taipeitu

Day 6 - Leaving the Rockies…

Icefields Parkway, Peyto Lake

Actually I’m posting way out of my timeline now… live blogging is hard… I’ve been back home for 3 weeks now after a month and a half of travels but I wanted to continue posting just so I have something to look back to. 

So here we go Day 6 we leave the Rockies…

6am rise and shine! It may have been earlier, I can’t remember now, all I know is the sun was not up and none of us wanted to be up.

We checked out, stopped at the bear claw, and hit the road.

We headed back on the icefields parkway one last time, first stop Peyot lake. We had missed it the first trip down because it had started raining and we almost considered missing it again because it was a bit of a detour to drive down the parkway plus the schedule was pretty tight if we wanted to make it to Vancouver in one day. But we had given ourselves the option of two and stop somewhere for the night or driving through the night if we needed to. And since the shortest route took 9hrs anyway, it seemed a bit silly to drive for 9hrs instead of fly if we weren’t going to stop and enjoy the sights.

And I’m glad we decide to see the lake. Despite all the lakes, and mountain views we’d seen up to this point and despite the obvious fatigue from such an early start, and the high altitude hike, the view was definitely in the top 5 places we had seen. I’d say Angel Glacier, Peyto Lake, the crazy blue lake at the side of the road, Herbert lake w the reflection, and Overlander falls maybe because we got to walk right up to it… this doesn’t include seeing wildlife, omg bear! and it’s not in order because it was hard enough to pick these 5.

We had about 5 min peace to walk around and take pictures when all of a sudden we turned around and were surrounded by Chinese tourist. And yes, they were Chinese because Harjeet and I eavesdropped in on their conversations, mainland Chinese accents we both agreed. Harjeet grew up in Hong Kong and worked in Nanjing and I always joke is more Chinese then i am.

Up until this point we had seen a few tourist at each destination but it was tame. In fact the guide book had mentioned tourist warnings at each point, so much so that I was a little annoyed, I mean a guide book is for tourists so it seems a bit strange that it’s directing people to these places then complaining that there are people at these places…

Anyway, this was now the Friday of the labour day long weekend and it was clear that we had enjoyed a very tourist free trip up until this point.

People had said the parkway would take 3hrs but with traffic it could take much longer, or the parkway is beautiful except for the drivers and we hadn’t really understood what they meant.

But yep, it definitely changed the experience. Luckily we left the viewing platform, hiked up the mountain a bit, and arrived at a much more secluded location with a perfect view of the lake and the mountains all around.

I loved Peyto Lake, it was surrounded by mountains, all snow capped, and massive, the lake was super blue but I also felt like my eyes were finally adjusting to the surroundings. Kind of like how your eyes adjust to extreme lighting conditions, I think my eyes had finally adjusted from taking in the grandeur of the Rockies, to the little things in the area like mountain flowers and pine cones.

On the walk back to the car I was looking down at the ground admiring all the little flowers and vegetation along the way. And while it was beautiful, I think it’s safe to conclude I had officially seen enough of the Rockies. Of course I’d love to go back and do an actual hike or camp or see the 3rd largest waterfall in the world but for this trip of stop and go sites I was officially satisfied.

Next stop…  

Day 5 - Last Day in Jasper

Mt Edith Cavell, Angel Glacier, Miette Hot Spings, & a walk through the woods

Wow, can’t believe it’s gone by so quickly, although I’m writing about day 5 in Jasper, I’m actually sitting at the airport waiting to board my flight to Taipei.

Scratch that, sitting in a hotel lobby in LA waiting for my bro… It was a lot easier to keep up w posts when I was sitting on a train. Hmm, what do I still remember…

Day 5 in Jasper was our last chance to hit all the sites… Angel glacier, Miette hot springs, the bear paw again, and finally find a decent breakfast place.

We started by asking Bruce for a decent breakfast place, he steered us in the right direction. Nothing fancy just good ol bacon and eggs w eggs that weren’t as pale as the moon. Next up angel glacier.

