Canada’s Yellowhead Highway

Up until mid-week the forecast has called for rain nearly every day.  Tuesday was pretty drizzly and dreary, so we spent the afternoon at the Miette Hot Springs pool, a natural hot spring that they channel into a series of pools heated to different temperatures.  This hot springs was very like the Radium Hot Springs in that it just looks like a regular swimming pool – but when it was raining you could see the steam rising up off the pool. 

Wednesday started out overcast as well, but by early afternoon it had cleared up so we headed east on Highway 16 towards Maligne Lake (that’s nearby Medicine Lake, in the first photo above).  Both Medicine and Maligne Lakes feed the Maligne River, which has carved a deep canyon with a nice hiking trail. The river gorge is crossed by several bridges, and the canyon is very dramatic and narrow at the beginning. We hiked as far as the fifth bridge – a rickety suspension bridge that swayed with every step.

The forecast for today (Thursday) called for zero percent chance of rain – hooray! – so we made the most of it by taking Highway 16 west towards the town of Prince George.  Highway 16 is known as the Yellowhead Highway (named after a blond Iroquois warrior).  We weren’t the only ones enjoying the sunshine – all the forest creatures seemed to be out and about enjoying it too.  Today we had a record of 7 bear sightings (including one grizzly).  They seem to just hang out in the verge by the roadside, munching on the vegetation there.

One of the nicest stops today was the Mount Robson Provincial Park, which we passed through just as we entered British Columbia.  It was a gorgeous day, and the visitor’s center has a pretty meadow behind it with a spectacular view of Mt. Robson.

We arrived in Prince George in the afternoon.  Prince George is one of the biggest cities on the Yellowhead Highway and we had high hopes for the downtown pub scene.  Actually we were disappointed there – the town seems more industrial than quaint, and we didn’t really see anyplace we wanted to stop so instead we headed over to the Railway Museum.

At first glance it just looked like a railroad junkyard – the perfect place to test the efficacy of our tetanus shots.  But on closer inspection, they had some great historic old railway cars, some of which you could walk through, sit in the engineer’s set, etc. 

We thought the museum was worth the price of admission, especially since the very helpful lady at the admissions desk gave us 1/2 price tickets and gave us excellent advice on where to find a decent pub, where we had some frosty beers and an excellent meal.

Jasper NP, Alberta --- The Icefields Parkway

Lake Louise and Jasper are separated by one of the most scenic roads in the world – the Icefields Parkway.  The road twists along the Canadian Rockies and curves past various glaciers, glacial lakes, and streams.  It’s only 143 miles long but it can take a whole day to drive it if you stop for all the scenic turnouts.

There are 17 glacial areas along the Parkway, but the most accessible is the Columbia Icefield – an enormous 125-square-mile sheet of ice that feeds six glaciers.  It’s so accessible that you can drive right up to the Athabasca Glacier and walk right on it.  In the photo below, the Athabasca Glacier is the large sheet of ice on the left.  It used to flow as far as the highway, but has receded significantly in the past few decades.  It still has a pretty steady flow of about 50 feet per year at the bottom edge (called the toe).

Up at the top, where the ice spills out from the icefall, the glacier speed is a much faster 400 feet/year.

As I mentioned, there are dirt parking lots right at the base of the Athabasca Glacier and you can walk right up to it with very little effort.  But if you want to drive on the glacier, you are out of luck unless you take a ride on one of the specially outfitted Ice Explorer buses.  These buses have been ferrying tourists out to the thickest part of the glacier for decades.  They used to use old converted greyhound buses with snowmobile treads, but now they have state-of-the-art vehicles with big balloon tires (that do less damage to the glacier surface).    

Once the bus arrives at the thickest part of the glacier, they let people out for about 20 minutes to walk around and take photos.  They don’t let you walk just anywhere, though – they have an area ringed with safety cones that you aren’t supposed to go past.  This is because glaciers can be pretty dangerous; a few feet of snow may cover a crevasse hundreds of feet deep.  Put your foot in the wrong place and down you go!

But our guide said that they do a safety check of the area every morning and adjust the cones accordingly.  I have to say that walking around on the glacier wasn’t really any different from walking around on snow.  Except there were some exposed places where you could see the ethereal blue tint of the ice beneath your feet – the only reminder that you have nothing below you except a thousand feet of ice. 

Banff NP, Alberta --- Lake Louise & Moraine Lake

This morning after making a quick stop outside a coffee shop in Banff to pick up the wi-fi and wish our dads a happy Father’s Day (Have a great day, Dad!), we headed north to the Lake Louise area.  This area has some of the most scenic hiking in the park, for sure.  Here is the view from one of the shorter trails at Moraine Lake, a glacial lake nestled in the Valley of the Ten Peaks.  From high above, you can really see the effect of glacial silt that gives the lake its emerald hue.

