Bears and Mountains...

Our Canadian Rockies adventure started in June 2013......

7^th June:  We arrived in Calgary in the evening after a comfortable 8 hour flight from London.  We collected our rental car and a short drive found us at our AirBNB apartment on the outskirts of town.  The apartment was brand new and very stylish with heated basement car parking (a must in the winter here apparently!) and a gym (which we didn’t use!).  In an attempt to defeat the dreaded jet lag (7 hour time difference) we went to the local pub for a drink and a meal.  Of course, this only served to make us sleepier – but we made it through until 11pm.

8^th June: Woke (of course early!) to a cool but sunny day.  After a stop at the excellent local breakfast place we explored the city.  Downtown isn’t huge – with a lot of high-rise apartments.  Facilities for recreation, cycling and walking are excellent and we walked along the banks of the large Bow River that runs through the city.  Even for a non-business Saturday it was remarkably quiet.  The place has a friendly, clean, tidy and prosperous feel. Although we were not collecting our motorhome until Monday we took the opportunity to save time by doing the paperwork and induction on Saturday.  We had booked a “relocation” rental which gave us special terms for taking the RV back to Vancouver.  This meant that we would take whatever unit they gave us.  This meant that we had a 24ft van – a medium size for Canada/US.  Nearly all their vans are larger than the standard European ones and all are wider than would be practical on our roads.  This means that even the smaller ones are pretty spacious with loads of storage.  Of course, this means they need larger engines.  However, even Malc was shocked to hear that our Ford had a 6.8 litre V10 engine and a 210 litre fuel tank……….a good job fuel is only 81 pence a litre……..

Views around Calgary - 

As is our custom we checked out the local dining scene on Trip Advisor.  Interestingly, the 2^nd most recommended restaurant in the whole Calgary area (which of course has thousands) was a Phillipino place – The Seven Seas.  We had satnav on the Iphone – which was just as well because it would have been easy to miss this small and unprepossessing place on a small shopping strip.  On arrival the small, simple place was full (mainly of Phillipinos!!!).  The owners were very welcoming and advised us on their specialties.  We settled for crispy pork hock – probably the best we’ve eaten - and a noodle dish.  These guys deserve their No 2 spot.

Sunday 9^th June:  Woke early again.  In the afternoon we visited some friends of Malc’s sister – Jo and Smokey – who live in Cochrane – about 30 miles west of the city.  They took us on their usual Sunday drive to Canmore - a small mountain town on the edge of the Rockies.  It has a typical ski resort feel.  We had coffee and bagels in their favourite café whilst they filled us in on places to visit on our trip. It was nice to meet them and hear from “locals”.  Little did we know then that Canmore would be cut off by floods 10 days later........

Karen, Malc, Smokey and Jo

The Three sisters

Canmore village

Monday 10^{th  &} Tuesday 11^th :  After shopping for supplies in the huge Canadian Superstore, Karen organized the van whilst Malc returned the rental car back to the airport. We eventually left the rental site but not before we realized that the battery had drained completely and needed replacing! The van had most mod cons – a spacious shower and toilet, two double beds and a dining area that also made into a bed (if we had a row) and a built in sat nav (but no TV).  We left and picked up the Trans-Canada Highway 1 en route to Banff and the start of the Rockies.  Banff is only 100km on the Highway.  It’s famous but its permanent population is only 8000 BUT they get 4M visitors per year!!  Again, it has a typical Tyrolean/mountain feel.  It’s in what was the very first Canadian National Park – you enter the Park itself on the approach to Banff and it carries on as far north as Jasper – 300km to the north. We stayed in a park campsite – big enough for nearly 200 units with fantastic mountain views.  Park sites are often in the best places – and this was no exception.  However, the key difference from European site is, simply, space.  Each van has a large area AND it’s very own picnic table and benches – no need for chairs!  Nearly all have electric hookup and some have full hookup (water AND waste!) and special “tubs” for your very own camp fire (wood provided, with showers and toilets - all for £20/night!

We explored all the touristy sites in Banff – including the famous Banff Springs Hotel (£500/night!) and the hot springs cave.  In the evening we wandered into town for a nice “pub” dinner in a local microbrewery.

Kananaski ski area - on the way to Banff

Our campsite for the night

Great view from our RV....

Ground squirrels visited every day...

Bow falls in Banff

Wednesday 12^th:  the weather broke fine and clear so as we left we thought a quick return visit to Surprise Corner – for the best views of the Banff Springs – before rejoining the Trans Canada heading for our next stop – Lake Louise – only 55 kms away.  

Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

Smokey and Jo had advised us to turn off onto the Bow Parkway – a more picturesque route that runs parallel to the Trans Canada.  They specifically told us to look for a bridge that housed a large osprey nest.  We found it OK but unfortunately the birds had flown that day.  On then to Lake Louise, an area famous for skiing and snowboarding.  When you get there you can see why!  Magnificent mountains surround Lake Louise.  The village is just a small collection of shops and a couple of petrol stations.  The real attractions however are Lake Louise itself – a magnificent vista - the Chateau Lake Louise Hotel (sister to the Banff Springs) - and the ski area to the north of the town.  Lake Louise is frozen for over half the year and skiing is possible until May.  During the summer you can take the ski lift (almost) to the top of the mountain (it takes about 15 minutes) to take in the fantastic views from the top.  From there you can see twelve peaks, the highest of which is Mount Temple at 3500 metres.

We checked into the local Parks campsite – which lay between the fast flowing Bow River (which eventually runs into Calgary) and the Canadian Pacific Railway – the latter with it’s characteristic “whoop” from the horn.  We saw the famous “Rocky Mountaineer Train” as it passed.  This, however, was a campsite with a difference……..wild bears!  Bears regularly roam the site and no tents/awnings/food boxes are allowed.  Just to show you why at the entrance they have an example of a large cooler box a bear had destroyed in order to reach the yummy contents.  We ate outside that evening but were keen to keep a watchful eye.  Just to prove that there WERE bears there we saw one by the roadside on our way in – eating dandelions not humans.

 Lake Louise:

Views from the Gondola:

Our first bear...:

Thursday 13^th: We decided to get up early today to drive along the Icefield Parkway to Jasper as there is SO much to see.  You can drive it in 3 hours but if you want to stop at all the viewpoints AND take a trip on the Colombia Icefield you need to allow a full day.  We were doing really well until about lunchtime when we noticed that we had no power to the RV from the leisure battery which meant no hot water, no display of levels and no pump (so no water for the taps and toilet!).  This added to the fact that we had no heat ever since we set off!!  There is NO phone reception along this 200k route but there are a few old fashioned pay phones so we abandoned all views and decided to head directly for Jasper to get the RV sorted.  

Moraine Lake and the 10 peaks:

The Icefield Parkway:

Peyto Lake

Coffee stop...

Friday 14^th: We had been told to go to one of only two garages in Jasper by the RV company and Denis would look at the van……..a LONG story but needless to say Denis struggled to fix it and after wasting almost a whole day we agreed to go back to Lake Louise the next day and meet a guy from the RV company who would bring us a replacement RV.

We had a few hours in the afternoon and drove to Lake Maligne about 14k away.  We saw a brown bear, some elks and deer and heard a rattle snake……Malc even tried to find it!!

We thought he was stuck...but he knew what he was doing!

Lake Maligne

Saturday 15^th:  Back along the Icefield Parkway again.  It was great weather AND we managed to stop at the Colombia Glacier for a great trip onto the ice – well worth it!

Our bus to the glacier!

Spring mountain flowers

The new RV (a brand new Winnebago!!!) was delivered at 6pm that evening at Lake Louise campground by Bonno - who we had originally met when we picked the van up and his fellow Dutchman called Sam.  We had quite a laugh over a few drinks that night once the vans were changed over and they decided to stay at the campground too before they had to head back to Calgary.         

Bonno, Karen and Sam

Sunday 16^th: On to Revelstoke in fantastic weather with our new van which was a joy to be in as it still smelled new and drove much better with everything working!

Giant redwood forest:

Views over Revelstoke from the mountain road:

Monday 17th: The drive along the Shuswap Lake was fantastic.  We were going to stay at Kamloops that night but it was very industrial so we visited a wildlife park and then drove on about 40K to a provincial park in Savona.  It was SO hot we nearly had to use the air conditioning which was a bit different to recent nights!

British Columbia Wildlife:

Black bears

Coyote

Elk

Cougar

Moose

Eagle

Burrowing owl

Bison

Grizzly bears

Shuswap Lake

Our spot for the night in Savona.

Tuesday 18th: We were going to stay in Whistler for tonight but the weather was SO wet we couldn't see the mountains so we carried on......We drove through Marble Canyon and stopped at Nairn Falls just outside Whistler and decided to stay there for the evening as the sun came out just as we visited the falls....perfect!

Marble Canyon:

Whistler:

Nairn Falls and our spot for the night:

Quick...ice cream sandwich - whilst the sun's out!

The river is just behind us!

Then we went to Vancouver.........it was raining SO much we didn't even take any photos on Wednesday or Thursday but it had cleared up by Friday.  We again had a great little apartment in the old "Gastown" district - right next to the docks.  It also happened to be a music festival evening...... We will add some to the next update  - which will be on the Alaskan Cruise after we board the Diamond Princess tomorrow (Saturday)!