Banff has been on my bucket list for many years. When Carrie asked to plan a birthday trip together for Labor Day weekend, I eagerly suggested Banff. Jessie, my sister, Carrie, and Grace went for a 4 day adventure exploring part of Banff, Canmore, and Calgary. We booked an Airbnb in Canmore, which was about a 20-30 minute drive to the Banff area. There was a lot of driving involved and am glad that Grace took up the helms of that responsibility. I’ve forgotten how to drive a gas car. 😅We had booked Banff Gondola and a sunset hike on the same day. Unfortunately, the sunset hike experience had to be canceled last minute. The guide felt bad and texted me a tip that we could go to the Lake Minnewanka parking lot at 11 PM – 12 AM to stargaze but warned us not to go into the forest because there were bears. After a nice dinner at the Bison, we explored the vibrant shopping district. We saw the famous Canadian pastry, BeaverTails and ordered a pistachio one. It was hot, sweet, and gooey. Luckily in these circumstances, my glucose monitor had miraculously fallen off the night before so I could ignore the angry spikes on my watch and phone app. We explored a darker grassy area and took photos of a small lake. I was playing with the timed night mode and noticed hints of bright green in the sky. It was hard to tell with the naked eye. But we took that as our cue and headed over to the Minnewanka parking lot. There was an annoying bright lamp that shined near the restroom. We were able to capture hues of green, pink, and purple but with a glare. Then we found another parking lot with pitch black darkness. We leveraged the top of the car to hold our arms steady to capture remnants of the Northern Lights the best we could with our phones. It was a sight to behold and felt blessed to revel in this gift.
We had also booked a 4:30 AM sunrise tour of Lake Moraine and Lake Louise. We decided we didn’t want to fight with other tourists trying to score seats on a shuttle. We got picked up from Canmore at 4:20 AM by our guide, Claire. I requested to sit up front based on my recent experience of motion sickness where I threw up in my friend’s car. I didn’t want to repeat history. She at first was reluctant as she had a specific seating arrangement in mind but soon changed her mind, which was the correct choice. We arrived at Lake Moraine around 6:00 AM. She handed out blankets, head lamps, and a cup of coffee and gave us instructions to go up the Rockpiles to catch the first rays that hit Mt. Temple and then to transition back to see it expand towards the lake for the iconic sunrise image. The sun slowly rose around 6:55 AM. It was absolutely beautiful. I was able to walk down a bit to get an unobstructed view of the magnificent lake. Then Jessie and I headed down towards the lakeshore to capture images of the parked canoes bobbing on the lake. At 8:00 AM, we headed over to Lake Louise. We got a pro-tip to wait until we reached Lake Louise for a bathroom break as it was much cleaner. We decided not to rough it and instead brought out our packed onigiri and found a bench spot away from the crowded platform and enjoyed the spectacular view for the remainder of our time there.
On our way back, I took advantage of where I was sitting and asked Claire for tips for the remaining 2 days of our trip. In Canmore, we took an afternoon nap. Grace packed us dinner sandwiches. I also leveraged ChatGPT to help optimize routes which came in handy. We headed out to Peyto Lake at dusk and enjoyed our dinner sandwiches. We decided not to go any further down Icefield Parkway but we still got to see glacier formations along the route. We then stopped by Bow Lake to see the dewy blue reflected and impressionistic hints of wildflowers amongst the marshy grass fields. It was so dreamy. On the very last day, Claire recommended we check out Grassi Lake which was close to where we stayed. The lake there was translucent with green and blue due to the glacier powder. You can also see beneath parts of an ancient coral reef. The hike was doable for the most part (although I had to take it slow). It was an amazing coda to our Banff adventure.
Next, I am planning my 2 month sabbatical trip in Asia which I still have many gaps right now. I get to attend a friend’s wedding in Singapore in October and have some alone time to explore countries I haven’t visited before. I really hope to be able to check out the temple and attend a cooking class led by Jeongkwan in South Korea, go to Ghibli Park with Jessie, and work remotely from Hokkaido. I hope that I don’t get too ambitious with the itinerary that I have time to just be present but we shall see about that.
Travelogue 