Jan & Eam's News: Canmore & The Rockies

We have both been working very hard over the last few months, so when a quiet weekend arose, we grabbed it, and took a short trip to the Rockies. Starting with a leisurely drive, we stopped off at this Historic Church near Morley, west of Cochrane.

The Church was constructed by hand in 1875. At this time the local First Nations people were still hunting bison on the prairies. This church became the heart of a thriving community, Morleyville, which was the largest settlement in Southern Alberta and this church represents an important chapter in Alberta’s settlement history.

It is only used today for special occasions such as weddings, so unfortunately we couldn’t see inside. But it is lovely to stroll around outside in such a pretty and calm setting.

We were surprised to see gophers running around so early in the year.

The church overlooks this now frozen lake. We bet it is beautiful in the summer.

What started off as a lovely bright and sunny day, turned cloudy rather quickly. We only just made it back to the car before the snow/hail started to fall.

We moved on. It was snowing quite hard at this point but the ice on the river was just amazing as it was cracking and falling into the water.

We arrived in Canmore and stayed at the Falcon Crest Lodge, where we had a lovely big apartment style room. It had a separate bedroom, huge bathroom, and a patio with its own gas barbecue. It was very comfy.

Having not really explored Canmore much before, we decided to check out the Main Street. Like Banff, it has a backdrop of stunning mountains wherever you look.

After a good look around the shops, we decided to head off to Banff for something to eat. There is no lack of eating places in Canmore and they looked good, but we had a particular restaurant in mind.

We were a little early for dinner so we decided to take a drive up the Bow Valley Parkway in the hope of seeing some wildlife. We weren’t disappointed.

The antlers on the Elk at this time of year are enormous, and just watching them walk around and navigate through (or plough through really) the trees is quite amazing. This one was right by the car, and they really are huge beasts. We later read that a male elk can weigh around 1100lbs which is more than a grizzly bear, which weigh about 700lbs!

We apologize for posting more pictures of mountains, but when we are there in the thick of it, no matter how often we have seen it, we just can’t help ourselves!

Vermillion Lakes is another favorite short drive, but all we came across were these two Canada Geese who had managed to find a spot of melted water.

It was also amazing to see such an amount of colour, when, in your mind, you just think things are brown (and white).

We had a quick visit to Lake Louise and came across these very tame birds - a bit bigger than the Chickadees we are used to, with bigger claws and a very big beak!