Banff and Jasper Trip

This was our first long road trip since Kylah was born. We went to the Canadian Rockies. Jasper and Banff National parks are spectacular places to visit any time of the year. The place has some of the most pristine and  beautiful lakes in the world since the water is from glacier melts close by. You will see many of these lakes in the pictures below. The colors on these lakes are unbelievable - and they are clear and they reflect the landscape perfectly.

We went there for the July 4th long weekend and stayed for 6 days. We went with our friends Dhananjay - Lalitha family. The kids had a great time together. Lalitha had organized most of the trip with stays at some great locations. We first went to Jasper. It is 575 miles from Seattle. We stayed at a resort with its own private glacial lake, golf course, hikes etc. It was very beautiful. Next day we went on a boat cruise on Lake Maligne. This very long lake is surrounded by glacier mountains. Next we went Columbia Icefields and the Athabasca glacier. We had to go on a special bus with huge tires up to the glacier. The icefields are the size of a large city and can be seen only though a helicopter tour. But we went up the largest glacier in the area which is the Athabasca glacier. There are pictures of us walking around on the glacier. It may look like snow, but we are really standing on a glacier - there is more than a 1000 feet of solid ice under our feet. We all also drank from fresh glacial water just as it was melting - there is a picture of Sabree drinking off the glacier.

After that we went to Banff. Banff is a nice vacation town. We stayed in a condo for 3 days. We took some interesting hikes, visited a bunch of lakes and did a lot of window shopping. There are pictures of 3 lakes here - Lake Louise, which is the largest and the most famous lake in the area backed by a huge glacier mountain, Lake Minnewanka and Lake Moraine on which we went canoeing. The canoeing was a lot of fun - Sujatha, Kylah and I were on one canoe and Sabree and Prithiv on another. Kylah actually rowed!! This lake again is surrounded by glacier mountains and is very beautiful even though it is relatively small. On the last day of the trip we stayed at a very impressive castle which is now converted to a hotel. The castle is huge and is situated at a very, very scenic location in Banff. We wish we had spent more time in this hotel - may be next time. Then finally we drove back to Seattle - 630 miles. Exhausting trip but also a good trip because of the incredible sceneries we got to see.