[mobike008]

Prologue

I’m sure everyone of us have a “Bucket List” in our lives for places that we would like to travel. Thanks to the almighty, I have travelled the world quite a bit and it’s mostly thanks to my job but, the bucket list is something that I have always considered as “special” travel and not work-related travel.

Some of my bucket list that are now “Completed”:

1. Riding a Motorcycle (Suzuki Vstrom 650cc) covering entire Thailand
2. Scuba Diving in Andaman Nicobar Islands
3. Driving on the “Most Crooked Street” in the world- San Francisco, US.
4. Visiting the city famed for the most notorious drug king pin in the world- Medellin, Colombia
5. Driving the BMW for 2000+ miles along the Pacific Ocean Coast (Seattle-San Diego-Tijuana, Mexico)
6. Chasing the Northern Lights in Alaska
7. Getting stranded in peak winters in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada (This was by fluke, lol)
8. Visited Poland (Krakow & Warsaw) to historic sites of Hitlers presence iduring WW2 ncluding visiting the site deep in forest where assassination attempt on Hitler happened (made into a movie-Valkyrie)
9. Driving the BMW for 4000 kms across 3 National Parks in Canada (Banff, Jasper and Yoho)

Future Bucket List Travels (Targeting to complete them in next 5-6 years)

1. Travel to more countries in South America (Brazil & Peru is on top)
2. Safari in Kenya, Africa
3. Drive a luxury sports car across Europe (Spain to Turkey or Vice-Versa)
4. Drive from New York to Los Angeles or Vice-Versa
5. Drive from London to Edinburgh, Scotland and Back.

Whew! If only wishes were horses this list will keep getting longer..lol!

I have been thinking of sharing a travelogue of #5 for a while as it was completed in December 2021 but, looks like a travelogue of the immediate bucket list is taking precedence. It should rightly so, as this road trip vacation has been the most epic in my entire life and even after a few weeks, I am still in a hangover.

Ever since we moved to Seattle again, we have been contemplating a trip to Banff National Park and Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. I was regularly coaxed by my college pal (Ananth) who lives in Calgary, AB by sharing pictures (On WhatsApp) of this beautiful region as its stone throw away from his home and they do weekend hikes in Banff on a regular basis.

This Summer vacation, I had a choice:

1. Go with my college friends (one of them comes to US once a year for a vacation) to Peru, South America. Last year, we did Colombia together.
2. Take this opportunity and do a road trip to Banff & Jasper in Canada
3. Third Option, thrown in by wife was Puerto Rico or Bahamas which I convinced her is not the right time to go as it would be 100 degrees scorching heat and we will be fried in that hot weather.

Peru was finalized in April and initially plan was to do 4 days in Peru, come back and do 4-days to Banff. Thank God, I didn’t do something stupid like that as 8-days in Banff itself is quite short as there are just too many magical places to enjoy.

Peru and Puerto Rico, we can go anytime as it’s just a flight away. So, I was tilting towards the Banff trip. Driving the BMW X3M40i to Banff and Jasper had a lure like nothing else and after a lot of convincing my spouse who was more keen on Puerto Rico, it was finalized that’s what we’ll do this for summer. All the thought process happened around early June when it was finally decided that I will not go to Peru. I will cover the Peru losses with my friend another day as they had put in a lot of planning and bookings.

With the plan set, I collaborated with my pal (Ananth) in Calgary who was super awesome to help in chalking a plan and also suggested that I should buy a “Pursuit Pass” which was an awesome idea as it would save us > 40%.

Pursuit Pass costed us $700 for 2 people that covers 7- major attractions and buying them individually is lot more expensive:

1. Banff Gondola
2. Lake Minnewaska Cruise
3. Jasper Tramway to Whistler Mountains
4. Open Top Bus tour in Banff Downtown
5. Columbia Icefield Explorer- Drive on top of 2nd Largest Glacier in Canada
6. Malign Lake Cruise
7. Glass Walk on Columbia Gorge

One thing to note, tourist attractions tickets are ridiculously expensive in Canada, not to mention the hotels in these areas. Hotels in Banff or Jasper start at $400/night onwards and go all the way up to $1500/night.

