DENALI & DANIEL

Saturday May 10th:

We left our apartment in Richmond, VA in the early afternoon to make a 2 hour drive to Raegan airport in DC. We had a short 2 hour flight from DC to Montreal for a quick layover between our 4.5 hour flight to Calgary. Air Canada has affordable pricing and we had no complaints on our first experience flying with them on this trip. We arrived late in the evening, (close to midnight) and were tired from a long day of travel. Upon arrival at the airport, we hit an ATM to get some Canadian dollars (never hurts to have some cash when traveling as a precaution). Our hotel for the first night was at the Acclaim, a quick 5 min taxi ride from the Calgary airport. (There is usually a free shuttle service to this hotel during the day from the airport) Our General plan for the trip was to drive the full way to Jasper on Sunday and make our way back down to Banff via the Icefields parkway over the course of the week. The drive from Calgary to Banff is 1.5 hours, and the drive from Banff to Jasper is 3 hours. We pre-purchased a $150 USD park pass that gave us unlimited visits to all the national parks in Canada for a year. If you plan on staying more than a few days in the Banff/Jasper area, this is more economical and easier than purchasing day passes to each individual National Park. There are no additional parking costs in the parks once you have paid to enter.

Sunday May 11th:

Sunday breakfast was at the Calgary Hotel (Acclaim), which was included with the price of our room. A free shuttle service was arranged with our hotel to take us back to the airport to pickup our rental car first thing in the morning . We rented a Nissan Pathfinder SUV through Dollar rentals for 6 days (Sunday-Friday). The car was spacious and luxurious! Surprisingly, it was cheaper to rent a full size SUV than a standard 4-door sedan. After getting the rental car we headed to Bass Pro Shops in Calgary to pick up some bear spray and bug spray. In hindsight, the bear spray is probably only needed if you’re planning on hiking in back country away from crowds and popular tourist spots, but it’s never a bad thing to have. We then drove to a Canadian Walmart to gather some road snacks for our journey ahead. Next, we started our road trip from Calgary to Jasper via the Trans Canadian Highway and Ice Fields Parkway with numerous scenic stops along the way. We stopped in downtown Banff for lunch along the way to Jasper. The town of Banff has a variety of casual restaurants to choose from, most have great beer and alcohol selections as well. Most restaurants in Banff and Jasper tend to be around $18-$25 USD per entree before tip & taxes for lunch and dinner menus. After lunch, it was on to Jasper! We stopped at some beautiful lakes and overlooks along the journey to Jasper. We also stopped at the famous Columbia Glacier for some pictures. There are pricey tours available to walk on the glacier, which we opted out of as we had seen other travelers say it’s not worth the value. Shortly before arriving in Jasper we luckily spotted a black bear close up on the side of the road! This would be the only bear we saw on the entire trip, but did see many elk, deer and goats elsewhere. We then arrived in the town of Jasper to check into our hotel, The Crimson, for 2 nights. We ended the day by eating dinner at a local restaurant.

Monday May 12th:

Monday breakfast was at the restaurant located inside the Crimson Hotel. We first set off to do a flat hike around the lake located at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. This is an easy scenic hike with a crystal blue lake and beautiful mountain scenery (a few miles in length). Parts of this trail, along with many other hiking trails in Jasper National Park are closed due to the 2024 summer wildfires. We learned the closures are due to the many dead trees and overhanging branches that are a potential safety risk to hikers. This is something to consider when staying in Jasper as it may shorten the time you want to spend here with the limited hiking currently available. Next, we ventured to the Jasper Gondola for a ride to the top of a mountain. This gondola is a 7 minute journey to the peak and was over $100 USD for 2 people. There is a gift shop, restaurant, and hiking trail at the top. The hike is an extra cost, since it is required to rent snow shoes. The day we went was snowy at the top (even in the middle of May!) with low visibility. We still enjoyed our time at the top, trudging through some snow until we were frozen and ready to go eat lunch in the Restaurant. We spent about 1.5 hours on the mountain, but on a day with better weather it would be easy to spend over 2 hours on the top hiking and enjoying the views. We then took the 1 hour drive west from Jasper to Mount Robson park. This is a very scenic mountain drive that is definitely worth the time. Mount Robson is the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies. Unfortunately, the day we visited had low cloud cover so the mountain peak was not visible from the ground, but the visit was still worth while. Before heading back to the hotel for the night our last stop of the day was at the famous Pyramid Lake just outside of Jasper. Even with the the cloud cover and light rain, the lake still sparkled blue, the short trail from the parking lot takes you to the small island in the middle of the lake. There are many benches to sit on and soak in the view! After just a few days, we had experienced the frequent weather changes in the area that we had read about before traveling to Banff and Jasper. Most days the weather would change between rain and sun, what seemed like a dozen times (not exaggerating!) It’s best to wear lots of layers so you can easily adjust to the many temperature and precipitation changes throughout the day. Dinner was at local restaurant in Jasper before heading to bed.

