Tag Archives: alberta

Day 15 – Yoho National Park and back to Vancouver

We planned to set off early, as the journey takes about ten hours. That didn’t quite go to plan but never mind.

As we headed home on the Trans-Canada Highway we took an early exit on to Yoho National Park. This road was interesting because it had a ridiculous incline up a cliff face, which we had to corner well or reverse back to get around the bends. Then we saw a beautiful waterfall crashing down a large creek. We seemed quite far away from it, but the sound and sight of it was magnificent. From there, we drove and realised only at the end of the road that it was actually a dead end.

We made it back to the highway and stopped off at a couple more places, including a gorgeous little gem called Emerald Lake. We also had a look at the Kicking Horse river, a long, powerful, river which travels some distance.

On our long trip back, we established that we’d stop off again in Kamloops, have a break, maybe another cotton candy ice cream… Hours went by, and at this point I’m seriously in desperate need for a piss, and having hunger shakes. We’re driving past road signs with names of towns we recognise: Merritt, Kelowna. Anyway, couldn’t find this place. I was desperate and we decided the next sign we see with the park picnic table symbol, we’re stopping off.

Lac Le Jeune was our stop off. We approached a campsite there in the hope of seeing toilets. Mitch, with his instinct of driving on the left side of the road, went round the traffic hut the wrong way. No problem, no one around. We drove along this road and it became apparent that we were entering red neck country. There’s a load of reserved pitches, most occupied, and we pulled into one without a pickup and caravan on it. We had a bunch of locals looking at us, thinking we’re weirdos, as we’re thinking the same about them. I ran to the loo, and could barely stand up!

Mitch and me swap over, now I’m behind the wheel, and we’re leaving the campsite. As I approach that hut, there’s now a police officer and the campsite manager, telling me to pull over. “Oooh shit” we’re thinking. I did exactly the same as Mitch and drove on the left, being the wrong side of the road in Canada, in front of a police officer. Anyway, I was told off for the campsite manager for speeding around his campsite. I apologised profusely and we took off.

We saw another sign, for Logan Lake, and decided to stop there. We refuelled, washed our hands as there were no sinks at the campsite, and headed to the park to eat. This little town seemed all new, planned and pleasant. We ate our sweaty, overloaded cheese sandwiches, washed the grease off our hands and carried on back to Vancouver in hope of dropping the car off before the 10pm deadline.

On our way, we passed the visitor centre we planned to stop at. There is no way we would have lasted that long without pissing ourselves.

Vancouver took absolutely ages to get in to due to the roadworks. We eventually got to downtown, and drove through a really shitty, rundown area. I was genuinely surprised at what was in front of me. Groups of homeless, mentally-ill or drug-ridden folk in a couple of groups of a dozen, easy. All out on the main streets. We later learned this was the infamous East Hastings, or Downtown East Side.

After off loading our bounty of groceries from Safeway in Alberta (took advantage of the 5% tax there), we got the car back at 10.30pm.

Day 14 – Banff & Canmore, Alberta

The previous night I read the local newspaper, which talked of families of bears walking around Canmore. Our driving around yielded no bears, so we thought, “bingo”.

We drove to Banff again, and had a little look around. We then carried onto Canmore. On our way down the Trans-Canada Highway 1 the heavens opened and I’d never seen rain like it. Stair rods is an understatement.

This is a bigger town than Banff but less touristy. Still has cowboys which is cool. After spending some time there, we drove around the national park a bit more. We took a look at the map and spotted a lake called Minnewanka. Being young men with a mature sense of humour we found this very amusing and decided that we’d drive there. After taking pics of the sign, we proceeded to admire how beautiful Lake Minnewanka is. A storm was on the horizon, which exaggerated the colours around the lake. Deep pine green, the turquoise of the water, pale sand and the craggy rocks. Little leisure boats, tied up, fought these inland waves that were fearsome for a lake.

From there we stepped off at a couple of other places, which was so easy to do with how much there is to see here. I believe the place was called Two Jack Lake, typical new world name.

