Drive to Charleston, WV

First day was solely a driving day. Deb drove while I worked. We stopped for lunch and saw a City Barbeque, which got our hopes up because there used to be one in Orland Park that was pretty good. Unfortunately, this one wasn't. The meat was just OK, pretty dry, and the cornbread was burned (it was brown) Deb said it seemed like they got carried away with the smoker and smoked the cornbread too. No one seemed thrilled about working there either. We continued on to Charleston and out first Fairfield Inn of the trip. There was a nice looking Italian place across the street called The Olive Tree, so we walked over there after checking in. The food there was meh, not bad but pretty averagell around. So not much to say for the day, just your typical travel day.

Bismarck to home

Today we drove all the way from Bismarck to home. It was a total drive of about 13 hours. Not much else to say other than we did stop at a gas station and noticed they had a giant pink elephant, so that was cool. This was a really cool trip. We saw so many awesome things it was unbelievable. I’m already wondering when we’ll be back to do it all again.  Our total mileage was 4,550 miles.  Here’s a pic of the elephant.

Theodore Roosevelt NP, drive to Bismarck

Drove to Theodore Roosevelt NP, but it was freaking hot! Car showed anywhere from 101-106 while we were there. There are buffalo all over the place here, they didn’t seem to be enjoying the heat much either.  It’s very scenic, kind of like the badlands in South Dakota with a river at the bottom and, again, lots of buffalo.

We did a short, half mile hike, hoping to walk in the river, but there was no access. So we just did the scenic drive loop and headed out. It was a good stop, nice to stretch our legs a bit, even though the planet Venus would probably be cooler.

We stopped in Dickinson, ND about halfway to Bismarck, and ate at Los Cabos, good Mexican food. Tomorrow we will attempt to drive home.

Waterton Lakes NP, Lost wallet. and drive to Malta, MT

After the breakfast buffet at the hotel, which was actually pretty good, we drove down to Waterton Lakes NP. 

Almost every search for Waterton Lakes has results with people raving about the Bear's Hump hike, so we had to do it.  It is short, but very steep, it does have steps which made it easier. But the air is pretty thin and it can be rough for people with asthma.  The area had a forest fire a few years ago so all the tress were burned out.  This was kind of interesting but also meant there was no shade, which made the hike that much hotter.  There is a great view at the top which made the hike more than worth it.  A lot of wind too, which felt really good since it was pretty warm on the way up.

We then ate "linner" in town at Zum's and there was a Beaver Tails right next door.  So we had to get that as well, very good linner.  Only bummer was when I went to pay at Zum's I realized I lost my wallet at some point.  After retracing my steps to the car and a thorough search of the car we came to the realization I must have lost it on the Bear's Hump hike, as I remember having it in the parking lot before we started.

So we went back to Bear's Hump and I started to hike it again, while looking for wallet, which really wasn't on my list of things I wanted to do, as I said it is a pretty steep hike and it was pretty warm out. Luckily, Deb found a young guy parked next to us who was willing to RUN the trail again, which he has just finished doing. So he caught up to me real quick on the trail and moved on ahead of me.   He talked to people just a little farther up who told him they remembered some other people saying they found a wallet and would try to get a hold of me. So he told me this and headed down ahead of me (once again running).  By the time I got back down he had remembered seeing a piece of paper on the trail sign.  It turned out to be a note for me that said the wallet was at the hotel.  The Prince of Wales Hotel is right across the street from the trail so we figured that must be the one they were referring to. So we went there and sure enough they had my wallet, thank God, and big thanks to the "running guy" and whoever found my wallet and took it to the hotel. What a big relief to get it back!

After that adventure we drove around and did a short walk to Red Rock canyon on the way out of the park.  Pretty canyon and a nice casual hike around it.  We would have liked to spend more time exploring the park, but the wallet fiasco really ate up a lot of time and we still had a long drive ahead of us.  We then drove 320 miles, mostly on what may be the straightest road for that long of a distance I've ever been on, Rte 2.  Our destination was the bustling metropolis (pop 1876) of Malta, MT. Due to the wallet delay and a slight re-route to find a border crossing that was still open, we didn't get in until 1 AM. The Country Inn was the motel, and it was very dark and the entire situation had an American Horror Story vibe to it as I left Deb in the car and went into the empty lobby. My only companions in the lobby were some taxidermy animals.  Had to call the guy to come down from his apartment upstairs and give me a key. This was definitely not a Marriott property. We survived and really the guy was very pleasant and helpful in the end.  He even got the breakfast foods (cereal and toast) back out for us when we finally got up the next day.

Just another day on vacation for us.

Norquay Lift, Kootenay, drive to Calgary

We started our Saturday and last day in Banff by finally getting on the Norquay lift and had breakfast at the top. The restaurant up there did not offer much choice for breakfast.  I guess this is understandable given how they have to get supplies there.  But the few choices they did have were odd, nothing very traditional.  It would have been nice to be able to just get some scrambled eggs and bacon, for example.  I don't know why some places feel they have to offer exotic, or off beat, food when the whole attraction is something other than the restaurant itself.  Great views though, it was very peaceful, quiet with the morning mountain breezes. 

We then drove around Lake Minnewanka area, which was kind of the opposite, really crowded. We just drove around because parking was virtually impossible.  The whole park seems to be much more crowded than during week.   It looked nice, but honestly the experience was kind of ruined by the congestion.  

