Rocking the Rocky Mountains part 1

The last country on our epic travel back home is Canada! We had ~2 weeks here and so went on a road trip around the Rocky Mountains with our kiwi friends Fran and Dev. British Columbia and Alberta are full of beautiful vistas and the wildlife encounters are always exciting! We had a great time and it certainly rounded off our world trip in style. In this post we work our way from Vancouver to Jasper to the ice fields, with plenty of wildlife along the way.

Friday 27th June: Tokyo to Vancouver

A lazy morning followed by some gift shop shopping we then headed to the airport to drop our bags. Turns out there is a MASSIVE mall attached to the airport so we filled our tummy’s with a final bowl of delicious ramen and looked through the LEGO store to try and spend our final 200Y of cash but alas we didn’t find anything cheap enough so I guess that’s will be coming to Canada with us! Our flight was at 3.30pm Japan time but landed at 8.30am Canada time so that meant we got a banging sunrise from the window.

Landing at 8.30 meant we had a full day ahead of us still so we headed out with Fran and Dev to explore Vancouver! We topped up our energy with a coffee from a beautiful community coffee shop. Before being shown the high end of Vancouver on Hastings Street, not sure their legalisation of drugs went very well that’s for sure. A pretty sad outlook on the street at 9.30am.

After dropping our bags and a quick shower, we headed out to Lynn Canyon. It was a lovely walk across a swing bridge - mikes favourite, up some steps, also mikes favourite and then to top it off, we tried some Salmon berries. The berries were interesting as they had an earthy aftertaste but still delicious, I can see why the bears like them!

We met some of Dev’s family at the end of the walk and it was nice to chat with them and spend some time with them too. We headed to a brewery for lunch and had some sharing plates and of course our first poutine. We then went to Granville Island which was full of cool shops such as glass blowing, metal work and crafty things but also a delicious foodie area. It looked delicious but our body clock was so out of whack that we couldn’t eat anything. Hopefully we can get some of the doughnuts later in the trip though! We also saw our first wildlife of Canada with some cute harbour seals popping their heads out of the water near the ships, we soon realised it was because they were waiting for the scraps from the fishing boats! It was only about 7pm but we were done and dusted by this point so headed home to get some well-deserved rest!

Saturday 28th: Squamish and Whistler

After seeing the sites of central-ish Vancouver yesterday, we headed out of the city today. We started with a drive to Squamish to look at a little farmers market before a bakery brekkie. Squamish was a beautiful little place and the raspberry white chocolate scone really hit the mark!

We continued up the highway to Brandywine Provincil park to view a pretty epic waterfall. Sadly not a swimming one but it did take a good picture. Not sure it fully counts, but we also saw our first bear, wink wink! Our next stop was a train wreck from a crash in the 1950s. Thankfully nobody was hurt as it was a logging train but the disfigured carriages were cool to walk on/around/through. Fran and dev were brave enough to jump on them, but we didn’t think our insurance would view it fondly if something went wrong!

Our next stop was the iconic Whistler, now it didn’t have the same view as if it was covered in Snow, but the vibe was on point with people even dancing on the tables at 4pm! We explored the shops, had a cuddle with a grizzly saw the Olympic rings and just had a nice chilled afternoon.

On the way back to Vancouver we stopped for a hike at Shannon Falls. They promised a little scramble and it was really was. A super fun walk up, and stunning views at the top. We were hoping for a swim but the water was pretty intense so we just went for a paddle and safe to say I’m not sure I could have gone for a swim anyway as it was bloody freezing in the water! It was getting late by the time we were heading down so we got a lovely coloured sky to view before finishing the day at Back country Brewery. It is Devs fave Brewery and definitely lived up to expectations with 2 stunning pizzas and a choice of 3 different sours for Mike!

Sunday 29th: Vancouver to Valemount

Today we started our Rockies roady. A long day of driving - 8 hours but we had some lovely stops along the way, and it doesn’t feel as long when you are a passenger! Our first pit stop was in Chilliwack where we got the most gorgeous Raspberries and Blueberries for a bargain price - the healthiest of car snacks I saw. Chilliwack was a nice little town, very quiet on a Sunday morning but there were some lovely murals on the wall, I particularly liked this one of a kingfisher.

