Trip to Rocky Mountain

4-day travel log

18 Mar 2017 View Comments
#trip #rocky #mountains #banff #travellog

I initially had a plan to go visit Korea for 3 weeks during my work transition. However, my wife didn’t want to take her time off of her work that she wouldn’t come along to Korea with me. Then she didn’t want me to go by myself all the way to Korea. She wasn’t feeling safe of me traveling alone due to my drinking habits plus I really didn’t have much to do in Korea by myself so I canceled my flight to Korea.

Then I was left with 3 weeks to spend myself. My wife was busy with her work for first 2 weeks. So I searched for a short trip somewhere to go somewhere for the last week. I asked my wife to drop by the travel agent for a short trip. The travel agent recommended us traveling to the Rocky Mountains on a coach. My wife seemed very interesting as it was her first time going there. I, on the other hand, have been there twice already, but I was also interested as I never been to Rocky during the winter time.

March 11th

Vancouver -> Hope -> Salmon Arm

The first day was mostly just driving. I got on the bus at 7:30 in the morning at the Canada Place. We drove for about 2 hours and arrived at the Hope, We had our lunch there at a Korean restaurant. The food wasn’t that bad. Then we drove again onto Coquihalla Highway for about 4 hours bypassing Kamloops toward Salmon Arm. We had Chinese for the dinner, then stayed at the Comfort Inn & Suites for the night.

On the way to Rocky Mountain

In the bus

March 12th

Salmon Arm -> Lake Louise Lake -> Kananaskis

Woke up early in the morning around 5 AM to have the breakfast at the hotel. Unfortunately, one hour was wasted as the summer time started. Despite the disappeared hour, I actually had a pretty good sleep. After the breakfast, we began driving again passing by the Banff National Park.

We dropped by a couple of lakes during the way. They were all frozen and iced that we could walk and jump on the lake. First one was called “Emerald Lake”. There seemed to have some awesome trails to hike but I did not have enough time to hike. I would love to try hiking there next time I visit.

We also stopped at the Lake Louise, of course. Luckily the weather cleared up and I could see all the surrounding mountains around the lake. Speechless by the beauty, my wife and I walked around the lake, jumping at times. It definitely felt different than when I came during the summer last time. We then drove to Kananaskis and stayed at Delta Lodge which was fairly large and convenient.

People playing hockey at the Lake Louise

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

At the Lake Louise featuring the feet of my wife's and mine

Strange man jumping at the Lake Louise, seems happy

March 13th

Kananaskis -> Banff -> Salmon Arm

Breakfast at the hotel at 6:30 AM. We drove out to Banff downtown in the morning. The town was quite small. Surprisingly, it has a pretty big Korean restaurant. Since the food prices are pretty expensive, I ended up eating my lunch at the Udon place called Chaya and ordered a ramen. It wasn’t as good as the ramen in Vancouver but I was happy to get a ramen at least away from the town. We ended up staying in the town until 3 pm as there was a bad accident between Revelstoke and Golden that the roads were closed. I spent some spare time walking back and forth the Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel. Provided a surrounding exquisite view, I took so many photos and videos on the way. After the Banff downtown, we went to try out the Banff Gondola. I didn’t join as I do not particularly like gondolas. I pretty much killed my time at the coffee shop. Then more driving afterward and finally we arrived at our hotel quite late around 10-11 PM back at the Comfort Inn & Suites in Salmon Arm.

Banff Downtown

Trail toward Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel

Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel

Inside Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel

March 14th

Salmon Arm -> Hope -> Vancouver

Trip over! We drove back the way we came initially which was quite dreadful. Other than the dreadful driving part, the trip was much more exciting and fun than I anticipated in the beginning. Big thanks to the weather being all cleared up during our trip!

On the way back

Photo of my wife and I

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