Ella soy yo

We all have those moments when we feel lost and a little overwhelmed by life. After all, life is about moments, some good and some not so good. At times like this, escaping to a foreign place can sometimes be better than therapy. That is precisely what I did.

Earlier this year, my best friend and I decided to spend a weekend in nature. We agreed that Banff National Park in Canada was the perfect destination. To my luck, this trip happened at a point in my life where I needed it the most. Although it was a short trip, I came back home feeling refreshed and full of positive energy.

Moraine Lake

We started our adventure in Banff with a 4:30 am wake up call. We wanted to take advantage of every minute of our stay, so we figured we better start our day early.

Our first destination was Moraine  Lake, one of the perks of waking up so early was that we pretty much had this beautiful view to ourselves. People start showing up after 7 am and since the lakes are a hot tourist spot, they can get really crowded!

 

This was by far my favorite lake, the view and the color of the water were surreal!!

Emerald Lake

Emerald Lake was next on our list, I think this was the destination we were the most excited about. If you plan to go canoeing in the lakes, doing it at Emerald Lake might be your best bet. We found this to be the place with the most affordable prices (we paid about $60 for an hour).

There are no words to describe how I felt as I was Canoeing through this Lake. The scenery, the chilly breeze, the peacefulness of the mountains… Everything was just so breathtakingly beautiful!

 

One thing to keep in mind is that the weather in Banff is bipolar. We went early in June and the mornings were freezing cold! ( we were not prepared for this) luckily it got warmer throughout the day.

Tip: When in Banff you need to be prepared for anything. Rain, Snow and hot summer temperatures; all of these can happen within 24 hours (I swear!!). So make sure to dress in layers and to carry a raincoat, gloves and a scarf in your backpack. You might end up needing all of them!

Town of Banff

After spending the Morning at the lakes we then headed to the town of Banff for lunch. unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to walk around and go into all the cute shops but our brief stop here was fun!

 

Johnston Canyon Hike

 

Our last destination of the day was Johnston Canyon. The main reason Most people do the Johnston Canyon Hike is to see the waterfalls. It takes about 30 mins to get to the first waterfall and about an hour to get to the second one. Although The waterfalls were magical, my friend and I had a different goal in mind.

 

For us, the hike took a little more than 2 hours because our mission was to find the “Hidden Cave”. After walking up and down and in circles a couple of times, we finally found it.

 

Our feet were in so much pain after all the walking but it was worth it, this view left us both speechless!

How to get to the Hidden cave:

Around 20-30 mins after you pass the first waterfall, right at the spot where the trail splits, you will see a post with 2 arrows (don’t follow either one haha) …right there if you get off the trail, and down the muddy path, you will eventually get to the hidden cave. It was indeed tricky to find but I hope this helps!!

 

On our way back to rest, we made a couple of spots along the way to enjoy the view and the beautiful sunset!..the sun sets at around 9:30 pm here!

Lake Louise

We started our second day with another early wake-up call and we headed to Lake Louise!

Although this lake had quite a few hikes, I wanted to take advantage of this time to relax and connect with myself. While My friend did the hike that leads to the Mirror Lake, I stayed behind strolling around and contemplating this stunning view.

 

After spending a few hours here, we then drove to Jasper National Park, which is around 2 hours away from Banff.

Jasper National Park

To get to Jasper you have to take the Icefields Parkway, which is known to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. The scenery was breathtaking, the 2 hours went by fast!

 

even if you don’t visit Jasper you should still make time to drive in the icefields parkway, you won’t regret it!

Once we got to Jasper, we stopped by the Columbia Icefield discovery center. Here we were looking forward to doing the skywalk. This wasn’t part of our plans at all, we just happen to see it in a tourist magazine the day before and we randomly decided to head there the next day.

When making the line to purchase the skywalk tickets we found out there was a Glacier adventure tour. We didn’t hesitate much before deciding we had to do it… I mean, how many times can you possibly come across the opportunity to explore a glacier?? …exactly!

 

After hanging out at the Icefields Glacier for a bit, we then went to do the skywalk. I was super excited about this. Ever since I saw a video on facebook of a skywalk somewhere in Asia, I’ve always wanted to do it and I never Imagined I could experience it in Canada!

 

I wish the skywalk was a little higher up and longer but overall it was a really fun (and somewhat terrifying) experience !!

After our Adventure in Jasper, our time in Banff was limited. We were leaving the next morning, so we had to decide whether to visit Peyto Lake which was around the area or Sulphur Mountain which was back in Banff National Park.

Since we’ve had seen quite a few lakes already we decided to drive back to Banff and take the gondola all the way up to Sulphur mountain.

 

and This is how our Weekend in Nature came to an end. Although it was a very short trip, I think we took advantage of every minute! …what do you think?! 🙂

 

“Sometimes you just need an adventure to cleanse the bitter taste of life from your soul”