From Banff to Badlands

We’re back! I knew that going back to work would take away from blogging, but I never intended to let it go this long. My goal is to wrap up last summer’s trip before this summer. Why? Well, we’ve got more #vanlife plans, which I’ll share about in another post!

I last wrote about visiting Revelstoke, BC. From there, we headed east on the Trans Canada towards Alberta. We went through Glacier National Park and into Yoho National Park. This wasn’t a long drive, but we had spent most of the day waiting at Revelstoke. Had we timed things better, I definitely would have liked to stop at Emerald Lake Lodge. It has now been added to my must-do list for the next time we make it out west.

After our sleep in Yoho, we headed for Lake Louise. Somewhat poor timing would rear it’s head again. What I mean is, it was a Saturday… in July… translation- it was very BUSY. On the recommendation of our newly made friends from the night before, we stopped at Laggan’s Bakery in the town. The bread and sandwiches were amazing. We checked out the shops and bought a few small souvenirs. While in the bookstore, I decided on a beautiful reprint made by a local artist. It turned out that the local artist was the owner of the shop and woman at the cash that day! We discussed how busy it was in the area that day and wondered what it would look like “next year” (2017) as Parks Canada free passes in celebration of the country’s 150th anniversary. We questioned why there wasn’t a shuttle service from the overflow parking and what is it going to look like during a year with massive amounts of promotion.

Lake Louise

We headed up to the actual Lake. We were unable to park the van and I’ll say one of us ran out of patience quite quickly. However, I was determined to see the lake and snap a few pictures. So, we decided that Justin would wait in the car over by the Fairmont Hotel while I jumped out and speed walked over to the Lake. I captured some pictures and tried to soak in the moment, but it was not quite what I had hoped for when visiting such a beautiful spot. My advice, PLAN AHEAD! I then suggested we try to stop at the equally beautiful Moraine Lake. Sadly it was just as busy, if not busier. The issue was parking and the fact that they let RVs and pickups towing 5th wheel trailers to park in the lot and along the side of the road leading up to the lot. Needless to say, we made a u-turn and left disappointed. It wasn’t worth the hassle.

I visited Banff as a child with my family on a March Break ski vacation, so I was excited to see how it changed. I figured out it had actually been 20 years, and I barely recognized anything. We walked around the main town of Banff, doing the tourist thing, and of course managed to find the Banff Avenue Brewery! We each had a pint and purchased a growler to replenish our supply. With beer in hand, we began to think about the weather. They were calling for quite the storm, possibly a tornado. We ventured to Canmore thinking it may be easier and/or cheaper to find somewhere indoors to stay for the night. That was not true… Canmore is no longer Banff’s sleepy neighbour, I kept referring to it as “Mini Banff”.

We found another brewery with a brand new facility and realized their actual brew pub was in “downtown” Canmore. The food and beer at Grizzly Paw was excellent. We popped into their shop to pick up a couple stickers and headed back to our “cabin” for the night. The hot shower was much needed, but the bed was awful! That’s right the air mattress in the van was more comfortable. Well, a tornado didn’t happen, but it poured rain all night and was cloudy the next day. Unfortunately that meant we couldn’t see the beautiful Three Sisters mountain range. Having weathered the storm, we headed for Calgary the next morning.

I have seen Calgary from the airport and in transit to ski resorts. I was somewhat interested in stopping in town; however, we realized that the Stampede was still happening. This may have appealed to some, but it wasn’t for us. We bi-passed the city and continued on the Trans-Canada. At some point on our drive that day, we decided to head for Drumheller to see the badlands and dinosaur bones. As we approached the town, we were fairly certain that there were no badlands to be found and all of this was an elaborate rouse. You’re driving through country-side, waiting for the badlands to begin… well, it’s not until you make your way down a hill and around a few corners that you almost literally pop out in the badlands.

Arriving in Drumheller, we realized that again timing was not on our side. Although we could have received free entry into the Royal Tyrell Museum, the lines were absolutely ridiculous. It happened to be a beautiful sunny day and standing in line for a museum after all the rainy days we’d had didn’t seem like a great idea.

We explored around the museum and then headed for the hoodoos. We got lucky and just missed a fully loaded tourist bus. Was it worth the detour (it came highly recommended), yes I think so, but you may want to time things better so you can actually go in the museum and experience the bones.

Hoodoos outside Drumheller, AB

Up close Hoodoo

It was quite late in the day, so we headed south east on the highway and landed at an Alberta Provincial park between Brooks and Tilley Alberta. This turned out to be a pretty awesome site, so I’ll save it for the next post.

Thanks for reading!

Your long-winded friend,

S (& J)