Spokane Part 4: Banff

Alright, are you ready for all the pictures! And this is just a small sampling of what I actually took, but you will get the idea. Kevin & I, left on Monday morning with our friends the Arnolds & the Wallis' to head to Banff, Alberta. I have to say this is one of the most beautiful drives you will ever take. We drove from Spokane through North Idaho and up into Canada along the Rocky Moutains. Everything was so green because they have had so much rain this year. All the more beautiful for us.


Welcome to the Canadian Rockies.

Along our drive. If you look closely there is a heart cut out of the trees in the middle of the picture.

The Vermillion Lakes as we arrived in the Banff National Forest.

We spent most of the first day driving. So we spent most of our first day exploring Banff. We visited the beautiful Banff Springs Hotel.

And then walked down to the Bow Falls. The Arnolds

We then rode the gondola to the top of the mountain above Banff.

Banff is the town in the bottom of the picture on the left side.

The Wallis'

The girls and don't mind my hair in everyone's faces. It was quite windy.

The guys.

The gondola.

We then went to explore Lake Minniwanka and found lots of moutain goats.

The guys skipping rocks.

We were actually staying in Canmore, which is a small town just east of Banff. And this is a picture of the Three Sisters. And can I just say this picture was taken at 10'o'clock at night.

The next day we went to Lake Louise. One of personal favorites. The color of the water is just amazing. We all hiked up to a Tea House at Lake Agnes and then the guys continued on while the came back down the mountain and relaxed inside the Fairmont Lake Louise. It was a cool and drizzly day, but the water is still always amazing. The whole gang.

The Arnolds.

Lake Agnes, where we had tea and snacks. On Thursday we drove the Icefields Parkway.

We then rode in one of these beasts up on the Athabasca Glacier.

You can see in this picture where we actually started to drive out on the glacier. It was pretty amazing. They say the glacier itself is as deep as the Eiffler Tower is high.

We then stop so you can get out and walk on the glacier. The guys had this brilliant idea to take their shirts off. And can I just add, it was absolutely freezing. I think they said about 20 degrees not couting the windchill. The funniest part of them doing this was the bus of Asians behind us that all was glued to the windows of their bus taking pictures of the guys. Too funny.

On Friday the Wallis' and Kevin & I got up and did a few shorter hikes. Our first stop was Johnston Canyon, which was one of my favorites from when we came on our honeymoon, and its still just as beautiful.

You walk right down in a canyon along the river most of the way.

And this was the second short hike we did. We ended up scaling the mountain side to get higher to see more of the water fall and discovered somehow along the way we had gotten off the trail because there was a nice path leading right to it.

We ended Friday with a nice lunch in Banff and wandering around before it got too crazy in town. Friday was also Canada Day so Banff was having a parade and all kinds of festivities. This is Coley and I among the crowds awaiting the parade.
And that concludes the brief overview of Banff. We had an amazing time relaxing and spending time with friends, laughing and eating way too much food. I unfortunately did not take anymore pictures the rest of the trip. We went back to Spokane and spent a relaxing day with my family and with Auntie Mandy who had come up for the fourth. It was a wonderful trip. Thank you so much to Grammy & Pops who watched our kiddos for us and for hosting our family and friends. And thank you to the Arnolds & the Wallis' for joining us on this trip. We had a great time and are greatly missing the cooler weather.