Canadian Rockies Day 5 Icefield Parkway Banff to Jasper

Ok so we have now been back from our trip for like a month, and I still have multiple days of trip to write about.  I am hoping to slowly get these up since we already have another trip (BWCA) down and have another one (Yosemite) coming up this week.  Hopefully the friends family and random people who are interested in our travel will find this blog interesting and useful if you plan a trip to the beautiful Canadian Rockies.

Day 5 centered around our drive from Banff to Jasper along the Icefield Parkway.  Stops include Kootenay National Park for some short hikes, Bow Lake for the hike to Bow Glacier which is the source of the Bow River that runs through Banff, Peyto Lake, all sorts of random waterfalls and other lakes, Athabasca Falls and finally Patricia Lake Bungalows where we stayed in Jasper.  Stats for the day is over 32k steps and 150 flights of stairs!

We enjoyed a very good breakfast at the Juniper Bistro with this gorgeous view of Banff.  The food was amazing.  Zach had some sort of egg dish and I had French Toast (somebody really needs to popularize a breakfast dish that has protein and isn't egg based!)

One last view from our hotel before heading out

Very strange sign in downtown Banff.  Really do many people ask for help getting a PhD in physics?

Quick stop at Nesters for sandwiches.  Nesters is for sure the better grocery store in Banff.

About an hourish drive later we entered Kootenay Park which is one of the lesser visited parks, but still just as beautiful National Parks in the area.

Stop one was the Marble Canyon hike.  This was a short 1 mile hike that allowed great views of the super deep Marble Canyon with some interpretive signs.  This area had a fire somewhat recently so the landscape was very interesting.

Remnants of recentish fire

Found the Canada Parks red chairs at the far end of the hike

Next stop not to far away was the hike to the paint pots.  These were pools that First Nations used to dye clothing and such and that the first white settlers later exploited.

This is a paint pot.  Notice all the really red dirt everywhere that was dug up and used for dye.

Final stop in Kootenay was the continental divide

One more time at the Trailhead cafe for some banana bread and coffee.  The last place to get decent coffee until we get to Jasper

And this is pretty much what the view looked like the entire way.  Lots of trees and mountains

This young bear greeted us as we pulled in for our long hike for the day.  He was just hanging out pretty close to the road with a gathering group of people including a parks canada officer trying to prevent people from getting too close.

Bow lake at the start of our hike

 

First part of hike was flat along the lake with great views all around

Somehow we got really lost and ended up hiking randomly in the woods.  Thank goodness for cell phones with offline maps with allowed us to get back to the trail.  I think it was close to a total of a mile detour from the clear path we should have gone on.

Once we found the path again it was an uphill climb until we got to the Bow Glacier and Bow Falls.  This waterfall is the source of the Bow River which goes through Banff and Calgary.

Dinky chilling near the water as we ate our picnic lunch.

We made it!

View of Bow Lake as we went back the same way.

Next on the stop list is Peyto Lake seen above.  Not I didn't photoshop this or anything.  This is really what it looks like.  There was a short walk there and then a viewing platform.  Once the large bus of Asian tourists left it was much more peaceful

Another lake view as we continued north

Next small hike was Mistaya canyon.  I don't know how they get such deep canyons here, but it sure is pretty!

Brief stop at Saskatchewan Crossing for really overpriced juice.  When I walked into the bathroom here the song Jolene started playing which was a little strange to hear in the middle of nowhere

Weeping wall.  Hard to see but there are just waterfalls all over this wall which is right next to the highway.

We saw this mountain goat near the glacier skywalk and scared the poor guy to death.  It is actually a sad situation because people warned this was goat habitat before Brewster built this stupid walkway that blocked them in.  Both times we ended up seeing goats here and they didn't seem to appreciate being boxed in with the traffic.

Waterfall near the goat sighting just right next to the highway

More great views along the way, although at this point we were starting to hurry because we had to make sure to check in and get food before everything started closing.

Looking for moose and wildlife

Final stop before Jasper was the Athabasca Falls for a short hike.  The falls were impressive with lots 

of water flowing

A small herd of Elk greeted us as we entered Jasper

Hello Jasper, or base for the next 3 nights

Cute but skitish dog that belongs to owner of Patricia Lake Bungalows

Check in area

Our room seems great!  Lots of privacy and room plus a fireplace!

We quickly unloaded then headed back into town for dinner (at this point it was nearing 10 pm).  We ate at the Jasper Brewery which had lots of good beer options

Real Poutine which was pretty good, although anytime you have french fries covered in cheese and gravy it is bound to be good.

We split a salad and the brat dish shown below. Good choice as the salad was quite good and healthy while the brats were quite good but decidedly unhealthy.

Finally back to our room for the night to enjoy the fireplace and plan for the next day's adventures.

Canadian Rockies Day 4 Yoho and Banff National Park

So now that we are back, we have usually decent internet and all the pictures have finally decided to upload I am going to go back and update the blog for each day as I have time.  

