Kananaskis – Banff – Lake Louise – Icefields Parkway

The Rockies Became Home

Repeat Visitor

If there is one place we could return to over and over again, it's the Canadian Rockies.

This was our third visit to the Banff–Lake Louise region in the last five years, yet somehow it still felt just as magical as the first time. The combination of towering mountains, abundant wildlife, charming mountain towns, and escaping the Florida summer heat is hard to beat.

What began as another stop on our Great Northern Expedition slowly turned into something much different.

Between Kananaskis, Banff, Lake Louise, Canmore, and the Icefields Parkway, we ended up spending almost a month exploring the area. Although we often refer to it simply as "Banff," we were actually covering a huge stretch of the Rockies—from Canmore and Kananaskis in the south, through Banff and Lake Louise, and all the way north along the Icefields Parkway to the Athabasca Glacier. It's well over 150 miles from end to end, yet after weeks of driving those mountain roads, it all began to feel like our own neighborhood.

We hiked, biked, golfed, explored, and, for a little while, became reverse snowbirds.

When the Mountains Make the Rules

We began with five nights in Kananaskis, excited about all the adventures we had planned.

The mountains had other ideas.

Sometimes Mother Nature reminds you who's really in charge. She gave us a couple of nice wildlife sightings: Big Horned Sheep and a beautiful Black Bear then......

Rain became our constant companion. We even woke up to snow a couple of mornings! Seeing fresh snow in June was a novelty for two Floridians. It was heavy enough that we had to brush it off the windshield before we could drive, and for a little while it even coated the ground in white.

The cats weren't nearly as impressed. They had been enjoying getting outside on their leashes, but several days of cold rain left them staring out the windows, wondering why we weren't opening the door.

Our carefully planned itinerary unraveled one surprise at a time.

Highway 40—one of our favorite wildlife drives—was completely closed because of grizzly bear activity. No cars, no bikes, and no hikers were allowed through. Another favorite backcountry road was closed because of a rockslide. Golf tee times were cancelled because of the weather, although we managed to sneak in one late afternoon round at the spectacular Kananaskis Golf Course during a light drizzle. (More on that incredible course in a separate blog—it easily remains one of our Top 10 golf courses anywhere.)

Instead of fighting the weather, we simply changed plans.

A Rainy Day in Calgary

With another rainy day ahead, we decided to spend some time in Calgary.

We wandered into a cozy café for breakfast, picked up fresh sourdough bread and croissants from a local bakery, and then spent several hours exploring Studio Bell, home of Canada's National Music Centre.

One of the biggest surprises was discovering just how many musicians we had always assumed were American were actually Canadian. The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Loverboy, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, The Band, Hank Snow, Anne Murray—and many more. We found ourselves listening to old favorites while discovering a few artists we later downloaded to enjoy during the rest of our trip.

That was enough city life for us.

The mountains were calling us back.

The Rockies Became Home

One unexpected thing happened during our extended stay.

We stopped feeling like tourists.

Because of campground availability—and after changing our grandson's flights so he could spend more time with us—we extended our stay in the Rockies by nearly two weeks. That meant juggling campground reservations between Banff, Lake Louise, and the Icefields Parkway.

Booking campsites in the Canadian Rockies deserves an adventure story of its own. Reservations open on one specific day each January, and thousands of campers log into the Parks Canada reservation system at exactly the same time. I had three devices running simultaneously, hoping one would get a better place in the virtual queue. For popular campgrounds, you need to know your travel dates months in advance, and changing plans later—especially with a 42-foot motorhome—is incredibly difficult.

Fortunately, persistence paid off.

The extra moving around turned out to be a blessing.

Instead of rushing through the Rockies, we settled into them.

Canmore quietly became our "hometown."

We found ourselves driving there over and over again—not because we had to, but because that's simply where life happened. We opened a Canadian bank account, had our Raptor repaired after an ABS sensor failed, picked up online orders from Canadian Tire (which is much more like Home Depot than an American tire store), shopped repeatedly at our favorite Safeway, and eventually even rented a storage unit there for part of our journey. Later, when our grandson joined us, we were back again so he could spend a day climbing at one of Canmore's fantastic climbing gyms.

Before long, we weren't asking, "How far is Canmore?"

We were asking, "Do we need anything while we're in town?"

One afternoon a shop owner casually asked if we were locals.

We laughed.

For just a moment...it almost felt like we were.