After being cooped up in my small apartment for months due to my unreasonable paranoia about catching COVID-19, I had gradually begun to venture out into the open, taking in the sights and smells of the environment. I even went out for drinks… gasps.
Numerous people had generated memes about not counting 2020 and having a do-over without the halt caused by the pandemic. But let’s face it… time gone can never be regained. Which is why I decided to go on a mini trip.
I had been to the rocky mountains of Banff and Lake Louise before, but this time I did and saw much more. I also ventured into British Columbia (BC) as part of this trip to explore a national park there.
So if you are shut up in Canada and your international passport is covered with a thick film of dust, leave it where it is and come visit the Alberta Rockies for the first time or again. The mountains are always changing, just like we are, because time happens to us all.
Lake Louise Itinerary
Leaving Edmonton to Lake Louise took about 4hours 30 minutes. We made sure to leave early (7:30am) and we were there around lunchtime. Our itinerary was:
- Go on a canoe ride on the lake Louise
- Do the Agnes trail hike to Mirror lake and Agnes tea house
- Have some appetizers at the Fairmount
- Take a ton of pictures
Lake Louise 
Mirror Lake
Banff Itinerary
We planned to stay at Banff and then drive to our other destinations from there. So we booked our accommodation at the Banff Rocky Mountain resort. Our plan was to:
- Walk around the Banff city at sunrise 😐 (sunrise ke1, I was still in stage one REM of my sleep journey)
- Take a nice stroll around the Bow lake
- Have a nice dinner somewhere
- Visit Johnston Canyon
Yoho National Park Itinerary
On one of my previous trips to Lake Louise, I randomly discovered that the Yoho national park in British Columbia was a scant 30 minutes drive away. So I decided this park deserved a full day of preliminary exploration. My itinerary was:
- Visit Emerald Lake
- Visit the Wapta Falls
- Visit the Takakkaw falls
- Visit the Natural bridge
Takakkaw Falls 
Natural Bridge
Moraine Lake visit
I definitely planned to see this wonder of a lake on this trip.
This was my drafted out itinerary, some of these were long intense (by my standards) hikes and others were pretty easy walks. This trip was done early last month – July, 2020 and if you know anything about Alberta, it is that the weather is unpredictable, so it rained on a day, but that didn’t distract form the fun and beauty of the day.
If planning a trip to the Alberta Rockies, then three days might be too short to really enjoy it if you are more outdoorsy. Some people spend weeks at one national park (location) exploring, hiking and camping there. As for me, I was quite happy with squeezing everything into a long weekend.
Was I successful in completing my itinerary? Check out my more detailed posts on Banff during Pandemic, Lake Louise during a Pandemic, and Yoho national park in a Pandemic to see howof how those days actually evolved.
Ke1 – A Nigerian colloquial exclamation meant to convey disbelief or an impossibility. (Aby waking up in time for sunrise is highly doubtable)
