We got to know, we were pregnant again in March 2019. Immediately we have decided we wanted to travel throughout my pregnancy as we did with our first one. My most favorite and remarkable one during my second pregnancy was the Canada trip. We planned a 10-day trip covering several national parks in 3 different states. First off, our road trip through Alberta & British Columbia to see Jasper, Banff, and other nearby national parks.

We landed in Calgary on the night of June 26th and decided to stay till 2nd July. The flight journey was pretty smooth considering we were traveling with Mukund (1.5 years old toddler). But there was a shocker waiting for us when we landed. Our Costco car booking was automatically canceled because we were late as our flight got delayed. So we had to book our car rental completely new but thanks to our Costco membership, they gave us the same pricing rather than the market price of that day. We had our Airbnb booking pretty close to the airport which is a nice updated basement suite, so by the time clock hit 12 we were all snoozing pretty comfortably in our queen size bed. It had all we needed a kitchen, extra room, bathroom, and TV to keep Mukund occupied while we were busy with the packing or anything else.

Banff National park

Lake Minnewanka

We started right after our breakfast (We had bread butter jam in Airbnb itself) on June 27th and it was a quick drive to “Lake Minnewanka“, which is a beautiful glacier water lake with a signature Canadian red chair nailed to the dock. It is the second-largest lake in the Canadian Rockies. We spent some quality time and hiked around the lake trail, ate some snacks (which we picked from the grocery store in Calgary). It was quiet with less crowd because we had an early start, we expected a lot of tourist crowd especially it being the July 1st (Canada Day) weekend and July 4th (America Independence day) and thankfully we outrun them.

Surprise Corner Viewpoint

We then drove up to the “Surprise Corner Viewpoint” where it started to rain by the time we reached the parking lot. So we suited up with a rain jacket and Mukund started to become cranky as he was stuck in the car seat. So we had to spend extra time in the rain to console him and also stay out of the rain as it was getting colder (Honestly!!! Canadian Rockies summer is winter of San Diego). But the view of the Fairmont Banff spring hotel surrounded by the mountain and the flowing river was mind-blowing and the rain just added extra beauty to it.

Town of Banff

It was time for us to grab some lunch, so we headed to the downtown “town of Banff” (Look at the shape of the Mt Rundle slope in the picture below) and we found this amazing vegan restaurant called “Nourish Bistro”. We started off with Hummus Trio (my fav was beetroot hummus!!! mouth-watering), for entree we had Boss Bear Burger (It was delicious) and King Kong Noodles (OK types and I didn’t dig it!!!). Mukund got his Safe “Mac n Cheese” option and hated it, so he ate little from our noodles and burger and then resorted to his fruit pouch. All in all, it was satisfactory lunch.

Bow falls

Then, we headed to the “Bow Falls”. It was a wide river waterfall situated in the backside of the town of Banff. We did an easy/Moderate 1.5 miles hike to the bow falls. It was easy to hike with almost no crowd. We had the trail to ourselves, the sound of the river flowing was the only company of us, and the views of its base, above the falls, as well as the rapids that cascades further downstream with a view of river twisting its way towards the mountains, it was all too beautiful in the rainy backdrop. But as soon as we reached the falls we ended up having a lot more crowd because the tour bus arriving at the same time. So we spent a little time near the hotel and the front view of the falls ended up starting early than planned to spend more time on the trail. While hiking back to the car, Sai slept nicely in his hiking chair with the calming sound of the river’s natural white noise.

Vermilion lake & Morant’s Curve

We were supposed to go to “Cave and Basin National Historic Site”, but unfortunately it was closed by the time we reached. So we skipped and head to “Vermilion lake“. It was so serene and tranquil even though it was right on the road. It was completely cloudy the whole day but still that added beauty rather than being a bummer. We went there hoping to see some brown bear but we didn’t and similarly, we also went to Morant’s curve hoping to spot a train for a beautiful photo but unfortunately, we didn’t spot a train (completely forgot to click a picture in the disappointment) so we headed straight to our Airbnb for the night stay.