We decided to stay in town that were far from these popular tourist attractions to get decent hotels in $200-$250/night budget. It meant we would be driving 60 kms one-way every single day to reach the actual tourist locations. $400/night for mediocre hotels in downtown was not our cup of tea as we would be spending 12-15 hours outdoors and would need a nice place to crash for the night.

Thanks to Ananth, all the planning with respect to route/attractions to stop on the way and actual attractions in Banff & Jasper, we booked our attractions accordingly spreading it over the entire week. Trust me, if we had done things on our own, we would have either wasted lot of money or would be driving too many more kilometers as the planning has to be meticulous as covering attractions between these national parks is covering roughly 500kms spread. So it’s essential to plan a route so you cover the attractions along the route instead of driving back and forth.

We spent 4- Days in Banff National Park, 3-days in Jasper National Park.

I will dedicate 1-post per attraction and try to share a small write-up and hopefully this travelogue can become the “go-to” information for folks planning a trip to Banff and Jasper National Park. Would be happy to share more info, if anyone is planning a trip in that region.

P.S: There are 4 continuous national parks which are Banff, Jasper, Yoho and Kootenay. They cover a distance of 500+ kms so you can imagine their width and length and every inch of these parks are surrounded by the great Canadian Rocky Mountains.

This trip was put into execution from June 28-July 8th, 2024.

Also, we covered 3/4 national parks in this road-trip.

NOTE : All pics taken with iPhone 15 Promax and are unedited. Please click to see the full resolution to capture the real beauty of Banff.

NOTE 2 : Videos will give you a better perspective and all taken from iPhone 15 Promax and are unedited.

Trip Route



Our Transporter..



Us



World Famous " Lake Louise"



Most Photographed Lake in the world "Moraine Lake"



Unreal INK BLUE color of "Peyto Lake"

[mobike008]

Day 1

As most of you may know Canada follows the worldwide followed Metric system and so for purpose of keeping a single value/system, I will use kilometers for this travelogue. It’s tough for us as Imperial system is now ingrained into our systems and we keep recalculating kms to miles, kgs to pounds, liters to ounces.

Our first day and last day would be the longest drives in this trip. Today, we had 1100kms drive to Calgary. Instead of the planned 4:00am Departure, we left home at 5:00am and the plan was to drive north and clear border at Abbotsford, Canada.

As soon as we enter Canada, we got on to the world famous “Trans-Canada Highway 1” which is the longest and continuous inter-country highway in Canada and cuts all the way from East (Victoria in British Columbia to New Foundlands at the edge of the tip of East Coast of Canada) and is the second longest national highway in the world at ~ 8,000 kms.

We got on to Trans Can 1 at Abbotsford and headed east towards Calgary. We drove through some pretty scenic views of British Columbia (The scenery is similar to Washington as after all this is Pacific North-West).

We are not breakfast people and enjoy breakfast only on a Sunday and on vacations. Wifey wanted us to have breakfast every single day and sit-down wherever it was possible.

Stopped at Kamloops, Canada around 8:00am at a lovely, quaint breakfast joint for Omlette, Spuds and Fresh Coffee. We were so impressed with the breakfast that we decided to stop at this place on our way back (And we did stop here again on our return) to enjoy this meal again.

Tanked up and headed east, Canmore, which is a distance of 525 kms, we encountered some of the best views scene in my entire life. This entire distance is surrounded by the great ‘Canadian Rockies”.

Turn your head right, left, back and you are surrounded 360’ degrees by the Rockies.

Just take a breath and imagine this- This 500kms is just the breadth of the Rockies and their length is even longer as it starts in Montana in USA and goes all the way up to northern part of Alaska (Basically, its northeast and southwest) and have multiple 12,000 feet mountain ranges.