Last time I wrote we were in Banff and on day 3, now we are in hot rainy Minneapolis and I will pick up where I left off with day 4.  This was our last day in Banff itself.  Since we had already done some of the must see things in Banff Park, we headed out to Yoho National Park

Map of all the Canadian Rockies National Parks

We had breakfast in our room, but stopped in town to buy lunch and get some coffee before our drive.  This is a view of the main street in Banff which had lovely views of mountains all around.

Banff Starbucks.  Basically like the ones in America (they even take rewards!) but cheaper thanks to the exchange rate

We drove about an hour to get to Yoho National Park.  The turn off was around Lake Louise.  Here is the Boundary sign

First stop in the park was in Field at the park info office.  There we got a couple of souvenirs and looked at the exhibits.  This park is actually famous for its large fossil ares.  I had wanted to go see them, but like most things in the park that area isn't open yet.  I guess the roads must be pretty high because most areas we wanted to see were still listed as snow covered.

First actual hiking stop was Emerald Lake.  This is a pretty little alpine lake with lots of hiking trails nearby.  There is also a lodge/conference center that looks like a good place to stay if we ever come back

We only did the relatively flat lake loop at this lake.  Here is our stats for that walk

The views around the entire lake were amazing!  The lake was perfectly calm and when we got there there was almost no people yet so had the place to ourselves.

There was some new wildflowers along the walk

View from the far side of the lake where there was a large open area between the river and the actual lake

There was a huge area of lady slippers along the shore!

Not sure what this water bird is, but it looked pretty cool.

View of the lodge area as we approached the end of the hike.

On the way out we stopped at the natural bridge. 

Dinky and the natural bridge from one of the viewing areas.

After that our next stop was Wapta Falls.  Wapta Falls is the largest waterfall by volume in the Canadian Rockies.

Before the hike we had a picnic lunch from the supplies bought in Banff.  It would have been an even better lunch without all the bugs around!

 The trail to the falls was not very long and relatively flat compared to the other hiking we have done

Wapta Falls from the top.  Lots of rushing water and we could feel the cooling mist

Wapta falls from the bottom.

This is what a lot of the trail looked like.  Relatively flat with some ups and down and some shade thanks to the trees.

After that hike was discussed what we wanted to do.  We decided to try to visit the Cave and Basin Site in Banff and hopefully do some canoing if time.  After about an hour drive we arrived back in Banff and had about an hour to see the Cave and Basin Site

This is the original hot spring cave that drew tourists to Banff.  I lasted about 1 minute in there because it was the worst rotten egg smell you could imagine.  Why anybody would want to sit in that water is beyond me.  Right now they don't allow any soaking in the pools at this site.  They built the upper springs area which we visited the night before.  This site is now more of a historical park with information focusing on the hot springs.

This is the renovated changing area that now houses exhibits

View from the top of the building of the surrounding mountains

At the top of the building there is a trail to visit the source of the hot springs.  This kinda gross looking stream is close to the source.  If you look closely you can see the endangered snails that they are trying to protect.

After seeing the main historic areas we decided to go on the marsh walk.  Before we reached the trail we stopped at this exhibit about the internment camps that happened mostly during the first world war.  Seems Canadian history on these camps is about as bad as our history.

We somehow missed the marsh trail and ended up doing a longer walk along a horse trail.  There was still great views like above (but unfortunately this caused us to miss the time for the last canoe

We stopped here to pick up some Banff souvenirs before heading to Lake Minnewanka to see if we could catch the last cruise. 

Lake Minnewanka is the largest lake in Banff park.  Here is dinky checking out the area.  Sadly the companies website was wrong and there wasn't a 6 pm cruise.  So instead of doing the boat cruise we just sat to enjoy the lake and plan an alternative.

Some mountain goats that crossed the dam while we watched and then disappeared into the woods

We settled on the relatively short tunnel mountain hike before dinner.  This is a short mountain right in the middle of Banff that is popular with the locals

View of the Fairmont on the way up the mountain

View on the non city side of the mountain

Great views from the top of the mountain looking toward Banff town.

Those red chairs again.  Unfortunately while we were up there two girls decided to take at least 20 min naps in the chairs.

View of the trail.  It was actually a lot of switchbacks so while it did go up many hundreds of meters, it wasn't that steep.

Final stop before dinner was the Cascade gardens in town.  They were clearly not quite up and running for the summer yet, but it was still pretty cool

There were some perennials out like these guys.

The grounds include the headquarters for the park.  It looked more like a castle than administration buildings.

Castle with Indian heads I guess?

View of main street in Banff as we headed to dinner.

We ate at the Bear Street Tavern in Banff.  They had a great beer menu with a tasting option

We had a nice large beet salad and a hawaiian pizza that was pretty good and not overly expensive.

Final stop of the night was the hot tub back at our hotel.  We made it just in time to see the pretty pinks of sunset around 10:30 pm.