The crispy mountains, lakes and waterfalls of western Canada

The southwestern part of Canada is featured on many travel leaflets and found on millions (?) of social media posts and websites. There is a reason for this of course. The bright blue waters filled with glacial sediments is in my opinion one of the greatest reasons. It's also why I love visiting this part of Canada. There's also come cool small towns to visit, but during peak season they might be somewhat overcrowded.

Especially the part between Banff and Jasper National Park holds some of the most amazing landscapes in the world. Around each corner the views drastically change and the dramatic peaks of the Canadian Rockies tower above you in all directions. When visiting the place in spring, the thick layer of ice on the lakes begins to melt as does the snow on the peaks, causing lots and lots of waterfalls to begin flowing down the mountain. What begins as a calm flow on the high peaks ends in wild whitewater rivers violently crashing through canyons.

As with many other beautyful places in the world, the Canadian Rockies are getting more and more popular. One of the pictures below will illustrate this in a rather sad manner. However, the trick we always use to avoid the crowds with their selfie sticks, is getting up really early in the morning or venture a long way from the parking lot into the wilderness. If it's hard to reach or takes lots of effort, the majority of the people will not do it.

And why should they? You can view amazing things from within your car even and take brilliant pictures from the parking lot. I just feel walking and sitting in nature and really experiencing the forest or the mountain adds a lot of value. It also feels more adventurous, even though walking around in the woods yelling "hey bear!" every 10 seconds might not be the most fun thing to do. But seeing over ten bears just beside the roads on day one kind of gets you on edge. Seeing bears is great, but standing face to face to a mother bear and her cubs is something I definitely want to avoid.

Remember the sad sighting I mentioned. This is it. These bears were just coming out of hibernation and being extemely hungry, they had no eye for the tourists, but this could have ended a lot worse...

As I want to end with a positive note, I want to share this last photo. I really love the contrast between the rocks and the water.

Have you ever visited the Canadian Rockies or is it on your travel to-do list?