National Park – Phoenix's Life

Pink Lake Hike | Gatineau 2018

September 10, 2018September 17, 2018by phoenixraay14 Comments

Hello friends,

Today’s post will be about my experience doing the walk around Pink Lake in Gatineau, Quebec Canada. Currently I live in Ottawa, so it takes absolutely no time at all for me to drive to Quebec, which is good because Gatineau is full of fun walks and hikes to do! If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I love going on hikes! I love the feeling of being surrounded by natures beauty and exploring it.

For me, it took about 45 minutes to get there. Once we arrived, there were two places to park. We stopped at the first parking lot we saw, the look off, before even knowing there was another larger parking lot a minute further down the road! The lake was very busy on the Sunday that we went. Probably due to the beautiful day and summer coming to an end – everyone needed to get out and enjoy the last bit of warm weather! My boyfriend and I scoped out the look off and then headed out for the walk!

You can click here to learn more about Pink Lake!

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The trails were well maintained and you could tell they tried to leave the environment as natural as possible. They even had signs along the trail to remind people to stay on the path instead of trampling through everywhere. Now as you look through the pictures you’ll see that this lake is in fact not pink at all! Its actually more of a green colour.

Pink Lake is a meromictic lake – the upper and lower layers of the lake do not mix. In most lakes, these layers mix every spring and fall with the change in water and air temperature, water density and wind. The mixing ensures nutrients and oxygen are distributed evenly throughout the lake!

The shape of Pink Lake and the valley it sits in allows it to be blocked from the wind and therefore no oxygen reaches the bottom of the lake. The green tint of the lake is due to microscopic algae, which even though a green lake looks cool, is harmful. This vegetation gradually overtakes the lake causing it to suffocate.

With the massive amount of visitors this lake gets, the eutrophication process has sped up. This is why new boardwalk trails have been built in attempt to preserve this natural ecosystem for many more generations to enjoy. Many volunteers helped with this project as well as planted over 10,000 trees. Erosion is an impact that occurs at busy tourist sites, which is what the parks people are trying to mitigate.

So please, stay on the trails and respect the nature you’re in! 🙂

Little guys like this need their ecosystems functioning properly to survive.

The walk is definitely beginner friendly and roughly took us an hour with me stopping every two steps to take more pictures. If you look along the trail right besides the lake you can spot a million frogs and we also saw turtles!

Not a huge fan of these guys up close, but with my zoom lens I don’t mind admiring from a distance!

The weather for our walk was a mix of sun and clouds. I would usually be standing around waiting for the sun to try different styles of pictures, however this standing around time allowed me to get some artsy shots and play with my focus.

Reflection pictures would have to be one of my favourite kinds! This definitely is not a perfect reflection picture, but to be honest I didn’t even realize there was a reflection until I looked at the pictures once I got back home!

By the end of the walk we were so sweaty from the humidity I was just snapping random pictures and not really paying attention, but sometimes those are the best pictures!

In conclusion, I recommend going on the Pink Lake walk if you are in the area and want something to do! Great if you have kids too so they can see all the frogs!

What is the coolest colour of lake that you guys have been to?

Until next time,

xoxo

adventure

Vermilion Lakes Road | Banff, AB

February 16, 2018May 3, 2018by phoenixraay13 Comments

Hello friends,

I have been to Banff, Alberta Canada many times and have always seen this road called “Vermilion Lakes Rd” right before you pass the large BANFF sign entering into the town. I always thought, hmm whats down there but never went! So on a very cold day in December we decided to head down it.

It was my parents and myself in the truck slowly making our way down the road. At the beginning of this day my mom made me get in between them in the middle seat of the front of the truck… it was fun for about a whole 5 minutes until I started to cramp up! haha I am not a tall person, but I do have longer legs and bad joints so you could only imagine how sitting with your knees around your ears wold feel like!

By the time we got to this road I had transferred to the back of the truck, much more comfortable! Now this way I could shuffle around in the back seat popping out of any window I pleased. In this fancy truck of my dads the back windows rolled down too, which was very convenient for getting shots!

