Visiting Kootenay park & Canmore
The plan for today was to head back to Banff on the Icefields Parkway and complete the spots which I haven't visited on my way here. I started by going to Edith Cavell mountain. It's a nice off road. On the way there I stopped at a lake by the same name but it wasn't impressive.
It was already quite cold, and not too long after snow began to fall. Another 10 minutes and I reached the mountain's trailhead. It was snowing outside so I happy. The trail is short is quite short and at the end of it you see a glacier at the bottom of the mountain.
From there I continue to the 2 famous waterfalls on the parkway, Sunwapta & Athabasca even though I already paid them a visit. The thing was that on one of the evening I looked at some internet pictures and there was (photo) angle I wanted to achieve, it seemed doable… Unfortunately I didn't reach the "full circle" 
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My next stop was the "Icefields center" where you can leave for the glacier related attractions. If you remember, on the way here, a few days ago, I didn't have time to take both rides, so now it was about time ! This ride is about going in a special vehicle on the glacier itself ! It's a dedicated vehicle with enormous wheels.
The thing is that this vehicle is veryyyyyyyyy slow, so from the visitor center you take a regular bus to a point where these vehicles wait and from the you start the slow drive. During the ride, the guide explains how much the glacier shrunk in the last decades, and when you actually get to the end point, the vehicle stops and you get a few minutes to look around. All in all it was a nice experience (it cost 40 CAD).
Funny thing was that when I left Jasper I asked someone how long will it take to reach Banff. He said "3 hours". These 3 hours have already passed, and I'm maybe mid-way! Because it's such an amazing road so you gotta stop to enjoy it…
Can you guess my next stop? It was the last visit ( ) to Peyto lake, just look at that! From there I continues almost with no stops to Banff (I stopped at Lake Louise but shhhh!) I reached Banff around sunset so went to Lake Minnewanka and Two Jack.
There wasn't sunset like I imagined but it was still nice. I just sat there and stared. After a while I changed my position, and there was some hippy looking guy playing guitar next to me… I wanted to capture him in a picture since it looked nice but then he started talking to me and said I got to come there in winter time, so we'll see 
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Banff Gondola
Finally my driving day was over and I got to my hotel which this time was a little bit out of town. I planned on having dinner there, just to find out the dining room was closed . This meant I had to go back to town… But anyway, the hotel itself was really nice!
Woke up the next morning and had a lovely breakfast at the hotel. It seemed like a nice day which meant a good time to take the Gondola which I missed a week ago. This is one of the main attractions in Banff. A few minutes ride to the top of Sulfur mountain provides a 360 degrees lookout on the town and the surrounding mountains. The cable-cars are for 4 people so with me there was an Australian couple who were really funny, taking pictures and videos with a selfi-stick and commenting.
When reaching the top there's a large deck where you can spend more than an hour. Of course it doesn't matter where you look, you see tons of trees ! If you focus on the town's area the thing that caught my eye was the small "Tunnel mountain" which has a very distinctive shape. When I went up I considered going down by foot, but these thoughts have gone, I took the cable-car down and now thought what to do next…
Kootenay national park
I decided to go to Kootenay which is, if you remember, one of the 4 national parks in the Rockies. Actually there's one road that goes through the park and along it, some points to stop at. I started with a trail called "Stanley glacier", which is a few hours walk while at the end you get to see a glacier. It's not always the the end that matters, the way was also very nice !
After 3 hours I returned to my car and drove to "Marble canyon" which the guidebook didn't mark with a start but I really liked it. Another one of these canyons where the river flows beneath, you see high walls of rock and so on. The last destination in the park was something called "Paint pots" which was marked with a
star, but! I didn't understand what I'm looking for.
Really. I mean, I did the trail, there were couple of ponds with waters in different colors because of the minerals but… It was so not attractive that I don't even have a picture ! Perhaps in a different season it's more interesting… I wonder.
Just out of Canmore - Grassi lakes trail
Now I was heading towards Banff but going further to Canmore. Canmore is already out of the national park's boundaries and seems a bit larger than Banff and Jasper. I woke the next morning and decided to go to "Grassi lakes" trail. I start walking and after 200 meters there's a (strange ?) sign saying "Easy / More difficult". It was a indeed a tough decision to make but I did it (can you guess what was my pick ?)
So I walked and reached a small lake with nice reflection, but when you go round it you get to another lake and if you elevate a little bit you can see both of them together. On the way back I chose the way which I didn't take on the way up and it was a wise decision since it was a little challenging.
I returned to the city and did some "window shopping" in nice small shops. I also went to the city's park where people jog and ride their bikes along the riverside but when you lift your head … oh! That's when you get all the Rockies scenery in your face ! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G !!! From Canmore you can also take Husky rides which I really felt like doing but unfortunately it was closed.
Then I called it a day.
