Ice Fields to Hinton, AB

Monday, June 24, 2013

Slept like a baby last night, so the breathing machines worked great!

We met John and Fran up at the Ice Field Experience Lodge this morning. We got on a bus to go across the highway and to the beginning of the Ice Field, then we transferred to a special bus called an Ice Explorer,

which is a massive bus designed for glacial travel. Our driver is our guide and he has plenty of tidbits of information for us on glaciers, icefields and their impact on our environment.

Our destination is the Athabasca Glacier, which is reported to be as thick as the Eiffel Tower is tall. It is hard to imagine ice that thick! We were allowed to get out of the Explorer and walk on this glacier.

Glacier ice is blue, and the runoff water is clear as glass. I guess some people tasted the water, but not me! Clear it may be, but not necessarily clean!

After leaving the ice field, we continued with our trip north towards Jasper National Park. We made several stops at view points, but my favorite was Athabasca Falls,

which is along the Athabasca River. As with all of the rivers up here right now, this one is flowing fast and furious.

As it flows down through a narrow rock gorge, it makes a spectacular falls and the roar of the water is so loud, it’s hard to carry on a conversation.

Today was our day to finally see some wildlife along the road.

A young male Caribou was feeding on the grass right along the highway.

We also came across some young Big Horn Sheep in the middle of the highway,

they were totally engrossed in licking the tar line where it had been put down to seal some of the cracks in the road. Traffic had to go around them, as they would not move! These little guys were part of a bigger herd of Big Horns that were climbing all over the rocks just around the bend.

These antics were being watched by the rest of the herd as they lounged on a small hill right next to the road. Right now, the Big Horns are shedding their winter coats

and looking a little ragged in the process!

When we reached the town of Jasper, we hooked a right onto Highway 16, heading for Hinton, AB, where we had reservations at the Hinton/Jasper KOA for the next couple of nights.

Donald, BC to Columbia Ice Fields, Alberta, Canada

Sunday, June 23, 2013

As we were preparing to leave this morning for our 800 mile detour, the campground owner came out with good news! He knew our plans so he wanted us to know we didn’t have to go that way, the road (Canadian Hwy 1) over the mountain from Golden to Lake Louise in Banff was open. We were so thrilled to not have to make that detour drive!!

Leaving Golden, driving east, you go through Yoho National Park, on the way to Banff. Yoho, named for a Cree word expressing awe, is a park of rock walls, waterfalls and glacial lakes.

It's a park with snow-topped mountain peaks, roaring rivers and silent forests. It's a park whose history is bound up with a railroad: spiral tunnels inside mountains and stories of runaway trains.

On our way into the park, we passed what we thought was a statue of a Big Horn Sheep, right on the side of the road. But, as we passed, it moved its head! It was real and we missed an opportunity for a picture!

About half way up the mountain pass, was a view point for the railroad tunnels built into the mountain. When the rail first came to this area, the tracks went straight down the mountain and there was a high rate of accidents because of the sharp descent of the mountain grade. Long story short, they hired an engineer to look at the problem and his solution was a crazy eight tunnel,

built into the mountain so that the descent could be made at a safer degree of grade and speed. Yoho is nearly solid rock so the tunnels are a marvel of engineering!

Yoho is in British Columbia and borders Banff National Park on the east, which is in Alberta. In Banff we could get as far as Lake Louise and no farther as the roads are still closed due to flooding and mudslides. We ate lunch in the shopping center of Lake Louise Village, then drove the rigs up to the lake.

A short hike from the parking lot and WOW!!

Lake Louise is a picture perfect lake surrounded by towering mountains topped with massive glaciers. I have never seen anything so dramatically stunning! The only thing ruining this beautiful spot is the gigantic monstrosity of a hotel that boasts over 500 rooms.

There is a small boat house over to the left and they rent canoes, I don’t even want to go near this place, but Phil, John and Fran head that direction. Like digging in my heels, I parked it on a bench to wait. Remember, I swore I wouldn’t get into another canoe after the disaster in Nebraska. So the gang comes back with “a boat tour of the lake” that is ready to leave right now, do I want to go??? I’m not having a good feeling about this, I don’t see this “boat” but I give in and say OK. Be leery of impulse decisions! Turns out, our “boat” is a large canoe that will seat 7-8 people. Phil is asking questions about how easy is it to roll this thing and the guide, Bruce, is telling him that we won’t be swimming. So, next thing I know is that I’m putting on a life vest and we are getting lessons on how to paddle a canoe effectively, and how to get into this “boat” so it doesn’t tip over.

We managed to get into the thing without tipping it over, Phil is in the front, making him the captain, and he sets the rowing rhythm. I’m really laughing at this, because he is the king of no rhythm!! John and Fran are directly behind Phil, then another couple from Quebec who barely speak English, then me, with Bruce behind me. And then we are off for our tour of the lake and our history lesson of the Hudson Bay Company and the canoes that delivered supplies to the fur trading outposts and then brought the furs back to the east coast for shipment to England.

