So our morning in Canmore began very early, our middle kid was awake at 5:00! We tried to convince him to go go back to bed because it was waaaay to early for a hotel. Around 5:30 Dad got up with him and they went outside to not wake up everyone else. When we returned a few minutes later the young one was up!
So the three walk to Tim Hortons for a muffin and a coffee.
We had many other highlights for the day.
We left Canmore and headed towards Revelstoke. It was a slightly rainy day so the drive was a wet, lush and green one. We stopped at a few small streams and gathered some rocks and threw some rocks.
And we came across Giant Cedar.....the coolest damn place ever!! It was just off highway #1 but it was the farthest thing from pavement and RVs. It was a fantastic rain forest walk along a boardwalk. It was a lot of stairs that took you up the mountain a few hundred yards to an amazing cedar forest. The kids were good and enjoyed the walk and the old fallen trees, but it would be easy to lose their intest if you don't keep them engaged in the walk.
Giant Cedar was Dads highlight so far!
We also did a a forest walk to a 'rock garden', which was about 20 minutes long. It was on a a rougher path than Giant Cedar but the kids liked being able to walk and climb through the forest more. The rock garden was actually a deposit of old massive boulders that were covered in moms and lichen. Super fun as well, a lot more interactive and active.
Then it was in the Revelstoke after braving the last day of the long weekend traffic. It was raining and grey so we did not get to walk and see much of Revelstoke. But we did enjoy the Best Western Wayside Inn!!!
It was very new and had some very cool features that sets it off from others. It had a 6:00 am continental breakfast (great for early risers).
It also had an outside heated pool, outside warmer pool and an outside hot tub. Which was amazing because it was Gary and raining outside. But the best part of the hotel were the facilities. The pool change rooms were stellar, the breakfast area was clean, spacious, and the room was very nice and modern.
One thing lacking in town may have been the restaurants, though we ended up finding Emos pizza.....yes Emos. And to our dismay it was not staffed with long banged, pale, pantera shirt wearing teens. The food and service was very good though.
Busy day with a tough drive but a great end to the day sitting in the hot tub in the rain.
The hotel rates like this:
Best Western Wayside Inn
Room 5/5 (it was a good size and had amazing beds!)
Pool 4/5 (the pools were great, very clean and maintained. Only tick against it was no waterslide, but it is nice to sometimes not have a waterslide.)
Location 3/5 (it was just inside town so it was easy to find, but it was not really close to anything that we could walk to.)
Hotel 5/5 (a great place, the plaque said it was the #6 Best Western in Canada, and we agree!)
