Jasper and Banff National Parks Day 1

For those that don’t know, Casey and I recently tied the knot. We decided to honeymoon up in the Canadian Rockies, in Banff and Jasper National Parks for a week of hiking, food, and local beers…  including an overnight trip on the Skyline Trail in Jasper. I was going to try and fit all 5 days into a single post, but then start writing day 1, and it got long very quickly… so I’m going to spread these out. So without further ado… here is day 1 of our Canadian honeymoon.

Day 1: Calgary to Jasper

After a full day of travel, and arriving to our hotel very late Monday evening (technically very VERY early Tuesday morning), we slept in just a bit on Tuesday before beginning our drive into the Canadian Rockies. Based on the weather forecast for the rest of the week, this was looking to be our only sunny-ish day of the week, which made for a beautiful drive. As we drove west out of Calgary, the mountains rose up before us, and in just over an hour we were surrounded by towering rocky peaks. Just about 60 miles into the trip we made a quick stop in Canmore, AB for some coffee at Canary Frozen Yogurt & Coffee. The coffee was good, and the frozen yogurt looked good, but we had to be on our way, as we still had a 4+ hours drive ahead of us. We’d be back later in the week, however.

After a quick walk along the main street of Canmore, we hopped back in the rental truck (yes, all they had left were trucks and vans) and headed north on the Trans-Canada Highway to Banff, AB. Downtown Canmore and downtown Banff are only about 25 minutes apart, but we still stopped anyway… mainly because we were hungry and it was time for lunch. After finding a parking spot, we didn’t have to wander far until we found Eddie Burger Bar, just off Banff Ave in the heart of downtown. We actually walked by once, but then turned back after deciding that burgers sounded like a good option. We are seriously glad that we did. They have the option of a build-your-own burger, with a variety of interesting toppings and different meats including elk and bison. They also have a bunch of pre-selected burgers, which is what we went for. Casey went for the Grass Fed Rancher, which included bacon, mushrooms, and garlic aioli, whereas I went for the Red White and Blue which included Gorgonzola cheese, bacon, sauteed onions, sriracha, and was all topped with a hot wing. The burgers were cooked perfectly… with pink centers for the medium doneness. The side options were excellent as well… we upgraded one of our sides to poutine (fries with gravy and cheese for those that don’t know), but we had other options like truffle fries, sweet potato fries, hot tots, and a few salads, Oh and of course… they had a nice little selection of local beers on draft, which we did partake in. Only one though, since there was still much driving to do.

As we made our way further north out of Banff, we passed under some interesting over-passes. A series of  wildlife crossings were built over the highway when it was upgraded to a four-lane road in order to help the abundant local wildlife safely get across the highway. They’re basically just like car or pedestrian over-passes, but they’re covered in trees, rocks, and grass to make them almost extensions of the forest that lines the highway.

About 36 miles north on Banff we made a quick pit-stop in Lake Louise for some gas, and a bit of coffee and water then we hit the road again (don’t worry… we’ll be back to Lake Louise later in the week).  Our drive took us north along the Icefields Parkway, just taking in all the rugged wilderness that surrounded us. This is a truly scenic drive, and we were lucky to have fairly decent weather to be able to see all the mountain peaks that towered above us. We drove for about 1 hour and 40 minutes or so… about 80 miles before our next stop at the Columbia Icefield Discovery Center (or Centre for the Canadians out there). The Center sits just across the highway from the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park. We had a little chat with one of the park rangers regarding the weather that was supposed to be coming in by morning… snow, which we were a little concerned about since we had an overnight backpacking trip along the skyline trail planned for the next day. They told us that there was already knee deep snow in parts of the trail, but to maybe talk to an outfitter closer to the trail to get more up-to-date details. We got the information for an outfitter in Jasper, and we were on the road again.

Just another 1 hour and 20 minutes up the road (about 65 miles) we reached the adorable mountain town of Jasper, AB. We arrived during a brief rain shower, which afforded us a greeting with a rainbow arching over the main street in town with a backdrop of rocky mountains. It was almost something out of a dream.

We made our way through town to the northern end where our motel was located… the Tonquin Inn . Its not a fancy hotel, just a fairly standard motel with a nice looking restaurant, an outdoor hot tub, and a decent, quieter location just under a mile out of the center of town. We checked in, unpacked the truck into our room, and walked into town to find the outfitter to try and get some advice on our planned hike. We stopped into the Totem Ski Shop (which sells much more than just skis) and chatted with one of the sales-people for a bit about the Skyline trail. He pointed out the door and said that the mountain we were looking at was actually the end of the trail, and there was no snow on it yet… then he pointed up the road a bit to some rocky peaks that are higher than any point on the skyline… and there was no snow there either. We were beginning the feel a bit better about our chances of hiking in the morning, so we purchased a better trail map of the area and headed off into town in search of new hiking shoes for Casey, and beers for us both.

Casey picked up a pair of the Merrell MQM Flex Mid Waterproof hiking boots. We’ve both been big fans of Merrell products since the Appalachian Trail, and these were no different. We’ve found all Merrell boots and shows to have almost no break-in time… which is nice when you’re planning on a 27 mile hike in them the next day. After our little shopping trip we walked to the other end of town to Jasper Brewing Company… the only brewery in town. Being the only game in town, you’d might think that they’d slack a bit… but that was not the case at all. We enjoyed a few styles of beer, including a honey pale ale and a really delicious crisp pilsner, with just a little extra hoppiness. They also had some really interesting food. We went with a few shared plates including the wild boar steam buns, veggies with a variety of hummus’, and a brewers salad with barley, cranberries, goat cheese, and a maple shallot dressing. Everything was really good, and it was nice to see such a variety of different foods at a brewery instead of your typical pub fare.

On our walk back to the hotel we did a bit of shopping for our hike, which brought back some good memories from the trail. We did note that it was already starting to get pretty chilly… but we went to bed hopeful that the weather would cooperate and let us go on our overnight hike along the skyline trail.