I was concerned that the overcast and rainy weather would diminish the world-famous blue coloring of Lake Louise; I needn’t have worried.  On our way up to Agnes Lake, we caught several glimpses of Lake Louise from high above and the water was a spectacular Caribbean blue.

The weather today could not make up its mind – one minute it was sunshine and rainbows, the next it was angry gray skies and pouring rain.  We had decided to hike the Lake Agnes trail, anyway – rain be damned.  There are a couple lakes along the trail, and the sun came out as we reached the first one – Mirror Lake.

As we climbed higher and higher along the steep trail, Mother Nature threw everything she could at us to try to get us to turn back – rain, freezing wind, slushy snow and ice on the trail.  But we pushed on, all the way to the trail’s end at Agnes Lake.  It was lovely, but bitterly cold up there at 6900 feet compared to down at the base of the trail by Lake Louise (around 5750 feet).  Lake Agnes was still about half covered in ice.

One of our motivations for getting to the top was that we knew there was a teahouse up there.  Happily, it was open for business selling sandwiches, hot chocolate, and baked goods.  The sun came out just as we grabbed the only available table outside on the porch.  Then right after we ordered, the cold rain started up again.  Hot chocolate has never tasted so good.  Oh well, at least the hike back down was easy.

Banff, Alberta --- Around Town

We started the morning off with a quick stop at the Cascade Gardens.  The spot has potential, but we are here too early in the season – all the cascade pools were empty and most of the flower beds had only just been planted.  Instead of leaving the van parked at the gardens for the morning, I attempted to find a spot closer to town.  But Saturday in Banff can be frustrating if you are driving a 22-foot van and all the public parking spaces are closed off because of festivals, bike-a-thons, and various other civic activities.  Our town map indicated that there was a great RV parking lot near the bridge, but when we got there it had been barricaded off for this car show – look at all the prime parking spaces they are taking up! 

We did manage to find parking a few blocks away and headed to the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies for a tour of some historic homes in town.  I was a bit disappointed in the tour, actually – the tour was very brief, just 30 minutes, and both homes were a little more recent (1930’s-50’s décor) and decorated with fewer antiques than I’d imagined.  The Whyte house was interesting because Catharine and Peter had both been painters and the parks service still uses the studio area for artists in residence.

We then went to the equally unexciting Banff Park Museum.  Back in the early days of the park, visitors came here hoping to see wildlife without having to work too hard to do so.  The park created a Natural History (read: taxidermy) museum where visitors could view wildlife specimens up close.  There used to be a zoo so that people could see the bears without putting on their hiking boots.  Although the zoo has since shut down, the taxidermy museum has been preserved much as it was back then and some of the 100-year-old stuffed animals are showing their age.

We saved the best stop for last – the imposing Fairmont Banff Springs hotel.   It sits on a hill with some of the best views of Bow Valley.  The historic hotel was built in 1888 and at the time was the world’s largest hotel.  According to our guidebook rooms start at $439/night – we’ll take the $30 campground, thank you very much.

Most of the hotel is accessible to tourists.  They have a few antique items and photos on display (Marilyn Monroe played golf here once, apparently).  Originally we had contemplated hitting the hotel spa, but we quickly torpedoed that idea once we saw the prices – $179 for a 50-minute “relaxation” massage.  At that price, I doubt I’d be able to relax at all – with tip that’s like a week’s worth of campground fees!  We wandered off in the direction of the hotel bar, but were lured out on to the patio by the sounds of bagpipe music being played.  It was sort of relaxing (as relaxing as bagpipe music gets, anyway) and at least the view was lovely. 

Turns out there was a wedding reception at the hotel that afternoon, which was why the piper was piping.  We snuck a peek at the reception hall before leaving the hotel – very elegant. 

The sun came out just long enough for us to head north of town to hike near Lake Minnewanka.

The map made it out to be a nice leisurely stroll along the lakeside.  As we started the hike and it kept gaining altitude through a thick forest we thought maybe we’d taken the wrong trail.  But then we came around a bend to a clearing and realized that the trail actually was going along the lake – but it was about 250 feet above the shoreline.

