The only dates I have available for 2013 are in October and November

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K evin and I took off with our dogs Leroy and Mabel for a retreat to Cathedral Mountain Lodge this last week. We took advantage of the "September Larch Splendor" package which meant we stayed for 3 nights and got our 3rd night free! We stayed in a dreamy little cabin all to ourselves and loved every minute of it. There is no internet and no phones in the rooms which for me meant a perfect way to unwind and recharge. If I were to use just one word to describe Cathedral Mountain Lodge I would say "Thoughtful". To me luxury is in the details and Cathedral gets that right. I loved all the thoughtful touches that made our stay really special. The front desk was clearly used to travelers from all over the world so when they asked where we had come from it was rather funny to say Banff. Cathedral Mountain Lodge is located in Yoho park just outside of Field and it's only an hour drive from Banff. That is my kind of vacation an hour drive with our dogs and no security lines or planes to board, total luxury! It's a 12 minute drive to Emerald Lake so we enjoyed daily walks with our dogs around the lake. If you stay at Cathedral they offer you your choice of a free canoe ride at Moraine Lake or a guided hike at Moraine Lake. The lodge is only open until the end of September before they board it all up for winter. If you go in late September just before the lodge closes it would be an amazing time to hike to Larch valley at Moraine Lake to see the yellow larch trees. I think we'll have to make a September stay at Cathedral a tradition.

Above is the main lodge with Cathedral Mountain in the background. Below is our sweet little cabin. We live in a condo so to have our own freestanding cabin was quite thrilling for us.

The cabin is so romantic and comes with a fireplace stocked with wood, kindling and matches. Kevin had a fire going in our cabin every night and I loved the sound of the crackling wood and the glow of the fire.

I completely fell in love with the shower in our cabin, the best shower I have had. The soaker tub was quite amazing as well and the perfect way to end a day of hiking. I also loved that they provided Aveda shampoo, lotion and soap instead of the usual cheap hotel soap.

When we arrived there was a beautiful book on hiking by local Canmore authors with a hand written note welcoming us to our cabin.

Who doesn't love an unexpected gift with a handwritten note?

The main lodge dining room where we ate breakfast every morning. Breakfast is included and it is amazing! Not the usual fruit loops and cold eggs. The breakfast featured homemade granola with organic yogurt, BC fresh fruit and homebaked goodies. It was such a treat to wake up to.

I loved all the antiques throughout the lodge.

There were all kinds of thoughtful little seating areas throughout the lodge. This outside seating area overlooked the kicking horse river and had an outdoor fireplace. There were tables that had checker boards painted on them, books throughout and binoculars for guests to use.

After breakfast you could order hiker's lunches to take with you. A sandwich, an apple, a homemade cookie and a bottle of water in a brown lunch bag. I also thought it was sweet that they had a picnic basket in our room.

There were chairs set up by the river for guests to relax in.

Now that we have Leroy and Mabel we really seek out vacations that we can enjoy with our dogs. We loved that we could just drive an hour and have our dogs stay in our sweet cabin with us. Cathedral Mountain Lodge set up our cabin with dog bowls, a dog bed, towels to wipe our dog's feet and poop bags. It was really thoughtful and made us feel right at home with our pups. I loved all the other thoughtful details like a coffee maker with coffee and cream in the small room fridge. Most lodges are the only provider of food on the property which I respect but it's nice to have a tiny fridge to keep your leftovers in. There was an umbrella in our cabin and several available in the main lodge as well, this seems like an obvious provision but it's the first time I've stayed somewhere that provided that. The stocked fireplace was a huge hit with us. The cabins all faced in the direction that there was lovely evening sun on the porches. I really think the lodge was thoughtful in all the little details which made our stay even more enjoyable. Kevin has always wanted to learn how to use my camera so I called this week "photo camp" and dedicated some time to teaching Kevin some of my favourite camera exercises. I have always known Kevin has an amazing eye but I am so impressed with how quickly he picked it all up, he went from just learning how to turn on my camera to creating some beautiful images from our week in a few days. We had so much fun. Cathedral Mountain Lodge is just at the bottom of the hill that heads up to Takkakaw falls so it was a great place to practice taking photos and the dogs proved to be challenging subjects as always. People always ask us where we want to go on vacation and I always feel like I just want time off to enjoy where we live. Summer and fall is so incredible here I wouldn't want to miss any of it. It was amazing to take a few days to enjoy the mountains. I'll take that over air travel any day.