early 20th century. These days, it’s a combination of giant carnival, rodeo, and music festival, with tons of food, rides, and entertainment all around.

The actual rodeo portion took place in front of the grandstand at a huge horse racing track.

The most unbelievable portion was a relay race event where a number of First Nations riders raced bareback around the track- just reins, no saddle.

They were absolutely cooking, the speed was unbelievable.

The finale was an elaborate stage show on gigantic mobile a stage which was rolled out from the side of the grandstand by a sizeable tractor, sticking very close to the overall theme.

The show itself was quite impressive and featured a ton of separate segments, truly a well-orchestrated presentation.

The rope work was quite impressive.

Once the show finally wrapped up, we shuffled out of there through the huge crowd and headed back to our hotel.

We needed to rest because while the Stampede was great fun, it was merely a prelude to the real prize of the trip: the Rocky mountains, our destination for tomorrow.

After waking up, eating some breakfast, and packing up our room in Calgary, we set out on the Trans-Canada highway. The highway takes you west of Calgary and into the mountains, where it forks and either continues west into British Columbia, or goes north along the Icefield Parkway and takes you up into Jasper, our first true Rocky mountain destination. It’s about a four and a half hour drive when you map it out, but you’re much better served to stop as often as you like and take in the incredible scenery.

Our first stop occurred right before the parkway at Bill Peyto’s Cafe, in Lake Louise. It’s a cute little hostel/restaurant, and we’ll be back here in a few days time.

Shortly after we left the cafe, we reached the entrance gate to Banff, which is where the Icefield Parkway begins. Jasper is to the North and we have to pass through Banff to get there.

The southern part of the parkway has these wildlife bridges throughout, to allow animals to safely cross from one side to the other.

It wasn’t too long before we had another run-in with the Bow River.

…and this blue beauty of course is the Bow Lake, which feeds the Bow River. The blue tint given to the many lakes and rivers throughout the rockies is due to the presence of what the locals call “rock flour”, or glacial silt. This fine dust is the result of millions of years of glaciers grinding down the sides of huge mountains. When it trickles down into bodies of water, it causes changes in the way that light reflects off of the lake, capturing the longer wavelengths (yellows, reds, oranges), and allowing only the shorter wavelengths (blue, green, violet) to make it back out. The result is an absolutely brilliant blue color which is stunning both on camera and to the naked eye.

Notice the difference in color between a closer shot of Bow Lake and the above one- blue is slightly diminished compared to the higher vantage point where you can really see the sunlight shining down on it.

I had to dip my feet but man, it was CHILLY.

The drive was full of absolutely stunning views.

The Corolla we rented fortunately did not shake violently like the one we had in Tennessee.

We even got lucky enough to see a black bear on the side of the road from maybe about 20 feet away! “From the car” is definitely my preferred method of bear-sighting. We actually saw another one not long after this too, though didn’t manage to get any great photos of it before it ducked away into the forest.

Another highlight of the Icefield Parkway was the Athabasca Falls, a few minutes walk from a turnout area along the side of the road. This incredibly powerful waterfall is fed by glacial melt.

The raw force of the water is humbling.

But the mist felt good!

After we left the falls, we finally arrived at the Park Place Inn, which is a simple but very pleasant little hotel in the middle of the small town of Jasper. We grabbed some Bobby Margaritas, ate some dinner at Karouzos, and got some of the best ice cream cones we’ve ever had at Scoops & Loops.

At that point we were beat and headed back towards the hotel. We learned a tough lesson about being this far North though: the sun likes to stay up very late this time of year. This photo was taken at 9:30 PM.

Another morning in Canada, another Tim Hortons run. Time to head out.

Stay on your toes.

Our first hike of the day is Maligne Canyon, a slot canyon formed by erosion from running water over the course of millions of years. At some points, it gets as deep as 51 meters.

The canyon itself is stunning. It’s difficult to capture how deep it really is in any one photo. Apparently it completely freezes over in the winter time and you can take tours where you actually walk on the surface… there may or may not be another trip to Maligne Canyon in the works already.

After Maligne Canyon, we headed to nearby Annette Lake & Lake Edith.

It’s a simple paved path around the lakes for a nice, low-key stroll.

The real destination for the day though is Maligne Lake, which is about a 40km drive through the wilderness.

We spotted a few elk.

The Maligne river both feeds and drains Maligne Lake, and it accompanies you the whole way there.

There’s a couple burnt out areas along the side of the road.

