Rockin’ around the Canadian Rockies

By Katie Dolan, McGill University, Canada

Banff, you are absolutely beautiful!

After a year in Montreal, a couple of friends and I decided to take a final big trip to the Canadian Rockies before our exchange was over. In early May, we went to Banff, and I can confirm that it is well and truly worth the hype.

We landed in Calgary late at night, so it was very dark when we arrived in Banff, and we didn’t see much that night. The next morning, I got ready and went downstairs for breakfast where we were staying. I have never in my life made toast with such an incredible view. I would highly recommend the hostel we stayed in called Samesun Hostel. It was very close to the town, shops, and gas station, and it had parking available (it also had $3 beers and tacos!).

We started our trip off strong and went horse riding on our first morning. Horse riding was a huge part of my life growing up, so getting to do this in the Canadian Rockies was a pretty special experience.

The trail was an hour long around Spray and the Bow River. We crossed three rivers during the ride, which was such a beautiful and relaxing way to see some of Banff’s landscape for the first time.

After that, we had some lunch before heading out for our second activity of the day, which was canoeing! We went to Lake Minnewanka and hired some canoes and then set out. Being on the lake, surrounded by such huge and beautiful mountains was truly amazing and something I will never forget.

After a very active first day, we decided to take a slow drive back to our hostel, stopping at a few lakes on the way back.

That evening, we went into town for a drink and a chat about the first day. We planned what we were going to do the next day and then had an early night.

On the second day, we decided we were going to drive to Jasper, which was about 3 hours away. We had rented a car, which I would highly recommend, as it really does give you the opportunity to see so much more. The drive between Banff and Jasper is called the Icefields Parkway and I can honestly say it was the most beautiful drive of my life and probably the most incredible scenery I have ever seen. There was nothing but mountains for miles. Along the way, we stopped at a few viewpoints, our first being Lake Louise. Because of the time of year that we went, Lake Louise was quite frozen but was still breath-taking.

We then stopped at Peyto Lake, Bow Lake, and Athabasca Falls before arriving in Jasper. We had a little wander around the town, got some ice cream, and then drove to Edith Lake, which was insanely blue and my second favourite lake of the trip!

We had been told that the Icefields Parkway was a great drive for spotting wildlife, and on the drive back from Jasper, we spotted a black bear on the side of the road! I’m not sure if many people would describe a bear as cute, given their reputation, but this one was absolutely adorable.

After that, the drive back was incredible. The vastness of the landscape and mountains was phenomenal – something that a picture just can’t do justice.

On Day 3, we went back to Lake Minnewanka, which was my favourite lake of our trip, and went for a hike around it. This was probably the most beautiful hike I have ever done. We saw lots of wildlife during the hike and came across a very cute deer on our path.

After several jokes about seeing a bear, no bear spray, and a very weak ‘bear survival plan’, we found ourselves a few feet away from a black bear. Thankfully it ran away from us and swam across the river.

Lake Minnewannka

On our final day, we went for a hike at Johnston Canyon to the Ink Pots. These are five natural mineral pools that are blue and green in colour. They were absolutely incredible – probably the nicest place I’ve ever eaten a sandwich!

On our final night, we had a few drinks in Beaver Bar, which was our hostel’s bar. We chatted about the trip and some of our favourite moments, and concluded that we would have to come back because the 2 black bears we saw weren’t enough, and we wanted to see a grizzly (and a moose, of course!). We had a fairly early night so that we could get up and watch the sunrise, which was absolutely worth it.