Day 10: Johnston Canyon

It was expected to be a wet couple of days coming up, so we decided to strategically swap our plans for the next two days. As such, what was supposed to be a relaxing day around town was instead an early wakeup for a big hike.

The weather looked dryish until 11 a.m. so we opted to get out early and do our eight-mile hike. Johnston Canyon is the second most popular hike in Banff and most of the reviews talk about people packed elbow to elbow.

We arrived at 7:30 a.m. to a half-empty parking lot, but in the bathroom we noticed 20+ stalls, which was a strong indicator of this place’s popularity. The hike had three parts: Lower Falls, Upper Falls, and the Ink Pots. We saw other people on the trail, but were alone most of the time and were able to enjoy all the quiet and uncrowded views.

The first part of the hike had incredible infrastructure: steel walkways and fencing drilled right into the rock canyon. The last 2/3 was a steep incline and decline ending in a meadow of multicolored “pot” ponds that released slow bubbles, but without the sulfur smell you’d get at Yellowstone.

Though the end of the hike was called paint pots, the open meadow was the real star. We enjoyed the peacefulness and some lunch before turning back.

On the walk back after lunch and the steep incline it started to rain. Pretty sure this kept the total number of other hikers down, but it was still much busier than when we started. For instance, we took this picture on the way back to the parking lot; we’d had this bridge all to ourselves a couple hours earlier.

Once back at the car, we discussed that the previous day we’d seen a “Smarties McFlurry” at McDonalds, which sounded intriguing, so we figured we’d have to swing by and try one. We were pretty disappointed when we learned that “Smarties” in Canada are basically a worse version of M&Ms. If you want actual Smarties in Canada, you need to look for “Rockets”, which made Rob wonder what they call arugula here.

The rain never stopped the rest of the day which we spent in the RV relaxing, doing a video call with Rob’s family and playing some card games. So glad we got out this morning!