Anniversary Trip: The Road to Jasper and Our Rental Cabin

Hi there!  I hope everyone had a great weekend?  Man, three day weekends are awesome, but boy, oh, boy do they suck too!  They are so bittersweet.  I know, I should stop complaining before someone who didn't have yesterday off (like my husband) throws something at my head.  Anyway, I spent my extra day off tidying up a bit, watching The Wind Rises (snuggled up on the couch with the dogs) and editing photos, which means I have several more anniversary trip blog posts lined up.

Last time I left off we had just left Peyto Lake and we were continuing up the Icefields Parkway toward Jasper.  We stopped a couple more times along the way, mostly just at little turn-offs, before we made it to the cabin where we'd be spending the next 3 nights (one of which was our anniversary)...

I don't know what made us stop here.  It was just a little pull-off that had a little trail leading off of it, so we hiked down a bit to a stream with a pretty view of the mountains.  And I was of course paranoid of running into a bear the whole time!

The little trail.

More pull-offs with pretty views!

Another pull-off just before we made it to the cabin.

We finally made it to our cabin and we were both blown away!  It was definitely our most extravagant lodging of our trip, though we definitely went a little bit crazier than our usual trips!  But it was our anniversary, so we thought it was warranted...

We found this beauty on HomeAway and it was so beautiful and secluded, tucked in the woods just north of Jasper.  

The front door.

The livingroom, aren't the windows insane?!

You can kind of see the fireplace off to the right, it was beautiful and toasty.  The stairs in the center led up to the two loft bedrooms and the master bathroom.

The downstairs bathroom.

The dining room, and the door to the right held the washer and dryer.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the kitchen, which was large and had a big island in the middle with additional seating.  We spent a fair amount of the time in the kitchen, cooking all our meals, including our anniversary dinner/desert of pizza and bananas foster (what we had in Hawaii after we got hitched)!

We really enjoyed staying in this cabin!  It was so peaceful and serene that we actually spent our whole anniversary day indoors, relaxing.  It was wonderful.  Next time (and the time after that too) I'll share some more from our anniversary trip and our explorations in and around Jasper National Park.  Until then, have a great rest of your Tuesday!

Anniversary Trip: A Bear and a Very Blue Lake

Good morning, everyone!  I am finally truly back in the real world...not like Friday when I forced myself to go into work and it did not end well!  I've pretty much shaken this whole nasty cold business and I'm ready to get back to sharing some blog posts!  I've actually got a couple lined up for this week.  I know, shocking!  Anyway, here's the next installment from our anniversary trip.

After we visited Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, we continued northwest through Banff National Park towards Jasper.  Along the way we not only saw a bunch more beautiful mountains covered in snow, but we also spotted our first bear of the trip!  And it was a grizzly!

Much to Antoine's dismay, the grizzly bear was a quite a ways away from the road.  But I was actually pretty relieved by this!  I was pretty nervous about seeing bears on our trip, a little paranoid even, so I was thankful that all the bears we saw were from a safe distance or from out car.  And I don't care how far away it was, it was still pretty awesome!

After we spotted the bear we made a stop to check out Peyto Lake.  Unfortunately, the drive to the upper parking lot, which led directly to the view of the lake was closed because it was covered in several feet of snow.  We got to the very small lower parking lot and realized we couldn't find the hiking trail right away because it was covered in snow.  In some places it was a couple feet deep!  But we saw that there were people still braving it and making there way up the path to Peyto Lake, so we figured why not give it a try...we had hiking boots, unlike some people we saw who were wearing tennis shoes or flats!

We did not anticipate that the path would be almost entirely uphill (at an altitude we were not used to) and almost completely covered in snow or ice the whole way up.  I don't know exactly how long the path was, but I can say that it easily felt like 7+ miles.  It was one of those things where as you were hiking up you'd pass people on their way down and without asking they'd give you a progress report, "You're about half way there, but it is totally worth it!"  Yeah, that happened like 4 times.

Near the top, though we had no idea at that point, Antoine just wasn't feeling it and decided to take a break.  At that point I had a crazy burst of energy and decided I would go on ahead and see if we were remotely close to the top...because if I hadn't psyched myself up I probably would have been crying from muscle spasms and lack of oxygen!

This is a rare cleared off portion of the path, and this is looking downhill!

After I left Antoine I walked about 300 more yards, turned a corner, and BEHOLD...

Now, this is the part where I get a little embarrassed by my actions as a wife...I proceeded to stand in awe and take a ton of photos and completely forget that I left my husband a 1/4 mile back saying I would come back for him if we were close!  Oops!