The driveway itself a couple of blocks drive from the main road and it was a complete village atmosphere with houses located far from each other and almost all of the houses completely covered by the tall trees hovering over them. The drive was so beautiful and the beautiful guest house cabin was pretty comfortable for a couple but with Mukund, we felt it was a bad choice still we were able to manage as it was just for one night. For dinner, we had to drive almost 10 miles to the nearest restaurant but Mukund being cranky for another drive led to take-out burgers from the first burger joint we found in Yelp (I honestly don’t even remember the name of the place.). It was our usual Vegan burger for me, with the side of sweet potato fries and chicken burger for Raju and some fried chicken for sai. It was a decent dinner that filled our stomach nicely to make us sleep like a baby for the next day!!!!

Lake Louise, Moraine Lake & Peyton lake (Lake Hopping Day)

As expected, the crowd caught up with us today!!! Even though, we had an early start we were still late enough to have the Lake Louise and Moraine Lake parking lot completely filled (we reached by 9.00 am on June the 28th ). We had to park like 5 miles away from the Main Lake Louise exit (Arranged a special parking space by the national park service to control the crowd during this July weekend). That wasn’t the only bummer of the day. We reached the parking lot and found that there was a line (queue) for the shuttle (which cost us CAD 8 per adult but free until 6 yrs old) that takes us to the Lake and the final bummer is the wait time of about 1.5 hr. So we were in the line and giving snacks to Mukund and keeping him occupied until it started raining and we had to run to the car again to find the umbrella and rain jacket. Overall we were on the verge of giving up our place in the line but we pursued. By the time we reached lake Louise, it was almost noon (11.15 am to be exact).

Once we reached, we thought all our morning hassle was worth it. It was a breathtaking view with mild sunshine. After a hectic morning, preggo (pregnant) me got really tired and couldn’t go on the lake trail hike but Raju went around with sai on his hiking chair. So I just sat in front of the lake and was soaking in on the beauty. Once Raju was back from his hike, it was 1.30 pm and we decided to grab a lunch from the Chateau Deli. we got a vegan sandwich, banana bread, fruit bowl, yogurt, croissant, and chicken sandwich. It was all delicious and Mukund loved the banana bread so much, he finished the entire thing up by himself. Also, it is conveniently located close to the restroom (Added advantage!!!). Once we finished our lunch we headed to stand in the line for the Moraine Lake shuttle. We waited for 45 mins this time without the thought of ever giving up after seeing Lake Louise, we knew that moraine lake won’t disappoint.

Moraine Lake

It was a short drive and with food and little rest, I was able to hike in moraine lake to the top viewpoint (0.5-mile easy hike but moderate for preggo (pregnant) me) I was breathless by the time I reached the top then again it was well worth it. The view was quite admiring and just look at the color of the water in the pictures below and Raju continued exploring down to the lake from the other side but Preggo (pregnant) me decided to stay on top enjoying the view. We stayed for an hour or so until it started to rain. So we started our hike back to the shuttle to take us to the parking lot. We reached our parking lot by 5.45 pm and greeted by a beautiful rainbow (Check the pic below).

We continued our lake hopping to Peyton Lake which was 40 mins away. Thanks to Canada’s long summer days we had enough sunlight to see Peyton too.

Peyton Lake

It was a 1.5-mile hike to Peyto lake panorama overlook, it is easy to hike but I was exhausted because a long day of standing in the line was taking a toll on preggo (pregnant) me. But I pushed through and started hiking till halfway where I started to feel some cramps and so I decided to come back to rest up in the car while Raju and Mukund continued their hike (Raju did offer to accompany me but I didn’t think that was necessarily being a second-time preggo, I knew I can manage!! still looking back feels like a stupid decision!!!). After a while resting, I was completely fine and slept off till Raju came along with Mukund asleep.

While driving to “The Crossing Resort” for our night stay. I was checking the pictures that Raju took in Peyton Lake (Yes!!! he is a better photographer than me and yes he took the below pictures!!!). He explained that it was saddening to see the climate change causing the glaciers receding an alarming rate (check out pictures for the glacier presence before and now!!!).

We reached the crossings to find all the restaurants closed and the only option was burgers again with fries. By this time Indian me started hating the food even though they were pretty decent. Since day one of our trip, the only option I had was either a sandwich or a burger. Especially the picky eater in my tummy was really pissed. But we were happy that we weren’t starving. Similarly, Mukund was also pissed with his burger, Mac n Cheese option. Overall, we at least felt that the vegetarian option in Banff National Park was pretty slim!!!

But the view in the crossing (Saskatchewan crossing) was stunning and all our hassle were completely forgotten in the end. The cold still weather and the beautiful mountain ranges are what we needed after the long day we had!!!