So most of the lake was frozen , but as we would drive along we found a few “natural hot springs” where the water was open. I thought these were so cool, even though I have learned all about them in school haha everything about nature still amazes me! In these springs too there were little duckies! So cute!

He looked so out of place though with all the snow around him! It was like his flock left him behind 😦

Now, the road wasn’t too narrow, but also wasn’t very wide with the amount of snow on the “shoulders”. It was quite comfortable when you were the only vehicle on it, and got a wee bit tight once there was one coming the other direction, which really I think there was only one or two.

As we kept driving we came across this massive natural hot spring! I don’t know if the picture does it justice. We could literally see the steam coming off of it.

It froze all the shrubs that bordered the waters edge.

I love the look of crisp frozen vegetation. I guess this is one of the perks of living in a place where it can get so cold!

Now, these next pictures come with a story! haha so I don’t know if you know this, but as people age they become a bit … well entertaining to say the least. (love you parents hahah 🙂 ) So my mom has always loved cattails. Every time when we drove across Canada in the summer when I was younger, heading back home to Ontario, I always remember her making my dad stop so she could grab a few cattails.

So what do you think she did when she saw all of those! “Howard go get me a cattail!”

And out he got! haha into the -25 degree weather to go get his “lovely bride” as he calls her, a cattail!

But it doesn’t stop at just getting her one. It needs to be absolutely perfect. So as you can see, he is inspecting them before he made a decision on which one to bring back! Because he knew that if it wasn’t good enough, he would be back out there.

He couldn’t decide on one, so he came back with multiple … smart man.

I nag my parents a lot, but they are he best people to go on a day drive with and find these cool places to take pictures of ❤

And with that another post comes to an end. Have any of you ever seen natural hot springs in the winter? Or better yet been to any?! I love the natural hot springs 🙂

Recent Posts:

Random Road with a View | Banff, AB

Liebster Award 2018

Until next time,

xoxo

adventure

Random Road with a View | Banff, AB

February 12, 2018April 30, 2018by phoenixraay39 Comments

Hello friends,

Today’s post is brought to you by a random adventure! As most are on my blog 🙂

Now this morning, my dad and I had planned to go snowboarding at Sunshine Village, which is a ski and snowboard resort in Banff, Alberta Canada. I highly recommend stopping by there and going for a day if you have never been and are in the area!

Even if you have never done skiing or snowboarding in your life you should still try it out! The mountains are one of the best places for beginners to learn. Lots of space, very wide runs (which mean they are not as crowded), and usually some nice powder … the snow you want! 😉 You can get one on one lessons, which is what my boyfriend did his first day boarding this trip, and in a few hours you will be comfortable enough to try it out by yourself. I will warn you that you will fall A LOT while learning, but it is all part of the process! Just DON’T put your hands behind you when you fall … or you will end up hurting yourself like my boyfriend did a few years ago his first time out!

…when will men listen … never is the answer haha

Anyways, back to the post at hand! My dad and I ended up going back to our cabin and picking my mom up to go out exploring. We went up this road at the beginning of our journey to find the road was closed. However, we parked and I hopped out for some pictures in the minus a million degree weather. This cute cabin was behind us so I snapped a few of it. While I was doing that, all I could think of was wow, I bet they are warm!

Next I trudged through the fairly deep snow to get some pictures of this massive valley we found! It was a decently nice day out besides how cold it was, so I was able to finally get clearer pictures. Unlike that first day if you remember from my other posts haha oh was the snow ever coming down that day!

No matter how many times I come to Banff, I am always able to find new little look off points or little back roads to explore. The possibilities of adventures in the Rockies are endless 🙂

By this point in the picture taking my dad and mom have made it out into the deep snowy field where I was. My mom was so cute all bundled up in her winter gear and her hat ties done up around her chin to keep it on haha I was a frozen little nugget and so as soon as she made it to me I turned around and headed for the truck!

