alluring alberta + a itty bitty bit of bc

Alberta, Canada: Important Facts

• Weather changes all the freaking time. I had a tank top some days, and 3 layers and Patagonia sweater another day
• This is not not not not a foodie trip. We got some okay grub but nothing spectacular
• I took wayyyyy too many pictures on this trip and I do not have the energy to sift through and pick the absolute best ones so you may be thinking you are seeing some repeats of pics but I promise there is something different!! I just could not stop taking pictures.
• I shared the list of hotels we stayed at and which ones we recommend below

No one word describes the insane beauty that Nick & I witnessed a few weeks ago. On August 16th, we headed to Calgary. Our first stop when we got to the airport was to head to Banff - we got in pretty late around midnight and immediately hit the sack. I was captivated by the stillness and quiet beauty of Banff with a quaint downtown area. We woke up bright and early on Thursday and headed to Vermillion Lakes with the beautiful reflection of Mount Rundle. These lakes are gorgeous. Nick got his waders out and went deep into the water to capture some awesome shots. We then took the gondola up on Sulphur Mountain. Unfortunately it was a bit smoky due to the forest fires in British Colombia but it was still a site! We then headed back down and went by the Banff Brewing Company for a quick bite and brew. Afterwards, we headed to Lake Minnewanka. The smoke started to clear out some and we got some great views of the surrounding mountains. For dinner we went to this super nice wine bar at the Fairmont Hotel called Grapes. I'd recommend it if you want a little classier of a meal during your trip. We stayed at Buffalo Mountain Lodge during our time in Banff and it was top notch. We got a room with a fireplace that we actually used & it had a small kitchenette.

first picture captured on our trip at Vermillion Lakes...

my new hobby taking pictures of nick taking pictures....

the reflection of mount rundle on vermillion lakes!

so serene, so still

super smokey!

i think i've got this sport look figured out... maybe...

wind was intense!

ah yes.... a failed selfie at its finest

the squirrels are super friendly and it freaks me out

nick enjoying the super cold glacier h2o

spotted a deer, real exciting!

nick definitely thought it was exciting!

took these pictures at EVERY stop so I could remember exactly which place we'd been at

some funky maple-glazed bacon dessert nick had at the wine bar... no thanks

On Friday we woke up and headed up the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93) on the way to Jasper. We stopped... and stopped... and stopped because the sights are just breathtaking. Some of the main highlights that you have to check out include Johnston Canyon (*you HAVE to check this out!!*) It is beautiful and was one of our favorite stops. Next was Bow Summit overlooking Peyto Lake. Talk about the most insane color of water you have ever seen before in your entire life. It will literally change you not to be dramatic or anything :) It is a quick 30 minute hike up there. Very easy as well. The last main stop along the way was Mistaya Canyon. Unfortunately it had started to cloud up a bit but it was still very very pretty. Waterfalls just blow my mind constantly.  We headed over to Sunwapta Falls for a quick stop as well. It started raining a little bit by the end so we had to skip the last few stops and decided to do them on Monday when we were going to go back down the highway on the way to Lake Louise. We went to Jasper Brewing Company for dinner and it was very yummy. Great food and I would highly recommend it to anyone that is in Jasper. We stayed at Maligne Lodge during our time in Jasper. It was ok.. it was the only place that any availability because Nick & I wait until legit the LAST minute to plan trips. It was still only like a 10-15 minute walk from everything downtown so we still walked a lot.

i love waterfalls... so much!

mmm brown shoes + blake/white pants, cute lanie!

animal crossing!

iphone pictures with ZERO filters... nothing... dang!

 one of our favorite places!

