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.