Day 7&8&9: Golden + Canmore + Banff

Living without internet for the past two days (and being devastated by 6hr drives and 11km hikes), we’re back to promote the West Coast =P

Day 7: Golden -> Canmore

Our day began with a white-water rafting trip down Kicking Horse River in Golden. The rains were pouring in the morning, so the river was running quick and high! The rafting trip was cut short because one third of the river had to be closed as it was too dangerous, and also, the rafts were just going TOO fast so the trip that usually lasts 1.5hrs was only 1hr long…. And the scary part is, the next day after we went a 50-yr old woman died while rafting down the river under similar conditions….

Arriving in Canmore, the quaint city had tremendous scenery and a lot of wildlife. After checking into our hotel and laying down, a family of 4 bears just wandered outside our windows, minding their own business! T H A T I S C R A Z Y ! ! ! That began the day long journey of wildlife viewing in and around Banff. We also saw elk grazing outside a Tim Hortons, beside the Bow Valley parkway, and some strange animal that had a monkey face and a beaver tail….

Day 8&9: Banff National Park

Banff definitely lives up to the hype. With over 1600km of trails, mountains overlooking the region and wildlife everywhere you look, it has such a majestic peace to it, it’s hard to describe. We drove through the Bow Valley Parkway (seeing elk, bears and more elks on the highway). We took a 11km hike up and down the Johnson Creek, all the way up to the InkPots. And to recover enough protein, we had a nice steak dinner to cap the day off!!! It didn’t help the recovery fast enough though, as I’m still a bit sore 🙂

I won’t say much, I’ll just show everyone some pictures….

Now, 4hrs to sleep before waking up to catch the sun rise over Lake Louise!