O Canada!

August 6-17:

We took a fantastic trip up to visit the Canadian Rockies.  We drove many miles, camped in our tent trailer, spent $40 to do laundry halfway through the trip, survived a thunderstorm, hiked and hiked some more, showered when we could and carried bear spray wherever we went...it was a great adventure:)

Heading out on August 6th we drove up through Oregon and Washington States and then spent the night near Chilliwack, British Columbia

We must be in Canada:)

The boys were all very happy to get out of the car and run around a bit.

Our first campsite of the trip

The next day we drove up to Mt. Robson and spent our first official night in the Canadian Rockies. 

The boys in the car.  Thank goodness they each had an iPad and could keep themselves entertained a bit.  We let them play games with the sound turned off while we listed to audiobooks.  I think it worked out well.  They were having fun and Hyrum and I could enjoy listening to some interesting books.

Beautiful Mt. Robson from the car

Obligatory family photo in front of Mt. Robson:)

We camped along the Robson River and even though the water was freezing the boys enjoyed wading over to a little island and throwing rocks in the water.

August 8-12:

From Mt. Robson we drove over into Alberta, Canada and camped outside of the cute town of Jasper in the Jasper National Park.

Maligne Canyon:  This was a long but beautiful hike through a canyon.  It was so interesting to see how the water carved out the different features of the canyon.

Hiking along the canyon rim

It was super pretty

Julian and I looking over one of the 6 bridges that crosses the canyon

This picture doesn't really capture the crazy tall waterfall, but it was pretty cool!

We got a  little snack at the cafe at the top of the canyon.  I think the boys were all pretty tired of hiking but they were all happy to have french fries and milk shakes:)

Even though the Miette Hot Springs were about a 45 minute drive from our campsite near Jasper we headed up there each of the 3 nights we stayed near Jasper.  The boys loved it!  There were 4 pools total.  They ranged in temperature from 70 degrees to 104 degrees.  Of course their favorite thing was to hang out in the hot pools and then go dunk in the cold pool.  70 degrees may not sound that cold but when you are used to 104 degrees it seems FREEZING!

Whitewater Rafting:  One of my favorite memories is our white water rafter trip down the Athabaskan River.  Unfortunately all the really fun exciting rapids were right at the beginning so the boys said they got bored just floating down he river for 3 hours but I really think it was fun and something they will remember.

Our campsite was always a welcome rest after a busy day.

Mt. Edith Cavell Meadows:  The one time we really didn't luck out with weather was this day we went hiking up to some pretty meadows.  The guide book said all the summer wild flowers would be in bloom and we really thought it would be a great hike.  Unfortunately it rained pretty hard on us so we were all wet which doesn't make for a fun hike.  And since the clouds were all around us we didn't really get to enjoy the beauty of the meadows and wild flowers.  Another adventure!!

Kind of drizzly and gray when we started out...

...the twins did NOT want to go on this hike

A shot of Angel Glacier from the Cavell Meadows trail.  The water in the pool below the glacier was this pretty cool color of green

At the finish of the hike, soggy but happy to have made it.  Julian looks sad because he hurt his knee.

The boys wanted to help Julian with the hike because of his sore knee.  I thought it was pretty cute that the twins wanted to help their brother

The sun started to come out on our way back down the trail.  This is the best shot I could get of the pretty mountain wildflowers.

A very friendly chipmunk wondering if Emerson has any food to share:)

The sun finally came out when we were almost back to the car.  We took a few minutes to rest and eat some food.  The sun makes all the difference!

Maligne Lake:  We walked around the lake for a bit and then got to rent some canoes to actually go out onto the water.  The boys didn't have much stamina for canoeing so we were only on the lake for a few hours but it was a lot of fun.  It's always great to try something different while on vacation.

Julian hitching a ride with Emerson.  The twins had fun trying out different ways to carry Julian...

...They got pretty creative with their ideas:)

Beautiful Maligne Lake

Another pretty view of the lake and surrounding mountains.

Hyrum, Julian and Emerson in their canoe

Townsend and Mommy in the canoe.

We canoed over to a rocky shore and the boys had fun climbing around

Taking a break from the canoe

Julian found a friend at the Maligne Lake gift shop:)

August 12-13:  We left the cute town of Jasper and drove along the Icefields Highway to our next campsite.  We hiked around the Colombia Ice Fields and saw the remnants of the last glaciation that covered most of Canada 20,000 years ago.

View of the glacier from the Icefield Highway

Our campsite at Wilcox Creek Campground

The campground was located on a pretty steep hillside and there were lots of tunnels for runoff that the boys loved exploring.  They even found some cool rocks with fossils in them while exploring the tunnels.

On our hike over to the glacier we kept passing signs with dates on them.  We checked our guide book and these signs gave the dates for where the glacier was located throughout the last 100 years. This location was the end point of the glacier in 1908.  It's pretty sad to think that within my lifetime this glacier may recede totally.

Family photo in front of the Athabascan Glacier

Looking around the ice fields you see all these little stone cairns.  So Hyrum and the twins took a few minutes to build their own:)

Emerson working on his little stone tower

Townsend's tower.  It was pretty cute how much time they spent balancing and stacking the rocks just right

In front of the Icefields Center with the glacier in the background.