pony whipping in the wind

the water is like a milky white color, very interesting

On Saturday we woke up and headed to Valley of the Five Lakes. This ended up being one of my favorite hikes we did during the ENTIRE trip. The weather was perfect, the sky was so blue, and the reflections on the water were mind blowing. You will see a ton of pictures below. It is not strenuous hike at all and you can easily do it in 1-1.5 hours if you're in a rush or stretch it out to 2.5 hours or so like we did so we could really take in the sights. We saw our first set of red chairs on this hike. Jasper has 7 sets of red chairs on different hikes. They are a great picture op! We then headed to Athabasca Falls. The weather is EVER-changing in Alberta so it got a little cloudy again. Honestly, I think the look of the landscape gets totally different (not bad) when the clouds come in. It's beautiful to see. Once we finished, we headed to Edith Cavell. The parking lots are being revamped so we {aka Nick} had to go pick up a permit from the Jasper Welcome Center so we could get in. Luckily he made it there in enough time to get one early on Sat morning. Edith Cavell is a huge mountain that has 3 glaciers on it. Angel Glacier is the most famous and it is truly amazing. We got to see a few different animals (no bears!) along the way: a marmot, a pika (seriously the cutest animal, ever!), and some little ground squirrels. This was a fun hike but I was definitely ready for it to be over (mostly because Nick did not feed me lunch... rude!)... quite long. I was famished by the time we got back to Jasper. We immediately went to Jasper Pizza Company for dinner. It was ok. Honestly, in general, this was NOT a foodie trip. We went for the scenery so I was not expecting to eat a ton of good food. It sufficed though and we scarfed it down. I think I was asleep by 10pm :)

potentially one of my most favorite hikes

first set of red chairs!

obsesseedddd

somewhereeeee over the rainbow....

angel glacier

hanging in front of the angel glacier

the little rascal himself!!! our favorite marmot

just a boy & his glacier

i can show you the world....

pika pika!

downright adorable!

i spy a nick!!

On Sunday, we headed to Maligne Canyon. This was super cool. Nick was getting some gorgeous pictures as the skies started to open up. The canyon is very very deep and there were 6 bridges that you could walk over and get some great views. We kind of broke the rules for awhile and went down pretty close to the water for some Patagonia-like shots as I've deemed them. Then it was time to head to Maligne Lake and take our boat cruise. Nick signed up for a "through the lens" cruise where he could have more time to take pictures. It was great. We went to Spirit Island and got to stay for over an hour so the skies and weather kept changing so we got a ton of different types of pictures. Sorry in advance for literally 1000+ pictures of Spirit Island. Kept getting different lighting and just couldn't stop snapping. I definitely have a trigger finger. We went to Moose Lake for awhile to scout for some moose but with no avail! Hopefully next time....

maligne canyon!

too many selfies leads to this nonsense

the colors.. perfection. i love that yellow mossy stuff.

this waterfall looked like it was crying & that fee

the skies started to open up!

ok.... prepare yourself for 1000000+ picture of Spirit Island. yes, the island that has like 7 trees on it there!

now let's get in formation!

there were no moose on moose lake....

On Monday, we tried to see the eclipse. And failed... miserably. The sky clouded up about an hour before the eclipse was supposed to happen :( oh well. We went by Goats & Glaciers..but NO GOATS. We were really striking out on the animal train this trip. We decided to do the Wilcox Pass hike and ended up seeing some mountain sheep, finally! It was very cool. Unfortunately my iPhone cannot pick them up really from so far away so we'll have to see if we can bribe Nick to give me a picture. We saw another pair of red chairs - same that we had seen at Valley of the Five Lakes. Then it was time for Colombia Icefield Glaciers! We did an awesome tour with Brewster where they drove us up on the glacier and we got to explore for quite awhile. It was soooo cold. Nick & I took a sip of glacier water. I thought it tasted like dirt to be perfectly honest but Nick said it was refreshing. We then headed to the Skywalk which is part of the tour price - you can also buy this separately. Honestly, I think it was overrated and it would be a waste of $ on its own. Going up on the glacier is a much better view and much better experience. On the way down to Lake Louise where we were going to spend the next two days, we crossed over to BC {aka British Colombia} for a little bit and dropped by Emerald Lake. I am officially obsessed with green/blue colored lakes that reflect and are so gorgeous. We just hung out for about 45 minutes taking in the views and snapping some pictures. Then we headed over to the Natural Bridge. This is a cool limestone bridge that is completely (you guessed it!...) natural. We finally rolled into Lake Louise and checked into our SUPER cute cabin - would definitely recommend this little retreat to couples. It's called Paradise Lodge & Bungalows and we stayed at the Peyto Cabin layout - see a picture in the next day's blurb!  We ate a quick meal at Outpost Pub which is a pub at the Post hotel. Good food & would recommend.