Tuesday May 13th:

Breakfast on day 3 of our adventure was at Tim Hortons. It’s nothing special but it was my first visit so it was special to me (also it’s cheap so that’s a bonus) Sadly, after just a few short amazing days in Jasper we left to make our Journey to the town of Golden in British Columbia. On our way southbound, just before turning west to Golden, we made a stop at Peyto Lake. We spent some time here doing a short uphill hike to an overlook. The trail was still snowed over in the middle of May (our crampons we left at home would have been useful here). After the hike, it’s was onward to Golden. We decided to stay 1 night in the town of Golden to be close to Yoho National Park and Glacier National Park. In hindsight, we probably should have just tacked on another night to our hotel in Banff or Jasper since they have better food options and are overall more central to all the parks in the area. On the way to Golden we made a few well deserved stops in Yoho National Park. Emerald Lake and the Natural Bridge Falls are stunning and definitely worth a visit in Yoho! After enjoying the afternoon in Yoho, we headed westbound to Golden to grab some dinner in town and check into our hotel. We stayed in the Basecamp Lodge. Personally, we don’t recommend staying here. The rooms are small and very warm (A/C was not working), and the sound proofing between rooms is minimal. The surrounding mountain landscape in Golden is beautiful though!

Wednesday May 14th:

Breakfast on Day 4 was back at the amazing Tim Hortons. We were off again, heading westward towards Glacier National Park, just outside of Golden. The morning weather was heavy rain and wind as we headed into the park. We enjoyed a drive through the mountain landscape and enjoyed the little we could see with the low visibility. Unfortunately, we were not able to do any hikes in Glacier with the heavy rain in our way. After a drive through Glacier, we headed back east towards the icefields parkway to make our way to Banff. Luckily the rain stopped for our afternoon in Banff. Before heading into town we made a stop at Cascades Pond, just outside of Banff. The small park has a short hiking trail around a picturesque blue pond with beautiful mountain scenery, this park is definitely worth spending some time at! Next, we drove into Banff to grab lunch and check into the hotel. We stayed at the Elk + Avenue Hotel in Banff for 2 nights. This was a very nice, centrally located hotel in town, we really enjoyed our stay here and had no complaints! After a late lunch in town, we walked around Banff some and headed to the hotel for a rest. Dinner was at a local restaurant in town, and luckily there are a wide variety of dining options in Banff. After dinner we grabbed a Beavertail pastry dessert, very delicious and worth a taste if you are visiting Canada for the first time.

Thursday May 15th:

Day 5 breakfast was at our Banff hotel. We started the morning by heading to the famous Lake Louise, just 30 minutes from Banff! The lake was partially frozen, we did a 3-4 mile round trip hike along the lakeside. Lake Louise is for sure worth the visit, it’s a great spot to take pictures with the historic Fairmont hotel in the background! Unfortunately, the nearby Lake Moraine does not open until June 1st, so we were unable to visit. We headed back to Banff for Lunch, then set off to the Banff Gondola. The gondola ride is 8 minutes to the top and was around $150 for 2 people. Yes it’s pricey, but the views are the best in the area so it’s certainly worth it! If you’re going to pick between the Jasper and Banff Gondola, the Banff Gondola is the better of the 2 options. We did a hike at the top to the peak, it’s many steps but is very rewarding in the end. After the hike to the peak, we spent a few hours in comfy chairs enjoying the view and drinking coffee from the cafe. We headed back down the gondola, to go back to town to get dinner and head to the hotel for the night.

Friday May 16th:

Our final full day in Canada started with a coffee and croissant from the hotel cafe for breakfast. We had the entire day to finish off our site seeing adventure. We had until 10pm to return the car to the Calgary Airport and our flight was at 1am the next day, Saturday. We set off to see Lake Minnewanka, Two Jack Lake, and Bow Falls. All beautiful stops within 30 minutes from Banff. We did some short hikes at each stop, and took our time soaking in the views as we were in no rush to head back to Calgary. Afterwards, we headed back to Banff briefly to pick up some souvenirs. In the early evening we started our 1.5 hour drive back to Calgary to the return the car and catch our flight. We were exhausted at this point but had many memories to bring home. We had a long travel day ahead of us and hoped to catch some sleep on the plane ride.

Saturday May 17th:

Our 4 hour flight to Montreal was at 1am. We landed in Montreal around 7 or 8am and had a dash to our connecting flight back to Washington DC. Our short flight to Reagan Airport from Montreal landed us in the late morning on Saturday.  We picked up our bags from baggage claim and were back home in Richmond, VA in the early afternoon.