My trip to Banff

Summer break has arrived again, and with that comes vacation. We had something planned ever since the new year.
We were going to some of Canada’s most famous national parks:

• Yoho National Park
• Jasper National Park
• Banff National Park

We stayed there for a total of five days and four nights. Two were spent in Banff and two in Jasper.

After getting off the airport and picking up our new car, we went to the Banff visitor center and got our permits for two nights, and we ate a local restaurant there. We then went to see the Fairmont hotel, and it looked just as good as the pictures show, if not better. There were also trails near the Fairmont hotel that goes along the river, and we spent the evening there. It was getting late, and we were all tired from the flight, so we went to check in at our first hotel in Canmore before getting ready to sleep.

On the second day, the first thing that we did was the Banff Gondola. It was an amazing experience, and at the top there were also activities and beautiful views. I appreciated that the gondolas were going slowly, which allowed us to take plenty of photos. We also got to see a really good view of the Fairmont hotel from up top as well as the overall area of Banff. Next was Lake Louise, Emerald Lake and Yoho Falls. Moraine Lake was on the itinerary but it turns that it is closed to the public. Only shuttle buses are allowed there, and it turns out that this was a recent change. You can read more about it here. We ate at an Alberta chicken wing shack at the end of the day, and they had special flavors such as the Canmore wings or the Banff spicy chicken.

It was our last day in Banff, and we went to Bow Lake and Peyto Lake. These ones are by far the best, and you can see why.

Onto Jasper! The first location was Maligne Lake, and we went on a boat to Spirit Island there. We didn’t actually go on spirit island because it is sacred to the Indigenous. Instead we went on a big island where we could see Spirit Island. This is of the most beautiful place ever, and there was also a little trail that loops in case you get lost. The island that you see in the picture is Spirit Island.

Next we went to a deep ravine that goes all the way up to 10 meters deep! Even the rocks there weren’t ordinary rocks, and they had really cool-looking patterns to them. We then visited a massive waterfall, and it was so crowded there! There were mostly two good picture-taking locations, and both of them had lots of people there. There was no more tourist locations after this one, so we just drove on the highway and took pictures of the Canadian Rockies whenever we see a good location. There was still a lot of time left for the last day, so as we drove to the airport we stopped at some places that we thought looked good, and there turned out to be plenty of hidden gems that weren’t covered by the main tourist locations.

There were locations like this all throughout our drive back to the airport, and so we made sure to get the most enjoyment out of this as possible. It was a really fun trip, and I feel like Banff is something that comes to mind when you mention vacations in Canada. Definitely a very famous place in Canada, and we all really enjoyed it.

I recommend going there, but definitely first look up the locations of the places you are going to. You don’t know if they are closed to the public, and it can mess up your well-made schedule a lot. Another thing is the weather: it was really unpredictable. Luckily, for us we had good weather for the most part, and that really made the trip all that much prettier.