A key stopover is Medicine Lake. It plays host to a lot of different animals, and while we were spying a bit on a bald eagle nest, nobody was home at the time.

Eventually we arrived at Maligne Lake and enjoyed lunch by the waterside- we needed to be ready to head out on the water for our boat tour.

Eventually we docked nearby to Spirit Island, a place regarded as a holy site by the indigenous Nakoda people.

The actual island, pictured above, is off-limits for visitors. The mountain range past it is known as the Hall Of The Gods, the idea being that if the gods were to visit the Earth, they’d come here because each mountain would serve as a worthy throne.

Fantastic. At this point, it was time to head back to town for the evening.

We got some very good, VERY spicy Indian food, and it was delicious. I probably should have taken this picture before it all disappeared but that was a very brief window of time. After we ate, we headed to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.

We got a little astronomy lesson, and then we explored the lodge grounds on the shores of Beauvert Lake.

At one point, Dana went back to the car to get something and was accosted by an elk, resulting in my personal favorite photo of the trip.

We wrapped up the evening with a staple Canadian snack, Beavertails.

We started Monday morning with another Tim Horton’s run, and then went straight to Mount Edith Cavell.

This little guy was messing around with someone’s car in the parking lot of the trail! Pretty sure it was a marmot.

The first glimpse as you reach the crest of the hill reveals the incredible glacier here, said to resemble an angel spreading its wings.

The little glacial pool here is icy cold to the touch, like all of the other water around here.

It’s truly a one of a kind sight. After our time at Edith Cavell, we left in search of the Edge Of The World trail, as recommended by a local.

This one’s tricky because it has no parking lot- it’s just an unmarked trail off the side of the road and behind a guardrail. Took a bit of guessing but we eventually found it, and the rewards were well worth it.

The short trail takes you to a waterfall and a very steep cliff overlooking Jasper, with some of the most wide-open views we’d seen yet. At this point, we ran back to town, grabbed some lunch, and then headed out for white water rafting on the Athabasca River!

Unfortunately there aren’t any pictures from the actual rafting, as we did not want to risk dropping our phones to the bottom of the ice cold river. The Athabasca River is made up almost entirely of snow and glacier melt water, which keeps its temperature usually around 39 degrees or so, so it was quite exciting when we got to actually jump into the water for a second for a quick dip (wearing wet suits to prevent instant hypothermia, of course!).

After we got back to town and ate, we decided we had not seen enough wildlife yet and took an evening drive down Maligne Lake Road just to see if anything would appear.

Ok it’s no moose but we did see a pair of bucks with pretty decent size antlers to wrap up our evening.

We took one last look at Medicine Lake as the 10PM sun finally began to set.

The arrival of Tuesday morning was a sad occasion, because it meant we were leaving Jasper. We stopped one more time at the Jasper Tim’s and then headed back down the Icefield Parkway towards Lake Louise, with some excellent stops along the way. Shortly after getting out of town, we very briefly saw a brown bear on the side of the road where some other people had parked, but really just caught a glimpse of brown fur as it ducked into the woods before we could snap any photos. Darn!

We stopped at a quick pullover to get a peek at horseshoe lake.

A few miles later, we stopped at Sunwapta Falls. Just another stunningly powerful, glacier-fed waterfall.

The next major stop for the day though was the Columbia Icefield. We grabbed some poutine for lunch at the visitor center, then took a bus over to the specialized Ice Explorer buses, designed to be able to drive across the Athabasca Glacier. Those tires were each about my height.

The Ice Explorer heads down a short stretch of road which is considered to be the steepest road in North America, at a 24 degree angle (or 44.5% grade).

At the end of the road, you depart the bus and step out onto the brilliant blue ice fields and explore. The glacier sits adjacent to a mountain known as Snow Dome, which is special in that it is a triple-continental divide: water drains from it to the Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and Hudson Bay, all via different rivers.

The water is so clean that you can drink it, though they recommend to only take a few sips.

Definitely one of the “cooler” experiences I have ever had!

Following the glacier expediition, we took a short ride over to the nearby glass-bottom skywalk.

It’s an incredible view with something like 10 or so different waterfalls in view.

It wasn’t until I looked down that I noticed we had some familiar looking visitors beneath. I tried my best to grab a picture through my binoculars, it came out ok.

You would think that walking on a glacier would be the highlight of anyone’s day, and in most cases you’d be right. But 90 minutes down the road was our final destination for the day, the legendary Lake Louise & its accompanying Fairmont Hotel. The lake sits directly behind the hotel and is simply the most scenic view I have ever witnessed in my life. I could never truly adequately describe what it’s like to see it in person.