The highway was one of the best I ever drove and felt it was better than even US highway system from a road surface point of view. The entire driving experience on this highway is that you get a sense of “wilderness” and amidst raw nature. We stopped at multiple locations enroute as it was so pretty at so many places.

We stopped at one unique location where tunnels are made by humans for trains to travel from one mountain to another mountain. What an incredible civil engineering achievement. We witnessed a train pass through these tunnels and was a breathtaking sight. While on the topic of trains, I think the longest trains have to be in Canada and if you are stuck at a railway passing, its better you go to a restaurant and have lunch and come back as the train would still be passing. It’s common that goods train in Canada is 5kms long and at least 500 + bogies.

Finally, reached my friend’s home at 6:00pm and after an hour of catching up on old memories as we are meeting after 10 years. We freshen up and we hopped on to his car (I was bushed from all that driving) and 4 of us headed to Calgary downtown.

We visited the famous Calgary Tower from the top and just drove around and enjoyed this beautiful city.

Ananth’s brother lives next door in same community and whom I know from back in the day as well. He joined along with his wife for dinner at Boston’s Pizza. We partied like crazy since were meeting after more than a decade. Enjoyed some divine fluids with lovely food and reached home at 2:00am.

This is how our first day ended. 22-hours awake and on our feet. Whew!!!

Crossing the US border into Canada at Abbotsford, British Columbia.





Pretty, Pretty British Columbia.







One of the best breakfasts we enjoyed in a Long time. Our return trip, we stopped here again for a meal, it was that impressive.









Quintessential PNW Weather- Cloudy, Green like hell and absolutely gorgeous scenery all the way.























Spiral Tunnels- A marvelous piece of engineering cutting through mountains to make tracks for trains. Saved 100's of kilometers because of this passage.





Beginning of the beautiful Banff Area.



Pit-stop



Pitstop for Coffee.









Views like this forced us to stop.

[mobike008]

DAY 1 continues in Calgary, Canada....

Next day, we woke up leisurely and enjoyed a brunch of delicious home-made food. At noon, we all left together and went for a hike that Ananth suggested. We enjoyed that 2-hour hike and came to the city of Cochrane, Canada where we will be staying for next 4-days.

Cochrane has one of the most popular ice-cream stores in Alberta region. There is typically a 0.5-mile-long queue for these beauties. Luckily, we didn’t have much of a queue and we enjoyed this ice-cream before Ananth bid farewell. Ice-creams were creamy and delicious and compensated for the calories that we lost during the hike. lol!

We checked into the hotel later afternoon. After some rest, we stepped out in evening for a leisurely walk along a river and then had dinner before calling in early as our real trip would start from tomorrow.

We crossed Banff to go to Calgary.



Views were surreal.



Surreal Drive

https://youtu.be/1w2HQeoxSBQ

Mini-Donuts anyone?



Finally, Calgary...yayy!



Downtown Calgary





Views from top of Calgary Tower



Spotted this in Calgary.







Ananth took us to this spot to view Calgary Downtown from a hill which was also a residential neighborhood. Views were spectacular and this is at 10:00pm at night.

Gorgeous sunset views of Calgary, AB

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RShs-24lO1g?feature=share

Next day morning coffee at Ananth's home.









Famous Ice-Cream in Cochrane, Canada





Fabulous brunch at his home- Simple & Delicious.







Hiked 4 kms.



Lines outside ice cream store was too much.





Dinner

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Banff Gondola & Lake Minnewanka Cruise

I’m an early riser but, not my better half. I wanted us to leave hotel by 7:00am as Cochrane to Banff was about 100kms (1-hour drive).

If you book early (6-months), you can probably get a hotel in Canmore for about $300/night but, when I checked for hotels in Canmore, they were all around $500/night range. Staying in actual Banff town is even more expensive all year around for hotel accommodations. Hence, we stayed little far from the actual attractions. But, heck driving 1-hour each way on these immensely pleasurable roads in the X3M40i was nothing short of bliss.

