The next morning we checked out of the hotel, and since we had not yet found a stuffed lynx, we stopped in Banff town and purchased the bobcat we had found a couple days prior. We then headed up towards Lake Louise. We stopped in the Village at Laggan’s Deli for some sandwiches, then continued onto the Icefields Parkway. Our first stop was Bow Lake, where we found a nice area for a little picnic and ate our sandwiches.
The Bow Lake area was fairly large with lots of paths and areas to walk around in, and it was fun to explore here.
We finally got back on the road and drove for just a few minutes to Peyto Lake. This lake had a bit of an uphill hike to get to the viewpoint and it was super crowded. We managed to take a few photos of the beautiful lake, but ultimately there just wasn’t as much here to explore. There were many people going off-trail, despite the posted signs, and we opted not to do this.
A little farther down the parkway was Mistaya Canyon. This was a nice little walk, though the paths around were not entirely clear, as we started down one, then turned around and headed down another, only to find out that it was one big loop!
The goal for the day was to end up at the Columbia Icefield, where we were staying the next two nights at the Glacier View Lodge. I had booked their package that consisted of an evening visit to the skywalk and an early morning walk on the glacier, with just the other hotel guests, as I thought it would be much less crowded that way, as well as being able to get good light for photos. I was also excited about our glacier-view room.
As soon as we arrived at the lodge and parked, someone from the hotel greeted us and told us that, unfortunately, the lodge was closed for the evening due to plumbing issues, and we needed to go check with the front desk to see where we would be put for the night.
We went inside and up the elevator to the front desk of the hotel. They explained the situation and said that they needed to move us to one of their sister properties in either Banff or Jasper, both of which were about an hour and a half away. Since we had just come from Banff, we agreed to go to Jasper for the two nights instead. They went ahead and gave us tickets to the glacier and skywalk and told us when we returned they would have all the hotel details ready for us.
So instead of getting our small tour, we rushed to change into much warmer clothes and onto the crowded bus. The bus took us across the street where we unloaded and got onto a special Ice Explorer vehicle that took us onto the glacier. They let us out at a roped-off location where we had about half an hour to explore. The ice wasn’t super slick here; a lot of it was slushy from the warmer weather and people walking on it, and LS loved playing in it.
Once our time on the glacier was up, they took us back to the bus that shuttled us over to the Skywalk, which is a glass-floor U-shaped walkway that juts out over the Sunwapta Valley. You could spent as much time here as you liked, as the shuttles came and went, but we knew we had an unexpected long drive ahead of us, so we rushed through.
Overall, the glacier adventure was pretty cool, though the time on the glacier itself was pretty short. I liked the glacier excursions we did in Iceland better, but this was pretty perfect for LS. The Skywalk was cool, but I wouldn’t pay the money just to do it alone without pairing it with the glacier first.
We headed back to the Glacier View Lodge, where they told us we had been moved to the Forest Park Hotel in Jasper and wrote down the address for us. We were pretty hungry at this point and the quick serve dining location was still open at the Glacier Centre, so we grabbed a quick bite. Then we got back on the road and headed north.
At one point on the drive, Mr. Strange called out, “BEAR!” I looked to my right and, sure enough, a black bear was walking along the side of the road. I didn’t even have time to react and grab a photo!
I knew Jasper had had a major wildfire the year prior but it was surreal to see all the burned trees as we neared the town.
We made our way to the hotel, which clearly was older. When I checked in, I asked to confirm that we would be there for two nights, and they said that the lodge had only set us up there for one night and we would need to go back to the lodge and check with them the next day, as hopefully their plumbing issue would be resolved. I was a little frustrated by their handling of the situation at this point because it was a lot of driving to not know for sure where you would be sleeping, but I didn’t want to press the issue, so I agreed to the one night. Which was probably for the best, as the air conditioning in our room was broken, so we had to sleep with the window open and, due to its location on the main road through town, that meant more traffic noise than you would expect in such a small town.
The next morning, I went back to the front desk of the hotel and asked if they could check if the Glacier View Lodge had resolved their plumbing issue, as we couldn’t call because I only had a basic data eSim that didn’t allow calls. They tried to call but no one picked up, so they basically just told us good luck.
So we checked out and decided to head over to Maligne Lake since we were already in Jasper. The drive to the lake was nice, with several places to stop and explore. One of the stops said it was the nesting area for bald eagles, and we managed to spot several nests. We spent a little time at the lake, checked the gift shop (no lynx), and ate some lunch. We stopped by the Parks Canada tent, and they gave LS a card with photos of invasive plant species to try to find, and she had a lot of fun trying to match up the flowers she saw with the photos on the card.
We then headed back down the Icefields Parkway. We stopped at Athabasca Falls, which is a pretty powerful waterfall. Some of the trails down into the gorge were closed, however.
We drove a little farther down the parkway and stopped at the Beauty Creek area for a two mile out and back hike to Stanley Falls. It was a little drizzly when we started, but it cleared up as we went on. However, we only saw a handful of other people on this trail! It was very quiet and calm, unlike a lot of the other places we had stopped at. It first takes you down a path that leads into the woods briefly before putting you on the old highway that used to run through the area. You follow that until you get to an incline that leads you back into the forest and along the creek with a series of waterfalls.
After we returned to the car from our hike, we were only a short distance away from the Glacier Centre again. We returned to the lodge and thankfully they had a room for us! I was a bit disappointed that since we had already done the glacier and skywalk tours the day before that we missed out on doing it with the hotel group that night (I’m not really sure why they didn’t suggest that?) but we were able to relax and have a nice dinner at their restaurant, Altitude, which was pretty yummy and had a great view!
