Sunday, June 18, 2023.
6:00am: Wake up! Grab a brush and put a little make-up!
6:45am: Leave the hotel and walk to the local IGA grocery store in light rain. Pickup breakfast and lunch supplies for the day.
7:25am: Arrive at the HopOnBanff meeting point at Moose Hotel and eat breakfast while we wait. HopOnBanff will take us to the most interesting places in Banff National Park without the drama of driving ourselves. One of the locations is now only reachable by licensed shuttles like this one.
7:40am: Meet one of our hosts, Tyler and get some early details about the day before boarding a big yellow school bus.
7:45am: The bus leaves Banff and we immediately spot an elk at the side of the road. Take some silly selfies.
8:20am: Arrive at our first stop of the day, Johnston Canyon. We have just under two hours to see as much as we care to see. Take a quick bathroom break, then hit the trail through the canyon. It’s nicely paved, but we have a long way to go. It’s also raining steadily and we’re all getting soaked. We reach a fork in the trail and choose to go to the further upper falls first and possibly catch the lower falls on the way back.
9:10am: We make it to the upper falls just before the halfway point of our allotted time, and take it all in. The trail ends on a little platform out over the river with a great view of the falls. As we leave the platform to make our way back, Ellie realizes we have to do it all again in reverse and has a bit of a breakdown. Amber decides to distract her with the alphabet game, which does work after a little while. We reach the fork to the lower falls and Amber and Ellie decide to skip it. Mackenzie and I check it out, snap a few pictures, then hustle to catch up.
9:55am: We make it back to the pick up point and do a little shopping in the Johnston Canyon resort shop.
10:10am: Meet our second host for the day, Dominque, and depart Johnston Canyon on another yellow school bus. Learn some fascinating facts about bears, their diet, mating habits, and delayed implantation.
11:15am: Arrive at Lake Louise. It’s still raining, but not as heavily as it was earlier. We head into the gigantic Fremont Chateau Lake Louise hotel and feel very out of place walking through this posh place in our wet hiking gear (at list it wasn’t muddy). We go through the hotel and toward the lake then start down the trail on the northwest side of the lake. We work on some EarthCaches as we go and learn (again) about rock flour and how it affects the perceived color of the water. After the caches, we eat our packed lunch as we walk, and are pleasantly surprised that we all chose something tasty. As we return to the hotel, Amber and the girls head inside to find a place to rest while I do a bit more exploring.
1:40pm: Meetup with Tyler again and Depart Lake Louise. Start learning about the Valley of the Ten Peaks, and note that the weather has cleared up reasonably well to see it all.
2:05pm: Arrive at Moraine Lake. Start by heading up the rock pile for what Tyler described as the million dollar view. Explore the top of the rock pile and take some great photos. Then head back down for the $20 view (the Valley of the Ten Peaks used to be on the Canadian $20 bill). Two more EarthCaches and a little shopping at the gift shop.
3:15pm: Depart Moraine Lake. Admire the scenery on the drive back to Banff.
3:45pm: Our driver spots two black bears at the side of the road!
4:55pm: Arrive back in Banff. Start the walk back to our hotel.
5:05pm: Arrive at Charltons Banff to drop our stuff, change our shoes, and choose The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.
5:30pm: Learn it’s a 30 minute wait even though it’s not really dinner time. 🙁
5:55pm: Get seated for some tasty food.
7:30pm: Get back to the hotel so we can change and hit the pool. The girls have almost waited patiently.
9:00pm: It’s bed time for Amber and the girls.
9:30pm: I go back out for some caches! But I only find one out of two, and spend so much time looking for the second that I decide to call it a night without attempting any more.
10:25pm: I return to the hotel and write some stuff for the blog.
11:30pm: The longest walk is finally over. I finish the day with about 29,000 steps and nearly triple my move goal for the day. I’ll probably still wake up at 6am.