Western Canada - Part 2 - Checking In

Excited. It's a feeling that is truly understood by all. When someone is excited, they are usually explaining a beautiful moment or event and you can picture it and share that feeling right along with them. When driving from the airport in Calgary to the town of Canmore in the Canadian Rockies, I was beyond excited. Like a kid on Christmas morning excited. Especially when we would be driving at the top of the prairies and catch a small glimpse of the massive mountain range in front of you. Each time I caught a glimpse, my heart would beat a little faster and my eyes would open a little wider. The mountains would show themselves, then tuck back in again as we drove further. It was kind of like a thriller movie and you weren't exactly sure when the ax murder was going to show up, but you knew he would be back soon. Now bear with me, there are going to be a lot of pictures on these blogs about Canada!! Just driving along the roads and highways gives you opportunities to see some amazing sites and there are pull-offs to encourage epic picture taking.

Driving on Trans Canadian Highway 1 just outside of Calgary is a treat. Cattle prairies as far as we could see. We would go down a hill, then up again. Mountains appeared and disappeared all the time!

A look at the northern Rockies.

As you can see, the closer we got to our destination, the bigger the mountains got. My heart continued to beat faster and I was excited over the sights.

Closer...

This is where we got off the Trans Canadian Highway 1 for a separate sight-seeing adventure. Now, when I research our trips, I look closely into places that are off the beaten path and where not many people are. The place we were headed to is generally a popular place, but it has some windows of opportunity to beat the crowds and enjoy the views.

Snow still lingering in some higher elevations on the mountains.

Since we changed time zones on the flight to Calgary from Hamilton--we went back 4 hours, so we had some time to kill before we could check into our hotel. We left Hamilton at around 6 am and arrived in Calgary at around 8 am because of the time zone change. We couldn't check into our hotel until 2pm. So what did I do? Planned a hike of course!! Not a long or too challenging one though. This was a short and easy two mile hike that gave us a beautiful view of some of the southern Canadian Rockies!

Because of the warmer weather, wild flowers were blooming and we we're lucky enough to see some.

Beautiful birch trees flowing along with the trail.

Because we were just getting into spring, we were on alert for bears. They're just coming out of hibernation with their cubs and looking for food. At every trail head was a detailed warning sign about bears including what to do and how to report a sighting. Although they aren't very aggressive here in the Rockies, they will still protect there cubs at any cost if they feel threatened.

While hiking the trail, there were little pockets in between the trees that gave us views of the surrounding mountains. But when we hit the viewpoint near the top, we both said "Oh. My. God. Wow.........."

It didn't seem real.

Everything seemed too perfect. The puffy fast flowing clouds, the bright blue sky, the huge mountains!! The beautiful contrast made it amazing, picture perfect if you will.

It's pretty amazing when you climb only a couple hundred feet and you get a view like this. What a great start to this trip. A short, quick hike that gives you a view that blows your mind and leaves you standing with your jaw dropped. The weather was fantastic. High 70's, mostly sunny with those fluffy clouds floating overhead. Snow was still lingering at the higher elevations, but Spring had arrived. After enjoying the view and not wanting to leave, we headed back down to the car and started on our way to the motel that we were staying in for the week. On the way into Canmore, Jessica took a quick nap while I continued to take in the amazing views of the surrounding mountains, excited for what was to come.

Trans Canadian Highway 1 is a convient but breathtaking drive. It travels straight into the mountains and gives you beautiful views every second of the ride. It's possible to just to drive around and gaze at the mountains, no intense hiking required. The views from inside the car are more than worth it.

When we arrived in Canmore, a town just outside of Banff National Park and the place we we're staying, we still had some time to kill before checking in. I decided that we should go and check out the Canmore Nordic Center. The Nordic Center was home to the 1988 Winter Olympics. It has over 35 miles of hiking and cross country skiing trails. When we pulled up, the massive parking lot was packed full of cars. It was around 1pm and everyone was a female and wearing pink. We found out we had stumbled upon a women's run and over 1,000 women participated in it!! The views around the Nordic Center were amazing, race or no race.

We roamed around the area for a little bit, checking out the vendors who were still set up from the race. It felt like we arrived just after everyone had finished. It wasn't too crowded for 1,000 people participating!! We finally burned enough time to check into our motel.

Now, there were two reasons why I chose our motel. Number one: the price was great. A nice, cozy little place for a pretty cheap price. It's the off season for traveling, so we got one hell of a deal. Number two: the amazing views!!

This motel was completly surrounded by parts of the mountain ranges.

No matter which direction you looked in, there was a different mountain to look at. It was amazing.

The picture below shows the southern end of the Rundle Mountain range. The peak to the far left is called Ha-Ling Peak. The peak right before the notch between the two ranges is called the east end of Rundle or EEOR, a very popular hike. Both of those peaks are on our list to hike!

Above is a picture of the iconic Three Sisters Mountain range. I fell in love with that range from the moment we arrived. I still don't quite understand the reason but that range stood out to me. It was stunning and I loved looking at it every chance I got.

Above is looking north at Grotto Mountain.

Grotto Mountain a little closer up.

The three sisters and in the distance is Mount Collembola.

Miners Peak is the highest point in the picture.

Jessica and I would take walks around the property whenever we could, just to gaze at the beautiful scenery that surrounded us. It was truly perfect. Because of the location of the hotel to the Women's Run, we got upgraded in our room. So many people just needed a room for a night for the race, they must have thought it was best to put us into a bigger room since we were staying the week. It was great and a nice perk we weren't expecting.

Above is Mount Lady Mcdonald.

The Three Sisters and Ha-Ling Peak.

The Rundle Mountain Range. The peak to the far right is the highest point on the mountain range and located in the beautiful town of Banff.

Miners Peak in the middle and Ha-Ling Peak to the right

The view from our back porch!!

We had to do a quick shopping trip to get supplies for the week. After that, we finally got settled into the motel room and rested for the night. I just remembered another fun thing about our motel, something that put the icing on the cake: a hot tub with a view! After our day of traveling and hiking, how could we resist going in the hot tub!!

A great way to end the day!! Now, we sleep to get our rest for the upcoming days of hiking, driving, shopping and more hiking!!