Our next stop was in Kamloops for lunch another brewery and delicious lunch, we were all pretty hungry so no photos you’ll just have to imagine a couple of banging burgers and some stuffed salads. We made a quintessential Canadian purchase before we left Kamloops too - a bottle of bear spray for emergency protection. Hopefully we don’t have to use it but we REALLY want to see a bear! They introduced us to a new game in the Car where you dibs a vehicle you see on the road, Mike made the best choice today when we spotted a campervan towing a Zombie Barge on the back. Safe to say no one topped it!

Our final destination was Valemount and that zombie barge would have come in handy! We took a quick detour to a vinyard for the afternoon and ended up having to cross a river on a cable ferry. Fran had booked a hotel and although it didn’t look like much from the outside, the waterslide was a banger, we were entertained for a good 45 minutes flying down it much to the amusement of the other kids in the pool when our splash landings caused tsunamis!

Monday 30th: Valemount to Jasper

Our first day in the National Park/Rockies. Today we are hitting Jasper. It was devastated last year by a Huge forest fire and you could still smell the smoke in the town. We headed through the gates and within the first kilometre we spotted a BEAR CUB!! It was the cutest little thing running up a rocky hill on the side of the road but sadly it did have a poorly paw. An epic way to start our time in the national park.

We grabbed some lunch and viewed the Jasper Totem Pole before heading to some view points, the view points really highlighted the first it put the ones we saw in Australia to shame and I can’t quite imagine how much of an inferno it must have been. Pretty sobering.

We headed round to Maligne Lake and Moose Lake for a lovely walk. The fresh air was so lovely and the forest was alive with squirrels and birds. Sadly no moose at Moose Lake, but we did see heaps of elk/deer on the drive there an back.

The funniest part of the day was when I spotted a mumma Black Bear and her 2 cubs in the tree line. We obviously stoped to take photos and in doing so, caused a 30 ish car traffic jam in the middle of the national park - pretty proud of myself for both counts! An awesome first day out in the wilderness of Canada, hopefully our bear luck continues through the trip.

Tuesday 1st July: Jasper

Happy Canada Day! Well boy was it busy in Jasper today, we headed for a coffee and I managed to bag myself a free Canadian flag pin to wear for the day. Our first stop was Pyramid Lake to take in the beautiful view of the pyramid hills behind before moving onto the Sulphur Ridge skyline walk. It was a long hike up to the top but the views were so worth it. We managed to spot some ground squirrels and chipmunks at the top, they are tiny and super pretty.

With tired legs we headed back to our AirBnB in Hinton with a cheeky stop off at Folding Mountain Brewery. The brewery was nice but made all the more entertaining by Fran’s phone blaring an emergency alert for a tornado warning when no one else’s did.

We drove back hoping to avoid the impending doom but took a little stop off at the Beaver Lake in Hinton. We were super lucky again and spotted some musk rats going about their duties and just as we were about to give up, a beaver came swimming past us as well! I wonder what will come over night but thankfully we are staying in a basement Airbnb so we had pre-prepared for it without realising.

Wednesday 2nd: Jasper to Cline River

A lazier morning today as we were all shattered but our first stop was at Jasper Lake. It was a beautiful fresh water lake which was perfect for a knee deep paddle. We expected the water to be a nice warm temperature as it was 30C outside but it must have been snow melt because it was chuffing cold on our toes! A lovely refreshing start to the morning though.

Just around the corner from the lake we saw some wild goats just roaming around. They were pretty scratty as they shed their winter coat but cool to see them just chilling around the side of the road.

The main task of today was starting our journey along the ice fields highway, we stopped at a number of waterfalls and viewpoints along the way that we can’t actually remember the names of but they were very pretty.

The highlight though was the Athabasca Glacier. You could walk all the way to the glacier and it was my first time on one which was awesome. The pictures don’t really do the glacier justice, but it was huge and the water you could see rubbing out into the glacier lake was the most stunning blue colour. We loved this little (naughty hop the barrier!) hike.

We continued on our way to the David Thompson Resort saw an epic canyon with roaring water and although we have no picture proof, we did see a Coyote on the side of the road which is super rare as they are surprisingly timid creatures. With the first half of the Ice Field Parkway complete, we settled in for the night at our mountain resort!

Eeeek, the next post is the last proper post about our Six Months of Travel. We’ll round off our Rocky Roadtrip and even spot some whales near Vancouver.