2026 Road Trip - Day 24

Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026 - Visiting Maligne Lake, then south down to Banff! After 239 miles, Wendy and I checked into the Royal Canadian Lodge in Banff, Canada at 5 PM:

When I stepped out for a breath of fresh air, I said hello to an elk in the neighborhood:

After breakfast and checking-out, we had a beautiful drive down to Maligne Lake. We saw an elk scamper across the road:

The landing area for Maligne Lake Cruises is very well run:

And OFF WE GO!

Wave to another boat. Nice journey down The Lake, under cloud-cover (but no rain):

Spirit Island is BEAUTIFUL:

On our way back up The Lake, the clouds had lifted a little, and we were able to see more forest and mountains:

A Lovely Morning-Adventure (Thank You God!) - Goodbye to Maligne Lake:

Heading back north, going past Medicine Lake:

Beautiful Country up here in Jasper:

Down the Icefields Parkway to Banff:

We stopped at the Columbia Glacier Rest Stop, took an overview photo, plus one with the ants on the trail and the glacier:

More Beauty to get us back down to the Royal Canadian Lodge in Banff, Canada. Thank you God for this wonderful CANADA Adventure Day!

Music for today:

Time to hit The Road:

Joni Mitchell - For The Roses, 1972 album, last heard 9/01/2025:

Gordon Lightfoot - Complete Greatest Hits, 2003 compilation album, last heard in a blog 6/24/2024:

Leonard Cohen - New Skin For The Old Ceremony, 1974 album, last heard 8/24/2026:

Neil Young - August 18, 1988, Toronto, last heard never. I ripped this 19-minute-song from on-line = an epic, early extended version of "Sixty to Zero" (later released in shortened form as "Crime in the City"):

Neil Young - Harvest, 1972 4th album, last heard 6/24/2024:

back in the hotel room - Pat Metheny - What's It All About, 2011 album, last heard never. Solo acoustic songs:

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine/New York:
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/

2026 Road Trip - Day 23

Friday, Sept. 4, 2026 - Visiting Lake O'Hara, then north up to Jasper! After 195 miles, Wendy and I checked into the Chateau Jasper in Jasper, Canada at 6 PM:

After breakfast, checking-out, and picking up sandwichs at a local grocery store, we drove an hour, 70.4 km (44 miles) up to Lake O'Hara Parking for 10:30 Bus:

As I discovered in 2021, the road is blocked for "private vehicles" - the only way to get up to the Lake (at the end of the road), is to make reservations for the bus that drives you up from the parking lot just off the highway. I made that reservation this past March, so here we are today! I want to see Lake O'Hara primarily because John Singer Sargent painted it back in 1916 (the Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA):

I visited this Parking Lot again in 2024 (read that blog here). I didn't have a bus reservation, but maybe there was an open spot. There wasn't. So I hiked up (7 miles), did the "Alpine Route" (5.7 miles), then hiked back down. It was so beautiful that I certainly wanted to share this with Wendy someday. Well, TODAY is that day! So here we are, up at Lake O'Hara, ready for THE HIKE:

The plan was to hike around The Lake for a while, then up some switchbacks, then one long stretch follwed by another long stretch back to The Overlook. All the maps are different, but this one is the most accurate - but even it is missing the switchbacks (should be in the yellow circle):

This is the picture I took July 13, 2024 - I wanted Wendy to see this view!

Wendy posted a fun picture of me-taking-my-picture:

Hiking up next to an unnamed stream:

Stopping for lunch:

Three more turns up the trail, we decided to say "That's enough." This is the view I had when I turned around:

It turns out that I had made a mistake: Instead of a 3-mile-roundtrip, it would have been 3 miles one-way, for an overall hike of 6 miles. That really is TOO FAR for us hiking together (sorry). Red is my 2024 hike, and yellow is our hike today:

At least we got a great bunch of pictures!

After The Hike, we waited for the 2:30 bus back to our car. We then drove up Icefields Parkway to Jasper:

At 6 PM we checked into the Chateau Jasper in Jasper, Canada. Thank you God for this wonderful CANADA Adventure Day!

Music for today:

Hotel Room:

Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark, 1974 album, last heard 6/27/2024:

Joni Mitchell - Ladies Of The Canyon, 1970 album, last heard in a blog 8/14/2026:

Time to hit The Road:

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here, 1975 album, last heard 8/26/2025:

Pink Floyd - The Division Bell, 1994 album, last heard 5/31/2024:

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine/New York:
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/