The Wild Canadian Rockies

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I’m standing in the lobby of a large hotel having just paid for a economy compact hire car. We are off to the mountains today and I have to drive on the wrong side of the road through the city. I’m not looking forward to it. A huge Dodge car draws up in front of the hotel and I thank god we went for a compact - driving a behemoth on top of everything would be hell. “Are you Russell Williams?” The driver asked “here’s your car.” Oh dear. I guess by American standards this is a compact.

I finish the paperwork off with the woman behind the desk. She is insisting on having a phone number but as I no longer have my mobile I have no idea what to tell her. “Can I have you parents number?” Hmm maybe if I could remember it. Damn mobile phone address books rotting my brains. “Erm yeah sure it’s..” I have no idea what number I made up and if they did call it and you were woken up in the middle of the night I apologise. They then asked for a second number just in case they couldn’t reach me on that. In for a penny… I apologise to whoever number that was too.

I get into the Dodge and check out the controls - automatic and cruise control - well maybe this won‘t be so hard after all. If I can just learn my left from right there’s a chance we might survive.

I pick Lins up from the hostel from hell - the crazy fat man from the night before has clearly made his millions as he’s not there - either that or he is at the hospital in recovery. We head out of the town on what is called the highway though it is only one lane and head for our first stop - the ski resort of Whistler.

We had decided to stay here the night but we had managed to get to Whistler before lunch and seemed silly to waste a whole travelling day. Also I don’t know whether you’ve ever been to a ski resort when there isn’t any snow but it’s - well weird. So we cracked on through the stunning scenery of the Canadian Rockies. Each turn seemed to be better than the last - it is just amazing.

The highway travelled through a small town called Mount Currie and we had to slow down quite a bit. Mid conversation there was a scream which I suddenly realised was me - “BEAR!!!!” Ambling across the road as if he owned the place was a Black Bear. He looked at the car for a second and walked on. We drove on trying not to look like we were hurrying.

As the sun started to sink we rocked up in the little mountain town of Lillioot and checked into a hotel. What can I say about Lillioot. Well it is South Park - no question! The view from the motel room was wonderful though.

The next day was a driving day which took us further north in to the Rockies. We were heading for Prince George as our guide had told us we might be able to see the Aurora Borealis or northern lights. We stayed in the town for a couple of nights looking for the lights but the weather conspired against us and on the only clear night they weren’t to be seen. I guess we were just a little too early. Whilst we were in town we enjoyed the sights. Well we would if there were any - they didn’t even have an internet café and on Sunday I have never seen a city so quiet. It was all not-too-soon time to go. We left via the drive through Starbucks - I just couldn’t resist such an amazingly American invention.

We travelled west towards the Alberta border taking in our last look at the British Columbian scenery. We stopped off to admire the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. It was in cloud but the glaciers hanging from it were visible. As we pulled back on to the highway there was another of those screams - “WOLF!!” A wolf was actually crossing the highway in front of us. I must have scared it though as it ran back to other side again nearly getting itself killed in the process.

We crossed the border into Alberta and entered the National Park. We know we entered the park because there was a ranger standing there collecting park fees - fees we didn’t know about and they weren’t cheap as we were staying for four days. Sulking we went on to Jasper to find some accommodation.

We arrived in Jasper and started our search for accommodation. And we searched to no avail. Every hotel, B&B and lodge in the area seemed to be fully booked or had rooms available at prices that made the Hilton seem like a hostel. Early in our search we had called the local hostel who told us that we could try their branch about 11km outside of town which holds 11 beds on a first come first served basis. The catch was they didn’t open until 5pm so if we weren’t in the first 11 we would stand no chance of getting anywhere. But it was now 4:30 and we hadn’t got anywhere so we headed for the hostel. When we arrived there was no long queue - in fact the wasn’t a lot there at all. A Dutchman came out of one of the cabins and told us he wasn’t quite ready to open yet but to hang around. “You have a reservation?” he asked. “No, we were told by your other branch that you have 11 beds available.” “Those idiots - they are always telling people that just because their fancy computer isn’t up to date. I might have two beds though they won’t be in the same dorm and I have to make a phone call first.” Well ,we really don’t have much choice here do we! The guy came out a bit later and said he had the beds and they would possibly be in the same dorm “But I should tell you we are a wilderness hostel which means we have no showers, in fact no running water at all, the long drop toilets are over there in the woods and if you do decide to stay I will have to give you the bear advice - we’ve been getting a lot of bears around lately - berry season you see.” I think the look on our face gave away the fact that we weren’t here to commune with nature in quite such a complete way but really were a couple of dumb tourists who didn’t book ahead. But at the end of the day it was on the only bed available in town and was better than staying in the car in bear country so we took it. Then we headed straight to an internet link and booked the rest of our accommodation for the week.

