We took our time getting out of the Banff Springs this morning, and stopped in Canmore for lunch at a highly-recommended place called Crazyweed Kitchen. Our bellies full of good food we drove east and left the mountains (and one last herd of bighorned sheep) behind. We’ve just now arrived in Calgary and have checked into our sweet-ass room at the Westin. The new tower has nicer rooms, plasma TVs, and so on…we’re considering not leaving between now and tomorrow morning.

[tags]calgary, rockies, canmore, crazyweed[/tags]

Last night on the way down to one of the many restaurants at the hotel, we saw a herd of elk grazing just beyond the door near the river. I guess they’re everywhere, not just on the lawn.

Today was for relaxing. I collected my Globe and Mail from the hotel room doorknob, checked my email and watched a little TV while Nellie slept in. We went out for some (rather unpleasant) breakfast and then drove to Lake Minnewanka. It was raining so we held off on any hikes, but coming around the lake we saw a whole herd (flock?) of big-horned sheep strolling casually along the road. Of course, loads of cars and a bus full of Japanese tourists had stopped to get pictures, as did we. We drew the line at leaving the car to chase them down the road, though, and continued on to Two Jack Lake. It was another very pretty lake, but nothing spectacular.

Then, on the road back into Banff, just a few metres from the Trans-Canada, we saw a coyote in a field. I should clarify that: Nellie saw something, and then had trouble articulating what she saw. I hadn’t actually seen anything yet; I just heard “Bird…bunny…thingy…COYOTE!!” Once I snapped a few pictures and took a quick video I broke up laughing at what she’d yelled.

We decided to zip up Tunnel Mountain and have a look at the few hoodoos just outside of town. There seemed to be a small wedding ceremony happening, but it was soon overrun by more busloads of tourists. We zipped down the other side of the mountain, drove around toward the hotel and took some more pictures of Bow Falls and the Spray River. By then it was raining again so we explored the hotel a little, grabbed some lunch and watched a movie (Clerks 2) to kill some time. Later in the afternoon it cleared up a bit and we drove into town to do some exploring, getting back just in time to catch Montreal’s first game of the season and then head downstairs for dinner and a drink or two.
[tags]banff, rockies, lake minnewanka, coyote[/tags]

Once again we got breakfast from the kickass Bear Paw bakery, and got some bread to make sandwiches on the road. A quick fill up at the tanks and we were on our way south along the Icefields Parkway.

After a couple of quick stops at lookouts, we stopped at a place called Beauty Creek. We set out for a two-hour hike up a hill, alongside the creek, past a series of waterfalls. Maybe they were waterfalls, maybe they were chutes, maybe they were cascades, I’m not sure. All I know is that there were loads of them, and they were beautiful. We reached the top of the trail after about an hour, but decided not to press on since we could see bear(?) tracks on the trail and we were completely alone up there. Still it was a great hike and a nice change from the parade of mountain scenery. We got back to the car and continued on our way.

After that we hit a bunch of sights we bypassed on the drive north: we stopped for a quick bite while we gazed at Tangle Falls on the side of the highway, drove past the Big Bend to see the Weeping Walls, hiked down the Mistaya Canyon and stopped to have a look at both the Bow Glacier and Hector Lake. Around Lake Louise we cut over to the Bow Valley Parkway and drove to Johnstone Canyon. It was good, especially ’cause you could walk through a cave to view the waterfall up close, but the plethora of tourists and easy walkway made us long for the hike along Beauty Creek.

After that came the wildlife tour: a few minutes down the parkway we saw some deer on the other side of the divided road, so Nellie swung the car around. I snapped a few pictures before they took off, but now we were headed the wrong way. We drove back up to the split, but on the way we saw something small and black on the side of the road. I thought it was a bear cub, but then we realized it was a wolf. I snapped a quick picture as fast as I could, and I think we got it. I’ll know later.

When we arrived in Banff, finding the way through the hotel complex was more complicated than the town itself. We finally got checked in to our room, I found the internet connection, Nellie found the bathtub, we saw the elk on the lawn, and I wrote this up. Time for dinner!