Today, plan was only 2 major attractions:

1. Banff Gondola
2. Lake Minnewaska

I was told by the guide in one of the tours, Banff receives 4 million visitors in just 3-months during the summer. That’s a lot of people for such a small town and no wonder everything is super expensive.

Banff Gondola has pre-defined onboarding time and the return time from the top of the mountain is also fixed and these timings have to be chosen when booking the tickets due to the unprecedented crowd. This is the trickiest part of planning this vacation as it takes minute planning to know which days are in Banff and which days will be in Jasper as the distance between these 2 National Parks is quite a bit (300kms apart). This is where help from locals like my pal (Ananth), really helped.

We reached the Banff Gondola on time, and we had to figure out parking as that is another big issue as these small towns have limited parking space. We found out later there was a big parking lot little outside of Banff town (15 mins walk to downtown) where we used to park the following 3 days.

We enjoyed the ride up in the mountains and the scenes from there was spectacular. After the Gondola drops us on top, We hiked up further on the board walk to the Sulphur Mountain top and enjoyed even more glorious views. Our entire scheduled time at Banff Gondola & Sulphur Mountains was around 4 hours.

We took the ride back around 3pm and enjoyed a lovely lunch before driving to Lake Minnewanka which was pretty close (~20kms). Our Lake Minnewanka cruise was at 7:00pm which brings me to another point, being much north in the northern hemisphere the sun sets in pretty late. We would have daylight until 10:00pm each day which is wonderful as we have so much additional time to check out places.

We enjoyed the 1-hour guided cruise which included history about the lake, anecdotes and other interesting tidbits. First thing to notice is that lakes here have an amazing color and the reason for that is:

Its glacier fed and there is something called “Rock Flour” that is the primary reason for the lakes to look so “GREEN” or “BLUE” or a combination of both. It’s just phenomenal sight to view these pristine lakes.

After dinner, we drove back to Cochrane for a restful night of sleep.

Our Daily breakfast would be from the Canadian Popular Fast Food- Tim Hortons. I love this place, great coffee and bagels.





We bought the park pass for the week.



Cloudy and Rainy for the first 2-3 days. Rest of our trip was mostly sunny.



Famous Banff Gondola. Just too much crowd at every of these popular attractions.





Some info about the Banff Gondola.









Phenomenal Views from the point where we got off the gondola.







There is a further hike up for even better views. It is known as Sulphur Mountain Hike. It's about 30 mins via. the Boardwalk.





















After an enjoyable time spent at Banff Gondola. We headed to Lake Minnewanka in the late afternoon for our 1-hour cruise on this beautiful lake.









Unreal color of lakes in Canada.

[mobike008]

Banff Gondola & Lake Minnewanka Cruise....Contd

A few more pictures from Banff Gondola and the Cruise.

Absolutely phenomenal views from top of the boardwalk of Sulphur Mountains (Banff Gondola)











Fairmont Hotel- The most popular luxury hotel in Banff. A night here typically costs a minimum of $1200.





It's July 1st- Happy Canada Day.



Independence Day Parade in Downtown Banff.





Few more pictures of Lake Minnewanka.













Driving back into Banff for dinner.





Independence Day Parade in Banff Downtown

https://youtu.be/6Ne6OXcY85Q

[mobike008]

Day 4 (Lake Louise & Moraine Lake)

Today was the D-Day, this is when we will be visiting the world famous:

1. Lake Louise
2. Moraine Lake

A little background to these lakes and probably useful information for tourists. We cannot drive to Lake Louise or Moraine Lake as the crowds here is simply too much, so no cars are allowed. Options are state run shuttles or private buses.

We tried booking state run bus (booking window opens just 48-hours before and gets booked out in minutes) which costs $10/person. And private shuttles make a killing and charge anywhere between $75-$100/person for this 5kms or 15 mins ride.

