Remember the Canadian Rockies? | July 2021 #Shorts

Every now and then a clip resurfaces on our camera roll and stops us mid-scroll, and this one did exactly that. July 2021, the Canadian Rockies — a trip we still bring up at random dinners, usually starting with "remember when we..." That's basically how this whole video happened. We didn't set out to make a nostalgic #Shorts, we just found the footage, watched it once, and immediately needed to share it.

If you've never been, the Rockies have a way of making you feel small in the best possible way. We flew into Alberta not entirely sure what to expect — we'd seen the postcard photos of Lake Louise and Moraine Lake like everyone else, but nothing quite prepares you for standing in front of that turquoise water in person. Amir kept saying it looked "photoshopped," and Samantha kept telling him to stop saying that out loud because people around us clearly thought we were tourists who'd never seen a lake before. Which, fair, we kind of were.

Why July Was the Right (and Wrong) Time to Go

We went in the middle of summer, which meant long daylight hours and warm afternoons perfect for hiking — but it also meant crowds. If you're planning a Rockies trip, know that parking lots at the popular lakes fill up by mid-morning, sometimes earlier. We learned this the hard way at Moraine Lake, circling for a spot before finally giving up and taking the shuttle. Our tip: go at sunrise if you can manage it. We regret not doing that more than once during the trip — the light hits the mountains differently, and you basically have the trail to yourself for an hour before the buses arrive.

The nights, on the other hand, were the surprise. Even in July, mountain evenings dropped cold enough that we were digging through our bags for the one hoodie we'd packed "just in case." Layers are non-negotiable no matter what time of year you go.

The Drive Itself Was Half the Trip

Anyone who's done the Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper knows it's less a "drive to a destination" and more a destination in itself. We pulled over probably a dozen times for glaciers, waterfalls, and one very confident herd of mountain goats that had zero interest in moving off the road. It reminded us a little of the open-road feeling we chased on our trip to Blue Mountain earlier that year, except everything here was scaled up about ten times — bigger peaks, bigger silence, bigger sense of "wow, we live in this country."

As a couple who grew up on completely different sides of the world — Samantha in Vietnam, Amir in Punjab — trips like this one keep reminding us how much we both fell in love with Canada's outdoors after moving here, even though neither of us grew up around mountains like these. It's become one of our favorite things about being an interracial couple building a life together: we get to discover a place with completely fresh eyes, side by side, and neither of us has "seen it all before."

What We'd Do Differently

Looking back at this footage now, five years later, a few things stand out. We'd build in more time — we tried to see too much in too few days, which meant a lot of "quick stop, fifteen minutes, back in the car" instead of actually sitting somewhere and soaking it in. We'd also book accommodations closer to Jasper rather than commuting back and forth from Banff every day, since the drive time ate into hours we could've spent hiking.

We'd also pack better snacks. Small thing, but when you're two-plus hours from the nearest town and running on gas station coffee, you start negotiating who gets the last granola bar in ways that test a relationship more than any top problems list we've ever written about.

Revisiting this trip reminded us why we started filming our travels in the first place — not for the views alone, but for exactly this moment years later, watching old clips and laughing about things we'd half-forgotten. If you haven't been to the Canadian Rockies yet, put it on the list. And if you have, we'd love to hear what part stuck with you most.

Watch the full clip here: Remember the Canadian Rockies? | July 2021 #Shorts

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