West Coast Adventure (Part 2) – Johnson Canyon

We got up early (or so we thought) to begin our second day of adventures. The morning air was fairly chilly as it had dropped down to 4 degrees overnight, which motivated Hayden to get breakfast (i.e. hot chocolate) started as we packed up gear for the day.

We weren’t sure exactly which hike to do, so on the way out of the campground, we stopped to talk to the park office about our options. It was only 9:00, but they told us that we were already starting too late and that parking lots would be full and there would be very limited parking on the road. We were still wrapping our heads around just how busy the park is these days.

Monday

Great.. now what…

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They suggested that we go into Banff, and take the city bus, which has routes that go from all the campgrounds and a couple of locations in the city to all major hiking trail heads. Well, that might just be the best thing ever. After some research and a good chat with the staff, we decided to go to Johnson Canyon and the Ink Pots. We weren’t exactly sure what to expect, but they assured us it was worth doing.

Johnson Canyon and Ink Pots

We ended up parking at the train station downtown to catch the bus, which was really easy to figure out, and before long we were at the canyon. Wow… this place was impressive… and busy (are you starting to see a theme here?). The river at the bottom of the canyon is flanked by huge cliffs and parts of the trail’s metal boardwalks attached to the side of them.

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One very popular stop was a natural cave that has views of a very pretty waterfall behind it. We waited in line for our picture and then headed further up the trail to the top of the canyon.

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The numerous falls on this trail were just amazing. Once we reached the upper part of the canyon we assessed our time and figured we would have just enough to hike into the Ink Pots and still make it back to catch the bus. Although the canyon was beautiful, it was very very crowded, but as we walked past the upper falls and headed to the Ink Pots, we left almost all of the people behind.

The hike to the pots was a little more strenuous and not as accessible but still not difficult. We weren’t sure what we were even walking to, but when we got there we saw 5 natural blue green springs where you can see the water swirling around the bottom. On top of that, the views of the mountains and the cold glacier river were AMAZING! It was one of those places where I could picture myself in a cabin living off the grid.

We decided to sit by the river, cool off our feet in the water, and eat our lunches that we had packed for the hike. This is exactly what everyone else seemed to be doing as well, but it felt like no one was around. I just sat back and listened to the river rushing and took in the beautiful view.

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Time was passing fast and we had a scheduled bus ride to catch, so we hiked back as fast as we could. Luckily we made it to the stop with about 10 minutes to spare. If we missed this bus ride we would have had to wait another hour and a half, so we told Hayden to suck it up and hustle – plus we had a popsicle at the end to reward our hard work!

Downtown Banff

Back at our vehicle we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon walking around downtown Banff. There are some fun stores to window shop, and Hayden and I had some fun with the outdoor store decorations. We even found big foot!

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As it got closer to supper, we decided to find a local park to cook up our meal for the evening. This was ideal as there was a playground that Hayden could use while we prepared the meal. After supper we headed to the Banff Hot Springs for an evening dip where we could also get a shower, as our campground did not have shower facilities. Alas, I didn’t get any pictures of the hot spring (yet).

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Evening at Camp

It was such a lovely evening and we were feeling nice and refreshed from the hot springs, so we decided we should have a campfire that night. We were thoroughly impressed by Parks Canada wood situation – we did NOT have to buy any wood as the wood is all included in your fees!! You just go to the wood yard (which was very impressive) and take as much as you felt like you needed for the night. WOW! Ontario Parks needs to take some pointers here.

Once the fire was going strong, we cooked up a snack of Jiffy Pop. Yes it does actually work great over the fire, once you have mastered the technique of not ripping the entire packaging apart (sorry Dan, we won’t forget that incident).

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By now the sun had set well into the night and we had more big plans for the next day. I had contacted a friend in the area and got some insider information about a nice place for another hike, but for now we headed to bed knowing that we would have another early rise. Stay tuned for the next days adventure.