Banff National Park

July 4-18, 2026

This blog was dictated by Hazel

This is all about my summer camping trip. It’s all of my favorite things. I went camping with my Grandma and Bob at Lake Louise while my mom and dad went climbing in the Bugaboos. I stayed with my Grandma and Bob and I had mac & cheese for breakfast every single day.

While my mom and dad were in The Bugs, me and my Grandma and Bob all went hiking, but one day Grandma‘s car battery was dead and would not start. Grandma called AAA. We waited for an hour for AAA to get there. AAA told us the battery was gone. They gave us a head start. They gave us a boost to get it moving and then we had to drive it or at least run it for an hour. We drove it for an hour or like 20 to 15 minutes.

Hazel playing in the park in Lake Louise

We were supposed to do a hike a different night but we didn’t and so we went to Lake Louise instead. We walked through a bunch of signs and I got them all read from Bob to me, and one was about a house building. It started off as a little house. It was just like it was just a little hotel room and then a fire came down and then it was rebuilt bigger. So then, it was like a little bigger hotel room and then a fire came down again, part of it stayed up, and then they rebuilt that half. But it was rebuilt bigger and it turned into a giant hotel, but like several rooms, where they get breakfast and dinner and like they have weddings there. It’s really cool, so for real.

The Fairmont Hotel at Lake Louise. Hazel's story is quite accurate about the fires here.

Every day we went to a park and we slack lined and I didn’t even play on the park because there was an obstacle course and there were bars I could hold onto that moved across the sack line. I held onto them so that I didn’t fall. A couple days I swung on the unique two person swing and my dad rode with me and it was really fun.

Hazel loved the slacklines and got quite good at them.

One day, we went to play at Lake Louise and we hiked all the way to the end of the lake. And when I was hiking, I drew in the sand at the end of Lake Louise.

Hazel playing in the sand at the end of Lake Louise

So we were hiking around the lake; well, we didn’t get fully around the lake, but we were kind of supposed to, but we didn’t. So next to Lake Louise, I found a stick for my mom and I to draw a heart in the sand and then we dug it out with some sticks. We actually threw it into the middle of the heart. I guess we were supposed to be making a tall pile and digging out the thing but I guess that didn’t happen. You didn’t have enough time cause we had to hike all the way back and get picked up by my grandma.

Hazel drawing in the sand

Then my mom asked me to stop and get a picture, but my mom also asked me to finish my sandwich. After we dug the thing out, like the big hole, we wrote all of our names, Mom, Dad, Hazel, that last one’s my name. Then we went back; we had to go fast because we had to get to the store before they closed, but then when you got picked up from my grandma and then we went to the store then back to our campsite later and we cooked s'mores and we went to bed.

Hazel eating her sandwich by her sand art

Lake Moraine was really turquoise. We went canoeing on Lake Marine and we had a three seat canoe and my mom loaded in the back. I rolled in the front and my dad rode in the middle and I did all of the work.

Canoeing on Lake Moraine

Hazel, Laura and Justin on the Rock Pile at Lake Moraine

While I was in Canada, I just was playing a game and I don’t remember the name of it, but I was working. So I was just working and working away and I did all the work; I had two jobs. I tried to make Dad do one of them, but he did not want to do it. So anyway I did that job too.

Hazel pretended she was working sometimes and drew pictures and did school work

When I went to the park, the next day, I climbed up a rope to go down a giant slide and then I went to the slack lines.

Hazel playing at the park in Lake Louise

So there was a train and they drove all the way around the world and this was a really long time ago, but it just drove around then. Yeah, so we just took a picture of the sign and it’s remind me to say this in the blog. So this is the same train I just told you about, so this train engine just blew out and it landed all the way over here; it’s crazy. Don’t even know where the train was. It’s crazy. I did not even know that happened till I saw this sign, it was crazy.

Part of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Engine 314 after the boiler exploded going up "The Big Hill"

The Spiral Tunnels replaced the "Big Hill" on the Canadian Pacific Railway

Hazel loved watching the trains. This is at Morant's Curve with Grandma and Bob. This is a different location than the spiral tunnels.

I saw baby bears; two baby bears one day and there was one baby bear the other day and there was always one mama bear and we went to a bear presentation at the camp. And I ate s'mores for dessert.

One of the baby bears we saw that was really close

I did more schoolwork only in a different chair. It’s my grandma‘s chair. It’s a double chair with my headphones on listening to some music and the name of the song was Adele.

Hazel enjoyed listening to music while working on activity books

And we went to a national monument on the way home. We saw the signature of William Clark.

Hazel and a friend she made at Pompey's Pillar National Monument in some hand carved canoes

The signature of William Clark from the Lewis and Clark expedition that he carved and dated at Pompey's Pillar National Monument

My favorite part of all of it was staying with Bob & Grandma.

We saw plenty of other wildlife as well as bears, including these big horn sheep

We hiked every day, often to waterfalls including Silverton Falls, pictured here, as well as the upper and lower Johnstone Falls, Peyto Lake and the Howse Pass Viewpoint.