It was so difficult to say goodbye to Jasper and our friends that it took us two attempts.

The first attempt was on a Saturday morning. Everything was packed, the guest room cleaned and our bellies filled with a rich breakfast. So it was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to Edi and Elisabeth. After covering the first kilometer, we paused in the village. Wouldn’t it have been nice to accompany Edi today to his cabin in Valemount? And tomorrow to climb Pyramid Mountain with him, his daughter Christine and her family? But can we just turn around and stay for two more days? Yes, let’s do it! Reserved campsites in Lake Louise and Yoho National Park or not.

Edi and Elisabeth were still in the kitchen when we knocked on the door. Have you forgotten anything? No, we’re feeling homesick! Their cheerful laughter told us that we were still welcome😊. We put our bags back in the basement and ended what was probably the shortest day of our trip after just two kilometers.

In fact, we couldn’t have wished for a better end to our stay in Jasper than transporting construction timber with Edi to his cozy log cabin in Valemount and climbing Jasper’s striking local mountain by bike and on foot the next day. Many thanks for the wonderful time, Edi, Elisabeth, Nicole, Christine, Marty… and Jasper!

When we said goodbye for the second time on Monday morning, our feeling was right and thanks to the tailwind and glorious sunshine, we quickly found our pace on the bikes. It was only after 30 kilometers that we realized that we had forgotten some food in the fridge this time and so we didn’t return😉.

The weather was perfect and the ride on the spectacular Icefield Parkway from Jasper to Lake Louise was a real pleasure! However, we didn’t want to take too much time, as heavy thunderstorms and rain showers were forecast. Dark clouds at our backs and the first drops of rain made our legs spin as we rode into Lake Louise. Our stay in the tourist town was limited to a few hours for the time being to sit out the rain front.

For a detour into Yoho National Park, we took the road up to the Kicking Horse Pass, then raced down into the valley on a four-lane highway and immediately back up to the impressive Takakkaw Falls. We had booked an overnight stay at the campsite here so that we could hike the spectacular Iceline Trail the next day. Even though the last few kilometers of the circular hike were boring, the trip to Yoho National Park was well worth it!

We took the same route back to Lake Louise. Although the small village offers a total of 395 pitches at its campsites, in summer they are fully booked for weeks in advance. We had canceled our reservation in favour of a longer stay in Jasper and hoped that some nice campers would share their site with us. This was no problem at all. The friendly lady at the reception had no objections to our plan and a young couple from Germany allowed us to pitch our tent next to their motorhome. Due to bad weather, we skipped our hiking program in Lake Louise and headed on to Banff the next morning. Everything was fully booked there too, but we spent a great evening on the pitch of a backpacker couple from Australia. As there wasn’t much to keep us in the impersonal and crowded Banff, we continued our journey to Canmore without staying any longer. We were rather disappointed by the much-praised store with Swiss specialties there. Instead, we found a bakery with heavenly Swiss-style rhubarb cake, which we treated ourselves to two pieces of.

From Canmore, the ride through the rugged mountains of the Kananaskis was a worthy continuation of the Icefield Parkway and offered great panoramas wherever we looked. For our overnight stay, we were once again allowed to join a German globetrotter couple. It’s really great that all the campsites are fully booked and that we get to meet exciting people!

A long descent took us from the mountains straight into the prairie within half a day. After being surrounded by outdoor enthusiasts for many weeks, we felt like we were in a different world in cowboy country near Longview. Tight jeans, cowboy hats, farms, fenced cow pastures, trucks with horse trailers, beef jerky stores and oil derrick plants dominated the scene here.

We followed the busy road number 22 southwards, enjoying the beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains on the horizon. From Pincher Creek, we set course for Waterton National Park and pedaled back into the mountains along a beautiful route. We spent our last few days in Canada in the village of Waterton, enjoying the sunny weather, taking in the lethargy of the campsite and perhaps going on a hike or two.