Sun in Banff

Day 23 (Monday, August 16, 2021)

This ended up being such a good day.

The turning point was right after publishing the last blog post, when it started raining in the car. We got to our campsite at 3:00 and started prepping lunch. Nolan got kind of giddy hungry when we were making sandwiches, and we were both so thankful for the rain clearing out the smoke!

After our very late lunch we went on a hike to Johnston Canyon. The trail started right from our campsite! Initially we planned to just go to the Upper Falls (listed as a ~1 hour hike). But once we were on the trail we both pushed each other to just do the entire 3.75 mile hike all the way to the "Inkpots." We busted there in an hour and 15 minutes. It's good we walk fast because it was getting quite late in the evening. During the hike it sprinkled rain, which continued to improve the air quality. The trail took us past incredible canyons, rivers, waterfalls, and trees. At the end it opened out at into a large alpine meadow with little bubbling pools (the Inkpots) all around us and green tree covered mountains on all sides.

We were happy to find a shelter at the campground, under which we cooked and ate a burrito dinner and played of Innovation. Post dinner we cuddled and watched a TV show in Blue, then fell asleep feeling like we had a great day. And feeling more grateful than ever for the rain.

Day 24 (Tuesday, August 17, 2021)

More rain! Yay! But also, cold!

It was another hiking day, this time to the Twin Lakes. The trail was quite steep, and we were mostly walking through fog. After a few hours we made it to Arnica lake and had a quick lunch. We couldn't stop for long because we got very cold when we weren't moving.

We then hiked on to Upper Twin lake. We were literally the only people there, and we enjoyed having the whole area to ourselves. There was a lot of elevation gain and it was a long hike, so we were tired! But in a good way. As Monisha put it, “I’m down to get fit on this trip!”

In the evening, we headed into the town of Banff for a grocery store run. We made a great purchase of a box of eight burger patties as well as ciabatta bread rolls. That night we had our first burger dinner, which was truly amazing.

Day 25 (Wednesday, August 18)

An absolutely incredible day. The feeling of being really happy to be doing this road trip set in for both of us. This feeling was amplified by the fact that it was the only sunny day during our time in Banff. Monisha has never felt more grateful for sun and clear blue skies. The sky was so blue and the sun felt so good. (Yes, we’re gaining appreciation for many different types of weather!)

We hiked four steep uphill miles to a stunning Taylor Lake, where we ate sandwiches for lunch. There were a handful of other people, included a group of much older people (70ish?) who were backpacking! We were impressed. #goals.

Monisha really wanted to jump into a Canadian lake at some point during this trip. But the idea of swimming sounded utterly miserable during yesterday’s cold and rainy weather, and the forecast is rainy and cold for most of our time in Canada. So even though it was chilly out, this was an important opportunity to take advantage of. However, we didn’t have swimsuits, and as noted above, there were other people at Taylor Lake.

So we continued on (an additional 1.3 miles) to O’Brien Lake, which was completely empty. We walked through some spider webs on the way, so we anticipated that no one else would be there. Having the entire lake to ourselves was glorious. And there was no hesitation before stripping down and skinny dipping in the very cold mountain lake. There was no wind and sun was strong, so after we got out, we quickly warmed up, felt comfortable, and dried off from the sun.

We headed back to the car and discovered this was the view from the parking lot.

The drive to our next campsite, at Lake Louise, was beautiful. It’s been smoky or cloudy until today, so we haven’t been able to experience this place in all its glory. Sitting in the car also felt very good after what turned out to be a hard 10.5 mile hike with 2100ft elevation gain. 

From our campsite, we decided to go on what the ranger said was a 1.8km walk to Lake Louise, which people apparently rave about. It turned out to be a 3km uphill hike to get there. Which after our hike today was not an easy stroll. Lake Louise is indeed beautiful. And incredibly we had it all to ourselves...

Just kidding, this is what it was really like.

It is a phenomenon! The Lake Louise campground we’re staying at is full, the big Lake Louise parking lot is full with a long line, there were shuttles of people constantly arriving, and there were probably 1000+ people around the lake. And right next to the lake is a giant chateau with many stories of (we assume) very fancy rooms. It was one of the most touristy and populated natural beauty experiences we’ve had. 

Adding the Lake Louise hike in, we hiked over 14 miles today, with some serious elevation gain. For both of us, that was a lot. Easy to understand how doing something like hiking the PCT would get you in very good shape…

Dinner was burgers round 2. They hit the spot, maybe more than a burger ever had before. We are tired and our legs are exhausted. And it was a really good day!