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Visiting Calgary and Banff National Park, Days 1 and 2

 We recently got home from a trip to Banff National Park in Canada. We picked one of the busiest weekends in the summer to visit thanks to Canada Day on Tuesday and resulting 4 day weekend--but those were the dates that worked the best for us. So you work with what you've got. Here's what we did and how we liked it.

Friday, Day 1:  Morning flight to Calgary, picked up rental car, then hiked around Nose Hill Park--about 15 minutes from the airport. Stopped at the ubiquitous Tim Horton's for a donut, then a grocery store for some food for the trip. We checked into our hotel, Days Inn near University of Calgary, then went to the Church of Jesus Christ Calgary Temple. Afterwards we had dinner at a Japanese "Fusion" restaurant which reminded us of Southern food cooked by Japanese people.

Lots of wild roses which Alberta puts on their license plates, "Wild Rose Country"

Calgary skyline




We noticed Calgary seems to get windy frequently in the evenings.
I ate with chopsticks for the first time ever--I wasn't sure the restaurant even had forks because everyone was using chopsticks.

Saturday, Day 2: after breakfast at the hotel (unfortunately we were very close to the highway and it was not quiet), we left for Banff National Park at about 7:30am. The first place we went to was Lake Minnewanka and we saw our first bear in the wild on the way there! Fortunately I had my phone handy but it's not a great picture. Admission to the park is free this summer. Parking at 8:30am was pretty easy. The main thing at this lake are boat tours which we weren't really interested in, so we took a short hike down a path to Stewart's Bridge. It was pretty short. There were quite a few people who looked like they had big plans in the backcountry, maybe rock climbing.  In all honesty, it wasn't an incredibly interesting lake but we did see the bear!



We decided to head for Yoho National Park which is about an hour from Banff and checked out Emerald Lake. Parking was a little difficult with the parking lot pretty small and very full--we had to park on the road and walk a little ways. You can rent canoes there for about 100 Canadian dollars an hour (which is about 75 USD currently.) We hiked all the way around the lake which isn't so big--3.2 miles. Half of the trail was very muddy but fortunately the second half was much better. The lake is very pretty and--big surprise--an emerald color. We enjoyed talking as we walked. After hiking around the lake we went on a shorter hike to Hamilton Falls, up the mountain that was supposed to have "minimal altitude gain". It felt a little steeper than that and we (okay I was the main one) were feeling a little tired so we turned around shortly before the top.




I should have worn my hiking boots which stayed in my suitcase for the entire trip but instead I got my running shoes very muddy.


As we headed to Canmore where we were staying, we stopped by Kicking Horse River which has formed a natural bridge, thanks to the dramatic force of the water working on the rock. That was pretty cool and very easy to access.



We drove the rest of the way to Canmore (a little more than an hour or so) and then checked into our condo we rented for 3 nights. We had to get a few more groceries for dinner and I was starving by the time dinner happened.


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