We took a spontaneous trip up to Banff for my birthday a few weekends ago, and HOLY COW. Neither of us had ever been, and we were so excited to finally explore such a magical place! We used the trip as a trial run for the car camper that Devon built in the back of our Rav, which we ended up loving! He built the whole thing with a little help from Home Depot and youtube tutorials, and it was perfect. Neither of us are particular fans of sleeping in tents (especially in grizzly country), and we’re so excited to try out our camper bed again for our Southwest road trip! We also made the smart & long over due investment into a propane camp stove, which made cooking & meals on the road 100% more awesome. We found all kinds of beautiful, scenic picnic spots to pull over & enjoy real food instead of endless road trip snacks (although we had lots of those too).
Our favorite hike of the trip was to the Lake Agnes Teahouse. Since we stayed at the Lake Louise campground, we hit the trailhead early in the morning to hike up to the teahouse for breakfast. The teahouse sits on a glacial lake nestled in the mountains, built in 1901. The employees hike up fresh ingredients every day, and the tea they serve is made with water from the lake. We got caught in a rainstorm on the way up the trail, and we were pretty drenched & freezing by the time we arrived at the tea house, but we loved it. Sitting above the clouds, greeted by the beautiful blue-green waters of the lake and the smell of freshly baked bread, sipping hot tea was an experience we’ll never forget.
After getting our fill of the gorgeous views (and hordes of visitors) and Lake Louise & Moraine Lake, we decided to drive north towards Jasper in search of someplace slightly less crowded. The road through the Canadian Rockies is a trip in and of itself. There were so many mind-blowing vistas at every single turn, I couldn’t do them justice with a camera if I tried. We stared in awe the entire drive, pulling off at too many gorgeous intersections of pines, peaks, valleys and lakes to remember. We loved making lunch at a quiet riverside picnic spot, tucked away in the mountains before heading home. Convincing ourselves to turn around & head towards home was pretty tough, but we’ve got lots of gorgeous spots saved up for many, many summers in the future!
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