Canadian Rockies

We bade a fond farewell to the U S of A and flew up to the Rockies (Adrian!). We’re at Banff, after a brief orientation stop in Calgary. We’re now back to ordering two mains at restaurants instead of sharing one, as was the practice south of the border.

We’re staying at the Banff Springs resort, which is an immense stone mansion set above the Bow River, built around 100 years ago with incredible vision and what must have been an enormous investment. It’s meant to look like a Scottish castle, but actually looks eerily like Colditz just missing the barbed wire and machine gun sentry posts. The setting is spectacular with the icy mountains framing the brooding sky as white and grey clouds shoot past. The grey blue river below rumbles along at incredible speed including a very impressive rapids section that is confusingly called Bow Falls.

We’re on a quick fire coach tour, so after two nights in Banff, we were off again to Lake Louise. We arrived in the late afternoon and suddenly found that the rain had ceased so we rushed out to walk to the other end of this beautiful lake. After 20 minutes, the rain returned and we got thoroughly soaked but still managed to have fun. We have had all weathers since we arrived in Canada; drizzle, light rain, and heavy rain.

The longest part of our tour took us from Lake Louise to Jasper, and included the Columbia Ice Field Experience. We’ve heard the word ‘Awesome’ a lot on our travels, and here the scenery really merits the adjective. The colossal Rocky Mountains are framed by rushing rivers, cold still lakes and endless forests. The pine trees are surprisingly scraggy, with narrow trunks and short, stubby branches. Thus is apparently due to the poor soil, altitude and short growing season. They are packed incredibly tightly, like matches in a box, huddled together against the cold. The are very hardy though and manage to exist quite a long way up the stone cliffs of the giant mountains, sometimes turning them into enormous, stony old men with dark green beards. We were fortunate to see black and grizzly bears along the side of the road, rummaging around for food so best seen when inside the coach. Although we have learned the procedure for meeting a bear that includes making yourself look big and playing dead, and don’t put honey in your hair!

The ‘Ice Experience’ included a trip out onto the Athabasca Glacier in a purpose built snow coach with enormous tires. The permanent ice field sits on top of numerous mountains covering 325 square kilometers, which is larger than the whole of Vancouver. It is so deep in parts that the Eiffel tower could be buried in it standing up. Glaciers slide outwards into the valleys along its edges, and the melt water feeds three great rivers. The Snow Dome Mountain, standing 3,456m on the continental divide uniquely feeds its melt water into three oceans, the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic.

Shortly after we arrived in Canada, the Stanley Cup Final took place for Ice Hockey. Vancouver lost to Boston and this sparked riots in the streets of Vancouver. A couple of cars were turned over and set alight. In the aftermath, the there has been much hand wringing and self-flagellation here with the shame of it all. Calm down Canada, it’s just a typical Saturday night out in any British town.