Hiking in Alberta is definitely a summertime must but it's also very doable in the winter months. Plus, all those bears are hibernating so less of a risk to your life, am I right? We explored Johnston Canyon and took a drive along highway 93 to take in all the incredible scenery Alberta had to offer.Like we mentioned in our last article covering Banff, (if you haven't had a chance to read it, follow the link below: ...) Banff National Park is the place to see all those pinned hiking spots in Canada. From the Bow Valley Parkway to Peyto Lake, the national park is where it's at if you are up for some serious outdoor time. Because we went in the winter, a lot of the scenery was different from the typical pinterest photos. The teal lakes were frozen and snow covered, Lake Moraine, which is quite possibly THEE most famous lake in Alberta if not all of Canada, is closed off from the end of October - May (because the road up to the lookout is in an avalanche zone), and some summer activities like canoeing Lake Louise isn't possible after September. But even so, we made the most of it and the winter scenes were rather magical. Johnston Canyon: We drove 20 miles outside of Banff (headed north within the national park) and made it to the Canyon parking area. It was a ghost town but luckily a couple of ladies were walking back to their car as we were heading out so we made sure we were going the right direction and took off to the lower and upper falls. Off-season traveling perk: no crowds along the hiking trails! There were tons of frozen waterfalls and sections of the upper falls had frozen icicles hanging over the cliffs amongst the evergreens. It was absolutely beautiful at every turn. We kept going off trail (we were careful, plus, no bears! It's fine) because I had found this cave area that was beautiful but the location to it was vague. The best description I could find was that it was off the main trail and you would know immediately if you had found it or not... Luckily Chase was up for a search so with a screenshot saved to my phone, we hunted. And hunted. Until we found it! The manmade trail down to the cave/creek was intense. We found three Aussies who were desperate to see it but terrified they couldn't make it down. After we convinced them that they had to see it, we blazed the trail first and helped them down. In return, they took a few photos for us with our good camera! Sweet success! After the two mile hike up, we hiked back down (at a much faster pace) and headed to the car. Clif bars and a day old croissant were waiting for us in the car! Highway 93: Also known as the Icefields Parkway, Alberta Highway 93 is considered one of the most scenic drives in North America. We woke up early, checked out of our Canmore cabin and headed north. We had planned to spend 4-5 hours driving up the highway and then we'd cruise over to spend the rest of the day/night at Chateau Lake Louise. When we entered the scenic route, their weather conditions sign was in the red. Which meant the roads hadn't been fully plowed, the visibly was crap, and overall, maybe not worth our time. This was the only day we had to do the drive so I told Chase to fasten his seatbelt because we were headed for a bumpy ride. JK, it was just a REALLY slow drive. Safety first, kids! The conditions were expected to get worse so we drove all the way up to Peyto Lake because it was the number 1 spot we wanted to see. Once we got to the turn off for Peyto, we realized we'd most definitely be hiking to the lookout. The whole road was unplowed and there was about 16 inches of snow on the trail. We found the final path to the lookout and when we got past the trees, we saw it! And it was incredible. There was a group of many 10 people up there when we arrived but they were finishing up their photos and left after 5-10 minutes. Then, it was just us and the birds... literally! Because we had the whole place to ourselves, we stood there on the edge of the rock for a good 15 minutes just soaking everything in. Even with the cloudy haze covering most of the mountain tops, it was still so amazing to see. By the time we got back to Bow Lake (pictured above) it had begun snowing and we still needed to drive 30 miles west to Lake Louise. We decided that Bow would be our last stop and made our way to the Chateau.
Until Next Time, C+D
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1/9/2023 11:15:19 am
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