Day 4 – July 26th, 2020
We slept in a little bit and decided to forgo the whole ‘breakfast out’ experience, as we had enough snacks to get us going until we needed lunch on our journey from Jasper to Canmore.
The first stop along the route was at Athabasca falls.
The tumultuous water came crashing down, being pounded against the canyon walls below, spraying us with mist and bathing the viewpoints in a coolness only rushing mountain waters like that can bring.
We had beautiful weather and the time passed quickly with the many interesting views to be taken in along the way.
We paused at anything we deemed necessary and after driving past some icy aqua shades of water that ran through a ‘field’ of flat rocks and clay, we turned around to go explore there awhile… because I really wanted to, even though there were no easy pull offs 🤪🙈 Mountains are cool (Hah, get it? ‘cool’🤪) but it’s the water bits with the innumerable shades of blue, that never fail to make my heart pitter patter.
The water was as refreshing as one would imagine, ice cream headache style numbness taking over in seconds, since it was actual run off from the nearby Columbian Icefields 😅
I’m glad I got to dip my toes in it though… even if rocks aren’t as gentle on my aged feet as they once seemed 😜
We may or may not have ended up with two small/medium rocks in the truck cab as natures souvenirs… if one can’t find shells, one can always find rocks and sticks 😉👌🏻
We stopped for lunch at the Glacier Discovery Centre.
It was wonderfully sunny out, so we enjoyed a tasty (and surprisingly affordable) poutine out on the patio, looking out to the Athabasca Glacier.
Enjoying the sunshine but also getting that refreshing breeze off the nearby ice.
Not far from there, we had to get a little splash of gas at the Saskatchewan River Crossing pit stop, the only gas station between Jasper and Banff.
Driving over the North Sask. River bridge, brought with it slightly different coloring and surroundings than the usual Saskatchewan river sidelines we get to see 😉
The wildflowers/weeds that dot the ditches and hills make for such nice little sprinklings of color and this lake was a gorgeous backdrop.
A color I don’t think I could ever tire of seeing.
‘Blue color is everlastingly appointed by the deity to be a source of delight’ – John Ruskin
When we reached Banff area, we were going to attempt to see Lake Louise but that turned out to be a sight we shall have to save for next time.
People and vehicles wreathed all around, parking lots were filled, traffic control directing everyone everywhere and no semi easy way was available to spot the landmark lake.
It was disappointing but we didn’t lack seeing beauty on the drive up till that point, so we continued on, pausing awhile in Banff itself.
We sat by the Bow Falls awhile, enjoying the sunshine and planning out what we wanted to do before heading to our place of rest in Canmore. I wanted at least one souvenir sweater or shirt as I never actually buy those type of things and one was actually immediately found 👍🏻
Mike had gotten us a room at the ‘Creek Side Villa’ and the modern rustic interior immediately charmed us.
We used our room as a menu searching location before heading out for dinner at ‘Blake’.
I wasn’t really impressed with my meal (which aside from pretty much being fancy bacon, was also missing the sauce) or the service, so it felt like a bit of a let down and after making mention of it to our server, she casually said she’d let the management know and just handed us our bill 😏
We drove to a little parking lot to look at an advertised ‘Quarry Lake’ and immediately left it… as it was the least attractive/most people packed little body of water we’d yet to see 😜
There were many elk grazing all around the area though, being thoroughly adjusted to the presence of humans and not at all perturbed by the many people ‘taking pictures of the deers’ as one man behind us stated 🤪
I was feeling pretty sore and we were tired of being on the go, so we decided to relax at the hotel the rest of the evening.
Enjoying our room, AC and a king size bed to watch movies in until we got sleepy 😋👍🏻
Jemstory 