travelbuffs
Ganesh & Meera Joined: May 22nd 2006
Logged in: February 9th 2012
Logged in: February 9th 2012
To travel the whole world is our greedy dream!
We've just started. We have our whole life. So, what the heck! It might be possible.
Recent addition : a baby girl whom we will call S.
Home: After 6-10 years in the Bay area, CA, USA, we moved to a nest in Calgary, Canada. So home is something we carry around in our hearts.
Bon Voyage
-travelbuffs
Travel Blog Posts
The beautiful pond
When: Oct 2 2011 Where: Highwood pass, Kananaskis country Highlights:Yellow Larch trees What are larch trees? Ganesh heard about this trail that was famous for its fall color. So, once again, grateful for being so close to these mountains, we drove in to Highwood Meadows. Btw, Highwood Pass is the highest pass in Canada that could be reached via a paved road. It is at an elevation of 2206 m(7237 ft). Two trails head from this parking lot. 1. The absolutely incredible Ptarmigan cirque 2. Highwood Meadows Trail - that branches into an unnamed trail. But right at the trailhead, a board greeted us. A board that read that the area was closed as a grizzly bear with cubs were in Ptarmigan cirque basin. We wer... read more
Heat & Light
When: September 2nd - 5th Where: Mt.Robson Provincial Park Highlights: Camping, float trip, hike, BC. Friday, 2nd September We were so dead, both of us that we thought we would just pull over & catch up some sleep. But somehow(read G took over) & we reached Jasper by 2pm. I fell asleep 1 hr into the drive & S slept when I was half way through it. So, it was break time for all of us at Jasper. We witnessed rain & a bit of snow on our drive & Jasper was still cold & windy. But we enjoyed being outside so much. Even S did not mind the cold. It was only a short 1 hr drive to Mt.Robson and we reached there early enough to set up camp and check out the visitor center. ... read more
A bear's share
Sunday, July 31st 8am ferry to Haines. The only other time we travelled with our car in a ferry was in Washington. From Bremmerton to Seattle. So, it was interesting to see cars from different states(US..some as far as Arizona) & other provinces(Ontario was popular, I noticed). It was the first time for S to be on any vessel in ocean waters(though typically, you don't get to the ocean between Skagway-Haines). It was a very short 40 min or so cruise & the ferry had a movie theatre that played some Alaska movie. When I have more time, maybe I should watch it. Mainland Alaska memories seem so long ago. The ferry had a neat dining area that served decent food. We spent most of our ferry time there as S had more space to run/see ... read more
beautiful wildflowers
At White Pass Summit, we entered Skagway, Alaska, USA. I think the first thought that came to both of us was that we never expected to set our shoes in Alaska again. It felt different driving into the US. Border formalities greet you just before you enter the town. Fairly empty & we got through fine. Just had to part ways with imported tomatoes & bell peppers. Hmm..Will have to be more thoughtful in the future. And we paid some $12 to enter the US. I am not sure why I did not ask the reason for the charge. Anyways, my head goes blank in front of a US authority. Skagway: A very cute little town. One drive on broadway st & you have seen it all as a tourist. The place is filled with jewellery ... read more
Emerald Lake, Klondike highway
Wednesday, 27th July We had a late start from Watson Lake & I was a little worried about the 450km drive ahead. But we seemed to catch up when it was raining & managed to stop at many interesting places before reaching Whitehorse, YT. We entered YT for the first time. Four yrs ago, we had a view of the Yukon river on our way to the Arctic Circle(in Alaska).That was all we had known about Yukon. Our first stop was at the Contintental Divide. This divide separates the rivers that flow W(all rivers join Yukon river) to the Bering Sea from those that flow N into the Arctic Ocean(joins Mackenzie river). Our next major stop was at Tesli... read more
A church at Morley, AB
When: May 28th-29th 2011 Where: Kananaskis country Highlights: Bow Valley Provincial Park, Elbow Falls Saturday, May 28th: A major system brought a lot of precipitation to southern AB & much of BC(obviously). The weather cleared yesterday evening & we thought we will make use of the rain to see the swollen rivers. We took the road-not-taken towards Bragg Creek. We ventured further without anything specific in mind. A short stop at the visitor center gave us some ideas. The rockies have received so much precipitation this past week that it made no sense to go up to the mountains. They were all covered in snow or muddy/slushy after the rain. Our first stop was at Allen Bill Pond. This apparently is a major picnic site & a popular fishing spot. S got to bring out her ... read more
Ice Dragon
When: 23rd Jan 2011 Where: Lake Louise, Banff National Park Highlights: First Ice sculpture celebration & sleigh ride It has been a while we had been outdoors. If it was not our laziness, it was the weather. All it took was one mention that an Ice Carving competition was happening in Lake Louise to get us moving. Grateful. The festival happened for 3 days & we were watching the weather closely to decide when to go. But, really! What were we thinking. The place is in the middle of the Rockies. It creates its own weather, ALL the time. Still, logistically Sunday proved to be better. I was surprised that after not being outdoors for a good 3 months, we still had it in us to get up early & get going, in spite of our ... read more
Aurora
When: 28th Sept - 3rd Oct Where: Yellowknife, Hay River & the drive back to Calgary. Highlights: Aurora, starlit nights, city of Yellowknife & Galaxyland at WEM P.S: Feel free to click on the photos to enlarge them to see the aurora clearly Click url=http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Northwest-Territories/Yellowknife/blog-535086.htmlhere for the first few days of this trip. 28th September Shower forecast. We hit the Legislative Assembly for the 10.30 am tour. An intern gave us the 40 minute tour of the Legislative assembly. I learnt so much about the NWT & their way of dealing with things. The building looked very modern(definitely not even close to the one at Edmonton, AB) & took 5 years to build. It incorporates every single detail that NWT is al... read more
wavy water
When: 24th -27th September Where: from Calgary, AB to Yellowknife, NWT Highlight: A roadtrip, the longest so far with the little one. Total Mileage: 1700 km one way Yellowknife is the capital of NorthWest Territories. It is the farthest North one can drive in North West Territories on paved road. I am splitting the entire trip to 2 blogs so I can blog in detail to help someone else make a similar trip. About North West Territories The whole idea of driving up to Yellowknife came as a passing thought. Why don't we do it? Just take the car & drive North. By the way, North fascinates me. Cold intrigues me. I may not be brave or capable enough to survive a -40C, but it sure gives me the chill. Figuratively & literally. This was the ... read more
Boulton creek again
When: 14th - 15th August 2010 Where: Peter Lougheed Provincial Park Mileage: 300 km Highlights: Some of the best sights of the Rockies outside the National Parks Saturday, 14th August Leaving late(ie., late for a walk in camp site) we found campsite availabilities in single digits at the Visitor center. Rushing to check in our luck & also wanting to choose the one with showers, we checked almost every campground on the way. And I should say that there are many campgrounds for a Provincial park and every campsite was FULL. We surely did not want to go back home at this point. So, we turned out at Mt.Sorrail campground hoping we would find a spot here as there is a "catch" that "may" turn some people away. And that is the sites are not driveable. ... read more
