Road Trip with Bumpa and Grammy

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to go to Banff and Jasper National Parks.  I'm not sure why, it's just always been that way.  I know my mom has always wanted to go too, so we decided to go together!  It all worked out rather nicely and we had a wonderful vacation together.

The Fairmont Springs Hotel in Banff.  What a place!

We spent one day on the Icefields Parkway (not to be missed!).  It was a long day in the car but we did our best to stop off here and there.  Peyto Lake was a lovely stop - the color of the water was amazing!

Happy to be free of the car seats!

Lane was very pleased to be included on a 'big boy' hike up to the glacier viewing area.  It was an interesting landscape!  Morgan and Logan happily stayed behind to throw rocks in the water under Grammy's watchful eyes.

We made it as far as Athabasca Falls in Jasper National Park.  (Mom snapped this picture of me and informed me it better show up in the blog - There you go, Mom!)  The rock formations were really 'AWE-some' (in Lane speak - hence the two thumbs up).

Athabasca Falls and Canyon.

Moraine Lake - absolutely gorgeous!

Our little hikers - they really did a great job keeping up.  I should say, we did our best to keep up with them!

The color of the water was very neat - crystal clear up close and aquamarine from afar.

Johnston Falls and Canyon - many of the walkways were bolted into the wall and hanging over the creek.

A viewpoint for the lower falls - kind of damp but a fun perspective!

Our last day in the park, we rode up the gondola at the ski area in Lake Louise.

Lane was a touch nervous to ride the chair lift on the way down.  Can you tell?(:

A little guy who was a bit tuckered out by the end of the trip.  Thankfully Bumpa has a comfy lap!

Views around Lake Louise:

We did see quite a bit of wildlife:

The top two bears we saw from the safety of our car.  That big ol' grizzly caused quite the traffic jam on our way down from Moraine Lake (I'm glad we saw him from our car and not out on a hike!).  The bear on the bottom was below the chairlift and those elk were just across the road from our campsite.

We headed home via Yoho National Park and we happened to stop at the viewpoint for the Spiral Tunnels just before a train went through.  They built these curved tunnels into the mountain to help slow the descent down the valley (before these went in, runaway trains were common).  If you look closely, you can see the back of the train at the very bottom of the picture, the front of the train coming out of the tunnel below the middle portion of the train.

It is definitely a place you can spend many a day in and still have more to see.  Thanks for coming with us, Mom and Dad!