I tried booking at midnight, then early morning and after several attempts, I gave up as I could not book the shuttle. I resigned to the fate of paying $100/person which seemed too expensive but, there was no way out as these attractions are must-do in Banff National Park. Believe it or not, even private shuttles availability was also quite difficult.

Then I spoke to Ananth, as it’s his territory to help us out. He tried for 1-hour and called me with the good news that he booked the state-run shuttles. Wow, that was a major relief.

This is how it works:

Drive to a large parking lot and park your car there. From here, take a shuttle to Lake Louise. Once you are done with Lake Louise which is spending a few hours, you take another shuttle from Lake Louise to Moraine Lake. There is no time limit with respect to how much time you can stay at each location as long as you take the last shuttle back to the parking lot which is at 7:00pm.

A full day for both these lakes is also not enough. There are plenty of hikes and spots to view the lake from different angles and height. I have seen many pretty lakes in US but, the beauty of these lakes is indescribable as they have these amazing snow-clad mountains as back-drop and being glacier fed, the color of the lakes is breathtaking.

We reached Lake Louise via. Shuttle at 9:00am (It was an early start for us from the hotel) and unfortunately it was a cloudy day and slight drizzle. The lake color pops out only when it’s sunny, so the pictures aren’t the best of Lake Louise due to the cloudy and rainy weather.

We did a 6kms hike up to view the lake from the top. It was an interesting hike- only incline and pretty steep and it was drizzling continuously. I enjoy hikes so I loved it and enjoyed the views but, for wifey it was an ordeal. Lol! But the thing with hikes is when you are doing it, you curse yourself for getting into it but, once you reach the top, the breathtaking views more than make up for the effort.

After spending 4 hours in Lake Louise, we took the shuttle to Moraine Lake which is 15 mins ride. We enjoyed some Tim Hortons Bagels which we carried for lunch. Then spent an hour walking along the shore of the lake. It was still drizzling, and we got pretty wet.

Then we saw everyone was climbing a rock pile to view the lake from the top. It was drizzling, slippery so I was not so keen to climb up. But, wifey insisted that we should. I still thank her for forcing me to climb up the rock pile which was a 15-20 mins hike up.

The views of Moraine Lake from the top were simply spectacular. I never saw anything so beautiful in my life. It really deserves the title of “Most Photographed” lake in the world.

We spent almost 2-hour up there and I had to practically drag my wife back as she was mesmerized by the view. We then took the shuttle back to our car and drove back to the hotel post dinner.

Whew- Even though it was not sunny (Best views are always on a sunny day) and it was cloudy and rainy the experience was absolutely surreal. One of the best days of my life. I can’t believe we visited Lake Louise and Moraine Lake which was on our bucket list for so many years.

Driving to our Shuttle Parking Lot. Pretty huh?





Finally reached. Wowwww!!



Some info about Lake Louise.





Mandatory Pic- Even though the weather wasn't the best.



Lake Louise is an absolutely marvelous spectacle of nature. Glacier Fed water and surrounded by mountains. I can imagine the lake would be 5X more pretty on a bright sunny day. Love it !!









We hiked 5kms (roundtrip) for views of the lake from the top. There are multiple hikes and for a fit person, the options are unlimited. But, we are not one of those categories so we were happy with a short hike.













11:30am in morning. I had completed my 10,000 steps. lol!

















Walk along Lake Louise !!!

https://youtu.be/n4Ny7K2SGYc

This is indeed BEAR country.



Gorgeous Lake Louise

https://youtu.be/TzDCqPrYixg

After spending 4-hours at Lake Louise, we now get onboard this shuttle for our 20 mins ride to Moraine Lake.

[mobike008]

Day 4 (Lake Louise & Moraine Lake)....Contd

A short bus ride to Moraine Lake.



Moraine Lake.





As soon as we reached- We had our Bagel Egg Sandwich for lunch as we were famished.





