Jun 4
We were looking forward to the final two nights of our trip in Whistler; Mike had a date with a bike and I would be catching up with a friend. The only thing standing in our way was a 700km drive and some unforeseen events. Read more
It was our last full day at the ranch and while we currently had a grand total of 0 bear sightings, some of our group had in fact seen three the day before – including one that strolled through the ranch grounds! (The resident dogs make great alarms.) So the pressure was on and we gritted our way through another early start. Read more
If you’ve followed this extremely drawn out trip write-up (apologies / don’t get me started) you’ll know that bear-watching was the main aim of the game. We went to Bella Coola near the BC coast to see grizzlies and black bears and to hedge our bets further, we looked for another bear viewing experience. Mike’s research led us to Grizzly Bear Ranch, 1000km inland in the Selkirk Mountains, and about an hour from Kaslo where we prepared ourselves for collection after breakfast. Read more
With a 400+km drive ahead there was no dilly dallying as we packed up and left Field. Our route would take us south-west, north-west, south-west then south-east and if we had the option of a straight line it would have been a mere 170km. Far less interesting though; this was a day crammed with fascinating stuff, and even better, fascinating OLD stuff. Read more
Lake Louise is an amazing area to visit. It gets a deluge of visitors too, being just 40-odd minutes from Banff in prime Canadian Rockies territory. We’d each been here separately many moons ago and were looking forward to reconnecting with some familiar turf as well as making some new memories. We covered a few things over a couple of visits. Read more
We were in Banff National Park and we were here to see mountains. And glacial lakes. And wildlife if they obliged. There are beautiful drives to get you out there in amongst it and this post covers two made during our short stay in the area. Whether we would in fact see the mountains was entirely up to the weather gods whose moods were very changeable. Read more
At a ridiculous time of night a few months out from our trip we sat poised over the keyboard and at the appointed hour, after a few tense minutes, managed to secure tickets to Lake O’Hara. Demand always outstrips supply so we were rapt that we’d be among the lucky few able to see one of Yoho’s most outstanding features. Read more
We left Alberta and crossed back into BC; Banff National Park became Yoho National Park. There were more lakes and mountains and general Rockies wonderment to behold from our new base in the village of Field. Read more
In specially selected spots around several national parks, Parks Canada has installed pairs of red chairs to lure people out into these unique locations. Instantly taken with the concept we planned to scoot round and find as many as we could. Read more
A few days in the Canadian Rockies marked the middle segment of our trip. Being surrounded by mountains in that autumn-almost-winter time of year was something we had looked forward to immensely, planning a packed itinerary which would inevitably see us return to places we visited individually a decade or two ago. Read more
tall tales 