In the end, I don't know if Antoine thought it was worth it.  I mean, I'm sure he did, but not until a day or two later after his lungs had recovered.  But I was just blown away by how blue Peyto Lake was and how gorgeous it was from above.  For me, it was totally worth it and I loved our little adventure...especially since neither of us fell on our asses, even though we saw several other people near wipe-out!

Anniversary Trip: Lake Louise & Moraine Lake

Oh, hi there! I'm sure, if you are a follower of this blog, that you were not at all surprised by my two month absence from posting.  Even if in my last post I said I was hoping to have more photos edited for the following week...oh, silly Jessica!  So unrealistic.  Anyway, I finally got around to editing more photos from our anniversary trip (the one we took back in May!).  I was really excited to finally get to this bunch of photos, because Lake Louise/Moraine Lake were two of my favorite stops in the Banff area.  When you think about going to Banff National Park, this is what usually comes to mind: big, snowy mountains and crystal clear lakes.  

After two nights in Banff, we checked out of our hotel bright and early and started to make our way up to Jasper, where we'd be spending the next three nights.  Our first stop along the way was Lake Louise, which is a big tourist spot and was already starting to get a little crowded with tourist (especially considering how early in the morning it was and the season).  

Antoine and I at Lake Louise

Since it was already getting kind of busy at Lake Louise we decided not to linger too much longer and make our way to Moraine Lake, which is just up the road a bit.  While Lake Louise was utterly beautiful and totally took my breath away, I adored Moraine Lake even more!  A lot of the snow still hadn't melted on the mountains so the lake was only partially full.

Since the lake was only half full you could walk out much farther and stand where the water normally be.  And part of the water that was there was still frozen, but instead of producing solid ice it created these shards of ice that were so cool...

It was like walking on gravel, but it was ice!

Me, standing on part of the frozen lake.

I also really like Moraine Lake because there were so many different vantage points, especially when at this time of year, that you could view the lake from.

I know, I got a bit carried away, but I just loved both lakes and couldn't resist.  Anyway, happy Friday!  I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.  I'm still trying to get rid of this cold I've had most of the week, so I will probably be taking it easy this weekend.  I will make no promises about further posts, because as we know I'm a lying slacker who likes to make things up! :)

Anniversary Trip: Critters, Lake Minnewanka, and Johnston Canyon

Hi again!  I'm back with another installment of our anniversary trip...geez, this is going to take forever!  I'm technically still on day one...eek!  Anyway, after we left Johnson Lake, we continued up toward Two Jack Lake, which is a smaller lake (though larger than Johnson Lake) that feeds into Lake Minnewanka.  Hence why the road up to the lakes is called the Minnewanka Loop.  While heading up to the two larger lakes we had our first animal sightings since our arrival...

How cute is this little mountain goat?!

I think this is a ground squirrel, though I'm not sure.  It could be a marmot, who knows!?  I think Antoine was bummed that we hadn't seen a bear yet, but it was only our first day!

Confession time...I have no idea if this is Two Jack Lake or Lake Minnewanka.  No clue!  It's pretty though, right?

There were a lot of people waiting on the dock for, I'm guessing, a lake cruise of Minnewanka.  It was the perfect day for a lake cruise!

After our hike around Johnson Lake and briefly stopping by Two Jack Lake/Lake Minnewanka we decided to drive about a half hour west to Johnston Canyon.  The canyon consists of lower and upper falls with a pathway/elevated walkway along the Johnston creek.

The entrance of Johnston Canyon.

I really enjoyed the canyon!  While the walkway was very steep at points and we were pretty tired after a long day of exploring already, the creek and surroundings were very beautiful and I liked that at times you were high above the creek (sometimes that was slightly terrifying) and at other times you could actually put your hand in the creek (also, kind of scary because people have fallen in before and it would not be a fun journey down the creek)!

I love this neon moss...which I spotted several times while we were in Banff and Jackson.

The lower falls, I think?

The falls from above.

We never made it to the upper falls.  The canyon was getting darker as the sun was setting and we wanted to make sure we made it back to the car before it got completely dark.  We enjoyed the canyon...me probably a little more than Antoine, but just because it had been a long day and a lot of hiking/walking.  I would totally recommend Johnston Canyon to anyone going to the Banff area.  I kind of wish we had gone there first though and then back-tracked to the Minnewanka Loop and then the Cave & Basin National Historic site, but regardless, we had a great time and it was beautiful!

Happy Friday, everyone!  Any exciting plans for the weekend?!  I'm hopefully going to do some more photo editing so I can have another post ready for next week.  I'm also getting together with some work friends to make some books, eat food, and drink wine...always a good time!  Anyway, hope you have a fantastic weekend!