We had lots to do today, so we tried to get an early start. Today was our first day waking up in mountain time, so we overslept by a few minutes and didn't get to breakfast until a little after 7:00. Breakfast was good at the Hinton Lodge. I think it was a privately owned hotel, but it was well maintained and we slept well.
We had to stop by Walmart again to refresh our picnic supplies (Ice and sandwich stuff). After that, we were off to our first stop, Malign Canyon. We saw three young bull elk as we traveled, and stopped to watch them play for a while. We stopped by Malign Canyon which is a must-see for anyone in the area. It's not as big of a waterfall as Athabasca, but the small size of the canyon combined with the volume of water makes the view spectacular. It's a little bit of a hike, but worth it.
We ran into Jasper after the canyon to top off with fuel. As expected, Jasper was crowded, much more so than when we were here in the early 90s.
After a few hours of driving the Icefields Parkway, we made it to the Icefields and the Athabasca glacier. It is so neat to see how it has changed (receded) since the early 90s when we were here last. Also, it is MUCH more crowded. I'll wager there was 50 tour bussed in the parking lot. The visitors center was packed. They did have some good picnic tables and a real bathroom...
I should talk about the rest areas and bathrooms for a minute. Canada, I'm talking to you directly... If you are not Canada, you can stop reading... Canada, hire some engineers and figure out how to build real bathrooms at your "rest areas". The ones you have are just a hole in the ground, don't have any running water, and there is not enough hand sanitizer in the world...
Moving on, we drove to Lake Louise. Sarah and Sadie had not been there. Everyone else in Canada happened to be there today too... It was CRAZY crowded. We parked, went to the lake, took a picture, and left. I'm not sure that place will be on our list to visit again. If you haven't been there, go, otherwise, pass.
We ended our adventuring today in Banff. We stopped in and walked the main drag. Sarah and I bought some cool tee shirts at the "Cool as a Moose" store. We ate supper at "Melisa's Mistake". The supper was good, a little pricy, but the service was good and the atmoshper was good. I'll probably go somewhere else next time, not because it was bad, but because I've been there, done that.
We drove on to the Comfort Inn in Calgary for the night. Jenn hoped she and Sadie could swim and play on the water slide tonight, but it was too late, and too crowded. They are planning on it in the morning.
Great day, good travels!
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