El and I have made the difficult decision to head back to Australia for good in early January 2021 – it will be a super bittersweet ending to our time in Canada but we are looking forward to catching up with family and friends; and getting some much needed sun on these arms!
We felt we haven’t quite seen enough of the rockies yet, so we booked a quick 1 week trip out to Banff and Canmore to tick off a few big peaks. It is fall time in the Rockies, so the trees are changing colour and the temperatures drop a lot…. maybe even snow. We shall see.
We headed out on Saturday towards the rockies to our first night in Kelowna. It was smashing down with rain in Vancouver as we left (shocker). But it turned into a pretty drive up over the Coquihalla through the mountains – the trees have changed to a vibrate yellow colour. Very pretty.
We arrived in Kelowna at around midday and went to a winery to grab some food and a glass of vino! It was delicious. It was a bit cold and raining in Kelowna as well, so we decided to head to a kids fun park for the afternoon to play some mini golf and drive go-carts! I swear there were more adults than kids at this fun park – it was great. I took the win in the golf, but Ellen “lead foot” Howley smoked me in the go-carts.
We went to our little B&B for the night and tuckered in. Another big drive ahead tomorrow.
Sunday – We headed off early morning and drove a couple of hours to our favourite little town Revelstoke. This photo sums up our road trips.
We headed up to the mountain in town for a hike around. We were shocked to hear the ranger tell us we can’t drive right to the top anymore because last night they got a foot of snow! So we had to park half way up the mountain and we hiked to the top! It took us a good 5 hours up and back but was fun walking around in some fresh snow. We were the only ones of the trail, and Ellen was tracking some moose, or caribou – we aren’t sure what they were.
After our hike we drove another couple of hours through Golden to a little town called Field where we stayed for two nights. It is a cozy little town which sits in the middle of huge giant mountains all around. The snow started to roll in as we just reached town.
Monday – we woke to more snow. So we had a bit of a slow morning getting going, but around mid morning we headed out to check out a big waterfall our B&B host recommended. We wanted to do the big Lake O’hara hike but the weather didn’t look great to justify a 40km hike! The waterfall was nice enough and we had some snacks by the river.
After this we went to check our Emerald lake and the natural bridge. Ellen’s aunt & uncle, Mary & Ivan visited this place almost 30 years ago! El tried to get a photo from the exact same spot below. Good attempt I think.
After this we went back to the B&B had some lunch and checked the radar to see where it wasn’t snowing! We found a little patch of clear sky on the radar about 30 minutes away on the Icefields parkway so we drove their rapidly and enjoyed clear blue sky’s and mountain views for around 20 minutes! It was glorious.
After this we went to check out another waterfall, apparently it is the second largest in Canada. What a claim to fame! But yet, it is bloody big so why not claim that.
After this we went back home and found some dinner at a little pub in Field. This is the last night the pub is cooking before they shut down for 2 months while they wait for the snow bunnies to arrive!
Tuesday – Ellen woke me up at 6am (yep that’s right, Ellen woke me up?) to go and watch the sunrise at Moraine lake. We quickly packed up all our stuff and we were out the door by 6:30. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the road leading up to Moraine lake, there were rangers blocking off the road for the season. We have missed the final day to see the lake for the season! They close it down every year for winter due to avalanche risks… So we had to settle for a sunrise at Lake Louise instead – what a tragic fallback!! It did not disappoint.
We then went for a short hike up the side of the mountain to get some better views of the lake.
After this the clouds and snow started to roll in so we headed down to Banff to get some food and to meet up with our housemate Kellie’s friend, Nicole. Nicole stayed with us for around a month just as COVID hit as she had no where to live – but she is well and truly settled now in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.
It was a bit of a crummy day as the snow started to pile up. So we went to our Airbnb in Canmore and tuckered in for the night. Ellen started to bake me a birthday cake, this is her first baking attempt in over 10 years she thinks so stay tuned, this will be interesting.
Wednesday – we woke to around a foot of snow all over town! And the clouds were clearing. It was so beautiful. But damn, this is going to make our hiking plans a lot more difficult! Before and after below of our view from the airbnb.