Great Alaskan Road Trip: Week 5 Roundup

Each Friday, I post some relevant (and not-so-relevant) stats about the trip, as well as a little write-up of what it’s like to live out of a van for weeks on end. Here’s where we are overall:

• Total miles driven: 3458
• Total days on the road: 32
• Total miles hiked: 62.2

Here are some interesting stats for this week:

• Fuel stops: 1 (diesel: $4.39 / gallon in St. Mary, MT)
• Technical issues: 0 (Good week!)
• National Park Service sites visited: 4 – Glacier (US) Waterton, Kootenay, Banff (Canada)
• Elk/Bison/Deer/Sheep sighted: Too many.  No bison this week, but the deer and elk have been plentiful and we’ve seen loads of bighorn sheep too.  These two males were butting heads along Canada’s highway 1A as we drove toward Banff.
• Moose sighted: 1 (But so far we haven’t seen any with antlers – Kevin really wants to see one with antlers.)
• Red Fox sighted: 1 – this was exciting to me because I’ve never seen one in the wild before
• Birds of Prey sighted: 2 golden eagles (soaring together above the Iceberg Lake hike)
• Bears sighted: 8 (Two grizzly sightings and six black bears.  We saw five along the roadside in just a single hour on Canada’s highway 93 – that stretch of road seemed positively infested by black bears.)
• Cougars sighted: 0 – Sigh.  I don’t know whether or not I’m happy about that.

Someone asked what it’s really like to live day in and day out in a tiny van.  Most of you know that Kevin and I spent three and a half years living aboard a sailboat.  We thought those quarters were cramped, and the van is about one-quarter of the boat’s size.  And yet, it seems even harder to really keep the inside clean.
When we are camped for the night, we put out the outdoor mat (our glorious, glorious mat) and that does a pretty good job of stopping us from tracking stuff in.  But during the rest of the day, we stow the mat and just get in and out via the driver & passenger doors, and neither footwell has a mat (the van didn’t come with any – we have “auto mats” listed as “must buy” items).  So really we track all the dirt, leaves, and pine needles (which are the worst) in at the front of the van.  Then the debris tends to migrate over the course of the day to the back/living quarters.  So I am constantly sweeping because a pet peeve of mine is getting pointy pine needles stuck in my socks as I walk across the floor.  Grumble.

Because the space is so small, we’ve had to become even more “neatniky” than usual (and when I say “we”, I just really mean me – Kevin isn’t fazed by clutter).  If things aren’t put in their proper place after they’ve been used, it doesn’t take long for an already cramped space to feel even more so.  Leaving a jacket laying on one of the chairs at home isn’t a big deal, but when you just have one chair and have to constantly move the jacket out of the way to sit down it can get annoying.  (Of course another very valid reason to put things away is that stuff tends to go flying when you’re driving at highway speeds.)

But these are minor complaints, especially since we spend most of the day outside the van, and it really doesn’t take long (all of five minutes, actually) to sweep and tidy up.  For the most part, this size of van has worked out well for what we are using it for.  I probably wouldn’t want to live in it full-time (definitely would want something bigger for two people).  But for a road trip-style van it has really lived up to expectations. 
So on a completely different tangent, I have a little Rorschach test for you guys.  What is the first thing that comes to mind when you see this image?  What message do you think this sign is meant to convey?

In the U.S. the sign for “scenic overlook” is usually a pair of binoculars with the word ‘'scenic” or something like that.  The sign above is Canada’s way of telling you that something worth looking at is coming up – the adult is supposed to be holding binoculars, I guess.  But to me it just looks like a parent knocking back a cold bottle of Molson after a long day of sightseeing while his kid is looking the other way.

On the road to Banff National Park

This morning we drove the very scenic highway 93 through Kootenay National Park.  There were some nice sights along the roadside and the wildlife spotting was pretty spectacular (the bear count for the week more than doubled!).

When we finally crossed into Banff National Park, we left British Columbia behind and we are once again in the province of Alberta.  Just north of Banff is Johnston Canyon.  The canyon is only about 100 feet deep but the cool part is that they have built a catwalk right into the canyon wall about halfway up, so you really get to experience it from a different perspective than just walking along the edge or down along the creek.

Kevin’s favorite part was this tunnel that allowed you to get right up to the lower falls.  After my two attempts to get the “perfect shot”, his back was soaked with spray.

We finally arrived in the town of Banff in the late afternoon.  The park originally started out as the Rocky Mountains Park, established in 1885.  It was Canada’s first national park, and its name was changed to Banff in the 1930’s (the name comes from Banffshire, Scotland which was the birthplace of a major financier of the Canadian Pacific Railway).  The town is home to about 8,000 residents and has a great walkable downtown area, which doesn’t have too much of a touristy feel.  There is currently some kind of bike race/event going on all weekend, so unfortunately most of the main street will be closed to traffic tomorrow, but we should be able to find parking and check it out on foot.  We are currently staying in the Mountain Tunnel campground, a few miles outside of town.  It’s not very scenic and the sites are set up kind of like a parking lot, and no grills for some reason – we think Canada has something against cooking with charcoal.  But the sun is out and the weather should be great for most of the day tomorrow, so I have no complaints. 

British Columbia --- Fort Steele and Kimberly

Today was a looong day of driving.  Instead of taking the most direct route toward Banff (via Calgary), we are taking the scenic route (to the west).  Today’s drive took us from Waterton in Alberta, to Cranbrook, B.C. and on up to Kootenay National Park.