Tips:

If you are planning to visit Lake Louise and Marine Lake during the summer months, plan ahead and reach there before sunrise (6 to 8 am) you will have the lake to yourself and most importantly you will get parking in the Lake public lot itself (we did this for maroon bells, colorado – trust me it’s worth waking up early to avoid this hassle). Or try late in the evening (6 to 8 pm), we saw the Lake parking lot almost empty while we were waiting for our trip back to the 5 miles away parking lot.

Columbia Ice field

The Columbia Icefield is the largest ice field in North America’s Rocky Mountains and located astride the Continental Divide along the border of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. It lies partly in the Banff and Jasper National Park and is fed by the Athabasca Glacier. We traveled from “The Crossing Resort” to the Icefield Discovery Center. You need to take the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93 N), it was one of the most beautiful scenic highways we have ever traveled. There were around 100 glaciers on the highway and every turn was stunning and unbelievable and I just can’t put the beauty in words. It was rainy and cloudy (supposedly partly cloudy) but it was beautiful.

We reached the discovery center by 8.30 am for our 9.00 am tour on June 29th (Ticket cost for both Glacier walk and Skywalk was CA$87.00 for adult, CA$43.50 for children 5 and above, and free for children under 5 years old if they share the seat with an adult). It was too windy and drizzling, near the glacier and the temperature dropped from its already cold to freezing. Mukund started shivering just from opening the car door. Thanks to the friendly Canadian people in the discovery center, they rescheduled our tour to the 12.00 pm slot (no extra charges for rescheduling), so that we will have some warmth from the sun (apparently). We stayed inside the center to explore more and then had some quick breakfast which again lacked a better vegetarian option other than cold sandwiches and pizza or burger. So, we had some bread, fruit bowl, and Mukund still struggling with the lack of variety of food. We tried to get him some chicken-like fried Chicken but with a lack of spices, he hated that too. (Food was bland!!!!)  All my friends know that I never complain about food especially during vacation, but this is a very different situation. I just literally had no options at all. So we just hoped we will have better lunch.

Finally, it’s our time to board the all-terrain Ice Explorer (Look how small I look in front of the beast). It was a huge piece of machinery (bus) painted in white and red maple leaf (Canadian flag) the travel from the discovery center to the glacier was fun. The drive up & down the steep hill was fun as a snail roller-coaster ride and knowledgeable. The steep hill with 32% grade and you need specially equipped vehicles for this type of terrain since commercial roads will never have such a steep grade (apparently the vehicle we were in designed for 36% and so the 32% was handled like a piece of cake).

Once we reached, we get to step on the glacier which was dream come true experience. Even at 12.00 pm it was freezing on the glacier (Usually have colder weather condition on the glacier) and there was no sun and visibility was too poor to enjoy the whole view of the vastness of the glacier. Most importantly, Mukund wasn’t able to handle the weather and we have to run into the bus to get cover. So Raju and I took turns to go out on the glacier and enjoy (We did take a family picture). It was mesmerizing to be on the glacier and we were able to get water from the glacier to drink (it was ice cold). After we spent our merry time on the glacier, we came back on the same bus to the discovery center. This is an experience I would recommend for everyone with the hope that you get better weather than us (But nothing is promised with the Canadian Rockies weather).

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Once back to Discovery Center, we grabbed a quick lunch. Pizza, poutine (Most popular Canadian dish) and burger, fruit bowl, and salad.!!! Then we headed to “Jasper Glacier Skywalk” (on our way saw a completely cleared and full beautiful view of Glacier!!! ) which is a glass bridge 280 meters (918 feet) above the Sunwapta Valley. Mukund is fast asleep by this time and we were able to walk slowly towards the bridge from the bus stop. The coolest feature was our way over to the glass skywalk, there were tons of education stations with loads of information and guides were also present to answer the question on top of the audio guides. Again the view was breathtaking. we were able to spot a waterfall (can you spot it in the below video?) and mountain goat from up there. It started to drizzle a bit and that woke up Mukund. He woke up to be at the start of the glass skywalk, we thought he is gonna be scared and scream. But the boy surprised us with his witty enthusiasm. He started walking, sitting, and looking out of the bridge thoroughly enjoying himself. Getting back to the bus stop and back to the discovery center took less time. In the discovery center, we took a couple of family portraits with the glacier as a backdrop.