Having spent a whole day looking for accommodation we decided it was time to see a bit of the Jasper National Park. As we were camped virtually on top of Maligne Canyon it seemed a good place to start. The Canyon was actually quite impressive and didn’t deserve the sneering it received in our guide book. We then moved on to Maligne Lake a bit further down t the road. We passed by Medicine Lake - another great reflecting lake which actually drains into an underground river and disappears in the winter when the rains are falling as snow and don’t replenish it. The sign at the lake said that they had tried to dam it in order to make ferry operations safe but it didn’t say where the ferry was supposed to be going! Just around the corner we came across our first Bear Jam This is a clog in the traffic where people have spotted some wildlife near the road and get out to take pictures - abandoning their cars. And yes people even do this when they spot bears despite all advice and common sense. In this case they were some pretty harmless, if a little stupid big-horned sheep.

At the lake we went for a stroll around and watched the canoes and boats plodding along the lake. Considering you are in the middle of no where there is quite a lot of people around. As we were about to leave we spotted on the other shore a tiny looking creature on the other shore. I quick zoom with the camera showed it was a Moose. Our Canadian wildlife tally was doing well!

We pressed on into the mountains to visit the Columbia Ice Field. This massive lake of ice sits onto of the Rockies feeding glaciers in all directions. The visitor centre there is really busy but what people have come to do and what we had to do was get up on the ice. A bus drove us up the mountain before transferring us onto specially designed ice buses. Our guide gave us a fun commentary as he explained the formation of the ice field and glaciers - it was like being back in geography. The ice itself was beautiful and it was good to get up on the ice rather than admiring from afar as we did in New Zealand.

That night we had booked a motel in Golden a small town a little way away from our next destination of Lake Louise. Golden is back over the border in British Columbia and is a really small town with little more than motels as far a I could see. Our motel was great though as it had a swimming pool with a great big curling water slide which I have to admit I did so many times it made me feel a little sick.

When we woke in the morning it had been snowing in the mountains and the tops were bright white. It was just how you imagined the Rockies to be. We headed back into Alberta to visit the summit of Bow and the view of Lake Peyto. As we climbed back into the mountains we were surrounded by a winter wonderland and the snow began to fall again. It is ages since I have seen real snow so obviously a snowman had to be built. OK, it was too cold to build a snowman so I built a snow child. Oh the views of the lake were great too.

On our way back to the motel I spotted my second bear. This one ran across the road behind me ( I saw him in the rear view mirror) much to the loss of rubber of the guy behind who almost had him. I screamed but Lins missed him.

Our next stop was Lake Louise which always gets star billing in the tourist pamphlets. I have to say I felt a little let down by it. It is undoubtedly a beautiful lake but I think the tourist facilities have taken over a little and its no nicer than the other lakes we had seen. But don’t get me wrong it is a beautiful place - just one of so many in the area I wonder why everyone raves about this one.

We stopped the night in the YWCA in Banff (pre-booked of course). Banff is a pleasant little town and was made even more special by the snow. Which went on all night so the next day the car had to be dug out a bit. Apparently we had 9 inches over night. We went up to explore one last lake - Lake Miniwanka. As usual there were lots of warnings of bears in the area but we decided to head into the woods a bit to see a gorge which wasn’t too far. Well I guess it was too far because we never found it. We did have a lovely wander in the woods and even saw some deer. No bears though thankfully. By the time we eventually became sure of our position again Lins was frozen and I was getting there. We grabbed a hot drink and went back to the car. We spent the rest of the day in town finding warm places to go before we set off to leave the National Park (Our pass had nearly expired). We were heading back to the big city - Calgary to be precise.

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Photos

Mountains
Wow - even with no snow

Whistler
A ski resort with no snow?

Mount Robson
The highest point is up there somewhere

Malign Canyon
In the wilderness

Medicine Lake
Tranquil

Moose
Can you see him?

Columbia Icefields
There's a lot of G and T's to be made out of that lot.

Glacier
On the ice

Snowballs
You've been snowballed

Payto Lake
In the mist

Lake Miniwanka
Great name!

Lake Miniwanka 2
Just great!