Our first stop today was the Heritage Town/Living Museum of Fort Steele, near Cranbrook.  In the 1860’s gold was discovered in the area, and people flocked to the town.  By the 1890’s the town had boomed into the bustling center of the East Kootenay district.  Unfortunately, the Canadian Pacific Railway decided to bypass the town, leading to its ultimate demise.  By the 1950’s the town’s buildings were decaying and only a handful of residents still lived in the area.

After local citizens put pressure on the government to preserve the town, Fort Steele was declared a historic park in 1961.  Over 60 buildings have been restored or reconstructed and furnished as they would have been at the turn of the century.  Visitors can now walk through and experience what it would have been like to visit these buildings back in the 1890’s – the town includes several homes and hotels, a dentist’s office, druggist, bakery, blacksmith, three churches, a school, and this general store and dressmaking shop.  Everything was so perfectly detailed, it felt a little like walking through the set of “Little House on the Prairie”.

During the summer, several of the buildings are staffed with people re-enacting what they would have done back in the 1890’s – today there was a blacksmith hard at work at his anvil, a baker selling bread and pastries, and a homemaker baking pies in one house.  School was in session at the one-room schoolhouse as well.

After lunch we continued on towards the Kootenay National Park, with a brief stopover in Germany (!!!).  Our Moon guide for Western Canada describes Kimberly as a town that has been “Bavarianized”.  It was an apt description, because standing in the Platzl and listening to all the oom-pah music blaring from all the shops, I really did feel for a moment that I was in the Alps somewhere.  The town’s main claim to fame is the “World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock”.  Kevin was overjoyed to pose for a photo with it, but surely there are larger cuckoo clocks in the world, right?  This one’s not much larger than a garden shed.

Just before we headed to the campground for the evening, we stopped in at the Radium Hot Springs for a soak in the natural hot pool.  It wasn’t quite what I’d expected – unlike the natural setting of the Boiling River near Yellowstone this was a bright blue swimming pool that was just heated with water from the hot spring.  But we both found it very relaxing after a long day on the road, despite the biohazardous-sounding name. 

Alberta, Canada --- Waterton Lakes National Park

So we have finally crossed into the Great White North.  We will spend one night here in Waterton Lakes, which has been a Canadian national park since 1895.  In 1932, Waterton and Glacier national parks were dedicated as Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, the first peace park to cross international boundaries.  In reality, the parks are still administrated separately, with separate admission fees (too bad – our US Annual Parks Pass is no good up here).  Park administrations do work together to protect and conserve the natural resources here, though – especially since most of the animals don’t recognize the international boundary.

Compared to Glacier, Waterton is pretty small – just 52 square miles.  At the heart of the park is the tiny town of Waterton, which is home to about 100 year-round residents (2,000 in summertime).  The town sits on Waterton Lake, a glacial lake carved in the Pleistocene ice age (Waterton park currently has no glaciers, though).

A windswept hill with a great view of the townsite to the right

There are supposed to be some nice hikes in the area, but after yesterday’s trek we decided to do a short trail requiring minimal effort over at Red Rock Canyon.  Unlike the red rocks of Sedona (kind of orange-y in color), the rocks here are a true red – the stone is called argillite which can be a deep red if it’s oxidized, and a dark green if it’s not.  The rocks here are some of the oldest exposed rock in the world – up to 1.6 billion years old – although the canyon is relatively young, carved in just the past 10,000 years or so.

We didn’t see any bears or anything while driving around, just a few deer by the roadside.  But there were signs posted at the visitor center and when we checked into the campground we were warned that a cougar has been prowling around the townsite. When I asked the girl where it had actually been seen she shrugged and said, “Just in town, really. Like, right around the area here.”  I am torn – part of me wants to avoid a scary predator that has no fear of humans, but the other part really wants to add a cougar sighting to the weekly roundup.

Today was chilly, rainy, and windy so we decided to warm up by having afternoon tea at the Prince of Wales Hotel.  The historic hotel opened its doors (and more importantly at the time, it’s prohibition-era bar) in 1927.  It is situated on a high hill overlooking Waterton Lake and has a very Swiss-chalet-looking exterior.

To further add to the international confusion, our server spoke with a German accent and wore a tartan kilt (all of the staff wear kilts for some reason).  We lucked out and got a table next to the lobby’s floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of the lake.  At this time of year, no reservations were necessary.  It was a bit pricey for what you get – $30 a pop for the meal.  At least the sandwich and pastry selection did not disappoint.  We did chuckle when the server brought the bill and it was in a folder emblazoned with Glacier National Park’s logo and the motto “See America First”.  That may not be the message you want to send to your visitors, Canada.