Canadian National Parks - Day 1

7/16/24 – We arrived in the town of Lake Louise around 11am (the area is about 2 hours from where we are staying).  Signs told us THE parking lot was full and flaggers routed us right back out of the area.  We followed signs to a shuttle area, where we found out all shuttle reservations were sold out for 7/16, 7/17, and 7/18!!  With no shuttle, getting to Lake Louise or Moraine Lake would require an additional 2-3 mile walk on roads with no sidewalks! Frustrating!! We drove around and found a mountain bike trail (with parking available!!!!) that we could use.  Since we had burned up another hour (and didn’t have our bikes), we decided to drive the Icefields Parkway and do the bike and hike another day.   

The Icefields Parkway stretches about 143 miles from the Lake Louise area in Banff National Park to the town of Jasper in Jasper National Park.  Along the way, you are driving between towering mountains, many of them with glaciers, and gorgeous lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. 

Bright blue Peyto Lake and the valley behind us

We drove 80 miles to the Columbia Icefield where we were able to buy tickets to ride an Ice Explorer vehicle onto the Athabasca Glacier. 

Athabasca Glacier

The Ice Explorer vehicle that took us onto the glacier. Our guide often offered “If you have questions, showwwt them owwwt” (that’s me trying to share the Canadian accent!).

Once there, we enjoyed being able to walk around and taste some glacier ice and ice melt. 

On the glacier

After a quick stop at the included Skywalk (meh), we had an awesome dinner at the visitors' center restaurant. 

Boomers...as bad as Millennials on their phones!

On the way back, we saw a young woman hitchhiking.  Based on our experience in Glacier NP, we decided to stop.  She was heading towards the town of Banff (as we were) which was over 2 hours away.  It turned out Yulia is from Ukraine and travels the world, working when she needs travel money.  Since money is tight, she gets around by hitchhiking and using the “couch surfing” app whenever possible.  She is 29 and has visited 94 of 193 countries.  Her English was perfect and we enjoyed learning about her and her family. 

After dropping Yulia off, we briefly drove around Banff to check it off our list of things to see.  We got back to the RV close to midnight.

7/17/24 – Took the day off to sleep in, do laundry, and relax again 😊