We’re back! 4 weeks of Canadian fun as we hit the Rocky Mountains, and then head down to the West Coast of Canada. Baby Barrett is now a gappy opinionated 7 year with his own suitcase. Times have changed!

In order to keep the opinionated one happy after our jet lag recovery in Calgary we detoured east to Drumheller – Dinosaur valley in the Badlands. My best way to describe this place is of a tacky themed town in the middle of nowhere that also rightly has serious history in digging up Dino fossils. Many of these fossils are displayed in the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology. 2/3 of the family got their fossil grove on and even the third was mildly impressed. We also immersed ourselves in local culture with a visit to the town of Wayne (population 35) and dinner at the ‘Last Chance Saloon’ – v odd indeed!

The next day we backtracked to Calgary and then headed straight on into the Rockies. This is definitely the point when the holiday began! We’d heard great things and were ready to get our trip to the Rockies started.

We were facing severe criticism from the littlest member who has bad memories of ‘one of those walks’ from previous holidays. So being good parents 😂 we ignored the criticism and told him that our parents did exactly the same thing and one day he’d thank us – you’re welcome. Like lots of natural areas, it is super easy to find a great trail to walk on, a lake to admire or even a stream to play in (6 degree C glacial water mind you!).

We managed some more challenging walks by offering an M&M every 15 mins on the basis of no moaning. John did really well with this incentive and James was pretty good too 🤣🤣.

A brilliant perk of hotels in this part of the world are swimming pools with jacuzzis, which James loves. We’ve enjoyed minimum daily visits to the hot tubs, the best one being on the roof of our hotel in Banff.

First up in Banff was the gondola ride – James adored it and after a wander around the top of Sulpher mountain we had a great game of Harry Potter Top trumps before descending.

It was then onto Lake Louise. Everyone I met who has already visited said it was amazing (despite the crowds) and I was a little sceptical. Perhaps more so when John ‘suggested’ a 5:45am wake up. But oh my goodness – what a stunning place. We had a recommendation to head upwards from Lake Louise on a hike to Lake Agnes tea house. James did amazing on the 4km climb all with the promise of tea made from lake water, and more importantly for him freshly made bread and cakes.

At this point it began to feel like we were going snow blind with beautiful scenery. And to finish us off we went to nearby neighbour Lake Moraine. As blue as it’s neighbour Lake Louise with fewer people – not least because public road access is closed to all except (expensive) tour buses.

Canada is shaping up to be as amazing as hoped, but goodness it is expensive. Most hotels don’t included breakfast as people like to eat out. But for us, 3 meals out a day when most are burgers is a little much. I’m proud of our preparation here – a large cool bag and ice pack stuffed into our luggage along with Tupperware and cutlery means we can picnic as required!

Next step Jasper. Apparently you can’t fail to see Bears and Moose in Jasper…

Animal spotting total: Bear = 0, Moose = 0, Elk = 0, chipmunk/squirrel = hundreds