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Music: Funny day, Musician: Ilya Truhanov

It was time for us to say bye to the beautiful Athabasca Glacier and icefield and head to our pre-planned waterfalls hopping.

Falls Hopping

Tangle Creek Falls

As I mentioned before, IceFields Parkway (Highway 93 N) is a road of treasure with some not so hidden and hidden gems. We saw 3 beautiful falls on our way to Jasper and this was right there on Highway 93N. First, stop at Tangle Creek Falls, we took turns to visit the falls (Mukund slept again!!!), and thankfully a stranger took a beautiful picture of me with the falls (Attached for ref). We both love to spend some time soaking up the scenery, view, surroundings. So once we both done, we moved on to the next falls “Sunwapta”.

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Sunwapta Falls

It was a very short walk from the parking lot to the falls view. Again, I am out of words for the beauty of the landscape. It is a harsh, fast-flowing waterfall with a deep drop that comes from either side of a small island. There were different viewing points like viewing bridge in front of the falls and another one to the head of the waterfalls (It was too close to the water, we anticipated that we will be able to touch the water). Since it rained a bit earlier, the trail was slippery and thanks to the trees with the protruding roots, I have used them as steps to reach the trail bridge that took us so close to the waterfall, the thunderous sound was deafening (check out the video below!!), and misty water completely soaked up my hubby camera lens. He tried to clean up and take pictures but all in vain. Fortunately, my Samsung S10 waterproof ability came to the rescue, I was able to capture some beautiful memories of us and the landscape and drenching waterfalls (Check out the pics). There was a trail available on the other side of the bridge to the lower Sunwapta falls.

Athabasca Falls

Final Stop of the day!!! Athabasca Falls!!! It was approximately 20 minutes from Sunwapta falls. Again nicely paved hiking trail of 1km from the parking lot to the falls viewpoint. There are several viewpoints with the cement bridges above the gorge (I kinda hated it!!!). Picturesque gorge waterfalls with a beautiful mountain backdrop reminded me of sol doc falls in Olympic national park in Washington state due to their gorge resemblance. (Check out the pictures below!! go now!!) From here, we drove up to Hinton for our night stay and for another day of Lake hopping!!!

Supposed Lake Hopping

Unfortunately, Mukund was burning up by the time we reached the hotel and so we had to change our day’s plan for the next day so that we could give him some rest. We spoke with his pediatrician via text and he confirmed that the sudden change to glacier weather might have attributed to the fever. we were to continue Tylenol and monitor fever. So we decided to just visit one lake instead of our 6 lakes plan. We went to Pyramid lake and spent the half-day lazying away and finally, we found an Indian restaurant (Jasper Curry Place) so that Mukund will have some familiar food. We went there ending up standing in the line for our turn and in the meantime, Mukund found a dog and he was playing with it. It took us 30 mins of wait time to get a table and after 3 days of eating junk food, fruit bowl, and salads, Mukund had some familiar solid food. He enjoyed his food even though it is average-tasting Indian food. We got a take-away for the night for Mukund and we head back to Hinton for the night. Mukund fever subsidized considerably and we decided to continue our plan to Yoho national park the next day as planned earlier.

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Yoho National Park – BC

We went to sleep at 11.30 pm in Hinton with daylight and woke up by 4.30 am again with daylight. I want to question here… Jasper do you ever sleep or get dark? anyway!!! we started our day early because we had 4 hrs. drive ahead of us to reach Yoho national park to see the train in “Upper Spiral Tunnel Scenic Viewpoint” where we need to wait for the train in order to see the train doubling down itself in two different tunnels. We waited for 25 minutes and decided to move onto our next stop but a train showed up. It was a marvel of engineering to see the train looping itself and was visible in 3 different places at the same time. Viewpoint also provided tons of information about the history of the spiral tunnel train route. Raju and I were so excited and we were discussing the engineering marvel all the way to Takakkaw Falls.

Takakkaw Falls

We were lost trying to find this fall. There is only one small signboard on the trans-Canada highway-1 which indicates the turn for the falls and Yoho valley road. The valley road in itself is quite scenic and beautiful with the river flowing alongside and mountains as the backdrop. Once you reach the parking lot, there is a trail that leads to several other trails for a hike but we wanted to get closer to the falls. So we took the trail across the bridge crossing the river and it took us to the foot of the falls.

