Day 14 - Until Next Time

The fact that it was our last day hung over our heads a bit today, but we were not deterred from some good exploring time. We slept until 8 this morning, when I forced myself to get up and get going, knowing that we wouldn't have time today to stay out the full day because we had to have time to pack. Once we were all dressed and fed, we set out for Johnston Canyon. I had read about this hike and knew it was a popular one.

We found out just how popular when we got there. We were able to get parking by 10:30, which seemed like a good sign. But once we were on the trail, there were people everywhere. The trail follows the Johnston Creek the whole way on your right. The trail, which is paved, is on the left and starts off wide enough, but shortly into it, you are up against the mountain side on a platform with a gate and railing on your right. It was totally safe, but there were a ton of people, which made it annoying. Normal hiking etiquette calls for you to walk on the right. If people want to pass, they can do so on the left. This hike was so crowded with people who seem to not do a lot of hiking, and they are stopping on narrow bridges to take pictures, or holding hands across the whole trail. Definitely annoying. On this hike, which was about 3 miles round trip, there is the lower falls first, followed by the upper falls. At the lower falls, you have the option to go into a tunnel and get right up near the falls. The kids and I waited, though Will opted out. In fact, he was so turned off by the crowds, he decided to turn around at that point and not do the upper falls. He was also very sore today from his run down the mountain yesterday. Ethan wanted to keep going, though, and Eleanor wanted to stay with us, so we went ahead. 

Luckily, a lot of people turned around at the lower falls, so the upper falls trail was less crowded. It was up higher (hence, upper falls), so some good elevation gain. When we got to the upper falls, you can go down some stairs and then out on this platform to see the falls a bit a better. You have to wait in line while people take their pictures and turn back around so you can get closer. It wasn't too long of a line, though, and someone took our picture with the falls in the background. Then, we did another .3 K climb to see the falls from the very top, which was a neat view. The churning water at the bottom always looks like such a good mix of fun and terror. 

We made our way back down the trail, remembering the crowds and doing our best not to knock into people taking up too much space in the narrow parts. On our way at some point, some rescue workers were bringing a stretcher through. Will said he heard a woman scolding her husband for being late and he said he had to stop to help someone who had fallen over the railing. We didn't see any kind of commotion, so not sure where it happened. After we left and we're doing another small hike, we saw and heard a helicopter go by with a stretcher attached. It came by a few times, so now we are really curious about what had happened. It would not have been easy to go over the railing, unless you were trying to. Or you were pushed....hmmmm. Either way, hope the person is okay.

After Johnston Canyon, we drove a little ways down the road to Moose Meadows and had lunch. We started off on that trail afterwards, but it was a long one to a lake, so we just went up a ways and then came back down.  Then we tried another trail, but it was also too long to do the whole things. So we came back down after a ways and the kids played a bit at a bridge with a small creek. We continued on the little road we were on and ended up passing the Continental Divide. We got out and took some obligatory pictures, and Will had a little geography lesson with the kids. 

We knew there were some things to do right outside of downtown, so we came back to the village. We crossed over the Bow River and went up towards Sulfur Mountain to check that out as well as the hot springs near there. We opted out of the gondola at Sulfur Mountain since we just did one yesterday. You can hike all the way to the top, but it takes about 3 hours one way. The kids are great hikers, and we've put in some major mileage, but that would be a bit much. We will have to do it next time. I know if we told Ethan about it, he would have wanted to do it. He loves going high up. Instead, we went to check out the hot springs. Sadly, they were a bit disappointing. They pump all the hot spring water into what looks like a small, outdoor hotel pool. We were picturing natural rocks and such. They wanted like $25 for us to go in. The kids wanted to, of course, but having to deal with wet suits, no towels, etc. wasn't appealing to Will and I. Plus, we knew they couldn't stay in it for long since it's a hot tub. They saw it like a pool but it's not like they could jump in and do cannonballs and stuff. People were all along the sides, half in and half out. Down a ways from the hot springs pool, though, was an actual round hole filled with the hot spring water. So the kids took their shoes off there and soaked a bit. That seemed a lot better than what looks like a chlorinated pool!

After the hot springs, we drove back down by the river and stopped off at this amazing garden behind the Canadian Parks administrative building. The building itself, all large brick, was beautiful, and this garden was incredible. It was a large, tiered area with water features and all kind of different colorful flowers. There were flowers I'd never seen before in my life.  One kind we all liked was some kind of daisy. It sort of looks like a gerbera daisy, but with smaller, thinner petals, and like 30 of them. There is a white bullseye in the middle and vibrant pinks and purples on the outer petal. We toured the garden a bit and then found a spot along the Bow River, hoping to let the kids at least wade in it. As we got to the shore, though, we realized it was a mud bottom, and it was going to be way too messy to let them go in (we have to return our rental car tomorrow!). Plus, the mosquitos were all of a sudden really terrible by the water, so we got out of there pretty quickly. I had bug spray on from earlier but probably sustained 5 bites there. No fun.

Since it was after 4 at this point, we decided to go back to the hotel to have a snack and do some packing. Really, it was for the kids to have a snack/relax while I did some packing, of course. We've been living out of a suitcase for two weeks now and going from place to place we don't have to necessarily have everything in it's rightful place. But because we fly tomorrow, I have to get everything back in the suitcases and pack the backpacks for each person. I got a good amount done, but we are going to have to get up early to finish and get out the door. We hope to leave by 9 to make sure we are at the Calgary airport by 11. Our flight is at 1:40, so we should be good to go if we stick to that schedule. 

Dinner was at a Greek place, no frills, that has won best burger in town and other awards from Calgary even. The owner is an old, cranky Greek man, so naturally I loved him. Ethan and I shared a burger, and I got a Greek salad, and we all shared poutine since I'd been wanting to get it while in Canada. If you don't know, poutine is French fries with melted cheese curds and a gravy on it. It's as savory as it sounds. Good, certainly, but also terribly salty (I've been downing water all night), and not something I need to get anytime soon. But I'm glad I experienced it. After dinner, we did some souvenir shopping before retiring for the night. 

I'm sad that after tomorrow morning, I won't be waking up to see mountains out my window. But we are all ready to be home, in our own space, and not sleeping in the same room! After a near perfect first half, we certainly had a setback on this trip. But it worked itself out. Since we got to Banff, I've thought very little about what we missed out on (Ethan and Eleanor are still sad we didn't get the bunk beds in the condo), and just thought how glad I am we got here at all. We didn't missed out on 2.5 more days of exploring, and we had to take some things off the list. But now that we have been in the area, we know what we will for sure want to see next time, what we can skip, and where we might like to stay. It will be a while before we return since there are other places we will go first, but we will come back. We have to come back, if only to see a bear, which we were so sure we would see!