Jasper to Calgary

We left Jasper thinking it would take us 4-5 hours including stops to drive to Lake Louise…and once again we were pulling into our accommodation in the dark! Time and time again, we underestimate how much joy we have when we are out in the wild – finding reason after reason to linger a little longer. We sometimes get push-back from the kids at the beginning of an outing – how far are we walking? (not far) How long will it take? (as long as it takes) Do we have to? (yes). But once they’re on their way, they’re soon taking photos, asking questions, and finding ways to make it fun…usually walking way further and taking significantly longer than we had originally planned. Everywhere we go, we’re in snow pants and snow boots so walking/running/jumping/playing takes more effort, but we’ve found our go-to Canadian snacks for regular energy boosts and make sure we keep fuelling our 13 year old bottomless pit.

Our longest stop was at the Athabasca Glacier. It was snowing, windy and cold…so we had the place to ourselves! We dived deep into learning about glaciers and it felt like a cool field trip when the kids could actually run their hands over the polished rocks, feel the scratches indicating the weight and movement of the glacier over time, see how far the glacier had retreated in a short time (and think about why), and lean into the katabatic winds as they raced off the glacier. There were some neat information signs which helped to guide us as much of the trail was hidden under ice or snow, but Logan and I felt pretty chuffed that almost every one we had already explained the concept to the kids. It was nice to feel like the kids are in safe hands when it comes to learning this year. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve certainly Googled a jillion things already in just a few short weeks (I’m currently feeling a bit of an expert in the life cycle of a moose’s antler), but it was reassuring that the kids were learning and experiencing something real and important.

We had a full day at Lake Louise so we had a slow start. The HI Lake Louise has a dedicated play space for kids (adults have to duck to even get in) that was right by our room. Our girl who loves to play kept gravitating to the space – we’d turn around and she’d be gone! Whilst we have some games, books, colouring pencils, and 1 Sylvanian Family with us, someone else’s toys are always the best…so we let the girl play!

We’d already had a mooch around the Lake Louise village so we headed down to Lake Louise. We were absolutely flabbergasted by the number of cars and crowds of people! Everywhere we’d been so far had had at most a handful of cars in the carpark, the walks we’d done we’d hardly seen anyone else, even the mountains and accommodations had felt relatively empty…and here were rows of cars and hundreds of people! Despite not loving sharing nature with hoards of people, we wanted to walk over the frozen lake to the far end and were pleasantly surprised that once we got going, the lake was big enough to find our own space. The kids were delighted to find deep snow, and were constantly in pursuit of the perfect spot to snow dive or snow angel.

High above the end of the lake was Blue Falls. Not actually a waterfall in the summer, but every winter the water dripping down the rock face freezes into what looks like a frozen blue waterfall. There was a track some of the way up but our adventurous kids then decided to push on through the snow up the tree line right up to the waterfall. WOW! What a beauty! It was so peaceful and so high above the lake, without anyone else in sight.

Before we came down, the kids pleaded us to let them “bum slide” all the way down. Logan took time to show them how to self arrest if they got too fast or felt out of control, giving them time to practise the technique and talk it through. Then it was all on! Oh my gosh! So much fun! The kids ran up to redo the last section again and again!

Once we were down the kids were back on their mission of finding perfect snow to play in, and they were delighted that it seemed to get deeper and deeper and deeper!

Despite our reservations initially, Lake Louise delivered a wonderful afternoon of joy and laughter.

We took the Bow River Parkway rather than the main Trans-Canada Highway from Lake Louise to Banff. It was snowing all day and there were few others on the road so we enjoyed the slower pace of the Parkway. It was grey and misty so the scenery felt quite different to the blue sky days we’d mostly had so far…dreamy and quiet.

Banff was beautiful – a pretty little town surrounded by towering mountains. The hostel was chock-a-block with young people from all over the world on their working holiday visas…we couldn’t help but think that maybe one day it would be Lucas or Zara cooking dinner with their mates and talking about the epic runs they’d had that day!

Our last drive completed our circuit back to Calgary. We’d had an incredible 3 weeks in Canada – stunning views, wonderful adventures, and so much kindness from the people we’d met.