It’s about that time again, another trip.. another blog post. I started these posts as a type of digital journal but I tend to have friends always ask me for recommendations when they travel! Instead of typing the same email again and again and remembering the whole in the wall we ate at a year ago in a foreign country, I just send them these blog posts! So without further ado, here is Banff!

Day 1: Arrival & Hiking

We flew into Calgary from a tiny connecting flight in Toronto. I LOVED Canada in June. We were visiting right before Canada day to avoid crowds but get the 70 degree weather. The first day, we explore a bit of Canmore where we were staying at a friend’s condo (HUGE shout out to the Shiroky family who I love dearly). We started with a small 5 mile hike to Eiffel Lake. The entrance was near Moraine Lake! We then had dinner in town at Thai Pagoda.

Day 2: Canmore

We started our second day at Communitea. The food was so yummy we ate there twice! Our day 2 also had a small hike to Grassi Lakes. It was short, sweet and under 4 miles. We also explored a vintage shop and found flowers for our shoot at Element Floral Design!  Ashley & Tyler were able to join us for dinner at Balkan in Banff. On our way there, we saw a bear! Shout out to Tyler for the awesome shot!

Day 3: Moraine Lake

Day 3 was hard to beat. The main purpose behind this trip was that Dave wanted to propose to Ellese! We first toyed around with the idea of Cuba but Canada won out because we essentially had a free place to stay. We decided to trick Ellese and do a “styled shoot” at sunrise on Moraine Lake. I even rented bridal separates from my fave designer Sweet Caroline Styles. I can’t wait to share the full gallery on the blog in the upcoming weeks! After she said yes, we snapped a few images around the lake and went back to Golden for a short nap and some celebrating! As a surprise, Dave arranged dinner at The Fairmont . We ate at Wallister Stube (very yummy fondue). We ended the evening by catching sunset at Lake Louise and drove back to our adorable Air BnB in Golden.

Day 4: Lake Louise & Tea House Hike

Although Day 3 was incredible, I think this may have been my favorite day. The six of us decided to do a 12 mile hike called the plain of six glaciers. There are 2 tea houses on the way that serve yummy cakes! I’m not going to lie.. it was pretty hard at times but totally worth it! The view of Lake Louise can’t be beat.

Day 5: Explore Banff

On our final day, we said goodbye to our amazing couple friends and took the day to unwind around town. Ben and I were pretty wiped from the hikes so we decided to do a chill day exploring town. Honestly, the town is a bit touristy so I would recommend another hike instead of a day in town! We heard that Grotto Canyon, Quarry Lake, Peyto Lake and Emerald lake are all worth trying out! Our friends got to stay a tad longer than we did because I had a wedding the very day we landed! Check out Ashley’s Blog for more Banff loveliness!