[tags]jasper, bear paw bakery, beauty creek, mistaya canyon, bow valley parkway, banff, fairmont banff springs, elk[/tags]

We’ve just arrived in Banff, and I plan to write up the day’s events shortly, but I had to share one quick story: as we walked into our room at the Banff Springs the first thing we did was look at the view. It’s a nice one: we can see mountains (obviously), some of the town, the Bow River and even Bow Falls. What we also saw was an elk wandering around the lawn and eating the flowers, standing next to the Canadian flag.

An old CP hotel, the Rocky Mountains, an elk and the Maple Leaf…it just doesn’t get much more Canucky than that.

More later. Must unwind.

[tags]banff, fairmont banff springs, elk, bow river, bow falls, rocky mountains, canadian flag, you’re a good canadian[/tags]

A bit of a different sleep experience — this hotel is on one of the main streets in town, as opposed to a lodge in the wilderness — but no less effective; we woke up ready to go. It was pretty cold outside (around -6, I think) but the forecast promised sunshine and temps in the teens, so we knew it’d get warmer. We picked up some delicious breakfast from the Bear Paw bakery and hit the road around 9:30.

Our first stop was Mount Robson, about an hour away across the border in BC. Robson’s the highest peak in the Rockies, and not just by a nose either. It kind of comes out of nowhere, emerging grandly after a parade of impressive but non-miraculous peaks, towering over everything around it. It was probably the single most inspiring mountain I’ve seen so far. If we had more time we would’ve hiked to Berg Lake or even Kinney Lake for a closer look, but our schedule was tight. We soaked in a few more looks at the mountain and got back in the car. On the way back we stopped at Moose Lake, which had much fewer moose than its name would suggest…none. At least, none that we saw; we were beginning to think that we wouldn’t see any animal larger than a pika on this trip.

We got back to Jasper and had some lunch at La Fiesta, then got back to the hotel and changed into some non-hiking clothes as our plans changed on the fly. After getting a long-distance shot of some big-horned sheep grazing on a hilltop just outside of town and a short stop at the Jasper Park Lodge where we saw some muskrats swimming around a pond (hey…our luck with animals is improving!) we decided that rather than hike the Maligne Canyon we’d simply take pictures at the top, where the waterfalls are, and drive the 40 km to Maligne Lake as well. Shortly after we left the canyon we saw (and nearly ran over) a deer grazing by the side of the road. A little while later, after passing Medicine Lake (which was nearly gone; it disappears over the course of the summer and fall) and taking numerous shots of the surrounding mountains we saw a family of big-horned sheep grazing at a roadside pull-off, standing next to a camper and some dude holding his coffee. We got quite a few pictures of those before getting up to the lake.

Maligne Lake, one of the more famous lakes in the Rockies, was another stunning view, on par with Lake Louise or Moraine Lake. The lake itself is huge, so we could only see one end, but we had a clear view of the surrounding mountains and the glaciers feeding it, and the tourists were reasonably sparse. After many shots we turned back to Jasper once again, but had some excitement along the way: the same sheep were grazing by the road and — being so tame — posed for a few quick shots — like this one — before we drove away, but when we encountered the deer again there were two more keeping it company. Other cars had stopped to take pictures; we snapped a few before deciding to drive on, but suddenly the deer began running alongside the road, keeping pace with our car. I switched to video and got over a minute of footage of these three deer bounding along the road, crossing it in front of us, and running along the other side before slowing down to catch their breath (it’s a weird thing to see deer panting). We felt bad, as if they might’ve been fleeing from us, but each time we slowed down or sped up they matched us. Maybe they’re so used to cars they now play with them…who knows? Anyway, it eliminated our worry about not seeing any interesting animals on the trip!

From there we drove past the town and caught one of the last gondola trips to the top (almost) of The Whistlers, a mountain overlooking Jasper. It was amazing to see things from almost 8,000 feet up, including the peak of Mount Robson (some 50 miles away) and a whole field of mountains stretching in all directions. Had there been time we would have climbed the rest of the way to the actual top of the mountain and gotten an even more impressive view, but that takes 2 hours and we had only 45 minutes. No loss, though; the view was quite astounding enough. We took the gondola back down, drove back into town and went around the corner for a bite to eat and a drink at the local brewpub. The cream ale (actually an extra-special bitter) and roasted stout were my favourites; Nellie liked the cream ale and the IPA.

