Banff with Kids - Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Peyto Lake and Johnston Canyon

Who’s ready for a blog post about Banff? Who’s ready for a blog post about Banff with Kids and over 100 photos? 😉

We headed to Banff, Alberta, Canada after visiting Glacier National Park. It was an easy trip through Canada, with a stop at Prince of Wales Hotel for High Tea, on the way!

I loved looking on the map to see where we were in Canada!

While en route there were several of these animal crossings above the road and fences for miles and miles in order to protect wildlife. It was awesome!

We arrived in Banff and had reservations for dinner at Magpie and Stump. We were going to be a few minutes late, but we read online that if you’re over 10 minutes late, they’ll charge you $25 a person for not showing up to the reservation. We tried our best to let them know, but our phones weren’t working with our international service. We tried to send them a message on their website while at the Prince of Wales.

Long story short, once in Banff I basically jumped out of the car into a thunderstorm and into a downtown I’d never been to before in order to find this restaurant and not get charged for being late. Luckily Jon found me, we weren’t charged, they had received our message and all was fine. Phew! Also, I credit all the YouTube videos we watched ahead of time for us somehow finding each other and the restaurant…the thunderstorm just added to the chaos. LOL! Oh and you betcha I got myself a little margarita after that craziness!

As for Magpie and Stump, it was DELICIOUS!

Once we ate dinner, we headed to our hotel, High Country Inn, and settled in. We were staying in a fantastic room for three nights – we all had queen beds, a kitchenette and plenty of space to spread out!

The next morning we headed out for our bus tour to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. The only way to see Moraine Lake is by bus since it’s so crowded with tourists now. We knew we were headed back to Lake Louise to hike to the Lake Agnes Tea House another day, so, in hindsight, we should’ve only done the Moraine Lake bus tour, BUT it was nice to visit Lake Louise twice.

The kids fell asleep on the way to the buses at the Lake Louise Ski Resort and then they were all sorts of silly!

The Lake Louise Ski Resort was really nice inside. There were bathrooms, there was food and Starbucks coffee!

As promised, these silly kiddos…

We were on the bus and ready to go!

We arrived at Lake Louise and boy, was it gorgeous! It was cloudy and rain was definitely in the forecast, but the moodiness of this place was dreamy!

I will say, it was crowded with LOTS of tourists, but as we learned the next day, getting up early and getting off the main path and out of the tourist areas, made it feel like we had the place to ourselves…

We only had about an hour at Lake Louise, so we just walked around and took pictures. Knowing we were coming back again made it so we didn’t feel rushed. There are hikes in this area, an overlook, canoeing and a hotel to visit.

We took as many pictures as we could… jumping pictures, Jon flexing, family photos… we attempted a small little hike, but we just didn’t have enough time…and then it started to rain…

I had to get a jumping picture!

So did the kids!

Jon and his flexing…

Jane and her flexing! Haha!

The Fairmont Chateau at Lake Louise.

Stunning!

As we started to head back to the bus, it started to rain. Thank goodness our bus driver of, Moraine Lake Bus Company, offered us ponchos! These definitely came in handy!

We got back on the bus and we headed to Moraine Lake! It was already getting crowded, but we went up the rock pile to take in the views!

We then headed down for a very easy little hike along the lake.

The views were spectacular!

I’m sure sunny days are just as amazing, but I definitely wasn’t complaining about those clouds and the contrast that was offered against the lake and the mountains!

We grabbed more pictures of us with the kids…

This is Jane making a heart with her hands. 🙂

Here’s my best influencer photo… Ha!

Eliza wanted a photo, too! I always stopped and said yes to the kids whenever they wanted their picture taken!

We hiked back down to follow a path along the lake. It was very easy and provided the prettiest of views of canoes on the lake.

It started to rain again, so we were grateful for our ponchos!

People continued to canoe in the rain and it was magical.

Jane talked, sang and twirled almost the entire time we hiked… love her.

The halfway point was a waterfall and then it was a hike the back the same way we came…

The weather in the mountains can change so quickly. The rain had stopped, the clouds were clearing and the sun was coming out. We found a great place on this bridge to snap more photos! It was SOOOO pretty!

In true Jon fashion, he once again removed his shirt for a flexing picture.

The kids and their pictures…

This truly was a lovely spot.

We stopped for a bit to play by the shoreline and take it all in. It was so peaceful.

I didn’t even know Jon took this picture of me, but I’m happy he did.

We continued our walk back and snapped more pictures of the canoes…

We also snapped a picture with our Orthodontist…it was for a contest on Facebook. So funny!

This right here is something I NEED to frame!

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and that my eyes weren’t being filtered…

Since the sky had cleared and the sun came out, I decided to run up to the overlook one more time by myself to see if I could grab some more pictures… It wasn’t much different, but I just had to see it again…

We grabbed one more picture near the gift shop and hopped on an early bus… our driver was fantastic, too!

We arrived back to the Lake Louise Ski Resort, used the restrooms and grabbed some Starbucks. We decided since we had left Moraine Lake early it had given us time to drive up The Icefields Parkway! Jasper had just suffered some catastrophic damage from recent wild fires, so part of the Parkway was closed, but we headed up to what was open!

The views!!!!

Upon entering The Icefields Parkway, it was stated that there wouldn’t be any phone service and these signs were on the side of the road explaining that we’d be entering Avalanche country…obviously it wasn’t a concern since we were up there in the summer, but it was still cool to see and wild to think about all the snow this area must receive.

From what we were told, there can be a lot of wildlife in this area, especially with less traffic due to the fires.

Our first stop was Peyto Lake!

This consisted of an uphill paved hike. Out and back it was under a mile, so it wasn’t too difficult. It was so cool to see the formation of the glacier from the mountain. Jon loved this area! Reading about the geology of this area was super informative and really interesting, too!

I took my coffee with me since it was a pretty easy walk/hike…

There were definitely lots of people behind us…and in front of us!

STUNNING!!!!

The formation of where the glacier once was…

Look how beautiful! So many people look at the lake in the valley, which OF COURSE, is GORGEOUS, but the geological part of this place and how easy it is to really see and understand how this glacier has melted and how it’s fed into this lake is so neat!

We made sure to get all the pictures…

I think the kids were pretty tired at this point. This was our third place we had visited for the day, but we wanted to see as much as possible!

We could’ve gone north just a little more, but opted to head back to Johnston Canyon to see if we could get a parking spot. This was a pretty cool sign leaving Peyto Lake!

The ride on the Icefields Parkway is one of the prettiest rides – the mountains, the flowers, the lakes, there are glaciers everywhere, the trees…

Jon wanted a picture with this HUGE glacier in the background! If memory serves me right, there’s no way to get to this particular glacier. People have tried, but it sounds like it’s a no-go. So cool!

We reached Johnston Canyon and decided that we’d do the shortest hike. Being that it was mid afternoon, it was basically like Disney World with all the people. Had we gone earlier, it would’ve been less crowded AND had we hiked further, the crowds would have thinned out. Our day was jam packed and this was our last hike/activity of the day, so we took it for what it was and started moving our feet once again!

This was a pretty path and the views are incredible. I HIGHLY recommend going early in the morning as I can see how it could be peaceful…

The walkway was pretty and provided space, but it was still crowded from time to time, but that didn’t deter us from taking in the beauty.

I made sure to get a picture of this shirt! It had me cracking up!

Lots of people at the lower falls. This is as close as we went to the falls. It’d be lovely to go further, but it had been a long day and we were ready to sit and eat dinner.

Phew! What a day! Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Peyto Lake and Johnston Canyon! We made the most of our time and I’m not sure when we ever ate or sat down other than driving!