Cloudy but, beautiful.



We enjoyed a long walk in rains along the lake. It's surrounded by mountains and we went till the far edge of the lake.



















A big Grizzly. Wish we saw a real one at this proximity..lol!



A tough walk in rain up the rock pile- 20 odd mins hike up.













When we saw this view from the top of rock-pile. It just blew our brains. I haven't seen anything as beautiful as this in my life. That color of water is phenomenal and we just couldn't tbeileve our eyes.

Well deserved to be called- Most Photographed Lake in the world !!!





I had a hard time pulling wifey away from this place...











Check the videos to see the beauty of Moraine Lake.

https://youtu.be/EznbUVt-DiI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WHAJ6jOFXrE?feature=share

[mobike008]

Next day, we woke up early and enjoyed our breakfast at Tim Hortons which had become standard as we didn’t want to waste time on a sit-down breakfast. And today’s plan was to visit

1. Takkawa Falls
2. Natural Bridge

Today, we were driving to a different national park (Yoho National Park), We reached Takkawa Falls after a bit of driving on the Trans Canadian Highway 1 (This was driving back West). Wish we had planned a little better as we could have seen these falls while coming to Banff.

Despite so much help from Ananth, we still made some minor mistakes from a planning perspective. Imagine, someone who comes in blind is in for a rude shock as the distances, locations, what to see and what to skip can only be guided by locals (Like Ananth) so I was lucky in a way.

The drive to Takkawa Falls was about 15kms from main highway (Trans CAN 1) and this was the prettiest drive that I did in a long time. Simply beautiful with tall avenue like trees.

The falls itself was spectacular and was tall with brutal force of the water and we hiked up very close to the foot of the falls but, the spoil sport was the weather-Cloudy and it started raining heavily when we were at the falls.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed the falls immensely and then drove to Natural Bridge which was nearby. Post that we drove back to Banff to enjoy an Indian Dinner in town.

[mobike008]

Day 5 (Emerald Lake, Mt. Norquay, Open Top Banff Bus Tour)

Next day, our plan was to enjoy a drive up to Mt. Norquay which was just outside the town of Banff to enjoy some spectacular views of the whole city from top of a mountain.

Then we drove to another popular lake called “Emerald Lake” and even though this is not as popular as Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, it was simply fabulous as the water was a turquoise green and we decided to do boating which was $100/canoe but, biggest problem is the waiting time as anywhere in these locations it was from 2-4 hours to get a canoe. We skipped the plan and walked along the lake and headed back into Banff town.

Evening we had an open bus top tour, and it was a 1.5-hour ride around entire Banff town, and they took us up to Mt. Norquay as well. There was a surprise planned at the top where we were served a bubbly (non-alcoholic).

Another beautiful day came to an end.

We stopped at this railway crossing and got fed up with the never ending train. We ended up having a Paneni lunch (bought from a store nearby) sitting here, eating and waiting for the train to pass and we can cross. No Kidding, the trains are that long. Haha!





Drive to Emerald Lake





We were stunned to see Emerald Lake. Not many people talk about this lake but, we loved it. Check the color of the water and pretty surroundings and you will know why.






















Went back to Banff and took the open top bus tour from the town center. It was a guided tour and we spent 2-hours driving around Banff area checking out historic sites and even spotted some wildlife.





Ride in the open top bus to Mt. Norquay was lovely. We spotted a strong rainbow. However, by time we reached the top, the colors pretty much got covered by clouds.









On the top- Bus Driver served us with some bubbly (non-alcoholic) which was a surprise.

[mobike008]

Day 6 (Drive to Jasper National Park, Bow Lake & Peyto Lake)

Woke up leisurely and checked out of Cochrane and drove west (towards Vancouver, Jasper National Park) and our stay was in Jasper National Park in a city called Hinton, Alberta.

