The next morning we decided to take a drive west towards Glacier National Park of Canada – not to be confused with the American Glacier National Park in Montana.
On the advice of the Parks Canada staff we drove a bit further west towards Revelstoke and Revelstoke Mountain National Park. We drove to the top of the Meadows in the Sky Parkway and hiked to the summit.
It turned out to be a rather long day and we arrived back in Golden fairly late, opting to eat out rather than cook at the campground. Also didn’t help that it rained most of the way back and continued to do so.
The skies cleared the next morning and we headed off for the short 1 hour drive to Radium Hot Springs. We checked into Redstreak Campground, part of Kootenay National Park. We decided to hike about 40 minutes over to the hot springs and enjoy a soak. After we returned to the campground we hung out for the afternoon, playing some board games. After dinner we returned to the hot springs since we had paid for an all day pass for a late evening dip.
Our second day in Radium we opted to drive about 15 minutes south to the lakeside community of Invermere. We found a spot on the beach and enjoyed swimming, kayaking, and just being in such a beautiful spot.
The next morning it was time to head through Kootenay National Park to Banff. En route we stopped to check out the Kooteany river and the Continental Divide (also the border betweeen BC and Alberta).
Once we arrived in Banff we took the bus from the campground into town and then onward towards Lake Minnewanka where we did a short hike to a gorge.
Our next day in Banff Sandy and Gareth opted to hike up Tunnel Mountain, while Nour went into town by himself as he was not feeling up to hiking. It was a nice hike with excellent views of either side at the top. That afternoon we went to the Banff Brewery and enjoyed some beers while waiting for Sandy’s Parents to arrive. They had flown from Hamilton to Edmonton and drove down. Once they arrived we returned to the campground for dinner.
The next morning we took their rental car for a trip up to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. It was already so busy by 11am that they had closed off all the parking lots and redirected people to a shuttle bus parking lot. Lucky for us we brought Misty with us and dogs weren’t allowed so they let us into the parking right at the lake. We enjoyed the hike to the end of Moraine Lake, then when we went to Lake Louise we checked out the Banff Springs Hotel. We were getting hungry by then so we headed to a restaurant in Lake Louise Village.
When we returned to Banff we went to the Gondola as we had prearranged tickets online a couple days prior. It was a different setup than the Jasper Gondola, maximum 4 people per gondola so it was a little more cozy. We walked around at the top for about an hour before heading back down.
The following day we packed up everything and started the long drive home!