Back in the truck now as I thawed out, I went through the pictures on my camera to see if any are decent. I always find it hard to actually see the quality of the pictures on that tiny camera screen, I like to blow mine up on the computer!

I thought the little pit stop down this random road was a success. Now we went off to eat a late lunch back in the town of Banff!

Do you guys ever venture down random roads looking for one thing, yet finding another? Let me know down below!

Until next time,

xoxo

adventure

Palliser Expedition | Banff, AB 2017

January 18, 2018February 2, 2018by phoenixraay18 Comments

Hello friends,

Today’s post will be a continuation of our look off journey that first snowy day in Banff Alberta, Canada. We were driving up the windey road and the first stop we made was Two Jack Lake, then we continued driving and came across another view point called Palliser Expedition.

I have never even heard of this before we came across it and I read this sign haha I took a close up one if you enjoy reading these explanations! I know my boyfriend and father both always read every single word on every sign at every stop we make!

The stone that every time you go to a lookoff you feel obligated to read

Although, this time my boyfriend stayed in the car because it was a wee bit chilly outside. Meanwhile I was running back and forth along this rock wall looking for the best picture opportunities in the blizzard we were in! haha

I spun around and snapped away. I have cleared up the pictures quite a bit since before editing them you couldn’t really see much due to the snowfall!

This sign had a very rustic and weathered look, which made sense since its out in all types of weather haha there were many names and initials carved into it.

I wish it would have been a clearer day because the views would have been so much better. There are days where I love massive amount of snowfalls where the huge snowflakes fall down. These days though, are wen I am inside all cozy and warm with some hot chocolate … not when I am at view points! haha

View points on clear days are incredible. Especially when you are in the Rockies, because the mountains go on for days and never seem to end! I know when we get clear days in Calgary, and you look towards the Rockies, they seem to go on forever.

Do you prefer snowy or clear days? Let me know in the comments below!

If you want to learn more about the Palliser Expedition click here!

Until next time,

xoxo

Recipes, Restaurant Reviews

The Grizzly House Review| Banff, AB 2017

January 11, 2018January 28, 2018by phoenixraay11 Comments

Hello friends,

Today’s post will be a review of The Grizzly House in Banff, Alberta Canada! The Grizzly House is a famous fondue restaurant in Banff. Ever since I was young I knew what it was but never went there! There is a rustic/casual atmosphere welcoming to both families or couples.

My boyfriend and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary while we were in Banff for New Years and he made us reservations at The Grizzly House! Now our reservation was for 8 o’clock or something so very late after a long day of snowboarding out in the cold! However, it was definitely a cool experience and I recommend it to all who visit Banff!

I will say however it is a more expensive dinner. If you want the fondue meal (which we did obviously..duh) there are a few options that you can pick from. It is a four course meal where you have options for every course! For the fondue dinner option, at least 2 or more people have to be ordering it.

This was what I chose for my first course. It was their french onion soup. Now, before this meal I have never tried this kind of soup, but I always heard of it. And I will be honest I thought it was something completely different! haha I was expecting this creamy delicious onion soup … it was nothing of the sort. Well, kind of kidding. It was pretty good! The flavour was awesome, but those chunks on top were bread and I am not the biggest fan of soggy bread in my soup (same goes for soggy crackers .. ew!). Underneath there was more of a broth with caramelized onions in it, which i did enjoy!

Here is a flat lay of the table when we got our soup. We had our wine, which was delicious! I ended up ordering the same one on New Years haha it was a sauvignon blanc from New Zealand. They gave us each a million forks, which lets be honest, who knows what fork is for what! Not me! So I just guessed haha still had one left over at the end so I probably did it wrong.

Anyways now we are onto round 2! I mean course 2 .. oops! When I get a four course meal it almost feels like I am doing different battle rounds with the food.. which one will defeat me?! We will not know until my stomach says “No More!”… spoiler: this time I made it to the end 😉

So back on topic, we ordered the cheese fondue. Very good choice I must say. It was made with some type of red wine and came with nice fresh bread to dip in it! It also came with fully caramelized garlic cloves. The waiter said that if we like garlic we could add a few and smoosh them around… we added them all! haha SO good!

