Tour de Alberta (Part 7): Angry River Monsters

Leaving Lake Louise, we took the Icefields Parkway and meandered our way into Jasper. Along the way, we stopped whenever we felt like it, checking out viewpoints,

lakes,

rivers,

waterfalls,

and eating lunch (and hiking) at the Athabasca Glacier.

It was a 3 hour drive that we made in 6 hours, enjoying our breaks and walks along the way.


As we approached our campsite, we discovered a black bear, ambling along the middle of the road. Kyler slowed to a crawl, and we played a very slow game of chicken with a bear. Eventually, the bear decided we won and headed into the trees.

When we check into our campsite and they gave us the standard spiel of "this is bear country, keep a clean campsite, etc," we were like, yeah. We know.

We made a quick trip into town to check weather forecasts and head to Pyramid Lake before finishing for the day.

It was threatening to rain and thunderstorm the whole time we were in Jasper, according to the weather forecast. We decided we'd start in the morning whenever it wasn't raining and see how much we could get done.

Our first stop was Mount Edith Cavell. We took a winding road up the side of the mountain. The whole way I was struck by how quickly this road, paved and solid, would get reclaimed by nature if we stopped maintaining it. There were evidences of rock slides, grass growing on the road, and bushes reaching out to give us high fives.
We reached the parking lot (relatively empty again!) and began our ascent along the Path of the Glacier. The trail was wonderfully maintained, and the kiddos loved the bridges and rocks along the way.

We even saw a couple of hoary marmots in the rocks!

As we got close to the end of the trail, we could see the glacier with a waterfall flowing from it,

and when we got to the end, we saw the ice cold pond at the base of the glacier. I definitely wouldn't want to take a swim in that one...

The majesty of Mount Edith Cavell was overwhelming. Looking up at the mountain, having it literally be your entire field of vision, was equal parts terrifying and beautiful.

That's one of the things I've grown to love about Jasper. It just feels so wild sometimes, like I'm teetering on the edge of this wilderness, and it could very easily swallow me whole. Just like the mountain road, our grip on civilization seems tenuous at times. This was Craig's favorite place and hike of our trip.

After lunch we headed to another new place in Jasper: Maligne Canyon.

Craig said Maligne river was an angry water monster. I can't say I disagree with him.

The canyon is deep and steep and the water ferociously powerful.

We crossed the first four bridges and I loved peering over the edge into the chasm of tumultuous water.

Kyler, on the other hand, preferred to keep his distance from the edge and firmly keep Caleb away, as well.

Calista said either this or the hoodoos with her cousins was her favorite part of the trip.

We also took a quick jaunt to Maligne Lake, which we have seen before.

Beautiful as always.

Especially in black and white.


After our final night in our tent, we had a visitor for breakfast

and then headed to Athasbasca Falls. Yet again, it was almost eerie how few people were there. All the more space for us to enjoy it, though!

With a final look towards the falls, we piled back into the car, gave this trip thumbs up, thumbs up, two thumbs up!,

and drove home, to where we could sleep in real beds, shower, do laundry, and just relax.

It's good to be home.


In 14 days, I did 215,550 steps. That is an average on 15,396 steps a day - including the days we drove a lot. One of the days, I did more than 26k steps. In the same time frame, we drove for 33 hours. In other words, our trip was busy and exhausting.

We saw:

• Deer! Whitetail and mule deer - lots. More than 10
• Pronghorns - at least 6
• Pelicans
• Bears - 5 in total. 2 in Waterton, 1 in Banff/Lake Louise, and 2 in Jasper, including the one we played chicken with
• Canada geese and goslings
• Loons
• Lots of other waterfowl, ducks, etc
• Ravens the size of small cats
• Gophers
• Hoary marmots - 2
• A black fox?!?
• Leeches
• Fox trying to steal our breakfast
• Elk - at least 7
• Big horn sheep - at least 4
• Countless cows, including one playful baby trying to charge our car
• Horses

Every where we went, Craig set up an "alone chair" in the trees.

He came up with this idea after our FHE before our trip about how some people go into nature to feel God's spirit (Joseph Smith in a grove, Moses to the mountain, etc). 

Craig wanted a place in each campsite he could be alone and "pray or something."

He's such a sweet boy.

Kyler and I spent a lot of time reading.

He re-read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead for the first time in a decade, and I tried to get caught up on Rick Riordan novels before seeing our nieces.

Calista reviewed bathrooms every time we used one. Her least favorite? "Dinosaur Provincial Park because I got lost (side note: you could literally see our tent from the bathroom...) and they're the worst pit toilets I've ever seen." Her favorite? "Lake Louise campground. They had real toilets, heat, and they shut the doors to keep out moths!" 

All in all, this trip was full of amazing moments, new experiences, and great memories. The kids were pretty amazing throughout, and kept saying they were the cautious, adventurous explorers of the badlands, the canyons, the mountains, the hoodoos...
I loved exploring a bit closer to home this year. Alberta put on quite a show for us, and I am grateful.

Tour de Alberta (Part 6): Worth The Hype

We've been to Banff countless times. When we lived in Calgary, we were a mere 1.5 hours from the National Park. It was an easy day trip, and we loved it. Johnston Canyon, Lake Minnewanka, Tunnel  Mountain, Cave and Basin, several different museums, ice cream at COWS... we'd done it all.
But we'd never actually gone past Banff, to Lake Louise.

So, after stopping in Banff to play a bit and eat at our favorite cajun restaurant,

and stay one hockey stick or ski pole away from others,

we finally kept going, on to Lake Louise Campground (protected by electric fence from bears).

Because Lake Louise is traditionally packed, we got up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and headed straight for the lake. We were there by 8:30 AM, and had no trouble finding parking. Having the US border closed does have its perks, I suppose.

I wondered, before going, if Lake Louise was one of those tourist-y places, popular just because it is accessible, not actually because it is anything that special.
When I got my first glimpse of the lake, I decided that was not correct.

Lake Louise is popular for good reason.

It was absolutely amazing.

We explored the shoreline and the rocks closest to the parking lot and the chateau a bit, and then walked 2 km along the shoreline.

The views were incredible the whole way.

We heard an avalanche in the distance, saw people in their kayaks,

and were mesmerized by the mountains, glaciers, and lake.

Then we walked 2 km back (stopping to eat some cookies along the way), still in awe.

We spent about 3 hours at Lake Louise and honestly could have spent more,

but we decided to head to town for lunch and playing and then back to our campsite for a lazy afternoon,

in preparation for our next excursion after dinner: Moraine Lake.

This is another traditionally packed area, and while we saw plenty of people, since we went relatively late in the day it was easy to see and do what we wanted. We explored the shoreline a bit and then decided to hike Rock Pile Trail.

When I first heard the name of this hike, I thought it would have a small pile of rocks. I didn't realize the entire hike was on a giant rock pile, legacy left over from an avalanche long ago. Short and steep, the steps led us to the perfect Moraine Lake view, very similar to the view on old $20 bills.

But much more colorful. Another place we'd never been, and very much worth checking out.

That night, after we'd gotten everyone snuggled in their beds and asleep (99 Bottles of Pop later), Kyler and I awoke to the sound of thunder. This wasn't our first thunderstorm this trip, but it was the most impressive sounding. Each peal of thunder rolled around, echoing off the mountains for a good thirty seconds before dying away. We only heard 4 or 5, but they were magical.

Lake Louise, especially sans international tourists (sorry,  amily!) was quite possibly my favorite stop of the whole trip. I know it was Kyler's favorite. Calista and Craig's favorite places were still to come, though, in our final leg of the trip.