We had an absolutely incredible meal at the hotel’s Walliser Stube, a Swiss fondue restaurant.

We walked it off with a nice stroll down the lakeside path.

Then we relaxed with a few drinks and a fire by the lake.

Not too shabby.

I would recommend everyone have their morning coffee with this view at some point in their lives. After we finished breakfast, we headed over to the Lake Agnes trail, famous for the Lake Agnes Tea House.

The hike up to the tea house is a surprisingly steep, hour-long zig-zagging trail which is quite busy the whole way through. As you begin to climb higher and higher, the lake takes on a very pale, almost paint-like color. The halfway point is Mirror Lake, with a nice view of The Big Beehive. The Big Beehive is what is known as a moraine, which is basically a mountain that’s formed from the broken pieces of rock that are displaced by glaciers over the course of millions of years.

Lake Agnes was, predictably, gorgeous.

The tea house was busy, but somehow we managed to sneak in without really waiting too long. There’s no running water or electricity and the staff has to hike there and back each day, so the offerings are simple, but a nice pick-me-up just the same. Yes, that is a Panthers Giroux shirt.

A short hike up The Little Beehive reveals a view of both Mirror Lake and Lake Louise together.

After heading back down to the lake, we rented a canoe and went out for a paddle The best view of the scenery, including the hotel, is definitely from on the lake itself.

If you’re not careful going back to the dock, it’s possible you end up going for a real adventure down to the bow river on this stream.

After we cleaned up, we took a quick ride up and down a chairlift at the Lake Louise Ski Resort in search of some wildlife, but didn’t manage to spot anything.

You can see Lake Louise and the Fairmont in the distance in this photo. We got dinner at the Lake Louise Railway Station Restaurant at the base of the mountain.

One last Bobby Margarita and a walk down the lakeside path was the perfect way to wind down for the evening.

We’ve got an early day tomorrow.

Thursday morning was an early wake-up in order to catch a shuttle over to Moraine Lake. It’s one of the more popular spots in the Lake Louise area and the small parking lots usually fills up before 5 AM, so the shuttle to and from our hotel is a less difficult way to get there and see the sun rise over the lake.

Even before the sun rises up, Moraine Lake is spectacular. As dawn breaks, the peaks in front of us began to glow with sunlight.

By 7AM, Moraine Lake is illuminated and truly brilliant. At this point, we returned back to our hotel and of course, Lake Louise is looking incredible underneath the clear blues skies and morning sun.

I grabbed the most picture-perfect donut from the hotel coffee shop and then we headed up the closeby trail to the Fairmont Overlook viewpoint.

Sadly though, at this point our time at Lake Lousie was nearly over, so we took one last stroll down the lakeside path and hit the road, en route to Banff.

Bill Peyto’s Cafe was the lunch stop once again, just as it was on our way up to Jasper.

After lunch we headed an hour or so down the icefield parkway to Banff for the last leg of the trip.

We arrived at our hotel a bit on the early side and the room wasn’t quite ready, so we checked out the town of Banff itself. It reminded me a bit of the Jersey shore with its hotels, gift shops, restaurants, and such. It’s definitely the bigger, more touristy “getaway” town when compared with Jasper.

Our two days at Lake Louise were excellent, but there was no Tim Hortons for us to go to. We got back on track in Banff. We also had an unexpected wildlife encounter before we even got there though- 3 large bucks!

Cool to see but not before coffee please.

There are sights all around you in Banff, so we decided to cruise around and check out a few different ones rather than hike one long trail for the day. We started out at the Bow River Falls:

The Fairmont in Banff, seen here from Surprise Corner, is basically a castle.

Our next stop was Marble Canyon. Marble Canyon is in British Columbia, so we got to briefly go back there for the first time since our honeymoon. It’s also not in Banff, it’s in Kootenay National Park, so it’s another park we can check off of the list. Time to cross yet another contintental divide.

Marble Canyon is another slot canyon filled with rushing blue glacial melt, like the one we saw in Jasper.

By this point, our feet hurt and it was starting to rain, so we went back to kick it in the hot tub at the hotel for a bit.

After the rain cleared up, we walked back into town one last time.

Our last day was Saturday. One more Tim Horton’s run.

We got some chocolate cowboy hats and beers while we waited for our flight.

Goodbye Alberta, we’ll be back!