Went back to Lake Moraine due to the nice misty weather and another stop at Two Jacks.
A couple last stops before we call it a vacation and then head back to Chicago.
After spending the night in Jasper then we took the Icefields Parkway south - back to Banff.
Then spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in Banff and taking the Lake Minnwaka and Bow Valley scenic drives.
Woke up to some beautifully moody weather -
We then ventured over to British Colombia (!!!) to go check out Emerald Lake
We then took Icefields Parkway, one of the most beautiful scenic drives, all the way up to Jasper Park. Here are a couple of the stops along the way -
Then we did a little exploration around Jasper National Park. Another cute resort town like Banff.
And here we start another journey - but this time to Canada! (eh?)
After getting a little settled in Canadian culture and exploring the town of Banff a little we headed towards Lake Minnewaka. Right by the lake there was a stunning meadow of wildflowers.
After that - there was a stop at the infamous Lake Louise.
The last stop of the day was probably one of my most favorite - Lake Moraine.
And finally the last day - which was rather bittersweet. But here is a little of the travel back where I stopped for a little bit at the Mojave Desert. At the Mojave Desert it felt strange due to the storm that was going through.
The day started out pretty cloudy - but it started to clear once the sun came out.
The morning at Devil's Golf Course
The morning was mostly spent in Badwater exploring the southern part of Death Valley.
The very last part of the day was probably the closest that I thought that I would get stranded. Went a little off road to see a ghost town - to the point where I thought I broke my car rental. Fast forward to one hour later I was totally ok - but that might've been one of the most stressful times I've been in. I survived! Got to experience another beauty of a sunset.
Woke up to a stunning sunrise on the side of a mountain -
Took a small trek up on the side of a cliff to get this view of Zabriskie's Point.
Ubehebe Crater - which you can imagine is rather large and also unexpectedly extremely windy. I almost lost my lens cap here.
Went a little outside of Death Valley to go to the well kept ghost town - Rhyolite. Where it was a boom town and there are still standing structures.
And of course - got to see so many stars. One of the darkest places on this earth.
Started off at the Mesquite Sand Dunes for the early morning sunrise -
After sunrise at the dunes, I drove around the west side of Death Valley.
There was quite a small sand storm
Then went on my way to Badwater
And the journey starts!
The first stop was going to Red Rock Canyon for a beautiful scenic drive
After visiting - the next stop was Death Valley!
And now for the trip back. Rather bittersweet, we all wanted to get back to our beds and be back in the city. At the same time we coming back to reality from this dream land that we have in United States. It's amazing how diverse this country is.
I would go back in a heartbeat.
Until the next one.
Didn't take that much video or photos because this hike was INTENSE. All caps. Four miles... 2600ft elevation gain... Got to see the tip of the highest peak - the Grand Teton.
Grand Tetons.
I feel like I am at a lost of words. I also feel like I can't ever bring anything that I took photo or video to justice, ever.
The Grand Tetons are just below Yellowstone Park. They are right by this beautiful glimmering lake. In which we got a small fishing boat and treaded the waters before a small storm came in.
Today was filled with driving around Yellowstone and seeing the sights. Which felt that we were in some sort of science documentary since there were so many strange things about Yellowstone that could only be in Yellowstone.
Acid water... geysers... almost post apocalyptic.
And then we got to see Old Faithful - which was strange having a huge group of people circle around this geyser at hour intervals and just sitting and waiting for it to go off. It was a very surreal moment.
Though my favorite part of Yellowstone was the Yellowstone Falls. We were at this area called 'Inspiration Point' and 'Artist Point' in which they were named rightly so. The colors with the blue waters were on point.
This is a short little post because most of the day was spent driving and going around Montana (and even into Idaho a little bit... to make it back into Wyoming). We stayed at the West Yellowstone KOA which was an impressive little campground.
We packed a lot to do today. We left Glacier National Park - which was my favorite park of the whole trip. We first hit hungry Horse Dam which was a nice stop and some great views of the river. We also realized the reason why Montana was called Big Sky Country.
After driving for a while we also did National Bison Range - which was pretty awesome view. There was a moment when we thought we would run out of gas during the park (it was like a mini safari). But nonetheless we made it with some great run ins with some Bison.
