It was another cold night in Banff, and despite being cozy and warm in our tent, we still got up early for another day of adventure. The plan was to take it easy since we had just finished two pretty long hikes on the previous days. So, on the advice of a local outdoor enthusiast that I know from online, we headed to Canmore for a short morning hike at Grassi Lakes ( Thanks Lee!!).
Tuesday Morning
We were treated with yet another bear sighting on the way out of our campground. I’m not sure how many we had seen up to that point, but spotting one of these beasts is always impressive. Luckily it stayed far enough away and didn’t seem to be bothered by us.
When we arrived at the trailhead, it was clear that this was also a very popular hike, and the parking lot was filling up very quickly. Grassi Lakes Trail has two very clear blue lakes to which a local pioneer had build these trails. There were two options for the trail, an easy way and difficult way. After doing some research, we found that most people take the easy way up, then the difficult way down, so that’s what we decided to do as well. The easy way was an old fire road, while the difficult way was through the woods over roots, rocks, etc. We could have easily done the difficult way both ways, but wanted to mix things up a bit.
Once at the top it was amazing to see just how blue and clear these two lakes actually were. We meandered around taking in the scenery, then we headed down the trail back to our vehicle. While the fire road we took on the way up was…. a fire road… the views on the way back down over the Bow Valley and the town of Canmore were amazing.
Such clear water! 
Looking down into the valley 
Hard “stairs” 
Beautiful waterfalls
Lunch!
Our bellies were grumbly by now and we needed refueling. We stopped at a local provincial park and used their picnic area to eat our lunch, which were the lovely OTG Meals that we received earlier in the spring (you can read about my complete review here.) After fueling up, we needed to stop at the grocery store in Canmore to stock up on some items for the remainder of our trip, then we headed back to Banff to check out a few tourist spots.
Tuesday Afternoon
With no real destination now planned, we headed back towards our campground and drove the road to Lake Minnewanka. Here there are tours that you can go on around the lake, rent canoes, swim, chill on the beach, or hike some of the trails in the area. However, the sky was looking pretty dark, so we opted to walk around, take a few photos (yes in the red Canada Parks chairs), and got back to the car just as the rain showers started. As we drove past the lake we also got to see some more mountain goats. As we drove past we remembered that this is the exact spot we saw goats the last time we were here in 2002 – Dan remembers one of those goats looking like he was going to ram the side of our new car!
Red Chairs! 
Goats!
While taking shelter from the rain in our car, we checked the map and decided to head up the road to Mount Norquay where there was a lookout located near the top. At this point we were just impulsively picking places to go on the map near the town of Banff. This road had many switchbacks until eventually we were at the top. We were once again greeted by some mountain goats by the look out. This was another amazing view! The last time we came to Banff, Dan and I hiked Tunnel Mountain and had views of Banff from the other side. This time we were looking from the opposite mountain. Very cool! AND there were two more red chairs!
More Goats 
Just check out this view! 
Selfie check
Scoping out the map again, we headed towards the Hoodoos. These are natural rock formations in the sandstone and limestone along the Bow River. We walked the path along the river just admiring the views.
The next stop for us was the Cave and Basin National Site. Here is where local explorers found a natural heated cave that was used for bathing. Be warned that this does have a very strong rotten egg smell from the sulphur in the water. The park had a cool display where you can show what your dreams would be for the country. Hayden and I both decided to participate and leave our picture on the display wall. Another display that I enjoyed was the directional arrows pointing to all other national sites around Canada. I was happy to find Cape Spear and Gros Morne, both of which we had visited last year. As you can see in the picture we are very far away.
It’s smelly in here 
Showing our support 
Far away from home
For supper, we went back to the park in Banff where had eaten before, then decided to head back to the hot springs again before going back to our campsite. This time I took my phone so that I could take some pictures.
Before 
Enjoying the hot water 
After
Believe it or not, the hot springs can really tire you out, while also making you very hungry! We knew that downtown Banff had a couple of Beavertail stores, so we headed there for our evening snack. YUMMY!!!
On our way back to the campground we spotted some elk in a large field. Hayden has never seen one before so this was a nice surprise.
That evening Hayden played in the woods with some of the other kids and we enjoyed a nice campfire.
Come back next week as we continue our adventure.