goats & glaciers.... goats where you at?!

chipmunk for scale

second set of red chairs!

sheep for the win!!!! only took like 5 days to see them!

so cold, so windy, so sunny.. idk what to do with myself

no seriously it was cold.... so cold

that's my glacier man right there!

the skywalk... aka a tourist trap (IMO).... the rest of the tour was cool though!

emerald lake.... the itty bitty bit of BC we saw!

cute little restaurant

i am loving this place so much

natural bridge

natural bridge looking all natural

On Tuesday it was Lake Louise day. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to do this trip in general and I was not disappointed at all. We started the day pretty early because we wanted to do two hikes. It took ALLLLL day to hike. Lordy lordy were my legs tired by the end. We did a short but steep hike up to Lake Agnes with a stop at the cutest little teahouse. We decided to go ahead and head to the other teahouse which is at the Plain of Six Glaciers. It was very pretty and got sunny by the end {which resulted in a burnt left arm + a hideous tan line that is on BOTH of my legs from having capris and hiking socks on} Just fyi.. the tan is still there and the evidence is captured below. After a very long day (9am - 7pm) of hiking we were ready for a yummy meal. Check out information on both hikes here. In general the hikes are not difficult (especially if the sun stays behind the clouds some!) it just takes a long time & will be a long day! We headed to The Station Restaurant which is in this cute old railway station in Lake Louise. Great atmosphere and food. I got the mac 'n cheese. Fabulous!

lake louise, lake louise, lake louise!!!

this is my.. I AM SO HAPPY TO START HIKING FOR 10 HOURS FACE

lake agnes teahouse!

the cutest little menu!

lake agnes!

i cannot get over the color....seriously...

plain of six glaciers teahouse

check out dat view

nick's fave sign of all time. he made up a little jingle to it... ask him about it next time you see him

the cute train station restaurant!

On Wednesday we slept in, too much {neither of us could move much after the day before} and almost missed an opportunity to see Moraine Lake. Guys, this would have been so incredibly sad. Luckily Nick harassed the park people enough and waited around long enough for us to get a parking spot. Moraine Lake is beyond pretty. The color of the water is breathtaking. Due to the amount we hiked the day before we decided to take it easy and just do some light walking/hiking. Next time I want to do the Trail of Ten Peaks when we go back. It was just not in the cards for us this time. After wrapping this up we slowly made our way back to Calgary with a quick pit stop at Grizzly Paw Brewing (such a great name!). When we got into Calgary, we headed to get Indian. I knew Nick would not let us go to a city that we had heard has amazing Indian food and not get some. Nick did some research and we picked to eat at Tandoori Grill & Spices. Um... it was amazing. I ordered veggie chile & the guy said no one had ever made the combo before. Guess I'm a trailblazer. We ate way too much and could barely move the rest of the night. This is all we saw of Calgary..oops...!

our super super cute cabin @ Paradise Lodge & Bungalows

some kayakers

the color of this lake is i-n-s-a-n-e

just my daily selfie + nick taking photos photo

a quick stop by Mt Rundel & Vermillion Lakes to snap a few last picks. the trip came full circle

This wrapped up our time in Alberta. We truly, truly enjoyed our time in this beautiful area of Canada. I will absolutely go back again and I cannot wait to get the opportunity. If you have any specific questions I'm happy to answer! And provide any/all tips I can!