September 4-7, 2009 - Banff & Yoho National Parks, Canada

On this weekend I flew into Calgary from Toronto.  I drove to Banff and spent a couple nights at the Banff International Hotel.  On my first day I enjoyed the views of Lake Louise.  I parked at the Fairmont Chateaux and took a short hike up a trail to the Fairmont Lookout, which provided a great view of the lake, glacier and hotel.   Then on my second day I joined a day tour through The Discover Banff Tour company.  We did a Larch Valley day hike, which was great.  7.5 miles.  The first foot picture is at our lunch spot, overlooking Eiffel Lake.  Then second one is also at our lunch spot, with the Lake Moraine Glacier in the background.   The highlight of day one was looking out over the amazingly blue Lake Moraine.  

On day 3 of my trip I joined another day hike with the same company.  This time we went to Yoho National Park.  We started at Takakkaw Falls and hiked up the mountain until we had a wonderful view of the Daly Glacier, which is the 3rd foot picture.  We really lucked out that day.  It was pouring rain our entire drive to the hike, it was perfect on the hike (8.5 miles), and then the minute we got back in the van the rain started again.  As we were leaving the park, a tree had just fallen across the only exit road - completely blocking the road.  Thankfully it didn’t land on any cars!  We were stuck there for about an hour and finally a truck was able to pull it out of the way with a cable.  

This was a great weekend getaway.  I’d love to go back another time and do some more hikes…the scenery is just amazing!    

Check out some more of my photos from this trip - Banff Yoho Photos