Some vacations require months of planning - we did no such thing. Since we were driving, my spouse and I could stay flexible and adjust to how our toddlers handled life on the road. Most of our bookings - hotels, Airbnbs, and shuttles - were made just in time, often a day or two in advance. All said and done, it turned out to be the best road trip we’ve ever taken.
Day 1 – Vancouver to Revelstoke
We decided to cover a good distance on the first day. We had planned to tour the Othello Tunnels but got hopelessly lost after losing cell service in the mountains. Since we hadn’t downloaded offline maps, we had to abandon that plan.
Later, I figured out that in a pinch, I could use my GPS-enabled watch to navigate, though it takes some effort to set up navigation on it. It was late evening by the time we reached our hotel in Revelstoke, and we fell asleep almost instantly - though not before downloading offline navigation maps for all of Pacific Canada.
Day 2 – Revelstoke to Golden
Early that morning, my spouse and I had to book the Lake Moraine–Lake Louise shuttle, scheduled for two days later. These spots go quickly, so if it doesn’t go through the first time, keep refreshing the website in case someone else’s booking fails.
Our first stop was the Revelstoke Railway Museum. My toddler loved the Diesel locomotive simulator which let him experience driving the engine. It was sobering to learn how Chinese workers were exploited during the railway’s construction. They were paid in tokens redeemable only at overpriced company stores, and most couldn’t even afford a ticket home once the railway was complete.
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| Revelstoke Railway Museum |
Next, we visited the Revelstoke Dam. The elevator to the top was closed that day, but it was still a good learning experience for kids. On the way, there’s also a small logging museum worth checking out.
The Revelstoke National Park is enroute between Revelstoke and Golden and we thought it prudent to visit a few trails along the way. Due to US tariffs, all Canadian national parks were free for the season to encourage people to travel locally. Our first stop was the Skunk Cabbage boardwalk trail - a rare interior rainforest and a Columbia Mountains wetland. In spite of the name, the trail had a very pleasant smell and also the largest slugs I have ever seen. We enjoyed the part of the trail that was open and hope to come back to this some other time.
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| Skunk Cabbage boardwalk trail |
We also walked part of the Giant Cedars Boardwalk - another partially open trail. There I noticed a bright berry I’d never seen before. Turns out it was Devil’s Club - inedible for humans but a favorite snack for bears. A bear spray is recommended but since we stuck to well travelled trails with lots of people, we did not bother getting one.
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| Giant Cedars Boardwalk |
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| Devil's Club berry |
Day 3 – Golden: Skybridge and Emerald LakeWe started the morning at the Golden Skybridge, Canada’s highest suspension bridge, which had plenty of activities for both kids and adults—roller coasters, sky swings, ziplining, and more. My spouse wanted to try the sky swing but we skipped as it had a two hour wait time.
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| Golden suspension bridge |
At every tourist spot, our first stop is usually the visitor centre. We pick up maps, chat with well-intentioned staff and then ignore their advice in favor of something we read online. This time, the representative recommended a resort which had a rescued bear. Instead, we decided on the Wapta Falls trail.
Wapta Falls is a 5 km round-trip hike. With two toddlers, it was a challenge, but manageable. My four-year-old loves to walk, and my two-year-old was happy in her carrier, which my spouse and I took turns carrying. The falls were indeed stunning, and climbing a nearby mound right after the falls gave me a spectacular view.
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| Wapta Falls |
We capped off the day at the breathtaking Emerald Lake which is part of the Yoho National Park. We were in no mood for another long trail - of which there are many - and queued for the canoe ride but missed out since it was late in the day. Still, standing on the shore and taking in the views was worth it as the lake overlooks the famous Burgess Shale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its fossils of early life from the Cambrian period. I often read my kids books about prehistoric creatures and it was special to learn that many of those fossils were discovered right here.
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| Emerald lake overlooking burgess shale |
On the way back, we stopped at the Kicking Horse River to see the natural rock bridge carved by the rushing water.
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| Kicking Horse River - Natural bridge crossing |
Day 4 – Lake Moraine, Lake Louise, and Calgary
Every trip has good days and bad ones. Our visit to Moraine Lake and Lake Louise fell into the latter category. We had pushed hard the previous day and could have done with a lighter schedule. Instead, we had to wake up at 5 a.m. to drive from Golden to Banff to make our shuttle time. The weather was uncooperative - a drizzly rain that wasn’t heavy enough to send us back, but annoying all the same. The canoe rides were also cancelled because of the rain so we just did a short trail at both lakes.