Next came out the main course … all the meat! Sorry vegans hahah (aka my sista)

So for the meat course, there were 6 different ones you could choose from depending on what meat you wanted/how many oz you wanted in total. I ended up getting the Hunter Fondue Dinner which had buffalo, wild boar and venison (my favourite) and my boyfriend got the biggest, and most expensive, plate of course, which was the Exotic Fondue Dinner. It included buffalo, venison, shark, kangaroo, alligator, frog legs, and rattlesnake. It was suppose to come with ostrich, but they were out so he got kangaroo instead! So much food, but very cool to try!

I didn’t get a picture with the hot rock (what we cooked the meat on) fully loaded because I was starving and it got the best of me…next time I will do better! haha To cook the meat you can choose either the hot rock or hot oil. The hot rock is what they recommend though and it was more appealing to me since I am not a huge fan of very oily food!

With the meat came four different sauces: onion bacon, spicy tomato, horseradish dijon, honey garlic, and teriyaki abbe! The listing goes from right to left with the teriyaki abbe in the middle. My boyfriend was most excited for the horseradish one and the teriyaki abbe got me! My least favourite was the spicy tomato, but all still good! Definitely tried everyone as should you if you ever go 🙂

Next we move onto desert. And yes yes I know the restaurant is for the cool meat and everything, but honestly the chocolate fondue at the end was so utterly amazing!! It was a melted toblerone bar!

To dip in this delicious melted goodness was strawberries, banana, melon, orange, apple, and wafer chunks. Personally the strawberry and wafers were my favourite to dip! I set one wafer piece aside till I was done with everything else to dip so I could finish with my favourite haha does anyone else do that? We tried to finish all of the chocolate because it was so good but we simply couldn’t.

By the time we finished up with this we were so full! I tried to pace myself throughout the meal, but its quite hard when everything is so good!

The tables that they had were pretty cool too because they were all made of old corks put in this coating to hold it all together. Very neat!

Rating: 8/10

Yes I know some of you may be shocked..”why only an 8?!” First of all, the restaurant was freezing cold, I ate with my coat on for most of the meal. Not sure if the heat wasn’t working, but damn when its -28 outside you need heat! So that made the meal less pleasant. There are also these phones placed all around the restaurant that ring and you can answer them and I guess talk to another table? So that is kind of cool, but also annoying to have phones ringing all throughout the meal. Lastly, I am not a huge fan of cooking my own food when I go out to eat. It was a kind of cool experience, but I wasn’t quite sure how to cook some of it so I ended up with a few raw pieces that I couldn’t eat. Once they see that you have no more meat on the hot rock they take it away, so I could not even throw it back on!

Besides those few not amazing things, the rest was great! I would recommend to try it out if you are ever in the area and want a more expensive/unique dinning experience. Like both of the fondue’s were amazing, the cheese and chocolate, and they are a fondue restaurant so they nailed that!

Let me know if you have any questions about the restaurant and I will do my best to answer them! Also a question for all of you, have you ever been to The Grizzly House? If so, how was your experience? I would love to know! Also, if there are any other cool fondue restaurants you’ve been to!

P.S sorry for the iphone quality pictures, we were on a fancy date so I didn’t wanna bring out the big gun!

Until next time,

xoxo

adventure

Two Jack Lake | December 2017

January 7, 2018January 18, 2018by phoenixraay30 Comments

Hello friends,

In todays post I will start to go through our trip that we just went on for New Years!