In the morning we went and did a short little hike called Grassi lakes in Canmore. It was quite nice, but we got snowed on halfway through the trek. We found a massive hydro water main! I was stoked.
After this we went and had some lunch, and an afternoon nap waiting for the sky to clear. And hooray, it cleared at around 2pm so we headed up to climb up Ha Ling peak which is the mountain which towers above Canmore. The road to the trailhead was steep, unsealed and snowy/Icy! So we found the echo’s limits and we had to put chains on her. Once the chains were all on the Echo had no problems pulling us up there.
The hike we did was basically all in a foot of snow. It made it a little more difficult but damn it was pretty. After a solid hour of hiking we made it to the top ridge, and it was blowing a gale! It felt like we were going to be thrown from the mountain, so we opted to abort mission and not try walk along the ridge to the top. The views we had on the ridge were good enough.
We made it back down safe and sound – here is a picture of the mountain we just tried to climb.
Ellen finished off the cake when we got home. Without the candles, Ellen decided it would be best to use Harvest pea snaps instead. They were a hit!
Thursday – today was the only predicted good weather day we have all week. So we made the most of it and we did the Lake O’Hara hike which is back over the British Columbia/Alberta border about an hours drive from Canmore. We left our Airbnb at about 7am in the dark – the road was super icy and slippery so we took our time. Even the Canadian drivers were doing the speed limit for a change! There was a truck that had rolled over from the night before – winter driving conditions are here… I am not going to miss this part of Canada.
We headed off from the trail head at about 8am, it is around an 11km hike in along a service road to get to the lake. Usually, in non-COVID years, there is a shuttle bus which takes people from the parking lot to the lake. So this lake is usually packed with people, but because of COVID, there is no bus, and because there is no bus, there is not many people! We made it to the lake at around 10:30, and I cooked us up some coffee with lovely views of the lake.
At the lake there is tonnes of cabins and a little restaurant, the cabins all have lake views, it would cost a bomb to stay here but it would be worth it I reckon! After we had our coffee we decided to do a little alpine loop up on one of the ridges to get views of the lake. There was literally no footprints, we were first tracks trying to keep on the trail. It was pretty hilarious, walking in sometimes two feet of untouched snow, in my trackies… I was very unprepared. Ellen on the other hand had ski pants on so she was good to go.
The alpine loop we did was 7km, and would be pretty easy during the summer, but the winter snow made it a lot slower for us as we were constantly checking the map to make sure we weren’t going to walk into a frozen lake or stream! The views were amazing.
We made it back down to the lake and decided to head back instead of doing the other alpine loop which some people do. As it would be too big of a day for us. We wandered all the way back down the service road to the car. Total hiking time was 9 hours and 29km. Very big day!
We made it home safely, ordered more takeaway pizza and chilled. What an epic day it was!
Friday – it was forecast to be freezing cold and stormy all day today so we scheduled today as our rest day indoors. We did nothing except watch movies, snack and stare outside as the gale force winds. We did manage to get out of the house at night and head to a resturant for dinner. In the hour we were at the restaurant, our car was covered in over an inch of snow!
Saturday – the storm had settled, but today was supposed to be only a top of -5 degrees! We headed out to do a couple of hikes nearby anyway. First we headed to a trailhead near Banff call C Level Cirque. It is only a 8km total out and back climb up a mountain for some views – the road to the trailhead was suuuper icy, but our echo made it even without the chains! Woo.
There was so much snow on the trail! In some places it was thigh deep – we made it around 3/4 of the way to the top before we decided to call it quits and head back down. I didn’t have waterproof pants on so was starting to get a little chilly. We played dumb dares on the way back down – Ellen put her entire face in the snow, and I put my entire face/body in. It was super cold and do not recommend. Videos in the photo link below.
After this we just went for a little walk around Minniwalka lake and took in the views of the mountains before heading home and getting warm again!
Sunday – today we had to say goodbye to the beautiful mountains here. It was a top of -7 degrees today! We drove the entire way back to Vancouver in a day, we had everything from frozen icy roads, to snow, to blue sky and… once we got over the last hill into Vancouver we had rain (shocker). Amazing trip we had and we are so grateful we got to experience those mountains again once last time!
More photos are in the link here.
Justin & Ellen's travels 