WOW!! WOW!! WOW!!  Can not describe the amount of beautiful scenery we have seen during the last week.  So we set off from Edmonton and headed to Jasper National Park.  Jasper is amazing and gorgeous.  Almost every road we drove was on the edge of a crystal clear running creek with a snow capped mountain in it's back drop.  Maligne Lake was absolutely beautiful as was the Jasper Resort.  The town was lovely and we drank beer in the pub and watched an ice hockey match.  Here we stayed the night in a room of a lady's house for cheap, comfy bed and with everything a hotel room has. 

From Jasper we took off south again through Lake Louise and down to Banff.  This took us a full day with a lot exploring along the way.  Edith Cavell was just amazing.. this was a drive up a mountain and a couple of hikes off the road.  The first was down to a small lake which was starting to freeze at the edges.  Tav loved this and froze his hands when picking up huge slabs of ice.  The lake was an amazing site with a beautiful reflective surface.  We then hiked up to a glacier that looked like a mini-antactica with big chunks of ice floating in a pool of melted glacier.

We stayed in Banff for 3 nights, again in a B&B with a family where the wife was originally from Sydney.  The first morning we woke up and there was a gorgeous big Elk in the driveway munching on the bushes.  Very cute!  Banff is an awesome place to visit or live.  There is heaps to do both in the town and also exploring the outskirts.  The town is full of shops, cafes and pubs and the people are friendly.  Our first day in Banff we took the gondala to the top of the mountain for a fantastic view of the city and the mountains, here we experienced our first snow for the season - very exciting!  We drove to the Ice Fields and walked on a glacier, we hiked Johnson Canyon which was awesome with boardwalks through the canyon and waterfalls (a must see!), we hiked to Maligne Canyon, many beautiful lakes, creeks and waterfalls, we have also been on the look out for wild bear but still have not found one... we'll have to settle for our sightings of moose, elk, goats, deer and squirrel.

Canmore was another place that we stayed and played for 2 nights.  A pretty cool place with heaps to do and see.  We spent our days travelling through Kananaskis Country which was full of more spectacular views.  I've tried to give this place justice in words and hopefully the photos will help also.  This place is a must see!!!

Off to Calgary for a night and then we are bussing it to Vancouver.. a 14 hour journey through the night which we are not looking forward to.