A real bed in Banff

After camp pack up, we geared up for the Johnstone Canyon walk to see the Lower then Upper Falls.

Then we had a few hous to check out Banff, a very very busy “touristic” town, then relax in our hotel room at the Douglas Fir Hotel. Although we had showers in the NP, it was nice to have a shower and just relax, make our own steak dinner, and sort out our travel bags.

Lake Moraine and the Valley of the 10 Peaks

After a short rest and “supper” (Canadian for dinner), we took a bus fide up to Lake Moraine. Unless you go before 7.30am or after 7.pm, you have no hope of parking in the public carparks, and it even gets to the point that Parks Canada close the road at the turn off from Lake Louise Rd. So with sunset in Alberta being about 9.45pm, we set off at 8.15pm.  Another very different lake experience, with only a short climb to the view.

Also met a woman from Ballarat wearing my Jacket on the path up .... we had a good laugh together, both bought from Rays Outdoors.

Very rugged short walk up, or you could scramble up the rocks from the lake side

Lake Louise Hike #2

After a very cold night in the tent which we were unprepared for, we needed to make plans for what to do on our “free day”. We had seen a 1km hike to a lookout over the lake which branched off our previous days hike, so set off with Bert and his 20 yr old son Floris on a 1.5 km walk along the river into the village to catch the shuttle up to the Lake...3.5km up hill from the village.  When we got on the shuttle we were told that the shuttle takes us to the overflow carpark first...6 km away, then we would need to queue for up to 45m to catch another shuttle back through the village and up to the Lake....which we did and 1 hour later we started our hike!

The Queue!

Iconic photo of the Fairmont Chateau

We were not going to do the shuttle service in reverse so walked 3.5 km back to the village, along the river, and then back to the campground and so glad we did, so peaceful and picturesque.  Just as we got close to town and our campground, we sighted a pile of fresh Bear Poo, we wondered how close we were to the Bear.

Lake Louise Hike #1

Today we had a choice of several hikes in the Lake Louise area. The most “touristic” (our new Dutch friends term) were the Little and Big Beehive trails which both end in a Tea House. Lake Louise is an elevation 1640m.

We chose the Saddle Track Pass, has a gain of  600m to a height of 2330m,  between Mt Temple, Mt Fairview and Mt Shoel.  So everyone came too. Continual climb upward through Douglas Fir Pine and then open shale mountain tops. Very satisfying to see snow topped mountains this close up. It was a 4 hr round trip and about 10k. There was once a tea house at the very spot where we had lunch, but with no permanent water supply it was disbanded.  Thank goodness there was a trail that was just about nature.  Some were climbing a further 1.5 km up to Mt Fairview Summit.  Too hot and too exposed today for us to attempt it.

Catch up...We have Wifi

Here is a catch up of the last 4-5 days. Hiking Lake Louise and Banff to come.  Thanks for following us on this exciting trip.

RV heaven

We took a long walk around the RV side of the Lake Louise NP camp ground, these vans are in abundance, we hope Australia doesn’t go this mad

Massive Chevys tow everything no matter how small

This is why USA imported slide-ons don’t work in Australia. The Mazda BT50 and Ford Ranger don’t work. Too short!

Crossing into Alberta

Today we passed through 3 National Parks before a grocery stop at Revelstoke, lunch at Field,  and setting up camp for 3 nights in Lake Louise National Park.

Natural Bridge

 

Emerald Lake... we were hailed upon as we got  2/3 of the way around it.  The colour was beautiful.

Lake Louise... such an iconic spot. 

Glacier in the background.  Shame about the smoke. 

The photo does not depict the thousands of walk in ... ooo ahhh... walk out tourists along the shore in front of the Fairmont Chateau, we are just expert at not getting them in our photos.

Next day was much better at the Lake

Takakkaw Waterfall, Canada’s second largest falls..254 metres

Derek and Taylor

Camping Critique : our tent camp area is fenced by an electric fence, with bear 152 and her cubs spotted near the RV side, everything has to be packed inside a vehicle to be “bear safe” at night, the fast flowing river alongside sounds like a clothes dryer going all night, the lengthy trains seem to run all night too, a thunder storm first night kept us a wake, temp now dropped to about 5degrees over night, our new sleeping bags are toasty but need to still wear a few layers and beannie, Derek too tall for the length of the tent, .....  but overall wouldn’t swap the experience of seeing The Rockies this up-close-and-personal for quids.

Making smores on the camp fire

PS. Note to self, do not put soaked shoes too close to camp fire, some melt, (ours were closer and were okay) and now we owe our driver a new pair of $200 shoes, as I moved them too close to the fire and he had only just bought them, (he was very gracious and I felt so bad)  Bummer!

Lake Shuswap

We stop along the way at farmer’s markets and cute towns to stock up on groceries for lunch and snacks, and Leah buys our groceries fresh for breakfast and dinner. The icecreams at Dutch Dairy near Sicamous were the best we have eaten anywhere. We are all into eating very healthy, well Derek goes along with it, as long as he can have corn chips too.

A day on the lake, the owner of the company West Adventures..Ron, is driving his boat for us.  We were suppose to sleep on his house boat for the evening, but it was under repair after receiving damage from a recent storm.

we all enjoyed a swim in the lake and Derek enjoyed a ride on the “biscuit”

We stayed at 3 Valley Gap Resort instead, lovely views and in the middle of nowhere. The smoke from bush fires was getting worse as we travelled east.

Fraser Valley Fun

As we left the pine covered mountains of Vancouver and drove through the Fraser Valley the landscape changed to semi arid and the temp soured to 40 c.

Our first stop was 3 1/2 hours water rafting on the Thompson River, 40 km, motor powered raft so no paddling for us.  The owner Dave talked me into going as he has only had 3 people go overboard in 30 years. It was great fun. Highest rapid was 18ft. It was the “jaws of  death” rapid, the highest Dave had this season,  glad I was aboard not! The river was freezing, but a welcomed relief considering the air temp.

Thompson River.....Canada Pacific trains all run alongside the river and are up to 3 km long.

These rapids at Hells Gate are a little further down stream, and worse and you can take a cable car over them.

We camped under the stars in Skihist Provincial Park in shorts and t shirt it was so hot.  We have a tent and camp plot to ourselves.

Leah slept in a hamock. We couldn’t believe it. But we saw very little creepy crawlies, and she wasn’t worried about squirrels or chipmuncks. Tough as nails this girl.

West Adventures adventure

For us to see and experience Canada’s National Parks we decided to choose a tour company that would help us explore as many National Parks as we could in 2 weeks, and this meant having a mixture of tent camping in the NP, and few hotels in between. 

Our guide Leah and driver Taylor from West Adventures come with us on all of the hikes and activities, protect us from bears and tourists by finding great trails and beating the crowds, and they cook our meals, (we do the dishes) and advise us on other activities and are full of great local info as they both rock climb, hike, ski, snow board, and just love the outdoors.  We are lucky to just have one other family with us, Bert and Annalise and 2 kids from the Netherlands.

Our chariot....