Tomorrow we’ll leave Jasper and head back down the Icefields Parkway to Banff; there’re still quite a few sights we’d like to see, and Nellie’s healed knees should afford us that chance.

[tags]Jasper, Mount Robson, Maligne Canyon, Maligne Lake, gondola[/tags]

Chowhound = best invention ever. After our great dinner at Truffle Pigs two nights ago, and our more-than-serviceable meal last night at the Moraine Lake Lodge, tonight we hit a Jasper restaurant recommended by the website: Tekarra. It was even better than we expected; Nellie’s brie appetizer was too much for her to handle, and her main — artic char — was good too. My main sounded bizarre — banana-crusted chicken breast — but it was one of the best things I’ve eaten in months. For dessert we split a giant chocolate sundae. Oy.

But first things first: the trip here! We left Moraine Lake behind — they were literally hours away from closing up for the season — and drove through Lake Louise to the northbound Icefields Parkway. It’s about 230 km all told, but usually takes people the better part of a day because of all the sights along the way. There was no single sight on the trip to rival Lake O’Hara or Lake Oesa — though Peyto Lake came close — but there was a barrage of amazing mountain after gorgeous lake after incredible glacier after stunning valley…and on and on and on. Hector Lake, Crowfoot Glacier, Bow Lake, the afore-mentioned Peyto Lake, Waterfowl Lake, Mount Amery, Mount Saskatchewan, the Big Bend (where we saw an elk* grazing by the side of the highway), the Sunwapta Pass and the Athabasca Glacier.

The Athabasca Glacier was a pretty major stop along the way. The glacier is part of the Columbia Icefield, which is kind of a master glacier that feeds other glaciers. It’s impressive partly for its size, and partly because it feeds three major rivers — the Athabasca, the North Saskatchewan and the Columbia, which end up in three different oceans: the Arctic (via the MacKenzie), the Atlantic (via Hudson’s Bay) and the Pacific respectively. For us, though, the Athabasca Glacier was the important part because we — and about a million other tourists — got to take a couple of buses up and walk around on the glacier. It’s pretty cool standing on a sheet of blue ice 1,000 feet thick that carved a canyon through a bunch of mountains. Granted, it was all packed down so tight that it felt more like wet snow than ice, but the view and the sense of grandeur that you got looking around at where you were and what it meant were impressive. Weird fact: the guy who drove us from the terminal up to the special ice-climbing bus was from Eastern Passage, NS. Another weird fact: Japanese tourists seem to be indigineous to the Rockies. You could add up all the ravens, chipmunks, pikas and various other animals we’ve seen since we arrived and they would total less than the number of Japanese tourists you would find in the ladies washroom at the Icefield Centre at any given time.

Anyway, after that two-hour excursion we continued north and saw some more impressive sights, like Sunwapta Falls, Mount Fryatt (which was, sadly, sans goats), Athabasca Falls, Horseshoe Lake, and finally Jasper itself. Of course, in between there was the the constant scenery which threatened to send us off the road, as it made concentrating on mere asphalt nearly impossible. We took a slightly scenic route into Jasper, which may have cost us, because we got caught at a train crossing; we waited about five minutes before doubling back and finding a new way in. After a minute or two we located our hotel, check in, marvelled at the size of our suite, and got to work unpacking and such. Nellie soaked her aching knees in the hot tub (no, I’m not kidding) while I located the wi-fi connection in the lobby and checked my IB mark. We then unloaded the pictures & videos from the camera onto the laptop; we easily broke yesterday’s record of 210 pictures by unloading over 400 pictures. Thank Yahweh for 2GB memory cards.

