FRIDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2026

(Canmore, AB – Calgary, AB)

I woke up and wondered if it was as clear as the weather forecast had suggested it would be. One look at the webcams confirmed…it was not. This left me pondering what we would do with the day but, first things first. Having run out of in room supplies, I went downstairs to the lobby for coffee, which we had sitting in bed. I decided I could see the lack of scenery just fine from there, plus the suggested outside temperature was about -8C. Brrrr. (Clearly, if there had been a great mountain view, I’d have been out there on that balcony, regardless, but I’m not that crazy – no view, no suffering).

By the time we’d had showers and packed most of our belongings up, though, the sun was breaking through, and the mountains were starting to show themselves. We sat in the balcony for a few minutes just to soak all in.

For breakfast we returned to Graze, parting in town. Unfortunately it was a different server today, who didn’t offer to accommodate my request for a mixed vegetable omelette, instead requiring me to pick one from the menu (whereas our previous server has even suggested it to me when I was struggling to choose. To be clear, all of the options were available, with ingredients of spinach, mushroom, onion, tomato, peppers and cheese, but you could only have the allotted combinations). It was still a tasty breakfast, but the staff today lacked the engagement and communication skills we had become accustomed to. The view out of the window was great, though.

We finished up and , now that it was sunny and Plan A was back on, drove up to the Nordic Centre to park. We then walked along the Rundle Forebay, the side of the reservoir that offered fabulous surround views of the mountains, combined with reflections in the water. At the far end of the trail we could also see the waterfall that we had climbed alongside when we did the Grassi Lakes trail last week (it feels a lot longer than that!). 

For those asking about the pencil sketches of mountains, indicating their names, they come from an app named Peak Finder. It also offers and augmented reality view, so hopefully you’ll enjoy these. (I write like the pencil sketches though, maybe I’m old school).

After walking back to the Nordic Centre, and having a quick look at a few display cases of Nordic ski equipment, medals and memorabilia, our next stop was the Canmore Fire Station. Don’t worry – nothing wrong, but this is where you can deposit new or used bear spray. Ours were obviously still new, with safety caps still intact. Which is a good thing… Anyway, they have a unit dedicated to just this purpose outside the main building.

We were going to stop for a short walk to the Three Sisters viewpoint, but there was a sign indicating you could no longer park where I was going to park, so we didn’t. Instead we drove back to Calgary, which didn’t take that long. I was surprised to see that there was some snow on the ground all the way, with the sight of the mountains still in the rear view. There were snowflakes in the air as we checked in.

We contemplated what to do, whether to go shopping, but in the end decided on early tea, and a relaxing evening in our room. I booked a suite so there’d be plenty of room to sort and pack (somehow everything will fit back into three cases and our hand luggage, although it’s hard to believe). We walked (of course) to a nearby brewery/restaurant. It is in an industrial unit near our hotel, with half given over the the brewing equipment, but the other half fitted out as a pub, serving traditional pub options and beers (and wine, cocktails, soft drinks etc). It has a good atmosphere and we enjoyed our meal, settling in for the evening.