The lake was fairly calm, so it didn’t really take long to reach the turning around point and head back towards the hotel on the other side of the lake. This side has a walking trail and we become the “tourist attraction” as we paddled our little boat and sang rowing songs led by Bruce. This water is mostly snow melt and is freezing cold, but there are 4 or 5 guys practicing for a polar bear plunge (in their underware!), and I’m wondering just how much these dudes have had to drink!! 

We managed to get back to the dock, and per instructions from Bruce, managed to stop the canoe and back it into the dock, just like we were pros!! Safely back on land, we headed for the rigs to continue our journey up to the Ice Fields where we had planned to spend the night.

Along the way, we stopped in a few view points, the most spectacular to me was Bridal Veil Falls, not only because of the view of the falls, but the valley we had just driven through, really impressive!!

We finally pulled into the Columbia Ice Fields parking lot where we paid $16.00 for the privilege of ‘camping’ in their lot for the night. We are dry camping, which means we have no electricity, water or sewer. John and Fran are used to this, they do it all the time, but we are not really set up for it. Phil tried to wire in 12 volt plugs for our C-Pap machines, but that didn’t work, so we will use a small battery pack charger for them. We experimented with this while still at home and it ran both machines for the night, so we are hoping it will do so again.

Kicking Horse Resort Gondola Ride

Friday, July 21, 2013

Because of the flooding problems, we have decided to stay in Donald for another couple of days to see if maybe the roads will reopen. So, today was a kind of lazy day, cleaned house, did laundry and basically took it easy.

Saturday, July 22, 2013

We drove into Golden this morning to take the Kicking Horse Resort Gondola up to the top of the mountain. It was drizzly and cool when we got on the Gondola

and raining when we got to the top. We had reservations at the restaurant

at the top of the mountain so we went in to eat. Lunch was included in the ride to the top and was pretty good. While we were eating, the clouds started to clear and the sun came out.

The views from the top of the mountain were stunning!

Just to the north west of the Kicking Horse property was the boundary for Glacier National Park, so we were seeing a part of the park that we couldn’t see from the road when we drove through a couple of days ago.

John & Fran

From the top we could see to the town of Golden in the valley below, as well as the river valley on the other side of the mountain.

During the winter this mountain is a hive of activity for skiers, snowboarding and other winter sports. At this time of year the paths are full of mountain bikers and hikers and the skies are colorful with paragliders. We watched some of the bikers take off down the mountain, the beginning of the trail is a steep downhill slope and by the time they reached the actual trail they were going pretty fast! The restaurant was at an altitude of 7700’, the bottom, where we got on the gondola is 3900’! That’s an adrenalin filled ride!! Not even when I was younger would I have attempted that, Phil probably would have though!

About half way up the mountain is the Kicking Horse Grizzly Bear compound. In the beginning there were a pair of Grizzly’s here, but now there is only one, a big guy named Boo. We looked for him going up and coming down, but didn’t see him.

Glacier and Revelstoke National Parks, BC, Canada

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Got up early this morning and headed for the Canadian Glacier National Park. Clouds and a light drizzle most of the day, along with fog or low lying clouds over the peaks of the mountains.

There is also some snow still left on the peaks, covering the actual glaciers, but not to worry, the park was beautiful! We stopped a couple of times to do some short hikes through the forest.

The first hike was through the Giant Cedars of Glacier. This was an easy walk as it was all boardwalks with gentle steps through a Jurassic Park or rain forest sort of feeling.

Peaceful and beautiful at the same time, not a combination you find often. The old trees are left where they fall so that they can replenish the forest floor and supply nutrients for the younger trees. The ground is covered with leafy ferns and their light green color against the reds of the rotting trees is quite a contrast and high above is the ever green canopy of the giant cedars.

The visitor’s center to the park was open and we stopped, but the gift shop was not open yet, neither was the hotel next door, once again we were too early, the summer season stops were not open yet. This time it worked to our advantage, as everything we stopped at was suppose to be charged for through Parks Canada, and we had all forgotten our passes. Ours is now in my purse, so all I have to do is remember that!!

Revelstoke National Park is about 16 km’s past Glacier, so we continued driving. Revelstokes landscape is much like Glacier’s, beautiful valley’s sandwiched by tall peaks covered with snow and glaciers.

Just outside of the park is the city of Revelstoke where we gassed up, got some groceries and made a stop at Tim Horton’s donut shop before heading back home.

When we were at the visitor center in Glacier we found out that the south west part of Alberta had received a lot of rain overnight and that they were having trouble with flooding in Calgary and that there had been roads washed out or blocked with mud slides on the way to Banff National Park. The very same roads we are suppose to take to get to the park tomorrow. The visitor center at Revelstoke told us the same thing, so it’s not looking good for our visit to Banff. After we got back home, we got a local channel to come in and boy what a mess! Not only are roads washed away, but so are bridges and the land they are anchored on! Don’t think this is going to be a simple fix, so we are studying the maps looking for an alternate route.

At this time, the Calgary Stampede site is completely flooded out as well and they aren’t sure if they will be able to get it ready in time or not. The Stampede is an important event to the economy of Calgary, so I’m sure they will do everything possible to get it cleaned up. We are supposed to go in on the 3^rd of July, so we’ll see.