10-day Canadian Rockies trip by Car

We are very settled in Monroe and are considering selling Lincoln and visiting a few times a year. We talk to the little ones almost every Sunday. They are growing up. 2nd grade, 1st grade and preschool.

I'm doing fine on the exemestane. Scans have been clear. We have found a few docs but still have a couple more to find. We are heading back to CA in a month for four months.

Our flight to Canada was easy. We are trying to be less judgmental so I won't talk about a couple of annoying things.

I am trying very hard to do this blog in as non-OCD as possible. I wrote for epinions for years and don't want to be detailed like I was. "Just the facts, ma'am."

We rented a car so did what we usually do. We borrowed a couple of itineraries from the web and followed those. One thing we would do differently is arrive in Calgary and leave in Edmonton though this is not a direct flight. We would have toured Calgary for two days instead of leaving it to the end.

Here is a link: (I get no money for any part of this blog.)

This one is a six day tour. We spent 10 days in the area. https://www.tourradar.com/t/225399

We also found (as you will) dozens of itineraries of "best of" "must stops" on the Internet.

This was ours:

We decided to stay in Cranmore for 5 nights because it was much less expensive than staying in Banff National Park.

While here we went to Kooteney National Park. We did a fabulous short and easy walk/hike in this park called Marble Canyon.

Another stop we made was to Radium Hot Springs. I was not impressed. This doesn't compare to the hot springs we found in Iceland. It just wasn't hot enough. But there are many hot springs so find the one that is hottest (115 degrees F).

There are a lot of pull-overs so take advantage of the scenery from them. The Great Divide is just kind of cool. It marks the boarder of Kooteney and Bamff.

I will be showing you lots of waterfalls. We love waterfalls and water of any kind and you will not be disappointed in that regard! From Canmore we visited Lake Louise. Ok not to be a downer or someone who has just seen so many gorgeous lakes I was not impressed. Crater Lake in the U.S. made me cry and other lakes (Bow Lake) are more beautiful. JMHO

Lake Louise is home to the famous Fairmont Hotel whose rates were up to $1,000 a night! You can walk into it. Nothing spectacular except the views. It didn't have any old world charm that I thought it might.

We spent time at Moraine Lake, whose color is incredible and the setting even more so.

Yoho National Park - don't miss the Natural Bridge. It is incredible . We spent some time looking around the small town called Fields also.

A must see was supposed to be the spiral tunnel. I'll let you look it up but really I had no idea what this engineering feat was although I supposed I could conceptualize it. These tunnels are used today.

Still in Yoho we went to Emerald Lake, which again was a pretty color and great if you want to kayak. It rained on us so we didn't spend much time there.

We were still in Canmore when we went to Banff National Park. Seen in the middle of Canmore.

No joke we saw 3 different sightings of bears; and many of elk.We didn't know that it is against the law to go closer than the length of a football field. Only once did we get out of the car. Don't do that. It freaks the animals out and truly this is their home. Take pictures from your car. Another advantage of not doing a tour. They may not stop!

Do not miss Petyo Lake. It is a hike and you will be asking people coming back "How much longer." It IS worth it. The falls are incredible.

Peyto Lake we thought was the most beautiful lake in the Rockies.

A little tidbit: Bow Falls if the location of the film "The River of no return" from the 60s.

Hoodoos ok so these were interesting but there aren't that many of them.We stopped, looked at them and took photos. There is no way of getting closer than the pull over. You will want to go into Banff Town. Everything is expensive. Literally we got food from a grocery store at least two times!!

You will hear a lot about Icefield Parkway, which is a 144 mile journey through the heart of Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site.

We were so impressed with the tunnels both above ground and underground for the animals to travel through. They make it safer for us and them.

In order of appearance:

Bow Lake, Columbia Icefield, Athabesca Falls, Jasper National Park (Where we stayed outside of town.) Stop at Surprise Corner for a great view o the castle in the Rockies.

We would pay the price for places closer to Jasper even if more expensive. The town of Jasper is the 2nd biggest town in the Canadian Rockies.

Onto the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies, the beautiful Maligne Lake. Don't skip a walk in Maligne Canyon. Go at least to the 3rd bridge.

And finally the most gorgeous lake in the Rockies, Peyto Lake.

There are other stops we made and some you won't. We stayed outside Jasper in what was an ok motel but I wouldn't recommend it so I won't give it a shout out.

We then drove BACK to Calgary - A long and tedious drive and spent one day touring the downtown area.

Below are pictures. I will attempt to label them. They should be in order.,,,Maybe!!