The drive was a mountainy road just off the parkway. I remember constant turns and climbing up the mountain. Unlike the athabasca glacier, which was literally just off the parkway, angel was up the mountain to a car park, then a further hike in to see the glacier. I guess u have to work to see angels.

And it was well worth it. The glacier did look like an angel, think snow angel hanging off a cliff, without such a wide spread bottom. U can see the pics. There was a little body of water below with floating bits of ice. The water was bright blue green. The terrain leading up to the glacier was very rocky with little vegetation. Clearly not much lived here though we did see chipmunks.

Right at the foot of the glacier was a small cave. People were walking towards the cave but I remembered my mistake w the bear so I read the sign. “ice avalanches fall as far as this lake” the lake clearly stretched well past the cave.

“Let’s check out the cave” Harjeet said. But I hesitated, “not sure it’s a good idea Harjeet”. Not only was there a sign right in front saying D A N G E R but the whole walk over i kept thinking how cool would it be to see an avalanche. Knowing my luck it’d be the last thing i’d ever see.

Too many hollywood famous last lines playing in my head perhaps?

I looked at the cave and imagined dark nothingness, then thought is that worth a potential death of falling ice and snow?

“I’m gonna stay back” i said and after a bit of back and forth Harjeet said “ok, if u see an avalanche yell to us” but all of us laughed immediately. Highly unlikely they’d be able to do anything fast enough much less run faster than an avalanche on that rocky terrain. But they went ahead and I took pictures from the sidelines.

Sorry Harjeet and Wendy’s parents, I did my best. Halfway across I hear a grumble, roar, crack… And that was the tragic end to our trip, cut, the end, submit to Hollywood script writers.

Actually I just felt my stomach churn as I could see Harjeet and Wendy in the distance.

It didn’t help that there were 2 elderly couples beside me discussing how some people just have a higher tolerance of risk, no way they were risking their lives just to see a dark cave. Great I have the common sense of 60 yr old couples.

I could barely see Harjeet and Wendy and thought about calling out but then thought about those movies where a echo causes an avalanche… Hopefully they’ll turn back on their own.

Harjeet and Wendy later told me that when they heard the crack they both immediately decided to turn back. Don’t worry Harjeet and Wendy’s parents, u raised ur kids right!

After the glacier we climbed another mountain road up to Miette hot springs.

On our way up we kept thinking maybe we’ll see mountain sheep on these roads and sure enough as we pull up to the car park there they were just wandering between the cars, licking the car exhaust for what I imagine to be salt? Kind of anticlimactic really.

I was hoping to see them in their natural habitat, climbing the cliffs… not wandering amongst us tourists, feeding off our waste, I guess we only have ourselves to blame. We still took a few pics and headed into the hot springs.

Miette had 2 large pools, a hot and warm pool. Then 2 tiny pools the size of a hot tub with cold, and freezing cold water. Having been to many hot springs in Asia I knew the drill. Alternate between the hot and cold, the more extreme the temperature the better, though most people seemed happy just sitting in the lukewarm pool like a community bath? Yuck!

The freezing cold pool was like diving into pins and needles. So cold it hurt but after a new seconds ur nerves numb. The hottest pool could have been hotter. Miette brags of being so hot they cool down the water. I say give it to me straight. Just put it in viens! Well u get the idea.

Alternating between the 2 temperatures leaves u feeling like u’ve just had a full body message. Ur muscles r relaxed and ur skin is super soft. I didn’t want to leave but we had made dinner plans w Bruce so we asked when they closed in case we had time to come back. Sometimes saving the best for last doesn’t work out that well.

We met Bruce at a local Japanese restaurant in Hinton where the hostess/waitress/phone order taker/only person there other than the chef told us the wait would be over an hour… we decided to go elsewhere.

Bruce took us to a Greek place near by where we had a lovely last night dinner.

After the meal we were too stuffed to drive the mountain road back up to the hot springs so we decided to go for a walk instead.

