Calgary

On Monday, I shared a few pictures from the trip we took last week to see if you could tell where we were. All the guesses were close, and several readers hit the nail on the head. We spent eight days in the Canadian Rockies! I have wanted to take Mr. Handsome to Alberta since before we were married, and it finally happened.We flew into Calgary and stayed overnight with friends. Then we stopped by Walmart to load up on healthy snacks and ingredients for peanut butter and jelly before heading to the mountains. After checking into our bed and breakfast, we grabbed our hiking gear and went straight to the trails.

The first trail was a short walk to the hoodoo viewpoint. If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering what on Earth a hoodoo is. (Sure is fun to say, isn’t it?) We learned that hoodoos are rock formations that have been eroded into pillars. You can see a few towards the bottom of this photo:

Our next stop was Tunnel Mountain, a 2.7 mile/4.3 km hike with a 948 foot elevation gain. It took us about two hours. On the way to the top, the views just kept getting better and better, and we took pictures every chance we got.

There were beautiful mountains and valleys in every direction!

Mr. Handsome snapped a bunch of photos for painting inspiration.

Mr. Handsome also really enjoyed playing around with the panorama setting on his iPhone.

 

This is the first video we made on our trip. It’s a little shaky and poor quality, but I promise that the rest of the videos I will post from our trip will be clearer and more stable.

When we reached the top, we were both blown away by the breathtaking view of Banff Townsite and the surrounding mountains. We saw a teenage boy sitting on a rock engrossed in his smartphone, and it made us laugh. How could someone prefer technology over this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime view?

“The views are only going to get better from here,” I told Mr. Handsome excitedly. “No way,” he responded. “Surely this is going to be the best view we see on our entire trip.”

The views did end up getting better each day, making Tunnel Mountain a perfect first hike.

Here is another video I filmed at the peak:

 

Following our hike, we walked around Banff Townsite trying to find a reasonably priced place to eat. After much time spent looking at menus outside various restaurants, we finally settled on McDonald’s. I would never choose to eat at McDonald’s at home, but we were hungry and tired, so the food tasted great!

We stopped by Bow Falls, a very loud and fast-flowing waterfall below the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.

And of course, we had to take the iconic picture at the end of Banff Avenue. Unfortunately, it was 10pm by that time and starting to get dark, so the photo didn’t turn out great.