A spontaneous mountain drive

The day always comes when you have to go home, and here it was. We didn’t have any plans for the day but I hate going home early and wasting a day that could be spent exploring.

We eventually decided to check out Banff, since it is so near to Canmore, and see what it had to offer. We found a good parking spot, turned a corner and ended up right on the main street. This is the best place for shopping, eating and people watching in Banff. That being said it is also very busy. The mass amounts of people that clog the streets remind me of being in Europe. Honestly, I love it.

We slipped in and out of the shops, occasionally toying with the idea of a purchase and then moving on. Most shops that caught our attention could be found in the malls at home.

You know what can’t be found at home?? Cows Ice Cream. Born on Prince Edward Island, most of the locations are located there but Banff is home to the only Cows in Alberta!

I believe my flavor was “Brownie Explosion” and Ryan had “PEI Strawberry.” Both were excellent. In fact, I may have finished half my scoop before we left the store..

Ice cream in hand, we made our way back into the cold crowded streets and did a bit more window shopping. A short ways down the road, back at the car, we tried to decide what to do next. I still was not ready to go home. I wanted to go to the hot springs until Ryan made an even better suggestion. Drive the long way home and stop at Crescent Falls.

Crescent Falls is near Nordegg and it’s my absolute favorite place for camping and hiking. It also has some pretty beautiful waterfalls.

As it turns out, it’s also only about 2.5 hours up the road from Banff. Unless you go the other way, back through Canmore, then somehow its 3.5 hours. So we drove from Banff to Canmore, realized it was the ‘wrong” way and went back to Banff to find the right road.

This way takes you through the Ice Fields Parkway, a place I don’t remember ever being, and it’s incredibly beautiful. If you ever drive this way make sure to give yourself plenty of extra time because every corner you turn offers another incredible view and picture opportunity. I found myself quite amused by the amount of snow here too. Canmore had barely any and then all of a sudden everything was covered in deep snow, until we came out the other side and it was all gone again.

Before we came out the other side though, we found one spot that I couldn’t resist stopping at. Everything about it was amazing. We had to go down a steep shale covered slope so that we could climb a big rocky hill and really appreciate what was around us. I could have stayed there all day. However, I was freezing my buns off so we climbed back down and back to the car. A quick look at the map told us we were only 18 minutes from Crescent Falls, so off we went again!

The dirt road down to the falls is slow and muddy and winding. Occasionally, when another car passes, you have to be uncomfortably close to an edge that goes a long way down. It’s worth every moment of it.

At the end of the road we walked down a big hill to get to the top of the falls. I’d never been there in winter but it’s just as lovely. A frozen waterfall has a certain appeal, different than a summertime fall, but appealing no less. Ryan didn’t want to climb down the steep slope to see the falls from the front so we took a few minutes up top, decided to return in the summer and then went back to the car again.