Today we will make a trip we were looking forward to for a long time, we will drive to Banff National Park.

After enjoying the small breakfast buffet, we leave our hotel. A bit outside Vernon we see a dead deer on the road. In these areas one should always be aware of the fact that we share this land with the wildlife and they do not care about the humans' rules.

Once we pass “Mount Revelstoke National Park” we stop at the "Skunk Gabbage Boardwalk" and make a short hike of 1,2km. It is a hike through wetland and gets its name of the flowers with that strange smell that are growing here.

Next we drive through "Glacier National Park and stop at the "Trans-Canada Highway monument" where we take some nice pictures.

Just before "Yoho National Park" we stop for our picnic and a bit later we drive on to "Natural Bridge" just before the town "Field". We already were here in 2009 and took some great pictures. We drive on and then Patrick notices that, contrary to 2009, the road to the "Takakkaw Falls" is open. He discusses this with the rest of us and we decide to give it a try. But... unfortunately, a few kms further we see that the road is again closed and from here it is really too far to walk. One day maybe...

When we drive on we carefully watch the railway on the hill where in 2009 we saw a bear with 2 cubs. This time nothing to see. We stop at "Lake Louise" and Sofie really wants to have a drink at the "Fairmont Chateau Louise". So that's what we do. We enter the hotel, find a bar, enter it but ...there we are requested to go to the other bar. Apparently this one is only for hotel guests. We go to the other bar, which is a self service and you get your drinks in cardboard cups and the cakes are given on a cardboard plate but, you pay the price of the "nice stuff"...

We say goodbye to "Lake Louise" and the "Fairmont Chateau Louise" and drive to "Moraine Lake" where it starts to rain. Because of that we cannot take a family picture. Once we get back to the car we are accosted by an older man and have a long talk with him. He used to be a professional photographer and was happy to tell us about his adventures but because of the rain we have to stop this conversation and we drive on to Banff. The rain stops.

Around 8pm we arrive at our hotel and check in. There is an underground parking lot but because of its low ceiling we rather park on the street where there is more than enough space.
The rooms are large with high ceilings. We ask the receptionist a good restaurant and she sends us to "the Keg" which we knew from our trip to Vancouver two years ago. The food is very good but quite expensive as well as the "Strawberry Daiquiries"! But still a good tip from our hotel.

After the nice dinner we walk back to our hotel for a good night's rest.

Daytrip approx. 485 km