Anyway, that was it for day 3, up until the dinner I described earlier. We’re still trying to decide what to do tomorrow; it depends on timing and weather and Nellie’s knees. Speaking of the weather, I don’t want to jinx us, but I think we’ve been extraordinarily lucky. All three days have forecast cold weather and possible rain/snow, but have in fact been warmer than usual and perfectly sunny. It was 13 degrees when we reached Jasper today at dinner time, which I’d have to think is higher than average. Hell, it was 5 degrees on the glacier; the staff claimed it was usually -5 this time of year. We’ve definitely lucked out so far.

* It may have been a caribou. We saw it so suddenly, with no way to stop, that I was forced to just snap a blind picture through the rear window. Luckily I got it in the frame, but we haven’t had a chance yet to examine the picture further to determine exactly what we saw.

[tags]lake louise, jasper, icefields parkway, columbia icefield, athabasca glacier[/tags]

My brain’s about to explode. Moreover my eyes are about to pop out of my head, and my lungs threaten to rupture at any moment. I can barely stand what I’ve seen today.

OK, so we slept like babies, got up at 7, had some breakfast, got ready and set out to meet the bus at Lake O’Hara. It’s a controlled access area, and they only let in about 40 people a day. We stowed our bags and climbed on, shivering in the cold. It was about -1, and though we were all wrapped in layers (there were forecasts of wet snow and a high of 6) it was still pretty chilly.

A long bus ride later, we’re at Le Relais, the small cabin run by the caretakers. We unload and go our separate ways — experienced hikers toward the more challenging alpine circuit, less experienced hikers toward the simpler plateau nearby or just around Lake O’Hara itself. Nellie and I opted for a hike considered easy, but very rewarding, by our guide book: the hike to Lake Oesa.

The trails all start at Lake O’Hara, and within the first five feet we both stopped, awestruck: the view of the Lake and the surrounding mountains was unreal. We joked that we didn’t need to hike anywhere, that this view alone was worth it. We were only half kidding. Have a look for yourself.

After an easy stroll half a mile around the lake we saw the trail to Lake Oesa. It went up. It went way up. We thought “easy” would mean a few hills, but after the fifth long, steep switchback we were already tired. It took us a while to adjust to the thin air; Lake O’Hara itself was at an elevation of 6700 feet and we’d just climbed another 800, so we were puffing a bit. But you recover quickly and press on. By this point, though, we were quite warm and removing layers.

The walk now went up and down through small clumps of trees, over rock fields created by yearly avalanches, alongside streams and waterfalls, past a few small lakes and many little inukshuks. When I saw a third lake I thought we’re reached our destination, and was a little underwhelmed, until I realized by the geography that we weren’t quite there yet. At that point, Nellie was about ready to punch me in the mouth. Fortunately, just a short climb later, there it was.

I was awestruck. It was this incredible blue lake surrounded by huge mountains all around, with glaciers covering their slopes. I’d seen Moraine Lake and Emerald Lake, but this was in a class by itself. It was partly because of the size and grandeur of these mountains — we learned later that they were part of the actual continental divide — and partly because there were no tourists around or signs pointing to parking lots. It was just us. One Australian couple showed up and we said hello, but they were soon off as well. We sat there had some lunch, gawping at the incredible sight before us and fending off tiny chipmunk-looking animals (which may well have been chipmunks) who were practically crawling on us looking for food. Unfortunately Nellie had some technical difficulty with the video, and none of the pictures we took really captured the setting, but it’ll be burned into my mind for a long time. Finally, we decided to head back down the trail we came up.

On the way back down we took many more pictures, encountered lots of little pikas (which look like a cross between a mouse and a small rabbit), and Nellie suffered an injury when she fell and banged her shin on a sharp rock. But, like a trooper, she carried on down the hill. Eventually that pain went away but a new one — in her knees — started up and climbing down all the steep switchbacks was pretty difficult for her. But she made it, and we set out to do the last little bit of the journey along the edge of Lake O’Hara.

We walked past a waterfall, got a great picture of a pika, sat by the lake and admired the view and eventually got back to Le Relais for some amazing carrot cake and hot chocolate. We still had about an hour to kill, so we walked back to the trailhead for Lake Mary; I ran up over the hill and snapped a few quick photos before coming back down and we returned to Le Relais once again to catch our bus. Half an hour later we were in our car and happily on our way home.