Harjeet said it be nice to go for a stroll and she hadn’t seen the beavers so we decided to walk to the beaver boardwalk. But by the time we had dropped off a car on each end, popped into bruce’s to put something in the oven for the trip tomorrow, we were running out of light. Determined to make it, if only to pick up our car on the other end, our stroll became a mad dash against the fading sun…

It was actually hilarious, we speed walked up and down hills, through forests, as it got darker bats flew out, one hit bruce in the face and apparently they’re sticky so he had to peel it off, but it looked like bad acting in a horror film where the actor holds the fake bat to his face while he pretends to struggle. Sticky bat, we believe u bruce!

A toad jumped out and landed on harjeet’s foot, all the while Bruce was giving us cougar and bear safety tips.

Eventually we decided to exit the forest for the lit road, there had been a cougar sighting recently and again, safety first.

We did make it to the boardwalk and we could hear the beavers but it was too dark to see much. I used my camera flash so Harjeet could get a glimpse but then we were off to the car.

We said goodbye to Bruce and hit the sack for the long drive the next morning, Hinton to Vancouver, 850 km, 10hrs drive straight at best and we were taking the longer way, mileage and timing unknown but we’d given ourselves potentially 2 days…

A morning in Hinton, this was early morning on Day 5, I tended to wake up early on the trip so this morning I took the car and drove around Hinton while the girls slept. This may or may not have included a trip to McDonald’s for breakfast.

Day 4 - Mount Robson National Park, British Columbia

Day 4 was Mount Robson, we originally intended to hike Mount Robson but it was a rainy morning and Harjeet potentially had a phone interview so we had a late-ish start.

We went into Jasper looking for a nice fry up, aka full english, aka bacon and eggs, aka greasy goodness, but was sorrely disappointed.

First the 2 most recommended places in the guide books didn’t even have bacon, they had “breakfast sandwiches” w ham!… and they call themselves a breakfast place.

Wendy suggested Smitty’s, a Denny’s like chain that I’ve never been to but it didn’t seem like she was making a sincere recommendation so we continued to look.

The 3rd place we settled on had a breakfast special posted on their window, bacon, eggs, and toast $5.99. Papa Geaorge’s special… aka pale eggs and toast w weak tea, but yes there was bacon. Harjeet was not impressed, probably because her egg yolks were more egg shell colored. Mine had a little more colour but not much.

Wendy had no better luck finding a vegan breakfast. She ordered a vegetarian chili at the first place we stopped at only to find out 10 min later that it was sold out and had to get a refund. “Can I get my tip back too?” Just one of many reasons I hate tip bowls instead of tipping at the end of table service.

We all went back to the bear paw/other paw, we did actually go to both. The Bear Paw for baked goods, the Other Paw for sandwiches. Now I know why they raveabout these places, it’s all relative.

Luckily the weather had cleared up and we decided to hit Mt Robson after all but no hike.

Waterfalls, little walks, info centre, you know the drill by now, we sure did.

It was more lush and the the air was less dry in this area, we had officially crossed over to British Columbia. Perhaps pics would be better here… they’re coming.

We did have another small fall at the falls. Wendy smacked her camera against a tree trunk but all was well.

We spent most of the drive thinking Mt Robson was on the left when it was in fact on the right. We learned that at the info centre when the guy pointed to the mountain covered by clouds right behind him.

“Oh that’s Mt Robson…”

You’d think you’d be able to pick out the highest mountain in the Rockies but it’s not as easy as you think… it’s really hard to gauge size amongst giants, like having 3 NBA players standing beside each other asking you which one of them is taller… without proper tools you’re really just looking up at all of them… even harder if they’re peaks are covered in clouds (the mountains, not the NBA players).

“I’ve made this trip every year for 10 yrs and only 4 times was I able to see the peak” said some guy walking out of the centre. He must have heard our disappointment though I think we were more disappointed in ourselves for not know which mountain it was. No need to share that info with a stranger (in person, online I’ll share whatever I please!).

As always the info centre was super helpful, except don’t ask them anything about Alberta, having crossed into British Columbia, new time zone, new province, and new provincial funding I guess.