We hit the road on the early morning of the 28th of December, 2017. Heading out from Calgary Alberta, Canada to Banff, Alberta Canada for New Years! I told my boyfriend I wanted to be in Canmore, AB for breakfast and sunrise because I wanted nice sunrise mountain pictures. However, things did not go as planned. I saw on the weather network that it was suppose to snow all day, but I thought maybe it would start a bit later….well it didn’t. We got to Canmore for what would have been sunrise, but it was a cloudy snowy day! I was sad, obviously, but I still went out and took pictures haha

We ate that morning at The Summit Cafe in Canmore. It was a quaint little place that had pretty decent food! The only restaurant to ever ask me if I wanted 6 or 12 pieces of fruit when I ordered a fruit bowl on the side! Lots of options on the menu and you could add baileys to any drink! haha I would have but we didn’t see that sign until we already ordered! Once we were done with that meal, we headed out into the snow. The roads were in bad conditions because of all the ice and snow, so driving around on all these back roads we were super careful! We saw many cars in the ditches, not due to accidents, but because they were driving too fast for the road conditions.

The first place we decided to head to was Two Jack Lake. While the boy was finishing eating, I was googling best places for a great view in Canmore despite the fact that you couldn’t really see at all that day! I wish we would of had better weather because then we could have went to some really cool places for pictures!

So we headed up the road. Of course I was a nervous passenger because we were heading up this skinny, winding mountain road covered in snow…but the driver was alright you could say 😉

Finally we arrived at our destination. I hopped out so quick! Even though it was roughly -25 C without the wind chill….let’s just say the boyfriend stayed in the car while I froze my butt off!

There was so many water spots (more like snow spots lol) on these pictures because of how much it was snowing! It took me so long to edit them! I would wipe my lens off before, during, and after every location, but it did nothing.

Maybe one day in the future I will put a before and after post up of some pictures, because some of these look quite different after editing them! I was not even sure if I would be able to use them in a post. I tried to clear them up the best that I could!

All of these pictures (except the road ones) I was standing in the same spot just turning a bit to give a different perspective.

I would love to drive back up here on a clear day and see the amazing view! I am sure its stunning. I imagine mountains all in the background, because in some pictures you can kind of see them hiding in the snow fall!

Do you enjoy stopping at look offs when you are on road trips? I stop at ones I have already been to before just because views like these never seize to amaze me! Make sure to subscribe by going to the top right corner if you want to see/hear more about our trip!

Until next time,

xoxo

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New Years Resolutions | 2018

January 4, 2018January 15, 2018by phoenixraay23 Comments

Hello friends,

Sorry I haven’t posted in a week. I had four days off at Christmas so I put a lot of work into my blog and got quite a few post up for you guys. And then on the early morning of the 28th we were off to Banff for snowboarding and New Years! Hence my lack of posts at the very end of December and thus far into January. You will hear all about the trip in many upcoming posts!

Now I know I am a bit late because it is January 4th and all, but when it was New Years Day I did have my resolutions all in my head! So I thought I would share them with you guys and maybe it will inspire one of you if you haven’t made any yet!

I don’t typically set hundreds of resolutions like some people, but I set a few just so I have something to work towards. Also, this year I decided to set goals to help me achieve these larger resolutions. I usually get too overwhelmed with all these resolutions floating around in my head that by February I push them all aside. So this year I will be trying something new!

1st resolution: Eat more veggies! I will achieve this by at least having one serving of vegetables with lunch and dinner. Also by eating more salads. I never was a huge salad person, but recently we have found a few really good bag mixes of salads, so I will try o eat salad twice a week! Maybe order salad instead of fries when we go out to eat…but that might be pushing it 😉

2nd resolution: Make more time for my blog! The last few months I was so overwhelmed with work and just adult things in life that I would set aside a couple hours on one day a week, usually Sundays, to bust out blog posts and edit pictures. Now, since I am not working so much I am going to schedule in blog hours throughout the week so it does not seem so daunting every Sunday! I really enjoy making posts however, when I have no time it is just another things that stresses me out. So this year that will change!

3rd resolution: Listen to the news more! Either by watching it or reading about what is going on in the world. I always made the excuse that I am too young and its so boring, but I am really going to make an effort to keep updated on current events.