It was 75kms from Jasper town or 1-hour drive. The drive from Banff to Jasper is about 250kms or 3-hours of drive. I was excitedly looking forward to this drive because this is the day we would be driving on the world famous “Icefield Parkway’ which is a 250+ kms of route which has breathtaking views of the mountains on this highway and has many spots enroute that we stopped to enjoy.

Icefield parkway has been deemed as one of the “Most Beautiful” highway drives in the world. It is open throughout the year and this entire region gets too much snow so you can imagine this entire route is covered in deep snow during winters.

More info here: https://thebanffblog.com/icefields-parkway-canada/

1. Bow Lake
2. Peyto Lake

Bow Lake was pretty and had the same turquoise green color water. But what blew us away was “Peyto Lake” which is coming up in the next post.

This entire route has so many view points that we were pulling into spot as soon as we see cars being parked on the shoulder. Man, it's hard to drive continuously on this route. Lol!

[mobike008]

Day 6 (Drive to Jasper National Park, Bow Lake & Peyto Lake)...Contd...

This post is all about our spectacular drive on the world's most famous highway drive. Icefield Parkway drive is about 500kms (Banff to Jasper route) and is touted as the "Top 5 beautiful highway drives in the entire world" and it was for a reason as this entire route is dotted with gorgeous blue lakes and massive snow capped mountains throughout the route. We felt like stopping every few kms to take pictures as we were stunned by the beauty of the region.

After stopping at Bow Lake, our next main stop was "Peyto Lake" which is one of the most popular lakes in Jasper. This lake shape is like a "Wolf" and is famous for one of the most popular Bollywood song shot on Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta.

We had a tough time to get to the parking lot as there were just too many cars and when we finally reached the parking spot which like most parking spots is surrounded by mountains. We got a spot easily as it was massive. We then had a 1-mile hike to the viewing point and when we reached the point, our mind was blown.

Peyto Lake's color is an unreal "INK BLUE" and we were zapped out of our minds. After getting blown by enjoying Moraine and Lake Louse, this lake took our breath away equally. We enjoyed a good one-hour at the point looking at the lake. The crowds were unprecedented but, heck this is summer and everyone is out here.

Cheers to Peyto Lake and is a mandatory stop on Icefield Parkway Drive.

See the video to imagine the beauty of this ink blue lake.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fcxcye_zHn8?feature=share

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fcxcye_zHn8?feature=share

Bow Lake- Gorgeous Pit stop to check out Bow Lake- This place was teeming with people and we enjoyed a lovely 30-minutes break here.

https://youtu.be/A73TMPl8Uac

After driving along the lake for a few kms, there was another spot that was nice where we stopped. Crystal clear waters and absolutely serene with great views.

https://youtu.be/WsZIROuEOl0

[mobike008]

Day 6 Contd.. (Columbia Icefield- Glacier Walk)

Today was dedicated to Columbia Icefield tour which was a surreal experience of driving up an actual glacier (Athabasca Glacier) where we spent an hour on the top. There is a special bus which is so massive in size that it’s unbelievable. I never saw tires these huge on an automobile and I can’t even imagine what size they could be. Whatever size, they were the biggest tires that I saw in my life.

We assembled at the pick-up point and a shuttle drives up to a certain point of the glacier where these massive Columbia Explorers were parked. And, from here on these special trucks take you further up to the glacier. These special trucks are used for reasons of their climbing ability as the roads were so steep that it was almost like doing off-roading and these trucks are used to drive on glacier as weight is evenly split, so the glacier does not crack due to more weight at a single location. It’s a risky expedition but, these tour operators check multiple times in a day to ensure our safety.

They give you about an hour to spend time on the top of the glacier and believe it or not, if the ice cracks, then you have a minimum of 2000 feet drop below into the crevice. Scary…huh?

Absolutely gorgeous drive to the Columbia Icefield Glacier Point.

https://youtu.be/QOnkdD9-bLs

Pick-up point for the glacier walk. We rode in one of those massive buses.















Shuttle to halfway up in the mountain. From where the special glacier bus would take us further up.