Well, not quite; we decided to stop off in Lake Louise. We pulled up, bypassed the Chateau, took some pictures of the lake and surrounding mountains — all undeiably beautiful — and then jumped back in the car. We just couldn’t take being around all the tourists taking pictures of themselves in front of a hotel dining room. Fortunately, when we returned to our hotel at Moraine Lake most of the tourists were gone, so we were able to take pictures from the lakeshore and atop the rock pile in relative peace. The valley around the lake — called the Valley Of The Ten Peaks — is incredible too, and we couldn’t leave without getting more shots of it.

And now we’re back, resting our tired feet and cleaning our wounds. In a little while we’ll have dinner here at the lodge and then probably collapse into bed. We are tired little beasties and have a long drive up the Icefields Parkway ahead of us tomorrow, not to mention five more days of this! I can’t imagine I’ll ever see anything more beautiful than Lake Oesa, but the week is young.

It’s killing me that nobody can read this yet!!

[tags]lake o’hara, lake oesa, lake louise, moraine lake, pikas[/tags]

Since I’m only now able to post, I’ll be posting my descriptions the first two days’ worth of events. We’ve just arrived in Jasper and I have to blog from the inn’s lobby, so I’l try write up today’s journey after dinner and post it then. For now, occupy yourselves reading these two LONG entries. –dan

Holy crap. Ye gods. Sweet baby jesus in a birchbark canoe. I’m in the Rockies. It’s been a long & eventful day, and I can’t possibly keep up in my usual verbose way, so I shall have to work in point form on this trip. Here goes:

We spring from our beds at 5 AM, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to ready ourselves for our flight. Energy lasts until about College Street when we both begin to yawn. Good thing we did the web check-in; that saved us a good 15 minutes of sleep-in time.

Our flight is reasonably uneventful. Only thing that freaks us out is the woman one row ahead of us, sitting by the emergency exit, who proceeds to get good and hammered during the flight. And remember, the sun is barely up. The flight arrives at 9 AM Calgary time and this woman’s half in the bag. She can’t even get off the plane without falling over. Good thing there was no emergency.

I have a conversation with the car rental guy that goes something like this: CRG: “OK, you’re in the Chevy Cobalt.” Dan: “And how’s that on leg room?” CRG: “Lacking. But for $5 a day you can upgrade to the Pontiac G6. Lots of leg room and it has cruise control.” Dan & Nellie: “Done!” Nailed on the upsell.

It’s drizzling in Calgary. Lots of fog, very grey. This does not bode well. We drive out of Western Calgary (ugly!), past the ski jumps at Olympic Park and into farmland. That farmland becomes foothills, and suddenly the foothills are disappearing above the clouds. Now we’re talkin’.

Around the time we pull into Canmore we’re surrounded by some pretty substantial mountains and I can’t stop staring at them. We get some groceries for the rest of the week and head into the (ahem) downtown to get some lunch. The best we can do is a pub, but we’re so hungry by that point we’re ready to eat the maps they gave us at the car rental counter. As we sit and eat, all I want to do is point at the giant mountain looming over the town and scream, “People, do you not SEE THAT FREAKING THING!!?!?!?” I manage not to.

Back on the road, we enter Banff national park, buying an annual pass. It’s only $10 more than the daily passes would have been, and we can use it at any national park for the next year. Bargain. I’m still gawping at the mountains, so I don’t even notice that we’ve driven by Banff.
I’m admiring the Bow River, which we drive along for the next little while. I also admire Castle Mountain, which is huge and you can see for miles heading north from Banff. I am growing ever more freaked out.

We arrive at the (ahem) town of Lake Louise, drive through it and find the Moraine Lake road. It’s a twisting, winding, climbing road with a few views to die for. After about 15 minutes we hit the Moraine Lake Lodge.

