Upper Kananaskis Lake

We started our trip because Jack found an amazing sale on the budget airline WestJet, for US$600 ($300 each), we could both fly to Calgary, which would get us to our intended destination: Banff. The one thing to be cautious about is even if you get a cheap flight, Banff and the surrounding areas are generally on the pricier side, which is particularly noticeable when booking hotels during the summer months.

On our first night, we landed at Calgary airport, got a rental car and stayed in Calgary. Though we would have liked to have explored Calgary while we were there, the weather was not great and rainy. We were nervous that the weather wouldn’t be good for the entire trip, but it cleared up by the next day.

We then drove to Kananaskis and because we were going on a hike, we stopped at Canadian Tire to buy bear spray. If you want to get bear spray, you can’t just pick it up at Walmart as we initially thought. Canadian Tire is an experience of a store, with life-sized models of dinosaurs, bears, and western movie stars. To be honest, it felt like a mix of Home Depot and the Warner Bros prop department.

We found the counter for the bear spray and the intended use of bear spray is of course that you shouldn’t use it, because you hope that you won’t encounter a bear. However, if you do have to use it, it functions like pepper spray on steroids, so that you can subdue a bear and head on your way. We paid CAD$65 for bear spray and peace of mind. Fortunately, we did not need to use the bear spray on any of our hikes and we ended up giving it to some random people at our hotel when we checked out. Now, armed with bear spray, we were ready to take on some of the world’s most beautiful hikes. We started our National Park journey at the Kananaskis National Park and lucked out on the fees.

For some reason, the first Wednesday of every month is free. We did though have to pay for the second day. We stayed at a beautiful Autograph Collection Marriott and took a jaunt around the property on our first night. There were also campfire smores, wherein I perfected my smore-making talent.

The next day, we took a drive to Upper Kananaskis Lake, and we were in awe of how beautiful the lake was – this isn’t even the prettiest lake in Canada, which goes to prove how pretty these lakes are. As we embarked on our first hike, it was clear to us that Canadians are far more fit. There was a very steep ascent to the upper lake. Typically an American hike would say strenuous, but the Canadian signage said moderate. Jack almost didn’t make it he found it so effortful, meanwhile, there were families carrying babies passing us. However, we persevered and reached the top, but to be honest it wasn’t actually as pretty as the bottom lake. We grabbed some pictures and descended much more quickly than we ascended. If you’re into the pics not the hikes you can stay down in the parking lot and get the same experience. On the way back we had a slight delay because there were sheep in the road. It was mildly inconvenient, but mostly amusing to witness a herd of sheep in the road.

Before the trip, Jack and I debated whether to do Moraine Lake and Lake Louise. From the research I did it was a must-see; from the research he did it was overcrowded. I pushed for Moraine Lake and I’m so glad I did as it was another awe-inspiring experience. I was quite fortunate to have a husband that is so great at getting tickets. There are two ways to get to Moraine Lake and Lake Louise, and you cannot drive yourself to get to these places. Option 1 is paying a private company to take you to the lakes which can get pricey, or Option 2, you can get public tickets for CAD$8 per person which takes you to both lakes, but you must arrive during your scheduled 1 hour time slot.

To get the tickets you have to go onto the Park Canada website 2 days before your ideal dates and at 8am MT the tickets will go live. You must be fast as they will sell out within a couple of minutes during the peak summer season.

Once we got off the bus, we experienced the vibrant turquoise waters of Moraine Lake. Though it was crowded, it was nothing compared to some of the crowds we’ve experienced at some photo hotspots on other trips. For example the classic Santorini photo is a nightmare to get. If you wanted a particular photo spot at the lakes, you wouldn’t have to wait more than 7 minutes.

There is also canoeing for CAD$170. We ended up deciding to go canoeing at a different lake where it was somewhat cheaper – I highly recommend some type of water sport in the lakes. After we walked around, we hopped on the connector bus from Moraine Lake to Lake Louise (when buying tickets, choose either lake as your first lake, as you can then take this connector bus between the two). We took some photos here too and then got off the bus to go to the town of Banff to have dinner.

As we decided what restaurant to go to, the name the Fat Ox stood out to me and thank goodness it did. The food was so wonderful that Jack commented multiple times during the meal that it was Michelin quality, especially great were the roasted carrots. We then went to our hotel in Canmore (around a 20-minute drive from the town of Banff) which we chose because it was less than half the cost of equivalent hotels in Banff itself. We quickly fell asleep because I had an early start the following morning – a 9am meeting Eastern Time, means a 7am work start Mountain Time.

After working a full day Eastern Time, Jack and I took the rest of the day to explore the city and go to  Emerald Lake. The town of Banff has really cute clothing stores, gift shops, and other tourist-focused stores. It also has a beautiful river and nature art walk that was quite unique. We ended up buying a Banff poster from a Banff artist and then set off to Emerald Lake.

It was another beautiful turquoise (not emerald!) lake this time in Yoho National Park (about an hour from Banff). This is where we canoed for CAD$100 for an hour on the lake. We got stunning pictures inside and outside of the boat and took a rest at the café next to the boathouse. One thing to note, parking wasn’t ideal as we had to park about a 10-minute walk down the relatively steep road.

We then drove to Johnston Canyon (back near the town of Banff). Just a few minutes after arriving there, we got a notification from WestJet that our flight to Denver (where we planned to spend a few hours on Sunday afternoon) had been cancelled. They didn’t at this point provide us with an alternative flight and initially this was one of the few hikes that we did that had some phone service, so we decided to wait on hold as we walked up to the lower part of the waterfall at Johnston Canyon.

Unfortunately, Jack was a little optimistic to think that the service would hold out for the entire hike as around one of the final corners the call dropped. Once we got to the waterfall (probably just over a mile from where we parked), there was a short line as people took pictures on the other side of a short tunnel. We waited about 15 minutes and then ended up being a little disappointed that it was a difficult spot to get good pictures, so it wasn’t really worth us standing around and waiting for our turn to take those photos. Oh well.

After we walked back past the section with spotty service, we then tried calling WestJet again. This time around the call held until we almost got back to the town of Banff, but sadly it dropped again. After we parked up in Banff to have dinner at the Fat Ox (for a second night in a row), we called WestJet a third time. This time around we remained on hold for almost 4 hours, all throughout dinner and as we got ready to go to sleep. We then got tired and decided to give up.

The next day, we went to see the less talked about but just as vibrant lakes including Peyto and Bow. After driving all the way to Peyto, it of course, started raining. However, it was a light rain where you could still see the blue sky. After a short hike to the viewpoint, we got some incredible pictures with the turquoise water. We hiked back to the car to visit our last lake: Bow Lake. During this stop, we took a short walk, shot some more gorgeous pictures and then drove back to our hotel. We spent the rest of the evening on hold with WestJet and when I say we, I mean my amazing Google Assistant. We eventually got through and got moved to a direct flight to Atlanta just 3 hours after we changed the flight with the very helpful WestJet representative. While it was a somewhat inconveniently timed redeye (which we usually try to avoid), the final seats available on the plane were front-row premium seats so we ended up with a free upgrade. All in all an amazing and highly memorable trip.

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