The next morning I learned that whilst we had been climbing what now felt like Everest, my sister was bringing my shiny new nephew into the World…I was so happy and so sad at the same time! I cried at having not been there to see him like I have been my other two gorgeous nephews but was just so happy he had arrived safely and that everyone was ok. It is probably needless to say that the rest of the day after the sulphur skyline walk was a write off. I can very safely say that my legs, hips and glutes (bum to you and me) have never hurt sooo much in my life.
I laid in bed unable to move for a good part of the morning while Alex put a brave face on it and made us breakfast in bed. By the evening I had managed to walk as far as the shower (not very far) and we had an easy pasta dinner and hit the sack early again. The following day I could walk like both of my hips had been broken (imagine Pinocchio the day he woke up a real live boy!) but at least I could walk! We set off  for an adventure to the Continental Divide and for a highly recommended burger out in the sticks. We met the local rams on the way sat looking very regal and surverying all who dare to enter their town.

  The burger was good and we enjoyed reading the articles on the walls about the burger maker being heralded for knowing how to deal with Grizzly bear attacks.

A hiker had once staggered into his shop after being mauled by a grizzly and he dealt with the injuries smoothly and calmly whilst he and the victim waited for the emergency services. The hiker had been walking nearby and the bear was a resident of the area! Comforting!
Instead of hiking/staggering to the divide we decided to drive…with the bear attacks and the locals telling us it was only a 10 minute drive away we opted safely! We drove on a very poor gravel track for oh, about 40 MINUTES (not the suggested 10) before we reached the divide!

It wasn’t that interesting really and after putting Peggy through the harrowing ordeal of the terrible road we felt really bad. We set off back stopping at the protected graveyard of the old coal mining village that used to be there. It was the highest village in the commonweath and is apparently still the highest cemetery so the people had been buried literally on top of the world. Have a look at Mountain Park cemetery online its really interesting! It wasn’t a sad place surprisingly, the wild flowers and the little white wooden crosses made it lovely and peaceful and the panorama made me understand why anyone would choose it as a final resting place.

The next day we had almost recovered the full use of our legs so ventured back into Jasper National Park for some more hiking just on a smaller scale! We drove to the Malign Canyon and walked around the 4km trail. The canyon was pretty spectacular; over thousands of years the river has formed deep gorges to make its route through the rock. The glacial water was an amazing blue green, almost like a pure aquamarine topaz  and absolutely crystal clear. The air was crisp and fresh and the spray made rainbows above the crashing water.

The walk cleared our stuffy heads from our day inside and stretched our aching legs.
The next few days were a blur of activity. We walked the Angel Glacier trail and in our t-shirts walked through snow and watched icebergs float along in their icy pool. We found chunks of ice littered around in the tundra that had fallen from the glacier and climbed too high up to see the water crash down from the top of the Edith Cavell mountain.

We had breakfast with an Elk, went to visit the Athabasca Falls, the Sunwapta falls and walked the Wilcox Pass which was another 8km hike and 350m climb to the best views of the Columbia Icefields, the largest collection of snow and ice in the entire Rockies! The glacier is the largest in the northern hemisphere outside of the Arctic Circle and covers 325 square km!

We walked the Mistaya Canyon, fought the crowds and lost at Lake Louise and marvelled at the peacock blue colour of Peyto Lake. ‘The peacock blue is caused by fine particles of glacial silt, or till, known as rock flour. Meltwater in June and July washes this powdered rock into the lakes, the minute but uniform particles of flour absorbing all colours of incoming light except those in the blue-green spectrum.’ Apparently in May-June when the lakes are still empty of silt they are a more normal sky-blue!

All of this, more AND traveled 200 miles all in 3 days. We arrived in Banff absolutely worn to a frazzle and promised ourselves a fun day the very next day starting with breakfast at a greasy spoon…if we could find one!!

See what happens next in our wedding travel adventure!