It is pretty rare that I travel with people. But when traveling to Canada for the first time with dogs I felt it was necessary to bring along a “Canadian”. So I invited my dad on the road trip as we circled the Selkirk Mountain Range while traveling around Washington State, Canada and Idaho, our home state.
Large cities often set aside green space for their city dwellers. New York does it with Central Park, London with Richmond Park and Vancouver British Columbia has Stanley Park.
I visited Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics but as I have previously wrote about, I did not get to do much while I was there. Mostly because I did not research the area, but also because I did not have very much time in the 1.5 days that I was there.
I have been noticing an energy saving revolution out there with breweries. Wind power, solar powered, even steam powered. The Steamworks Brewery in Vancouver BC has been a steam powered brewery for the past 20 years. How cool is that?
The last time I was in Vancouver was for the 2010 Olympics. Although it is still a decent size city, 2.4 million including the suburbs, I was interested to see the city without the obscene amount of extra people walking around. Our time at the Olympics was short, a mere 1.5 days, and my friend Jen and I did not plan our time there very well. To put it mildly we wasted a lot of time waiting in line to see the Olympic medals up close at the Royal Canadian Mint. We stood in line both days for hours on end and never got to see the medals. We had to step out of line both times to rush off to one of our events. Four years later it was now time to rectify that by visiting the BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
When you visit the National Parks a main goal of yours may be to see some wildlife. I know for me I love seeing wild animals while I visit the National Parks. During my trip to Banff and Jasper National Parks I saw an array of animals from black bears to elk to a few deer. I did not see any grizzlies and I have yet to see one in real life despite living in Northern Idaho my entire life. Hopefully I will see a grizzly one day (from the safety of my car of course).
We arrived to Banff National Park mid-day and checked ourselves in at the Tunnel Mountain Campground. Here we were given the same ‘bears were going to eat us’ lecture that we had received at Lake Louise. The warning came because we were sleeping in the back of the truck under a canopy in the camper section of the campground. Like Lake Louise we should have camped in the tenting section so we would be surrounded by the electric fence. This campground however had actually seen a black bear on the grounds earlier that week. Eh – I’m from Idaho. I can deal with a black bear or two. Maybe not a grizzly however!
Jasper National Park was my favorite spot of this trip to Canada. The town was an adorable village with obviously some sort of architectural ordinance. Not that that was a bad thing, it just was clear that the storefronts had to have a “village charm” to them, which added to Jasper’s appeal.
After visiting Lake Louise, Drama Papa and I headed north along the Icefields Parkway. This parkway is peculiar to me as it is inside a national park but also a main highway along with highway speeds. National Parks are well known for their slow speed limits but we were able to zip right along.
This trip was life changing for me (I know I’ve been sharing a lot of those lately!). It changed me, not because of the stunning mountains, wild animals or beautiful lakes, but because it made me realize something about my traveling self. Be careful who you travel with…
In the summer of 2009 I planned a trip to Banff National Park for Drama Papa and myself. He had been there as a child and I had never been. I love glaciers and had mentioned my disappointment with the lack of glaciers in Montana’s Glacier National Park. Drama Papa said “if you want to see glaciers you need to go to Banff, you can walk right up to them”.
Perhaps you remember the commercials from the 1990’s, of a Sasquatch wondering around the Canadian forests with a case of Kokanee beer in his hand? Or maybe you don’t remember them, or believe me that you should always be on the lookout for the Sasquatch while in Canada. Check out that sign. The Canadians aren’t just going to put up this sign for no reason 😉 He’s gotta be out there!