Banff and Jasper in Photos: A Hard-to-Beat Vacation

My brother Tim with Jackson, overlooking Banff from Tunnel Mountain

I guess one thing we know about starting a new job (which was actually about four months ago) is that it makes your personal blogging suffer.

My hundreds of blog posts per year have dwindled to more like dozens in 2012. But, alas, that's OK. Half the battle of running a blog is updating it at least semi-regularly and not letting it die, as happens to 99 percent of blogs.

Jackson scampered up a steep rockpile at the start of Moraine Lake, near the famed Lake Louise

Moral of the story: Better late than never. I just realized tonight that I never posted part two of my Canadian Rockies blogs. It was a great family trip to celebrate my brother's 50th birthday. And I reported on my afternoon in Calgary, but I never wrote about the actual best part of the trip, which was a week in and around the beautiful ski town of Banff.

A surprisingly impressive, but very crowded, hike up Johnston Falls, not far outside of Banff

Taking a long hike up near the glaciers of Jasper on Wilcox Pass

Here are some of my photo highlights.

The drive from Banff to Jasper was beautiful the whole way

Heading up Sentinel Pass, which took us up terrain that was Kilimanjaro-like at times and ended with steep switchbacks and a view of "10 peaks"

Calgary’s Natural Beauty is Most Apparent by Bicycle and Foot

Originally published at Mobility Lab.

Before heading out to Banff in Alberta for a long-planned family vacation in the Canadian Rockies, I had about four hours to kill in Calgary before my wife and son's flight arrived. So, like I do in all new cities I visit, I headed downtown to take a bikeride and walk around some too.

Using social media the day before leaving home in Washington D.C., it took about five minutes before Bike Calgary's Facebook page responded to my question about where I should rent a bicycle and where I should ride. Sure enough, the recommendation was right on. The taxi from the airport drove me about 20 minutes to Rapid Rent in Eau Claire Market, where Taste of Calgary had the place buzzing with people. Christina at Rapid Rent was super helpful and steered me towards biking up and down the nearby Bow River and also saving some time to walk around downtown.

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Prices for the bike rental were reasonable, as they seem to be in all cities around the world. I paid about $25 for three hours, plus a lock and helmet. Then I rode about 20 miles of trail that follow the river on both sides west and east of Eau Claire. The red Peace Bridge was one of the first sites worth stopping at for photos.



The paths are lovingly constructed and one must watch for signs where the bike paths separate from the pedestrian paths.

At one point, I took a photo in one single frame of a train station, a bus depot, bike and walking paths, and countless rafts floating down the river. It made me wonder why the nearby road was filled with cars and trucks belching along. But at least nobody can say Calgarians don't have mobility options!



After dropping my rental bike off, I took Christina's advice and spent an hour walking around downtown before catching a taxi back to the airport. The sites included Olympic Plaza, built for the 1988 Winter Olympics; the Calgary Tower, a space needle of sorts built in 1967 to celebrate Canada's centennial; 8th Avenue SW, which is a pedestrian street lined with shops, bars, and restaurants; and the +15 Skywalks overhead, known as the second most extensive network of skywalks in the world.



There is certainly plenty more to see in Calgary, but I don't think there is any better way of seeing a lot in a little time than biking and complementing it with some walking.

Although I saw plenty of wildlife throughout the afternoon, I did somehow miss the coyotes. Signs along the river trails cautioned me to look out for them. I guess that's something I'll have to wait to see until my next trip to beautiful Calgary!