Rocky Mountains, powerful nature and us right in the middle

Hello dear ones,

finally we are back again....sorry :)

We are going to restructure the blog a bit now and no longer tell about the experiences of every week, because since the last post we have been very busy traveling and we neither had much time nor motivation to write in the last weeks, but instead we will occasionally share certain experiences from the areas where we are staying :)

Nevertheless, we don't want to withhold the wonderful four weeks in the west of Canada from you.

So what did we experience in the Rocky Mountains?

As mentioned in the last post, we arrived well in Calgary. After Christina took the time to recover properly, Martin zoomed through Calgary on his own and we checked out of our cool trucker accommodation, we continued to Canmore in the Rocky Mountains. On the arrival day from Canmore, we made a stop at the Spray Valley Provincial Park - Kananaskis Country. There we briefly informed ourselves at the information center at the park entrance about the currently possible trails. And to our surprise: We left the information center with bear spray. Especially in this national park far away from the crowds, it is possible to come across bears and we were strongly advised to use the spray. We can tell you: Since then, when we go hiking, we have a feeling that is not quite so relaxed anymore and we are on the lookout for every sound. On this day, we started a small hike at Barry Lake with generally great views. Generally great views, because without rain, it is certainly amazing :D However, the west should greet us weatherwise as we had left the east. Because about half an hour after the start of the hike, we had a pretty massive hail and rainstorm, but we still persisted until the end. When we arrived at the top, we were in a cloud, so we had no view :D but it was still beautiful and we could even observe a deer, which was actually only ten meters away from us in the forest. (fortunately not a bear, although we secretly would have liked to see one, but preferably from a distance and best of all from the car)

In the evening, we checked into the Party Hostel Canmore, where we immediately met like-minded travelers again. However, the hostel itself was not that great, which is why we spent the following night in another accommodation in Canmore.

The next day, we started the day early in the morning and did another hike in the Kananaskis Country National Park - the Baldy Pass. It was quite nice, through the typical Canadian forests, but without a real summit. However, when we reached the endpoint, we were able to admire the incredibly impressive forest that looked like a rainforest and seemed endless, through the cleared area of the surrounding peaks. It's just great to enjoy this untouched nature. We then spent the rest of the day with a nice drive along the Smith Dorrien Trail around the national park, a gravel road through the mountainous region, to Canmore.

The next day, we continued to Banff to make another stop at the Visitors Centre (we hardly miss any). Unfortunately, disillusionment set in again and the peak of disappointment for Canada was reached. Honestly, dear ones, we briefly considered canceling everything in Canada and leaving, despite having booked flights and a rental car, because it's simply not the right season for this country. Maybe that sounds strange in view of the pictures you see. But for us, the feeling of traveling has unfortunately not yet set in since we arrived in Canada. We had planned to sleep almost exclusively in the car and see all the natural highlights, and we have been denied all of that so far. But we stayed strong and continued to Lake Louise to do the Lake Agnes Tea House Trailhead on the same day. This definitely raised our mood again, as we hiked partly in snow (which we are used to by now :D), but from the top we had great views of Lake Louise (frozen) and two more lakes. We then spent the evening in our accommodation, a HI Canada Hostel in Lake Louise. This hostel chain is found everywhere in the west of Canada and highly recommended. Great value for money, as well as cleanliness and service.

The next day, we visited Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park. There was a great trail around the lake with super beautiful turquoise water and enchanting nature all around. In contrast to Lake Louise, the lake was almost free of ice. Afterwards, we walked to the nearby Hamilton Fall and the Natural Bridge. We spent the afternoon with coffee and banana bread in the hostel.

The next day, we set off from Lake Louise to start the first part of the Icefield Parkway towards Jasper. But before we started this great drive, we went on a quick hike up Castle Mountain in the morning, where we were able to enjoy a glimpse of the summit. Afterwards, we visited the Upper Falls of Johnston Canyons nearby and then rushed off to the Icefield Parkway. As you can see, the low point the day before sparked new energy in us. This road is one of our highlights in the Rockies, because you drive right through it and can simply enjoy it. Just a side note, it's finally getting warmer and we plan to sleep in the car again from now on. On this day, we made it to Coleman Creek, where we spent the night and were able to wash in the very cold river. This was amazing, with this breathtaking view

Now we start our last day in the Rockies. The last part of the Icefield Parkway starts with one of the biggest and at the same time worst highlights of the trip so far, the Columbia Icefield. Those who don't believe in climate change should maybe visit there and then ask themselves if their way of thinking is appropriate. At least we were completely stunned and shocked at the same time. Absolute emotional overload. After that, we continued past the Tangle Falls, Sunwapta Falls, Goats and Glaciers, Athabasca Falls to Jasper. We actually wanted to stay overnight here, but it was such a terrible tourist place, so we spontaneously decided to leave the Jasper National Park completely. The end of the drive towards Valemount, where we spent the night at a dreamy spot, couldn't have been more beautiful. Guys, we finally met our first black bear. That was an experience that almost brought tears to our eyes, as if this bear wanted to say 'Goodbye' to us before we left the Rocky Mountains.

Now a brief mention of the evening spot in Valemount. When we arrived there, we looked at maps a bit to see where we could possibly stand and then drove leisurely through the forest for about an hour along a super cool river along a gravel road. For a moment we thought, if something happens to us now, we are lost :D Oh by the way, because it's so beautiful and funny, we even saw a cute little brown bear scurrying by during this nice forest drive :)

That's it about the Rocky Mountains :) sorry that we will handle the blog a bit differently now, but we think you can understand it.

We hope you had a lot of fun reading and it was somewhat entertaining.

Until the next entry :)

Warm greetings - Christina & Martin