Excuse my brief hiatus from vacation blogging! Let’s just say that life caught up with me once we returned home… and now I’m wondering “did I even go on a vacation this summer???” 😂

I want to share a few more highlights from our time in Jasper, which was wonderful – but I can’t write about it without noting the horrible wildfires that have impacted the national park and town of Jasper. Just a few weeks after we got home I started reading about the fires and it sounded truly terrifying. It’s such a strange feeling to see photos of places you’ve just been that are now completely destroyed. The city of Jasper is said to have sustained complete ruin to more than 30% of homes and businesses. My heart goes out to all the hardworking and kind people we met there who call Jasper home. ❤

Back to the highlights… as I mentioned before, we stayed right by the hot springs. We enjoyed taking a short hike to see the source of the mineral springs.

It was so interesting to see the piping hot mineral water flow right out of the side of a mountain.

But, it was even better to take a dip in the springs! It is actually the hottest springs in the Canadian Rockies with temps at 129 degrees. The water is cooled to 104 degrees by the time it flows into the pools.

We all rented vintage bathing suits (except one person – can you spot him? Haha!) and took a few fun photos to celebrate the moment.

The springs felt amazing! There were two hot pools and two cold ones. I wasn’t brave enough to plunge into the cold pools, but the girls loved it.

I don’t have any pics to share of our next adventure, but we did spend half a day white water rafting on the Athabasca River. The river is glacier fed so you can bet it is ice cold. ❄️ JR and the girls had never been rafting and it had been a long time for the rest of us. The rafting route took us over 2+ class rapids, which was perfect for a first outing. Just enough thrills to keep you on your toes, but nothing too scary. It was definitely one of the best outings of the trip. (Thanks to sissy for planning it!)

And on to the final highlight of our trip – a sissy + Mikey hike on the Sulphur Skyline trail. This one took adventure to a whole new level… a 5-mile round trip hike that turned into an almost 10-miler with close to 4,000 feet in elevation gained.

Despite the constant uphill to reach the summit, we were all smiles!

We even ran into this guy at the “fake” summit. He had scared off a few fellow hikers when he approached them during their picnic lunch. “Anything to share?” he seemed to ask. The hikers were not in the mood for sharing.

Things went well all the way to reaching the summit. The 360-degree views were magnificent. However, the hike took a turn when we decided to try an alternative route going back. The AllTrails app had recommended a loop version of the trail – but it turned out it was outdated info and that that portion of the trail was not maintained by Parks Canada anymore.

While the vistas were amazing (see below), it was difficult to enjoy them as we continually seemed to lose the trail. We gave it the old “Heffy try” and evoked our wayfaring skills to navigate through patches of thick forests and narrow paths along cliffs (yikes)…but after 1.5 hours, we realized that the “trail” wasn’t getting any better. We made the decision to double back before our crew at ground zero (my mom, JR, and the girls) got too worried. Luckily, I was able to send them a text message update when we got back to the original summit.

Three hours past our original estimate, we made it back to the trailhead and were greeted by a very worried Charlotte and JR. Thank goodness for long days in the Rockies. It was 10 pm, but still the sun was out.

But, all’s well that ends well – right? We still had time to enjoy one last meal at the delicious Greek restaurant at the bungalows and one last dip in the hot springs to relieve our sore muscles before falling into bed that night. And, what’s a family vacation without at least one harrowing experience, right? Remember last year’s missed gondola hike?

The next morning – a little sleepy and a lot sore – we said goodbye to Jasper and hit the Icefields Parkway once again. This time our destination was Lake Louise, the jewel of the Canadian Rockies.