At night, driving down the 1A, two coyote crossed our path, casually walking across the road in a pair, glancing over at us.

Day 13 – Lake Louise and Banff, Alberta

We decided that a hostel charging $8 + tax for an omelette was ludicrous, so we drove down the road and we found a pastry shop. I pretty much ate croissants the whole stay.

From there we travelled to Lake Louise, we paid a fortune for a three day pass and drove around the car parks for half hour cursing the RVs for taking up four spaces.

After parking up, we made our way to the lake. Heaving with tourists but astonishing nonetheless. The water really is that turquoise as on the photos, shrouded by a large mountain range, still snow capped, fog circling their summits.

We began our trek up the Six Glaciers range, where, at the top, over 6km walk, there is a tea house. No problem. We take in the views of barren, to pine, waterfalls and snow, as we chat away putting the world to rights.

We were told this was the easiest walk… well, hours passed, and we’re starting to see mirages of tea houses. We start to lose our rag at this point, the weather goes from very cold to roasting, so the fleece keeps getting taken off, putting back on. I honestly don’t think I’ve worked so hard when walking!

We eventually got there, and if I had the energy I’d have jumped for joy. The tea house is a wood log cabin on stilts, with no electricity and few amenities. The menu was limited because they had so few mod. cons. The menu was full of preservatives and stuff they can make from scratch.My choice was the peanut butter and jam sandwich (it makes me happy that Canadians still call jam ‘jam’, as opposed to Americans who call jam ‘jelly’). It was a pleasant surprise actually – I was expecting it to be horrible.

I shan’t go in to too much detail here, but after such a long walk we needed to use the loo… dear oh dear. The toilet was one of these long drops, reminiscent of the opening scene of Slumdog Millionaire. A stench and sight that will live with me for a long time.

Our journey down took far less time. We made sure to walk across that last bit of snow we saw on the way up, too.

Afterwards, we drove to Banff town which is a good 40 minutes out. On the way we discovered two moose munching away on the road side. The town is picturesque, perfect. Very touristy but not in a Blackpool sort of fashion. It’s town centre is a strip of shops and restaurants built of stone and wood clad, nestled in a mountain range. One of the highlights of the whole trip was the cowboy clothing shop, which served its charming purpose for tourists but also seemed to be a genuine Western riders’ shop, full of genuine cowboy boots (Ariat etc), hats, those sparkly barn dance dresses. Even ABS storage cases for said cowboy hats. Spurs, chaps. Brilliant.

After our platter full of wings and the like, we headed home. We took the 1A route home at dusk, hoping to see some bears… it’s like the road cutting through the Chase, but on acid. No bears today.

Day 12 – En route to Banff National Park

Mitch and I did what I perceived daft for two young English gents – hire a car, driving on the other side of the road, for approximately ten hours each way.

We asked for a Pontiac but received a VW Jetta. Not so bad, as I drive a VW at home so familiarity was a bonus for a car which has the steering wheel on the left.

My biggest concern was driving this automatic car out of the multi-storey car park, or parking lot, without driving it through a wall. After a few minutes of bricking it, we drove off and started on our way. We got out of Vancouver with relative ease, surprisingly.

The drive was easy and pleasurable. We drove past mountains, through the Okanagan desert. About half way we swapped over and Mitch continued the journey, stopping in Kamloops where it was boiling hot. After eating our sweaty sandwiches and cotton candy ice cream, we continued on to the BC-Alberta border. I took over in Golden, where we stopped for a McDonald’s, next to a big bridge passing a beautiful river.

The mountains got bigger, snow-capped in summer. The Trans-Canada highway is a true engineering feat, as it cuts through mountains, hangs off cliffs and sits closely to the Canada-Pacific railway, with trains hauling dozens of grain carts.

We got to the hostel, where we met a guy called Long. I couldn’t understand a word he was saying but he seemed a nice enough chap.

This experience was one of the best things I’ve ever done. Driving for hours may not seem like much, but when you’re from a small country, driving hours down a highway through beautiful scenery and sharing some amazing moments with a good friend is hard to beat.