Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

I'd never seen the Canadian Rockies, neither had Ben. The night before we left Portland, we changed our first destination from Vancouver, BC to Banff National Park on a whim and a recommendation from Michelle Field. It went like his: I googled Banff. Said, Ben look at this. He looked. We re-routed. The whole trip had moments like that actually...

Driving into Canada along the Colombia river was stunning and we stopped often to check out the Southern part of the Rockies...

We found a campsite, bought some firewood, and went for a stroll.

benjamin looking super handsome... marveling.

Banff itself was familiar feeling: swanky mountain town complete with novelty shops and embroidered fleece sweaters. The mountain the town is set under however, is breathtaking.

We settled into our campsite, warming with whisky, some music, and all our layers. We were unprepared for freezing mountain sleeping temperatures! Amateurs....

The water along the Canadian Rocky Mountains is an icy blue that I haven't seen anywhere else in the world but Iceland. Even still, it has a slightly different hue. The color of the water comes from the mountain glaciers. As they melt, the water carries silt down into the streams, also called rock flour. The sediment reflects light in such a manor that it ALL looks this amazing color.

Day two in Banff National Park, we took a drive and explored as much of the park as we could in daylight. This is crow-foot glacier; the name coming from its three toe'd appearance. The bottom "toe" has been receding rapidly over the years due to.. ya know... increasing temperatures.

Before bed, more whisky, cards, and singing. We shivered ourselves to sleep.