The specialty of this falls is that it blasts off the rock edge (Check if you can spot it in the pictures below) and then falls straight to the ground. We loved the view, water spraying on us with the weather being much hotter, we welcomed the mist with an open arm but the loud thunderous sound was a little overwhelming for preggo-me. It didn’t seem to bother Raja or Mukund, it was just me.

We got back from the falls and headed to the parking lot, on our way back we stopped at the picnic table to grab our brunch (we got to-go from jasper downtown) before we hit the natural bridge.

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Natural Bridge

We wanted to see this mostly because of its fascinating history of it being a waterfall before the water eroded the loose or softer limestone paving way for Kicking Horse River water to flow through the fissures draining the waterfall completely. Then, leaving the hard limestones as a naturally formed bridge. There were several lookout points and there was even a small beach on the side of the bridge where you can sit leisurely and enjoy. Me and Mukund stayed there and played in the water while Raju was exploring the bridge. Mukund was at ease with the beach surrounding. We spent more time than we had planned, thanks to the beautiful landscape and beach. This is right on the way to the emerald lake so you can see this while going into the emerald lake or coming out.

Emerald Lake

While researching for the places to visit in Yoho national park. Emerald Lake stood out with the description of “Most Beautiful Lake” and now that I have visited it, I agree 100% with them because I was speechless with the first look. The green water surrounded by lush alpine forest and mountains is quite a beauty. Parking was a hassle to find, partly because it was a holiday weekend and summer. So if you are visiting on a holiday weekend or on any weekend during the summer months, keep that in mind and try to beat the crowd by reaching early morning or you can also park along the road that leads up to the Lake Public Parking. A very famous activity was to hike and go canoeing but we didn’t plan on doing either instead we grabbed lunch from the restaurant (which is also crowded) and options were limited. So, as usual, we got our pizza and settled outdoor to eat while enjoying the view. We stayed to click some pictures and spent extra time in there to calm the anxious Mukund boy. (Pictures attached)

Wapta Falls

Finding this fall was in itself an adventure. Google Map led us to the Campground where you could see the falls and Kicking Horse River from a far-off distance with binoculars. So we did research on the internet after reaching the Trans-Canada highway-1 to get a cell phone signal and apparently we weren’t the first one to reach this campground instead of the main trailhead. It took us some time to drive around to find the sign for the Wapta falls main trail on Trans-Canada highway-1 and then it was just 1.7 km to reach the parking lot for the trail.

It wasn’t a paved parking lot, more of a dirt road parking lot and there is an information board about the trail. It was an easy hike of 3.2 km (1.9 miles) to the waterfall view to the base. The trail was wet and slippery due to the recent rain and preggo me thanked my hiking boots for not falling face down, there was even stagnant water that needed to be jumped over. The trail is easy with almost no elevation and like a walk in a park till the first fenced waterfall overlook(check out the pics below).

Once we started the descend to the base of the waterfall, many hikers seeing pregnant me advised against going down to the base due to the very slippery steep condition of the trail. So I stayed behind in the fenced overlook area and enjoyed the view of the ferocious “Kicking Horse River” eroding the mountain in front of the falls, while Raju and Mukund went ahead with their adventure to the base of the fall. Once they came back, we went back and out the trail to the parking lot, and again it started raining. Thankfully we reached our car before it picked up the pace. We had our Airbnb booked near Golden before our flight to Toronto the next day.

Tips:

• Always start early and try to be on the lakes by 7.00 to 8.00 am to have a better experience with no parking hassle.
• Jasper and Banff are world-famous national parks and so the crowd is inevitable side effects.
• Always be mindful of the landscape and habitat. Always leave just your shoe footprints and not your carbon footprints. Try to reduce your travel impact on parks.
• Respect the speed limit since so many brown bears were injured on national park highways.

What I loved

• To put it in a single sentence, I loved everything about Banff, Jasper, and Yoho national park. They are very beautiful and out-of-the-world landscapes are mesmerizing.
• I loved, the animal crossing on the highway which helped reduce the animals getting hit by vehicles. Good Job Canada!!!
• Icefield Parkway Highway 93N is mindblowing with so many glaciers, lakes, and falls. OMG!!! It’s a treasure.

Let me know your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section below. and check out my “TravelPhotos”

Sneak Peak

Part – II of Canada visit comprises of us visiting our friends in Toronto, Tobermory of Bruce peninsula and Canada side of our grand Niagara falls.