We did find parking by Johnston Canyon, where we hiked to the lower falls.  This was also crowded though, and parts of the hike are single file so it was tight.  Also a big attraction is to walk into a little hole under the falls. People were stacked up waiting on this, so we just did a selfie with the falls in the background.  We've been under Niagara Falls so we get what the experience is like. 

After that we left Banff and drove down to Kootenay Park, we did a short hike around Marble Canyon.   Nice pretty canyon, not a bad hike.  We will have to come back and explore Kootenay more some time/  We then drove to Calgary, we ate at "The Place"-a small local Italian place.  Very old school where the workers seemed to know most of the customers, food was pretty good.  We also had the honeymoon suite at the Four Points we stayed at.  That was kind of nice.

Non-hiking day in Banff

Today we slept in.  We grabbed breakfast at Summit Cafe in Canmore. Nice little cafe, very relaxed and good food.  We did a horseback ride around the Spray River/ Bow Falls area.  My horse was named “Mountain”, they definitely matched each horse with the size of the person.  Feeling a bit insulted, but whatever.  Deb's horse was named "Misty" or something girly like that. It was a nice ride around the wilderness (and a golf course).  Fun fact, did you know that after riding a horse for an hour or more, your leg might fall asleep?  I discovered this as I was descending the mountain(aka dismounting).  So for us tourists, they out a little step on the left side of the horse.  You first put your left foot on this and the swing the right leg over.  When I did this I discovered I had no control over the dead weight that was my leg.  Nearly knocked the 120 pound girl who was spotting me right on her ass.  I might have flattened her if I didn’t have ahold of the saddle with my hand.   So a nice peaceful ride through the wilderness ended with a bit of an adventure.

So anyway, we decided to drive around for a bit, nothing really planned the rest of the day.  We decided to do the Mt Norquay chair lift, on the way up we saw several bighorn sheep on the side of the road. Unfortunately, when we got up there they told us a storm was rolling in so the lift would be closed for a few hours.  So we did the Vermilion Lakes drive, which was a bit different than other areas of Banff.  It was actually a flat drive and there were very few people around the lakes, I think we saw at most 10 people.  We did try to find the source of the thermal spring that feeds the lakes (and keeps a large part of them from freezing all winter).  But that turned out to be just some smelly water in basically a roadside ditch.  But it is a nice area and as I said,  very quiet and secluded.  

We headed back up to the Mt Norquay chair lift, but now we were too late as it was closed for the day. We did see a bear on the mountainside there. This would turn out to be the only bear we saw on the trip and it was about a half mile away.  We saw 2 more sheep on way down, so that was kind of cool.  We once again did not have a reservation and free-lanced a restaurant for dinner.  We ended up eating at the bar of Park Distillery right in the middle of Banff. We both had steaks, they were pretty good, as were the drinks.  Also, we appreciated the efforts of them to get a chair with a back for Deb as the barstool was not good for her.  I think they actually brought one up for storage in the basement.

All in all, it was a good relaxing day, except for my stumble down the mountain.

Banff-Lake Louise and Moraine Lake

So this probably wasn’t my best planning.  We had to get up for a 9:00 shuttle to Lake Louise.  Which doesn’t sound bad.  And really didn’t expect it to be a problem.  But since we got in after 11 and had to unpack the car and get settled it was after midnight before we went to bed.  After the long day, the next morning came really early.  But we got up and drove to the Park and Ride in Banff for the shuttle to Lake Louise.  What was really disappointing was we made the shuttle on time, and then sat on the bus in the lot for 20 minutes while they waited for people.  WTF?

Anyway, we made it to Lake Louise, which is the most famous attraction around Banff.  It is really beautiful, but like a lot of national parks, was VERY crowded.  Had to work our way through the Instagram crowd to get a decent picture of the lake, which again, is really nice.  We decide to hike around to the back of the lake and then we saw a sign for a hike up to the tea house. For the record, this hike was not my idea.  I even pointed out it was 1,400 feet up and 3.4 km long. Uphill all way, this hike is pretty tough on the feet and body. Waited in 2 really slow lines, Deb for the bathroom and me to order some food.  The snack at the tea house was good though. 

We then walked back down (hard on the toes) and boarded the shuttle to Moraine Lake.  Moraine Lake is also very beautiful. This was probably partially because of how tired we were to start the day and also because of the hike to the tea house, but we were too tired to hike anymore. So we relaxed on the patio, did some people watching and shared a sausage roll. 

We then took the shuttle back to Banff for dinner, ate at Tooloulos. We got kinda lucky as it started to rain just as we found the restaurant.  About a minute after we sat down at the table in the front window, it started pouring really hard.  So we were dry and had the fun of watching other people scramble around in the rain.   Food just OK, Deb had cajun shrimp, I had scallops. The most memorable part of the meal was we discovered that a Thai chili pepper is REALLY hot.  It was on her plate, apparently just as a decoration, and we both took a bite, which we will never do again!  

After dinner we walked around Banff a bit, it’s a nice tourist town with a lot of the standard gift shops and lots of restaurants.  We saw a sign for beaver tails, which I had heard we had to get.  These things are freshly fried dough with sweet toppings.  Since we were on vacation we got ours with ice cream on them. Very, very good.  Perfect way to end the day before heading home for some much needed rest.