Our room…zowie. Perfect combination of luxurious (fancy bathroom, Aveda products for Nellie, fireplace, comfy bed) and rustic (everything made from rough wood, night tables made from stumps, etc.), but it’s not kitschy or campy. The view is unreal; it’s hard to believe Moraine Lake is the colour it is, but from our little patio you can see it (and several looming mountains, some snow-capped) clearly.

Hard as it is, we tear ourselves away. We have much to do. We change, get back in the car and head for Yoho national park. We make a wrong turn and end up at the Chateau Lake Louise. We make another wrong turn and end up heading for Banff. One u-turn later and we’re headed west, into BC.

We stop to have a look at the spiral tunnel, which you can’t really see much of from the highway, so while the concept is cool — a tunnel they built that spirals around the inside of a mountain to keep trains from crashing on the steep grade — it’s a little underwhelming from afar.

Our next attempt was Takkekaw Falls, but the road was closed. Pity; it’s supposed to be quite something.

A few miles down the road, after passing the town of Field, we took a side road toward Emerald Lake. Stopping briefly at a very cool natural land bridge (where the river carved through the rock), where we got a taste of how colourful the river’s water was, we continued on to the lake. It’s an amazing place, and you really can’t believe the colour of the water until you see it. We took tons of pictures, but we don’t think any of them will do the colour justice. The surrounding peaks are impressive too. We walked nearly half way around the lake before turning back; our schedule was getting a bit tight.

We drove back to Field and sat down for dinner at a place we’d heard much about indeed. Truffle Pigs was recommended by quite a few people online, and I can see why: the food was amazing. Field is a tiny, tiny place, but this restaurant would do well in Toronto or Vancouver (if the chefs/owners only wanted to live there). My spring roll appetizers were very yummy, and Nellie near cried when hers — fresh chanterelle mushrooms in a philo pastry with three cheeses w/ merlot reduction — was done. Our mains — malaysian salad w/ caramalized chicken for me, freshly made pasta w/ tomato sauce for Nellie — were excellent as well, and the dessert was both delicious and unnecessary. We left very full, and very happy.

We then drove the 40km or so back to the lodge, in the dark this time, but without fear of marauding tour buses. We’ve had time to settle into the room, start a crackling (though short-lived) fire and type up this nonsense. Next up: download some of the pictures to the laptop and see how they turned out. Then sleep! Tomorrow’s a big day, and the weather promises to be nippy, so we’ll need our strength. And possibly some gore-tex.

By the way, we’ll probably be in Jasper by the time I can post this, which means you’ll get three days’ worth. Sorry!

[tags]calgary, canmore, banff, lake louise, moraine lake lodge, emerald lake, yoho, field, truffle pigs[/tags]

OK, I’m hoping this’ll get through in the few moments of coverage that I have while passing through Lake Louise. The lack of internet connection at our hotel has prevented me from blogging about the amazing things we’ve seen in the first two days, but I have the posts all written up and ready to go as soon as we reach Jasper.

Just wanted y’all to know that we’re still alive, and that my mind is completely blown.

[tags]radio contact[/tags]

It’s hard to believe the trip we began planning and booking and researching so long ago begins tomorrow. Early tomorrow too; our flight’s at 7 AM. We wanted to salvage the afternoon and do more than just check in to our hotel. The plan is to pick up our rental car at the airport, drive through Banff to Moraine Lake (near Lake Louise) and check in at our hotel. We’ll then jump back in the car and drive west across Kicking Horse Pass into BC and see Emerald Lake before it gets dark, and then we’ll stop in the closest town — Field, BC — for dinner.

The next day — Monday — is pretty much set out for us. We’ll get up early to look around Moraine Lake itself, then drive to the bus that takes people into Lake O’Hara and the surrounding trails. We’re there until late afternoon and will then head back into Lake Louise and/or our hotel. From that point on the plan loosens up somewhat.

Whatever happens, you can follow along here. I’ll be posting when I can; wireless access is spotty, and one of our hotels doesn’t even phones in the rooms, let alone ethernet connections. I’ll also try to upload a few pictures to flickr when the opportunity presents itself.

[tags]rockies, banff, moraine lake, lake louise, jasper[/tags]