We plotted our route to Vancouver with the guy at the centre, back down the icefield parkway (though it was on none of their maps because it’s in Alberta), through Yoho, Glacier, and Revelstoke national parks, maybe Adam’s Lake if the salmon were running, the Okanagan wine region, maybe down to Osoyoos inland desert, and back across to Vancouver. 

“How long were you thinking for the drive?”

“2 days, one night…”

:O

We also did some research on things to do on Vancouver Island, the next leg of the trip… but by research I mean we grabbed some brochures.

We continued on to Valemont to try to catch the salmon run there but didn’t see any. We went into town to pick up some snacks for the drive back and Harjeet found a place to satisfy Wendy’s veg chili craving so we had a bit of food before heading back to meet Bruce for dinner.

Dinner was our treat so we stopped at the grocery store, picked up chicken, asparagus, corn, and sweet potato.

BBQ chipotle chicken was the main, very yummy! Roasted veg, BBQ corn and just as we were about to eat, a bowl of fresh salad pops on the table. Bruce was leaving Vancouver the following week and with winter coming he clearly wanted us to help finish the lettuce in his garden and some other veg from the crisper. It be such a waste to let that lettuce freeze, and we didn’t mind at all. Best lettuce I’ve ever had!

I can’t remember if we did anything after dinner… it’s all a blurr after a good meal but I think we just headed back to the hotel… zzz

Day 3 - Icefields Parkway Pt 3

Mistaya Canyon, Waterfowl Lake, Herbert Lake, Lake Louise, & Banff…

After the glacier we drove to Mistaya canyon.

At first I was afraid to look down the canyon it was so far down but after a few minutes I was thinking of walking across a fallen tree to the other side, but thought better of it. It was a pretty thin log, and a very far drop. 

Then it was off to Peyto Lake and Bow summit, on the way we saw this bright blue lake just as the sun was peeping through again so we pulled over for a few photos as well. The water looked so blue you just knew it was freezing cold but it was beautiful. We think it was Waterfowl lake but there were no signs or signs of waterfowl…

As we got back on the road we saw the black bear on the side of the highway as mentioned in another post.

By the time we reached Peyto Lake it was rainy and we decided to continue on since the site was a bit of a hike away from the car park.

The guy at the information desk recommended Herbert lake, where you could get a nice shot of the mountains reflected in the water. It was raining but we headed there anyway.

We still had the sandwich we picked up earlier so Harjeet and I split a roast beef, bacon and hot mustard sandwich as we took pictures when we hear a “Whoa…” and crack…

Harjeet turns around “OMG Wendy are you ok?” “Yep, just slipped.” I turn around “Is the camera ok?” She said she was ok, next concern was her beautiful Canon 7D. Luckily we had some first aid supplies in the car and it was only a scratch on her hand… maybe a bruise, no need to worry Wendy’s mom. Wendy washed up and we were good to go again…

After the picturesque landscape of the icefields parkway through Jasper national park, the road to lake louise was starting to show signs of development. Highway construction, fencing along the road, it was a little disappointing.

Lake Louise itself was nice, the mountains surround the lake which is nice but there was a canoe rental at the lake, and the canoes reminded me of the gondola boats at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, not the boats in Venice, the ones in Vegas… get the picture? Kind of cheap, plastic looking and having them on the water added a real commercial feel that was heightened by the Fairmont hotel next to the lake.

Were I staying there I’m sure it would have been a lovely experience, but after wandering in areas with maybe a few fences and a little bridge, it was an adjustment.

Perhaps this trip would be better Banff, Lake Louise then the icefields parkway to Jasper so it felt like one was driving into the wilderness instead of towards development but all the sites were easier to pull into if you were coming from the north (Jasper).

It was raining a bit at Lake Louise as well so we didn’t stay long. We had agreed to take a canoe just before the rain started but instead we had a wander in the Fairmont. It was definitely nice, a bit heavy and old fashioned but as Harjeet said, “It just feels like Christmas”. And I could imagine it being quite nice in the winter, by the fire, looking at the lake without the canoes.

