Rocking the Rocky Mountains part 2

The last half of our Canada road trip, and also the last post of our Six Month Travel! We round off our Rocky Mountain trip through the ice fields, through to Banff, and then back to Vancouver for our final days. As before, Canada is full of gorgeous views and fantastic animals, so stay tuned for bears and whales.

Thursday 3rd: Cline River to Banff

We were continuing our journey along the icefields parkway today. Our first stop was the Mistaya Canyon, a bit like yesterday the pictures don’t do it justice but the water went from a serene wide river to a roaring canyon over. Super impressive and the water was so powerful it sprayed up at you as it hit the rocks below.

Our second stop was the stunning Peyto Lake. The blue colour was phenomenal and even though it was quite busy the size of the viewing area made it not feel as bad. With the lake being so beautiful we decided to take the Bow Summit Lookout walk to get a better view. Apart from the deer we saw, the walk was well and truly not worth it. The view was average and the walk pretty boring but it was nice to get some fresh and cooler air into our lungs at least.

We continued out past the end of the Ice field highway with stunning snow capped mountains in our view and went into Banff. After a lovely explore of the shops in the town, we accidentally stumbled into the brewery. It was delicious even if they had run out of the Death by Chocolate which I wanted. The boys enjoyed their $9 Steiner and Fran and I shared a deep fried mars bar.

We headed onto our campground and had a lovely evening with a campfire and card games. We ended the night with some smores and a beautiful fluffy bunny treat from Fran for you all to enjoy.

Friday 4th: Banff

(Writing a daily blog post 3 months later is tricky! Silly Mike should have written it sooner!).

Today was a day of lakes. Our morning was kicked off with a trip to Barrier Lake, and a hike up the Prairie trail, before heading over to our pre-booked Lake Louise and Moraine Lake coach. Well, it turns out that the trail times we’d seen were somewhat optimistic and it was a power hike to make sure we were back in time!

After a quick lunch stop we parked up and caught our coach ride to the picturesque Moraine Lake - a bright blue glacial lake surrounded by mountains all around. We spotted both chipmunks and the interestingly-named Hoary Marmots clambering around the rocky lake surroundings, and we even recreated a photo taken by Mike’s family 15 years earlier (this time with much better weather!). Lake Louise also provided fantastic views, however it was a bit busier so we didn’t linger for too long before grabbing the coach back.

We rounded off our day with a visit to the Blake Distillery in Canmore for dinner and a drink, before heading back to our campground for another fire, smores, and card game session. Of course, we spotted horses on the way back so we had an obligatory stop for Fran to speak with them!

Saturday 5th: Banff to Vancouver

(Writing a daily blog post 3 months later is tricky! Silly Mike should have written it sooner!).

It was time to wrap up our road trip with a big long drive back to Vancouver, and we kicked it off in style by spotting another black bear after a deliberate 10 minute bear-spotting detour. We broke up the drive with several stops along the way: a delicious lunch stop in Revelstoke at the Main Street Cafe for some tasty skillet grub; some fruit and ice cream in Sicamous at the Dutchmen Dairy and Fruit World; and a quick leg stretch in Kamloops. No road trip is complete without a good game of Dibs - this time hauling in a light plane being towed on the motorway. After a heroically long drive by Dev we finally returned to Vancouver.

Sunday 6th: Vancouver

(Writing a daily blog post 3 months later is tricky! Silly Mike should have written it sooner!).

Our last full day together with Fran and Dev before they returned to work on Monday, but fortunately we’d planned a pretty cool day together in Vancouver. The highlight of the day was a Whale Watching trip with Seabreeze Adventures on board their Zodiac boat. We saw several Bald Eagles hunting for fish and nesting on the marine towers, before rushing out to catch a humpback mother and calf playing in the shallows for 15 minutes - a magical scene to witness! But that wasn’t all, we caught sight of some of the skittish harbour dolphins swimming away from a large pod of orcas that frequent the area. Definitely worth the cost!

Back on land and stylish suits removed, we called in at Pajo’s Fish and Chips nearby for some delicious lunch - too good to remember to take photos! We spent our afternoon over at Stanley Park. The totems were very cool to see up close and read about, and we spotted some seals patrolling the harbour waters for fish. We took a wander around Beaver Lake and spent some time at a particular small wooden bridge nearby where you can feed the birds and squirrels from your hand. There was a big black feisty squirrel that bullied the other smaller ones, and we even managed to see a bluejay!

Monday 7th: Vancouver

Today marks our last full day in Canada, and also the last full day (excluding travel) of our holiday. We decided to spend the day out at Grouse mountain and explore all it has to offer. After a hectic right-side drive across Vancouver we arrived at the base and decided to embark upon “the grind” trail - about 800m of elevation gain in the form of a continuous set of mountain forest steps… Suffice to say everybody we saw on the 1h30+ walk bore the same miserable sweaty expression as they stomped up the trail…!

Eventually we reached the top, and we’re in time to see the last part of the lumberjack show! We saw the two lumberjacks compete in a log rolling competition, before seeing another do handstands on top of a 60ft pole! We rounded off the show by getting a Beavertail covered in peanut butter and chocolate, delish!

Stomachs full we decided to watch the bird show and we’re treated with raptors, owls, vultures, and a bald eagle. Then it was grizzly bear time. The two grizzlies at the top of grouse mountain are known as Coola and Grinder, and were orphaned cubs that were found around the same time and could thus be bonded together as brothers. They were almost 400kg in weight and they made sure to put on a show for everyone watching.

We rounded off our mountain trip with a chairlift to the top to see the stunning views over Vancouver itself, before catching the gondola down to the bottom. In the evening we went for a super tasty Vietnamese with Kirsty, Dan, Hannah, and Fran, and had a blast of a time catching up with everyone. A great end to a long day.

Tuesday 8th: Back to the UK

The last day of our trip! It’s a bittersweet moment after 5 months of amazing travels, but we’re ready to head home and catch up with family. We started the day by seeing part of our Kiwi family one last time - meeting up with Hannah for a delicious breakfast. Chloe had a huge plate of avo on toast, Hannah had some tasty looking crepes, and I had a yummy breakfast poutine. A great catch up as our travels end and Hannah’s begins.

A quick return to Fran and Devs to pack our bags, before being dropped off at the train station and making our way to Vancouver airport to fly home via Calgary and Dublin. We had some great views over the Rocky mountains, and even managed a cheeky Guinness in Dublin airport.

Well, that’s all folks, our great big long travel from New Zealand back to the UK has come to an end. As you’ve maybe realised by now we had a once in a lifetime amazing time with so many fond memories (and photos of course!). We saw so many cool animals, hiked and swam in fantastic places, ate so much tasty food, and occasionally had weather disrupt our plans.

Hopefully these posts help inspire you to see some of Australia, Japan, or Canada, and at the very least I hope they kept you entertained for an hour or two.

Mā te wā, see you soon.