Driving on the glacier.







It was so steep, it was unbelievable. Only these special buses can traverse such inclines.



On top of the glacier. We were asked to not cross a small boundary as that was the only safe part of the glacier. Rest was dangerous grounds.



Phenomenal Views on top !!

https://youtu.be/B_EmmugplgU

Then we proceeded to next attraction- Glass walk with a massive drop below into the valley.








Dinner in Jasper Town Center with a street and mountains view.







Drive back to hotel at night. This is at 10:30pm. Lovely sunset views.





Beautiful views on top of the glacier. Doesn't it feel like the whole world is here...lol!

https://youtu.be/OTfkgsYtDnQ

Drinking Fresh Glacier Water- This would otherwise cost $10/bottle...lol!!!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Vs5RJI8ELyY?feature=share

[mobike008]

Day 8 (Jasper Tram to Whistler Mountains & Maligne Lake Cruise)

Today’s plan was to drive up to Jasper Tram and take the tram (here tram or gondola is used interchangeably) and this was a pretty long ride up into the Whistler Mountains.

Whistler mountains are the tallest mountains and actually fall into British Columbia province and Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb mountains are knows for the best skiing destination in entire North America.

After the tram dropped us on top, we hiked further up to the top which was a 2kms roundtrip. We also enjoyed one of the finest lunches in a restaurant situated at the top with breathtaking views of the whistler mountains surrounding us. There was a train passing down below with its 500+ carriages.

Drive to Jasper Tram Attraction.









Reached.



Beautiful ride up the tram- Unlike others. Here we had to stand and this carriage took in quite a few passengers. Hence, probably known as a tram and not a gondola.









Spectacular views from the top.







Hiked up further 1.5kms to the top.

























Enjoyed a lovely lunch on the top (where the tram stops). This restaurant has all glass view and had wonderful views of the surrounding Whistler mountains.

[mobike008]

Day 8 (Jasper Tram to Whistler Mountains & Maligne Lake Cruise)...Contd

We had a lake cruise booked at Maligne Lake which is some distance from Jasper town. This is a 2-hour cruise and they take us to a small island (Spirit Island) which is probably less than 500 meters of land. lol!

Honestly, I have been on multiple cruises in the US and this cruise has to be the most favorite due to the color of the glacier fed water and for entire 2-hours duration the lake was surrounded by mountains which is a rare phenomena. This lake cruise was much better than Lake Minnewanka cruise and is a mandatory attraction for folks visiting this region.

Btw, all these lakes in this region get completely frozen during winters and we were told by the guide that people drive trucks on the lake, enjoy ice-fishing and even do other kind of ice-related sports. Whew !!

Enjoy the pictures of this gorgeous lake cruise that we all enjoyed so much.

This cruise will go into the TOP 3 cruises of my life.

https://youtu.be/RCNMaJer7uc

Selfie on Maligne Lake.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-cmTufHe71s?feature=share

[mobike008]

During our entire trip in this region, We spotted a lot of wildlife and it was simply an incredible experience spotting these animals in the wild or even in town center. Not many get an opportunity to see them so we are lucky that we experienced it. Some get even better experience of bears coming up close to the cars but, we saw at least 4 grizzlies and one of them was a brown bear and it was huge.

For the first time when we spotted a medium sized black bear, we stopped the car and I got out to take pictures from a closer range and then later I got to know that there is a massive fine ($10,000 CAD or more) if any national guard spots you outside the car as we are not supposed to feed them nor get out of the car. There on, we followed the rules.

This post gives you a glimpse of our fantastic experience.

https://youtu.be/ALq1-nFXYqQ

https://youtu.be/q58Emmcazmg

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PUHHKpraNro?feature=share

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Iti272eFbQg?feature=share

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3BzeIUGNU2w?feature=share

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PUHHKpraNro?feature=share

Brown Bear Spotting !!!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_mA61vty5Fs?feature=share