Calgary airport

Waiting for our flight to Vancouver and then to continue to Tokyo. So long to this beautiful country and we would like to visit and see you again hopefully soon.

Leaving Canadian Rockies

Back to the Calgary airport. There was snow drops at the night before, which was wrapping mountains. We missed a lot this place and natures.  

Hare outside of the restaurant

This hare was sitting outside of the restaurant and bit my wife's sandal. Her sandals were greenish, so maybe he/she thought that it was grass.   

Last dinner in Canada for now

We decided to eat something bulky with drink for last dinner in Canada. I followed the plan and ordered double layered ribs and local Ale. It was bulky as it looked like but I ate them all. 

Elk or just a male deer?

We encountered another wildlife in Banff, I don't know if he is an elf or a muscular deer though. While taking pictures, my wife disappeared and made me worried. She was looking for a women's room and evacuated to one of them at that time. 

Banff downtown

Still rainy at the downtown in Banff and we escaped to a cafe where we tried a Rhubarb pie. It was maybe the first time to eat at least decent Rhubarb pie after we had left Sweden in 2012 summer. Taste was as it looked like (very good).

Mt. Tunnel

Hiking to/from Mt. Tunnel was easy and around 90 minutes trip for both ways. It was deep foggy and no visibility at the top of the mountain.

Banff

Day -1 before return to Tokyo. It was a unfortunately cold rainy day. We decided a short hike around Banff. We encountered this long long freight at the Banff station. It was really long and long enough to take around 3 to 4 minutes from the head of the train to the last one.   

Hector Lake

We continued on the route 93 further up to Hector Lake and stopped by a view spot. She was close looking at glaciers with her binoculars. We wanted to continue more up on the route 93 but it was time to return.

Lake Bow

Water color of Lake Bow and changing color of the leaves were even magical and just amazing. 

Found the trail

I found out the missing bridge to the trail to Bow Hut, which was a gigantic rock bridging from one side of the canyon to the other. I nagged my wife for further excursion but overruled by her. It was too late for further hike and back. 

Lake Bow and Bow Glacier Falls

We decided to go to Lake Bow and trails from there. The original destination was Bow Hut but I did not manage to find the trail. So we diverted to Bow Glacier Falls.

Route 1 again

Drove on the route 1 again. It was chilly in that morning, 7 degree Celsius compared to the day before when it was 27 C. What a steep temperature down! 

Don't miss local beverage

We did not forget to stop by a liquor shop to fetch Canadian craft beers and Chardonnay from Okanagan Valley. Heaven after hiking.  

Down to Lake Louise

Went down from Big Beehive. We wanted to extend our hike to Plain of 6th Glaciers but gave up because of time constraint. Maybe next time. 

Sleepy squirrel

Squirrels are not afraid of human in this region and thus, it is easy to take close snapshots for them.  

Amazing view

View from Big Beehive to Lake Louise was breathtaking and regular sandwich tasted something special. 

Lake Mirror and Lake Agnes

Hiked to Lake Mirror and then Lake Agnes. Big Beehive actually looked like a beehive. The color of the water was transparent emerald and amazing. By the way, this guy often points when he is impressed by great mountain views since he met a great alpine pioneers in Chamonix. http://www.loomji.fr/commune/photo/full.htm?id=11312 

Lake Louise

Drove to Lake Louise for hiking. Lots of tourists there, so we bypassed this lake to avoid the crowd and hurried on the trail to Lake Mirror, Lake Agnes and up to Big Beehive. 

Evening walk to find something to eat

Evening walk to hunt food with a great view to Three Sisters ahead of us. We ended up in a Chinese restaurant in the downtown Canmore where we felt full and satisfied. 

Johnson Canyon and Castle Mountain

Had a drive along the route 1 and 1A to Johnson Canyon and Castle Mountain. A short hike in Johnson Canyon was a good warm up before more long ones from the following days. We were excited about the awesome views which we had wanted to see in Rockies. 

Arrived at Canmore

After driving 90 minutes from Calgary airport, we arrived at the next place, Canmore. My wife chose a healthy meal and I took a greasy one.

Moving to Canadian Rockies

Woke up at 4:00 am and flying to Canadian Rockies. A small problem in that morning where we hopped on the bus I counted on as a transportation to the airport but the bus ran to a diverted route.. Thanks to the driver of the bus, he instructed us how to recover and because of that, we made it in time to the airport. 

Carrot cake at Take 5 Cafe

After leaving Sweden three years ago, it is difficult to have tasty carrot cake in Tokyo but this carrot cake we found in Take 5 Cafe in the downtown Vancouver, Granville str. was something which reminded me of nice memories in southern Sweden. A guy at the cafe asked me to choose the one he should serve and I said whichever because the remaining three pieces on the tray seemed to me identical but he insisted and forced me to look at them closely and carefully. According to him, there should be slight differences if I am careful. It was the longest moment to choose a single carrot cake in my life. https://www.google.co.jp/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=vancouver+take+five+cafe&rflfq=1&rlha=0&tbm=lcl&rlfi=hd:;si:6176522997527359816 

In Grouse Mountain

After climbing to the Grouse Mountain, views to Vancouver were awesome and funny bear brothers were entertaining you.

Grouse Grind

It is just 2.9 kilometer trail but it is 853 meter elevation with 30 degree slope for more than half of the mileage. We did for challenging ourselves, ages and testing our physical performance not because of avoiding to pay for an expensive Skyride ropeway (43.95 CAD), never. By the way, the laps beside me is not ours for someone else. We took 15 more minutes. https://www.grousemountain.com/