We stayed in Kamloops, BC for two nights and then left the amazing Okanagan Valley to head north to Valemount, BC. We had planned on staying in a park in Jasper, but since we don’t plan very far ahead, and the parks are extra busy this year because of the free park pass, all of the sights in Jasper were completely booked up. So we stayed in the town of Valemount about an hour and a half away from Jasper. The park was nice and the beautiful mountain views all around us were amazing.

On one of our days in Valemount we decided to go for a hike to Kinney Lake in Mt. Robson Provincial park. The hike to the lake was 4.5km each way, so we had planned to just walk part of the trail and then turn around, but most of us (Haydn maybe not so much) wanted to see the amazing aqua blue lake waiting at the end of the trail. We took some breaks along the way and made it all the way to the lake. It was so worth it, the pictures don’t do it justice at all. Walking back to the truck was a bit more of a struggle, and Eric even carried Haydn for a few minutes. We promised them an ice cream treat for doing so great, so that helped motivate them near the end!

We took a day trip into Jasper on the weekend to check out some of the sights we wouldn’t be able to stop at later in the week when we were driving through to our next stop. We went to Maligne canyon and did some hiking. We drove to Medicine lake, and a few other lakes right near Jasper. We saw a couple of bears, and had a close call with an elk along the way.

On one of our last days in Valemount I brought the kids to Willow Ranch for a short trail ride. Ada is in love with horses right now and has been begging for months to go horseback riding sometime on our trip. They got to wear real cowboy boots and went on a 30 minuted trail ride through the forest. All three of them loved it, and as soon as they got back they were asking when they could go again.