Hey, I'm Amanda.

Two weeks ago my friends and I took a little drive down to one of my favourite places to be, Banff.

For those who haven’t been, Banff is a little ski town in Alberta. It can be quite touristy, but the tall, year-round snowy mountains that surround you absolutely takes your breath away. Nothing can compare to the feeling of when the sun is shining down on your face, as you make your way through the streets of cabin-styled shops and restaurants, breathing in fresh air all around you.

We originally were going to go right outside of Banff and hike up a mountain called Moose Mountain. Unfortunately, we realized once arriving that the road to the trail head is closed in the winter time, and if we were to walk to the start of the trail it would take us two hours (lets keep in mind Moose mountain is a 5 hour round-trip hike on its own).

So, we had to quickly get on our phones and spontaneously create a new plan. We decide to drive into Banff and hike up Sulphur Mountain. Sulphur Mountain is a popular mountain in Banff. They have hot springs you can visit at the bottom, and you can take the gondola up to the top. We obviously chose not to take the gondola, and hike up the mountain ourselves.

It took about 2 hours in total to the summit, but it wasn’t too bad of a hike! On the way up you got a really incredible view, and sometimes you’d be surrounded by so many trees you didn’t know how far you climbed up until you got a clear view again. It ended up being quite a boujee hike haha, being that when you got to the top they have a building which you can get some food or hot chocolate. We all drank some hot chocolate and coffee, while eating our hiking snacks, before we headed back down the mountain on the gondola.

We didn’t really want to take the gondola down but it was a free ride back down if you hike up, so we just decided to take advantage of the free ride.

Near the end of the night we had dinner at a place called Coyotes, and ended back to our hotel in Canmore (just outside of Banff)

Definitely recommend visiting Banff for anyone who hasn’t been. The rocky mountains are indescribably beautiful x