Somewhat belated update on the road trip

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Well the road trip was a great success. We started off on Sunday with a leisurely drive to Whistler (pausing briefly at Shannon Falls) and after a quick wander round Whistler Village (really not my favourite place in the world) we carried on up the Sea-to-Sky highway and had a picnic lunch by the side of a frozen lake.

We carried on driving until we reached Revelstoke and found a hotel for the night. Monday we travelled through the Glacier National Park (beautiful clear weather showed the mountains off to their best - 2 metres of snow on the ground also helped), and then into the Yoho National Park. The "season" here doesn't really start until May, so lots of the "sites" were still closed. We had a brief detour to Emerald Lake (which is normally bright green - hence the name - but was also frozen and covered in snow), and then on with a short stop at the Spiral Tunnels. (Vince, If you're reading this, it could be the answer to some of the gradient problems!!!). No trains making their way round the steep inclines while I was there: and I was banned from staying longer until one came through!!!

Carrying on into Banff National Park, we had lunch at Lake Louise (again frozen & covered in snow), and did a long-ish walk around the lake, before making our way to our hotel in Banff.

Tuesday the weather was yet again gorgeous - lots of sunshine and very few clouds until about 4pm We made an early start and were on the road by 8:30. We drove up the Bow Valley Parkway, looking to see if we could see any wildlife. We were pretty disappointed: it's obviously far too chilly for most self respecting animals to be out and about. Until, that is... about 1 km from the end of the parkway, we spotted a lone Elk on the far side of the river. It must have been relatively young, and seemed to have a bad leg as it wasn't walking too well. After taking the obligatory 400 photos, we headed off, up the Icefields parkway.

Quick stops at Peyto Lake (lovely walk up through the snow to the viewing platform), Mistaya Canyon (somewhat slippery trot down to the river bridge) and Saskatchewan Mountain lookout (lovely spot for a bit of lunch). We crossed into the Jasper National Park - just so that we could say we did - and then turned round for a slow drive home, pausing briefly to walk up Johnston's Canyon (we could only get as far as the Lower Falls as the path was covered in snow beyond).

Wednesday we left Banff and drove to Calgary. A whistle stop tour of the city later, we headed to the airport for a some what turbulent flight back to Vancouver.

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Photos

Emerald Lake
Not exactly emerald at this time of year...

Comments

[Karen]

fantastic
amazing pics, loving the virtual holiday i'm taking with Marky G!