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| Lake Moraine |
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| Lake Moraine |
The Lake Louise ski resort is a good spot to refuel, and it has a gondola ride with promised panoramic views of the valley. Keeping in line with our luck - the day was too cloudy to see much.
We cut our losses and drove to our Airbnb in northeast Calgary. The drive itself was beautiful, with wildlife overpasses, underpasses and exclusion fencing. The Canadian wilderness and sights it provides are quite something.
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| Overpass for animals on the way to Calgary |
We took an afternoon nap, did our laundry after 3 days of hotel stays, and ended the day with a comforting dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant.
Day 5 – Drumheller
My son goes through phases where dinosaurs beat trucks as his favorite thing. Unfortunately - this wasn’t one of those. By this time, both my toddlers had worked out life on the road - my older one was content gawking at car carriers and taking in the scenery while my younger one slept a few minutes into the journey to wake up when the car stopped. The drive from Calgary to Drumheller was a stark contrast to the mountains - the stunning views turn into flat roads lined with grain silos, grazing farm animals, and the occasional fracking rigs.
The city of Drumheller has embraced its dinosaur theme wholeheartedly. Streets and shops are filled with dinosaur statues, and of course, the highlight is the Royal Tyrrell Museum. Book tickets and activities in advance to avoid serpentine lines.
The best part of the museum was watching paleontologists at work (on real fossils) and being able to ask them questions. The one we spoke to was excited about the Borealopelta fossil, an armored dinosaur that once roamed this region. The museum has a Cretaceous Garden section, with plants that have survived for over 65 million years.
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| Black Tyrannosaurus fossil |
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| Dunkleosteus - bony blade extensions instead of teeth |
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| Cretaceous gardens at Royal Tyrrell museum |
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| Measuring up to a Camarasaurus leg |
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| Hoodoos beside Royal Tyrrell museum |
We signed up for the fossil casting activity for my older toddler. He cast the tooth of a saber-toothed cat (another kid beat him to the T. rex skull!). Afterwards, we hiked the Badlands Interpretive Trail. The hoodoos - thin rock spires formed by erosion - are unlike anything I have ever seen. Keep an eye out for the fragrant sage plants, a fossilized tree trunk, and mushroom-cap fossils on the trail.
Important tip: if you find a fossil on the trail, it must be returned to the museum. Most “souvenir” fossils sold in town actually come from Mongolia, raising serious ethical concerns.
As for wildlife, Alberta doesn’t have ‘rats’, but its rodents are fascinating - voles, chipmunks, gophers, and giant ground squirrels. I wonder if it’s the ecological space left open due to the absence of rats that’s led to so many different critters occupying the landscape. My toddler just called them all “squirrels” and I didn’t bother correcting him as I couldn’t tell them apart.
Day 6 – Back to Golden
We left Calgary in the morning but got rerouted a few times due to traffic accidents. We travelled through Bearspaw with its gigantic mansions and fancy trucks. The Canadian monopoly currency we have goes farther here; it perfectly explains the exodus of Vancouver folk to places like Calgary in search of more square footage and a yard.
On our return route, we stopped at Banff National Park to hike Johnston Canyon up to the Upper Falls. It’s a 5 km round trip through several waterfalls. The trail is gorgeous with wooded paths but very crowded and reminded me of religious pilgrimages back in India.
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| Johnston Canyon - Upper Falls |
Day 7 – Emerald Lake, Rogers Pass, and Teppan
The next morning, we returned to Emerald Lake for the canoe ride we had missed earlier - we liked it better than Lake Louise and Lake Moraine anyways. The lake is said to have been discovered by a Canadian Pacific Railway guide while searching for wayward horses. Much of the region’s history is tied to the CPR. We also visited the Loopback Trestle trail, a Victorian-era engineering marvel where the railway once looped across a creek in a figure-eight.
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| Emerald Lake |
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| On the Loopback Trestle trail |
Along the way in much of interior BC and Alberta, I noticed what seemed like a gambling problem at the gas stations I stopped at. People were spending what looked like weeks’ worth of groceries on lotto tickets. I feel the normalization of betting advertisements in NHL and related sporting platforms has had troubling repercussions among the vulnerable sections of our society.
That evening, we stayed at an Airbnb farm in Teppan. Our daughter enjoyed the animals more than any hike or viewpoint we’d taken her to.
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| Farm stay before heading back to Vancouver |
Day 8 – Abbotsford and Vancouver
On the way home, we stopped in Abbotsford for berry picking before heading back to Vancouver.
