This was my second winter hike and my second time using my microspikes! I’ve been trying to use them more and enjoy more winter hikes around the area, so that was nifty.
I flew in to Calgary, AB, the night before the hike and stayed with my friend, Justin. Him and my other friend, Ved, made the drive out to Banff the next morning. Banff is such a pretty town. It’s like what Leavenworth, WA, wishes it looked like.
We got to the trailhead and strapped our microspikes on. We knew it wasn’t going to be a strenuous hike. We weren’t looking for one. We wanted a nice, relaxing walk through a winter wonderland. That’s the best way to describe this hike.
The trailhead itself was really pretty with this cute wooden grove with safety info, and a cute wooden arch to start off the hike.
The whole hike was a calming, mellow walk through a valley carved out by the river. You can see the sharp ridges left by the river back when it was larger and filled the whole valley. It really makes you think about how powerful mother nature is.
I don’t mean to harp on it too much, but there’s something so serene about a calm, winter hike. Though the hike was crowded (I mean, it’s located in Banff), the snow really muffles all the sounds around you. You feel so at peace with everything. All you really hear is the sound of your own footsteps and the fresh snow being packed down by your shoes.
The coolest part of the hike, in my opinion, was the icicles we saw along the way. They’re especially common near waterfalls, where the water just freezes in place where the falls used to be. It’s like a, uh, nature morte, to pull out a vocab word from my French III honors class from high school.
All the waterfalls were just frozen in time. It was so surreal to see.
There were little pockets of still water along the waterways where the water hadn’t frozen just yet. That was also super pretty to look at.
Once we finished the hike, we drove through the national park to take in more of the views. We hit up Lake Louise. We hit up the town of Banff, AB, again to grab souvenirs and then returned to Calgary!