We made a quick stop to Tangle Falls.  The boys and Hyrum saw this and thought, what a fun rock climbing adventure.  Julian and I stayed at the bottom but the boys and Hyrum took off.  Look at the very top left side of this photo...see that rock outcropping?

That is where Hyrum and the boys ended up...right at the top!  They had so much fun going up and over boulders and finding their own trail to the top of the waterfall.  Glad I wasn't there, it looks pretty high up!!!

Hyrum and the twins finding their way back to the bottom of the waterfall.  Such beautiful scenery!

After a long day we could usually find the boys snuggled in the tent trailer watching a movie or playing games.

Wilcox Pass Hike: This was by far the longest hike of our entire trip...and the boys didn't let us forget for one minute how much they hate hiking!  We heard the view of the glacier from the top of this hike was spectacular and this was very true.  The weather was perfect, the day was beautiful...if only our boys didn't complain so much on hikes!

Such a nice day and what beautiful scenery!

Hyrum and I with a view from the top of the hike.  Townsend and Julian didn't make it all the way to the top, they decided to wait for us down below one of the ridges.  It was such a gorgeous view with the whole glacier stretched out before us

Family photo with the Alpine meadows in the front and beautiful mountains in the background

Cute mountain sheep grazing on the mountain

Taking a break from hiking in the cute little red chairs found along the trail.

From the Icefields we headed South to Banff National Park.  We spent a whole day of driving around and exploring different lakes.  It was a lot of fun.  The colors of the water in the different lakes was so fantastic!

Beautiful Peyto Lake

Family photo in front of Peyto Lake

From Peyto Lake we drove to the Lake Louise Resort where we took a ski lift up, up, up into to the mountain.  The boys all agreed this was way better than hiking:)

Julian hanging out at the top of the mountain

There was a really cool hands on museum at the top of the mountain.  Lot's of animals to see and fur to touch.  Lots of information about the native wildlife in this part of Canada.

Townsend, Hyrum and Emerson ready to head down the mountain.

Next stop was Moraine Lake.  You start off your visit by climbing this giant rock pile.  The twins had no trouble scampering up this thing but it took Mommy a bit longer.  Not to mention I fell on my way down and totally bruised my hip.  I guess I'm getting to old for this kind of hiking:)

Family photo at the top of the rock pile with the blue water of Moraine Lake behind us

This path reminded me of something from Lord of the Rings

Our last stop and final lake for the day was Lake Louise.  There is a nice hotel on this lake and I don't know if it's really worth the $300-$600 a night rooms but the view...that is worth something!

The next day we took a nice walk through the forest where we thought it would be a pretty flat trail but ended up being sort of steep and hard at the end.  We also got to explore around a bit of the cute town of Banff.  It's a cute little town but Hyrum and I agreed we liked the feel of Jasper a bit better, not so touristy.

From the starting point of our Bow River/Hoodoos hike we got a fantastic view of the beautiful Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, or as Julian liked to call it...Hogwarts Castle

At the start of our hike through the forest along the Bow River

The boys couldn't resist a dip in the Bow River. It was a super hot day so they were smart to cool off, I wish I had brought something to swim in!

Climbing the rocks along the trail.  As you can see the trail started out nice and flat but then began getting pretty steep

Our final destination for the hike.  The amazing Hoodoos of Banff.  I have to admit I was pretty disappointed in these formations.  After seeing the awesome Hoodoos in Goblin Valley, Utah I guess I was expecting a bit more.

Back in the town of Banff we got some lunch and then headed up to the fancy hotel to snoop around a bit.  We found our way all the way to the top of one of the towers.  Julian is set on coming back here and staying the night at "Hogwarts"

We relaxed at the Banff Hot Springs.  The boys didn't like this one as much as Miette Hot Springs because there were no cold pools, just the one hot pool.  I thought it was still relaxing and nice to sit outside and enjoy the view.

Our final adventure was to drive down to Kootenay National Park.  We made a few stops along the way and ended our vacation at the hot springs...again:)

Before we left Banff Hyrum and I took a solo hike through Johnston's Canyon.  This was a fantastic hike, mostly paved and very flat.  The boys would have loved this hike but we left them at the campground because they threatened to kill us if we made them go on one more hike...they really missed out!

We hiked to the Lower Falls

The coolest part of the hike was you went through this cave and came out the other side face to face with the waterfall.  It was spectacular!

Heading to Kootenay we needed to stop and get gas.  How cute is this old gas pump?

Walking along the trail to go and see the "Paint Pots"

The water and surrounding mud are this crazy color of orange because of the minerals in the water.

Julian on the trail

Why take the bridge?  This is so much more fun!  Mommy took the bridge, that water was like ICE

Our final night on our wonderful Canadian Rockies vacation.  We spent the evening at the Radium Hot Springs.  This was a fun pool because they had all different temperatures of pools and also a diving board and 2 slides.  It was a wonderful way to end our trip.

The following day we drove the 11 hours straight home.  We had originally planned on making a stop at Glacier National Park on our way home but we decided we had enough of camping and wanted to get home and relax a bit before Hyrum had to start back to work on Monday.  This was such a fun trip and I'm so happy Hyrum planned it all out and we got to see so many wonderful things!  Even though the boys complained tirelessly, especially about hiking, I have to hope they really did enjoy some of their time on this trip.  I love family time!