4th resolution: Go on 1 or 2 good trips! My boyfriend and I are usually pretty good about planning trips and saving up for them so I think we will be able to crush this resolution! We set aside money every month into a separate “trip account”, which allows us to go on a trip and not have to worry about dipping into our other savings! It is a good technique that you should try out if you love to travel but need to stay on budget 🙂

I feel like 2018 should be a good year, because parts of 2017 were a struggle and a hard grind to keep going, but in the end it worked out alright. This year, I think will be better. Maybe some new opportunities will arise, going on more adventures, finding a better apartment! Who knows! The possibilities are endless. I am trying to keep positive vibes because my real adult life has only just started. I am so young and have so much time to figure life out..even though I don’t even think most older adults have it all figured out! haha

Taking it one small goal at a time is my moto this year!

Let me know in the comments below if you guys have any resolutions or goals for 2018! Oh and also, my next post will be back to normal with loads of pictures from my Banff trip! We visited a couple other little places and I am so excited to share it with all of you! 🙂

…Special picture credits go the father unit

Until next time,

xoxo

adventure

Bourgeau Lake/Harvey Pass | Banff, AB Canada Pt. 1

November 27, 2017December 16, 2017by phoenixraay15 Comments

Hello friends,

Todays post will be about the Bourgeau Lake/Harvey Pass hike in Banff, Alberta Canada! We did this back in the summer when it was beautiful out with no snow! Although, right now in Calgary there is not any snow because we have had quite a few warm days. This makes me sad because I love snow at this time of the year! Trying to get all festive and everything! But anyways, lets get back on topic!

Beautiful waterfalls on the hike to the lake!

This hike is 7.2 km one way and a 6 hour round trip. Its a steady uphill hike that leads to Bourgeau Lake, which is absolutely stunning by the way! You hike through very lush forests and beautiful flower filled fields with gorgeous views surrounding you the entire time. Bourgeau Lake is the closest subalpine lake to the town of Banff.

The glacially carved amphitheater provides a breath taking view of the lake. There are boulders right by the lake too which is where we ate lunch! For quite a hard hike there was lots of people there when we went!

Some people stop at Bourgeau Lake, but we decided to continue up to Harvey Pass. The hike to Harvey Pass will be in my next post so make sure to subscribe to hear about it next!

We also made a little friend at lunch time! I actually could not believe that we saw these guys on literally every hike we did this summer!

Have you ever been to Banff?

Until next time,

xoxo

adventure

Exploring & Heading Home | Waterton, AB

November 23, 2017December 6, 2017by phoenixraay11 Comments

Hello friends,

If you haven’t seen my previous Waterton posts click down below:

Todays post will be about our time in Waterton, Alberta (Canada) after the hike we went on in my previous post and then heading home!

Now, if you have never been to Waterton, like I have said before, you MUST go! It is so beautiful. Inside the town and all around it. We were absolutely amazed with the beauty of this place.

After our tiring hike we decided to head back into town and explore. And of course we had to stop and get some ice cream because it was so hot that day and it sounded amazing! We both got massive cones and devoured it all haha the ice cream place was packed too, so we knew it was going to be good 😉 If you ever want ice cream in Waterton I recommend Big Scoop Ice Cream Parlour!

We went on a walk by the water once we were done. It was beautiful but boy oh boy do these mountains ever funnel in the wind! I thought we were going to get blown away!

Now this place was just as windy, but I wanted to stop because of the views. We must have stood up here freezing for a good ten minutes or so just taking it all in.

There was a girl here trying to take a good selfie for at least 5 minutes and I was getting so frustrated at her because I was freezing but I wasn’t leaving without a good shot with no people in it! Its not even like she wouldn’t be noticeable in the pictures either, because she was wearing bright red!

There is the little town where we just were!

Eventually I got a couple shots that I liked 🙂

Hope you enjoyed this Waterton series! I had sooo many pictures from just one day. I had to try and show you guys all of the good ones without it being overwhelming! haha

Until next time,

xoxo