The previous night I read the local newspaper, which talked of families of bears walking around Canmore. Our driving around yielded no bears, so we thought, “bingo”.

We drove to Banff again, and had a little look around. We then carried onto Canmore. On our way down the Trans-Canada Highway 1 the heavens opened and I’d never seen rain like it. Stair rods is an understatement.

This is a bigger town than Banff but less touristy. Still has cowboys which is cool. After spending some time there, we drove around the national park a bit more. We took a look at the map and spotted a lake called Minnewanka. Being young men with a mature sense of humour we found this very amusing and decided that we’d drive there. After taking pics of the sign, we proceeded to admire how beautiful Lake Minnewanka is. A storm was on the horizon, which exaggerated the colours around the lake. Deep pine green, the turquoise of the water, pale sand and the craggy rocks. Little leisure boats, tied up, fought these inland waves that were fearsome for a lake.

From there we stepped off at a couple of other places, which was so easy to do with how much there is to see here. I believe the place was called Two Jack Lake, typical new world name.

At night, driving down the 1A, two coyote crossed our path, casually walking across the road in a pair, glancing over at us.