Canadian Rockies -Yoho- 2018
Last weekend we (husband, our dog Momiji, and I) went on a little getaway to the Rocky Mountains! This time we stayed in Field, a little town in Yoho national park.
The day we got there was rainy and misty but I actually like that on the mountains! Sure, it's hard to do any outdoor activities when the weather is bad, but sitting in a lodge while the rain drops quietly wet grasses and trees is nice. The air is chilly, moist but not too humid, and clean. The white misty cloud silently sits between the mountains. It makes me take a deep breath.
We stayed at Truffle Pigs, we've stayed there once before and we really liked it! The experience was pretty nice this time too. If you ever stay there, make sure try out their bistro too! It's amazing!
I love how this place is surrounded by the mountains so closely. I do really like staying in Banff (Canmore) or Jasper too, but Field (a town in Yoho) is so much smaller and feels more secluded which I love.
We got to our lodge in the late afternoon and since it was raining, we just went for a short walk around the lodge and relaxed inside. I cooked and prepared some meals and snacks beforehand, so all we had to to at the lodge was heat them up! Field is a small town and they don't have much stores, the tiny grocery store there was closed during out trip, so we were glad that we were well prepared!
The second day, we deiced to go to Lake Louise since it's sort of close from Field. The last time we were there (around the same season), it was half frozen but this time. it was even more frozen! We had pretty long winter and late snow this year.
We hiked (a short flat path, more like a walk) around the lake, it's a really easy walk but the melting snow made it a bit more difficult to walk!
After that, we drove to the town of Banff to go buy a couple of things from the grocery store. Then we walked on a path by Bow River that leads to Bow Falls.
The third day was an exciting day! Our friends from BC whom used to live in our city before, came to the mountains meet up with us! Yoho is about a half way of both places we live in, so it was a perfect opportunity to see each other.
They arrived in the evening, so before that we went to check out Emerald Lake.
Emerald Lake was also frozen which we were surprised to see, because the last time we were here (also in early May) it was completely thawed.
The frozen lake was beautiful, but I wish it wasn't frozen! It was a very calm day and the mirror-effect reflection was so pretty in the small section that was already thawed.
The last time we hiked around the lake which was really enjoyable but this time the snow was still too deep we couldn't.
After our friends arrived, we went for a walk around the town of Field, and saw many elk! During this trip we spotted so many of them.
We didn't get close to them of course. I snapped this photo with my phone and then cropped, so it's not a great picture but you get the idea. It's always so interesting to see wild animals in the mountains.
On the third day, we were planning to go on a hike on "A Walk in the Past" trail but unfortunately it was still closed (open only during summer.)
We like to come to the mountains in spring and fall rather than summer because it's not too hot, not as busy, no mosquitos yet. But we forgot that Yoho is located higher elevation and so spring is later than it is in Banff and Jasper. A lot of placed weren't open yet and we were a bit disappointed, but oh well, we'll remember that for the next time!
Instead of the trail, we found this nice spot along the river that was safe to walk around!
This is our friends' dog, Annie. She's Border Collie and loves water. Well, she loves everything outside all together. She was so happy to be there and it was so cute.
Momiji on the other hand, does not like water... She loves being outside and going for a walk, but only on the dry land. Our friend also brought another pup whom they were taking care of, he was a little one but so brave. He had the best time. It's so much fun to be in the mountains with a bunch of dogs!
After we had lunch, our friends were on their way home. They drove all the way to stay just one night to see us, and we were so grateful for that. It was so good to see them!
We decided to drove up north on Highway 93 (Icefield Parkway) through Columbia Icefield to Jasper.
We had never done this before so this was another exciting part of our trip! And we were so gld we did this. Especially around the Columbia Icefield (Banff/Jasper border), it was the most gorgeous drive!
Look how high up we were, so close to the mountains.
Because we had our dog with us, we didn't go on the huge bus to get close to the icefield at Columbia Icefield, but we were able to see it pretty close on foot too.
The glacier has been receding and it looks sort of small or insignificant from this point of view but it goes way beyond deep into where we can see, I think. This is also not the only glacier in the mountains, there's Crowfoot glacier near Bow lake for example.
Other than elk, we weren't able to spot wild animals around Yoho and Banff, but we were lucky to see some other animals in Jasper!
We spotted this cute (but scary if you get too close) black bear from the car!
I didn't take photos, but we also saw some cute goats.
We had a great getaway but there's one reality that we came to learn on this trip and that is our dog, Momiji is getting older. She is now 11 years old and will turn 12 this year. For a small dog like her, it isn't super old, but it's not youth anymore either.
She always seemed to get a little nervous in different environments like staying at hotels. But when she was young, that didn't seem to affect her physically much. By the end of this trip, however, we noticed she wasn't feeling so well. So on the last day we cut the trip short and left earlier than we planned. As soon as we got home, she was relaxed again and felt better. We came to a conclusion that her mental stress effect her body a lot more directly these days.
We also noticed that once she's tired from a physical activities like hiking, it takes longer to recharge her energy.
All of these things sound pretty normal thing to happen to old dogs, even to us, as we get older. But we kind of forgot that because Momiji is full of energy and still acts like a puppy a lot of times. It was a wake-up call that she's in fact aging and that we need to care for her accordingly.
We felt a bit sad to realize that, but at the same time we were happy that she's made it this far. She had some health issues when she was a puppy and we were actually worried how long she could survive. But she did survive and now she's becoming a senior which is beyond wonderful. We will be happy to take care of her and continue to love her each day, as she gets older and older.
On that note, we came to the end of this trip and this post. Thanks for reading as always!
May 20, 2018
