45 hour trek to Mountains and Waterfalls

Banff, Alberta and Kalispell, Wyoming.

I decided to start the blog with the trip where we got engaged back in April of 2023. At the time of posting we are about 48 hours before starting our year-long “honeymoon” around the world. The wedding will get posted when we have more photos from our photographer, but for now enjoy pictures from Banff and Glacier, and next week you’ll see a glimpse into the first few days in Asia.

A few days in Canada

Somehow, on our first 20 hour road trip over 2 days we managed to just avoid two big winter storm systems at the end of March and early April. There was a storm the day before we left which did add to the drive through North Dakota, but that was nothing to the storm that went through behind us, full on blizzard with about a foot of snow!

On the way we stayed in Regina, Saskatchewan for free thanks to a credit card perk with IHG. After a pretty uneventful drive we were coming in to Calgary and thought we’d run into snow by the looks of the ominous sky, but it held off until we made it to our hotel near Banff. Right after we checked in, the snow was coming down thick and fast so we had to take a walk along the scenic paths around this mountain resort. Here’s us during the snowy walk:

The resort we stayed at was thanks to another credit card perk, and had several bars and restaurants, and the first night we went to the Blacktail Bar and had some tasty beverages and enormous poutine. If you aren’t familiar with poutine, check it out in all its glory: fries, cheese curds, gravy and in this case amazing shortribs.

We shared the poutine, a bison burger that came with salad, and a cheese cake. We’ve been trying to switch to a shared appetizer and entree rather than two entrees for us both that are usually too much food and then you don’t get to try appetizers or desserts, or you just try them anyway and get over full! Splitting a single 3 course meal can be cheaper and possibly healthier in the long run, at least that’s what I’m telling myself:).

The next day we decided to stay close by, Mr. Wander had to do a training run for his half marathon coming up so I stayed in and relaxed a bit. We had a picnic lunch overlooking the mountains until wind and more snow drove us back inside. We decided to check out the pool area and enjoyed the indoor/outdoor hot tub. It was nice to be outside where it was quiet. After another walk around the village we went to Woody’s bar, where we saw an enormous list of local brews, it was hard to choose just a few! I started to come to the realization that Calgary must have so many breweries it’s like the Denver of Canada. Or maybe it’s something about living near the mountains that makes people want to drink or make delicious beer?

Our second full day there we rented XC skis from the resort and completed a 2 mile loop they have twice, once in the morning clockwise, and again counterclockwise after lunch. We aren’t super skilled so we didn’t want to take on anything too steep or hilly but with the newer snow over the last few days and sun coming out in the afternoon it was pretty slow and sticky-but an excellent workout! To refuel that night, we checked out the third main restaurant, Forte, and had the most amazing pizza, several cheeses with a white sauce and honey! We are going to try and replicate it at home. I also tried their s’mores old fashioned, which came with a toasted marshmallow, he actually set it on fire and stuck it in the glass like that for a smokey cocktail.

The following day we finally got in the car for the first time but stayed within the Kananaskis country and did a 6 mile out and back hike along a dam and up switchbacks to this glorious view near the top of Yates Mountain:

We didn’t make it to the top of the mountain but it was high enough for me, my sports induced asthma makes things at elevation more challenging and I hadn’t fully acclimated to the above 5000 feet yet. I was even more amazed we made it down without falling, it was getting slippery in some spots and I was very thankful for remembering my trekking poles. Pretty sure they saved a knee or two.

We enjoyed a picnic along the lakeshore after we got back down. We made hot chocolate in the thermos using the hot water kettle we had in the room. The intention was to have the hot chocolate at the top but we forgot to add the chocolate before we left the car, whoops! So we hiked the whole way with an extra weighted backpack….oh well! Since this was likely the last night dining at the lodge, we decided to do a progressive dinner and have our favorite appetizer (poutine, of course) from Blacktail Bar, that amazing pizza from Forte, and we tried a new dessert at Woody’s with a few “dessert” beers we had wanted to try the first time we were there.

The Big Surprise

On our last full day in Canada, we drove up through Banff to Lake Louise. I didn’t realize this until later but it was one of Mr. Wander’s favorite places he had been to as a kid, and this was my first time there. We walked on the sleigh path along the lake and at the end saw two amazing frozen waterfalls, bright blue thanks to glacial waters. This was the bigger one, excuse the poor selfie skills ;).

On the way back, we decided to walk across the lake. I was just admiring how the perspective was so different being at water level and how it reminded me of one of my favorite kayak experiences back in NZ, when I realized Mr. Wander had stopped walking. I turn around to see why, and he was holding something. Then he got down on his knee and asked me to marry him!! Of course I said yes!

Even though we had already been planning the wedding this was a complete surprise! It was so fun telling friends and family, after 10 years together to hear you are making things official, they get pretty excited. We of course had to celebrate with a few tasty beverages and dessert at the hotel at the end of the lake.

We took a hike up the hill which was an adventure in itself because it was quite icy. We probably should have had microspikes, or at least the poles but when it was real slick we just crouched down and tried a “controlled slide” from tree to tree.

On the way back to the hotel we went up the Banff Gondola to the top of Sulfur mountain to gorgeous 360 views of the surrounding mountains.

Back to the US

The next day we drove back into the US via British Columbia to get near the Glacier National Park area, which was about 6 hours. In our earlier wedding planning we had already booked a house and a photographer to get married in the park in a small destination wedding, but before submitting the permit we wanted to check out the ceremony location. See for yourself just how gorgeous it was:

Most of the rest of our time was spent exploring the various restaurants and finding hikes or xc ski options for when the family would come out in December. The drive home was pretty easy and Mrs. Wander got to visit a college friend that lived about halfway back to MN.

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Now time to get the rest of our ducks in a row and board our flight! See you next week and have a very Merry Christmas!