We're in Canada, eh?

Have you ever felt as though you had stepped into a painting? That's pretty much how we felt the whole time we were in Canada. You'll soon see why. We headed north from Whitefish and crossed into British Columbia at Roosville. I thought there would be a "Welcome to Canada!" sign or a welcome center or something, but there was nothing. Hello? Canadians are supposed to be friendly and welcoming!

So we kept driving, hoping for a welcome center because we soon lost cell coverage, and therefore, our map. (Yes, we were those kind of travelers.) Now we were driving blind in a foreign country! Signs were dual language and had 'km' on them... What was going on? Eventually, we came to a fork in the road and went right because why not, but my gut told me to turn around. We did and pulled over at the first little store we saw several more km down the road. Thankfully they sold maps! Hallelujah! Now we knew we were heading in the right direction and could feel a little more at ease about our travels. And have some lunch. What a rest stop, right? Gorgeous Columbia Lake!

Our next surprise was that when the highway turned off toward the national parks, we basically had to pay to use the highway by estimating how long we'd be in the national parks and paying park admission right there. There are 3 national parks all next to each other in this part of Alberta/British Columbia, and I wasn't really sure how they'd handle the parks admission with the highways running through them. Oh well! After some scenic driving, we pulled over in Kootenay NP at Numa Falls. Stunning teal water and more mountains, but wouldn't you know it? The trail and bridge were closed for repairs... so that was a short break.

Once we crossed into Alberta, we knew we were getting close. These wildlife crossings seem like a great idea and add to the scenery.

We named this mountain Dizzy Mountain (actually called Mt Rundle) because it made the world seem as though it had tilted off-kilter. It looms over the town of Banff at a sharp angle.

After we checked into our hotel, we headed to the visitor center for more maps and dinner. Time to figure out our agenda for the next few days!

It was a bit of a walk to and from downtown to our hotel, but we realized the next day that our hotel had included some bus passes, which made our future excursions much easier! Morning 1 we decided to check out the Cave and Basin trail, site of Canada's first national park. That plan soon changed when we saw that there was a crowd waiting to buy tickets for the guided tour on that trail. We weren't feeling like being part of a tour group, so we walked on and came across the site of the original hot springs pool. Note the Parks Canada red chairs! They're kind of like a "Where's Waldo?" around the parks.

The morning was peaceful and the trail was inviting, so we just kept walking.

Hadley can hike on her own now, but she often dawdles in Imaginary Land and has to keep catching up. 

The trail was mostly in the woods, but it did parallel the Bow River closely for a bit, too. We marveled at the calm, green water and the near-perfect reflections that it cast.

We ended up on the Sundance Canyon Trail, and decided to stick it out until we saw the canyon, although it was a longer hike than we had originally intended to do. Also, parts were very mosquito-y (at least we now had spray!), muddy, and horse poop-y (poo-tatoes, the kids dubbed the fresh ones!), but some was a nicely paved trail where the bikes whisked by us. If only we had bikes! But eventually we made it to the canyon loop. We liked to pretend we could read the signs in French. Les Incompetents!

It looks like a huge chunk of mountain fell off and created this narrow waterfall. Here's Owen at the bottom of the canyon and Had and Dad on the bridge at the top of the waterfall. We're coming!

We made it! Up at the top, we admired the view and the rushing water under our feet...

Then the path continued up and around for a view back down the canyon.

The loop kept to the creek and the woods.

On the back side of the loop, there was a beautiful overlook to another mountain valley, this one at the base of the Massive Range.

Once we finished the loop, the kids realized that we had to hike back to the bus stop where we started (~10 km all together), and pleaded with Dad to give them a lift back, at least part of the way. These kids aren't so easy to lift any more! P.S. We do not recommend the Marsh Loop, which was mostly muddy horse tracks and droppings. P-U!

We made it back to the hotel early in the afternoon and rested a bit. Then the kids were ready to go swim at the pool, so I obliged. After all, the hotel is really their favorite part of any vacation! And they certainly earned a swim with that hike.

Whitefish Lake and Resort

We took a slightly scenic route after we left Bozeman to see the capital city of Helena. We stretched our legs around the capitol grounds and picnicked in a park across the street. It's a really pretty capitol building and completely open to the public, except for some locked chambers and offices.

Montana became a state in 1889, and the capitol was built around the turn of the century. The inside of the dome was pretty ornate, and there were lots of Pawnee-esque murals on the walls, paying homage to their pioneer and Native American heritage.

It was a beautiful afternoon, but we still had a ways to go across Montana to Whitefish. So back in the car we went. After an uneventful couple of hours, we knew we were getting close when we saw lovely Flathead Lake out the window.

Whitefish presented us with our first night in a hotel. We explored the lodge (love the pic of them drinking cucumber water and reading the paper by the lobby fireplace like seasoned travelers!), walked around the golf course next door, and the kids ended up in the oversized, outdoor hot tub overlooking the golf course. And we were loving the room temp ambient air outside in the sunshine and fresh air. Ah, vacation!

The next morning we headed north of town to Big Mountain where you can take a chair lift to the top of the mountain. What a beautiful view in the summer! Mountains for miles (into Glacier Park!), and we saw lots of marmots on the way up.

From the top, we took the Danny On Trail down about 3.5 miles back to the car. It was a great trail! Lots of wildflowers in bloom, a clear path, beautiful overlooks, and not too crowded. We give it 5 out of 5 stars; just wish we had thought about some bug spray...

We took some sandwiches with us and stopped at this bench for a drink and rest, while we ate lunch. It had a great view!

Apparently, we weren't the first visitors to bring food to this spot. After we'd been sitting there for a few minutes, we saw several marmots and a chipmunk come out of the rocks and sniff around. This particular marmot came right up within a couple of feet of me while I was admiring the view and nearly made me jump when I noticed how close he had gotten. No, we did not feed them, much to their disappointment.

Some parts of the trail were in exposed mountainside meadows, some were forested, and parts followed a creek in the bottom of the canyon. There were some interesting variations in color of the rocks in the creek, notably lots of purple stones.

The views were outstanding, particularly when they included Whitefish Lake.

When we saw the ski village, we knew we were getting close to the end. The kids were champs on the hike. No complaints or excessive dawdling. It probably helped that we just had to go downhill, rather than up.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped off for some ice cream, because we earned it! It was pretty good, but it was no Reed's or Bluebell.

After a brief respite in the hotel room, the kids and I were itching to go to the lake. No sense wasting a beautiful day in a hotel room when we were surrounded by such natural beauty outside! Not going to lie, the water was pretty chilly! But, of course, they had a great time regardless.

After a while, we grew curious about the paddle boarders. I wasn't wearing my swimsuit, but I thought we could probably manage a paddle board between the three of us. It was a little wobbly at times, and my passengers were a little unpredictable, so I kept us low to the board, and it was fine. And fun!

About halfway through our rental time, I decided to abandon ship and let the kids paddle and steer themselves. They loved it! Owen paddled about 80% of the time, which Hadley was fine with. They didn't go far, but it was pretty entertaining to watch them figure out the workings of paddling and balance. I think Hadley even fell off once or twice, but was able to get back on. The afternoon was absolutely perfect to sit in the shade and enjoy the lake breeze.

Our hotel did not include breakfast, so on our last morning, we ventured out to Loula's. Pretty popular place with tasty food. Check out Owen's short stack! We did not know that was the size of their pancakes, but it was okay because we all ate them for lunch, too.

Aw, they do like each other. Thanks for a great time Whitefish!