Lake Louise to Banff was along a different highway. We were no longer on the icefields and again construction, partially built tunnels, and fencing made it a pretty straight and uninspired sight.

By the time we got into Banff at 7:30pm I think the of a whole day of driving and sights were setting in “What do you guys want to see?” “Whatever…”

We tried to find a few cool sites but I think we were all just too tired so we took a shot of the fairmont in Banff on the cliff, we tried to head up to the Banff centre only to find it was a community centre and not an information centre, and tried to hit the basin but it was closed… all signs seemed to be pointing to driving back and it was a 3-4 hr drive back so we decided to head back to Hinton.

I drove for the first hour or so but I had driven most of the day and it was clear that my desire to reach our destination so I could stop driving was starting to overtake things like speed limits, and slowing down at turns over rocky cliffs…

“Anyone else feel like driving?” I asked and luckily Wendy volunteered. The drive back was pretty dark and Wendy stopped to take a long exposure shot. We had a few high beam issues from other drivers but we arrived safely at 11:30pm and crashed… in bed, not the car.

Day 3 - Icefields Parkway Pt 2, the Columbian Icefields

Next stop was the Columbian icefields, specifically the Athabasca glacier.

I thought the Columbian Icefields, in particular the Athabasca glacier, could use it’s own post so you could get a feel for how different the area was.

There was no vegetation, it was super cold, even for a Canadian, and the air was pretty thin. Hiking up to the glacier was the first time I felt the altitude this trip, within the first 5 minutes I was out of breath. Yes, I’m blaming the altitude, not because i haven’t been in a gym in 5 yrs. The hike up to the glacier was pretty exhausting for such a short walk.

The problem with seeing the glacier in August was despite that it was freezing cold, the glacier was a bit grey and melty. But they say the icefields parkway is quite dangerous to drive in the winter so grey ice it is…

We walked up to the glacier rather than take the bus that drove onto the glacier where you could get off and walk around. I mean the glacier was pretty cool but we’re on a budget and we’re all Canadian, $50 to walk on ice? I think I’ll wait for the next ice age aka winter in TO.

The Athabasca glacier with a little car park is on one side of the parkway where you can walk up to the glacier. The visitor centre is on the other side of the parkway where you can book a tour to go onto the glacier and walk around in a safe area.

We did go into the visitor centre and asked the information desk for some recommendations. They were super helpful and marked off some sites for us to see and we were back on our way, next stop Mistaya canyon.

Day 3 - An epic trip through Jasper & Banff National Park

Part 1 of the Icefields Parkway…

I’ve broken this post into parts because it would be too hard to cover everything we did in one post.

We left the hotel at about 8:30am and headed for Jasper and the icefields parkway. Just before we got into Jasper we saw a herd of elk grazing in the grass near the side of the road and took a few pictures and watched them cross the road to the field on the other side.

We were just about ready to leave when the male elk came out of the bushes and walked almost right in front of the car. I wasn’t able to pull my camera out again in time so we took a video using the smaller camera.

We stopped in Jasper to pick up some food, “the Bear Paw” came highly recommended but we couldn’t find it and saw “the Other Paw” so in we went.

Egg salad sandwich for breakfast and some exotic vegetable chips (I don’t know if you can call them exotic, just your usual root veg other than potato). Sticky cinnamon bun, coffee, and another sandwich for the road.

We made our way down the icefields, our friend Bruce lent us a park pass (amazing!), we’d point to it hanging off the rear view and they’d just wave us through like VIPs.

First destination was Sunwapta Falls but we stopped along the way to take some pictures of the Rockies.

Driving through the parkway was pretty cool, it was a misty morning so there were clouds hovering over the mountains and every once in awhile you’d turn just as the clouds were clearing and see this wall of rock, trees, and ice.

The falls were also pretty cool. It was a bit cold out that day, the vest and hoodie combo came in handy. Also, tights under pants, tights are amazing, thanks Sophie!