I'd like to complain about the lack of Bears. And I'd love to whinge about not glimpsing any Cougars whatsoever. Even in Moose Meadows I could not spot the Magnificent Moose, dammit. But when I look back at some of these pics, I kinda just slap myself silly, and wonder what the hell I'm thinking.
The weather could not have been more perfect for the entire week, I mean Look at that Sunshine!! The clear skies did mean that the temperatures dropped - shall we say, significantly - in the evenings. But I am Australian, and as such I maintained appropriate footwear at all times (thongs/flipflops, take your pick) even if I did require socks at one point...Ahem.
OK, lets see. Headed out from Vancouver on Saturday morning in the sporty Mazda 3, grey and slick-ish. The drive up to Penticton was nice, but by the time the entire trip was over had been downgraded to somewhere just above 'ugly'. Penticton lies in the heart of the Okanagan Valley - that's wine growin' country for those at home. Its semi-arid desert, with fairly bare hills and that same yellowish brown hue as the Australians are used to seeing in the backyard everyday.
The wineries are small, and the grapes are brought in from virtually anywhere is North America. Which is obvious when you look around at the vineyards and there's only a handful of vines covering the hillsides. The reds I'm not going to write home about, unfortunately. But there were a handful of whites that were pretty darn good. The thing that struck me continually was not the mosquitoes, but the age of the wines. A 2005 seldom seen, most wines were 2006/07 just because the industry can not keep up with demand. Despite this I too have to admit that my support of the industry will not aid in unlocking the full potential of the regions vintages either...
The drive from Penticton to Revelstoke was getting better. The hills were greening up again, and Coops and I has started playing that little game "Do you think we're in the Rockies yet?" What constituted The Rockies, we weren't sure, but were confident we'd know it when we were. This was not to be the day. Revelstoke was pretty enough - there was a giant statue of Smokey the Bear of note, but otherwise, just a comfortable place to break the drive to Lake Louise.
Or Banff, as it turned out the following day, when we missed the ridiculously well sign-posted turn off. Luckily it was our intention to get to Banff that afternoon and stroll around the town before heading back and catching sunset at Moriane Lake , then sunrise at Lake Louise. Sunrise - now that was cold. And no, I was not Aussie enough, or stupid enough, to wear thongs for that! But well worth the 40minutes of constant shivering to watch the intense rays set the top of the glacier on fire and melt slowly down its face as the sun rose.
Leaving Lake Louise and entering Jasper National Park, it was clear we were really and truly in the Rockies. Even with predominantly bare peaks showing little other than exposed rock on the mountains, the immensity was pretty astounding. The few clouds that were about seemed to trip over the highest peaks as they drifted on by. Big country - I half expected to see cowboys riding through the water, and not the fly-fishermen that dotted the river beds.
About half way between Banff and Jasper lay the Columbia Icefields. Just for something to do we stopped to have a wander on the Athabasca Glacier. It was pretty but not quite as much fun as running amok on the Franz Joseph Glacier of NZ! But the great thing about the glacier is that it feeds the aptly named the Athabasca River that Highway 93 follows all the way to Jasper. It holds the typical glacial green water (so created as the glacier crushes rock into fine powder which then washes out with the run off which then reflects and refracts the sunlight through the water) that is synonymous with the Rockies.
I liked Jasper. It had a country town feel to it, small and personal. Jasper is just that bit further away, and harder to get to for the throngs that flood Banff, and it shows. Sitting in a National Park, you pay for your presence there, a reminder to leave your footprints only. It was rutting season for the Elk, so spotting the massive males around the town was easy - keeping your distance was the trick part - I was pleased one male was happy to just chill as we passed by within about 10m of it sitting in the bushes. I also spotted a couple of Coyotes on a wildlife spotting expedition one night which was pretty cool, once I got over the fact that it wasn't a Cougar, then another one standing on a river bed leaving Jasper a few days later.
It's the tail end of summer now, but there were still plenty of RV's about which made some driving sessions slow. But the drive back to Kamloops was nice, slowly getting ugly again, so I was happy to sit behind the RV caravan. I had no idea what to expect from Kamloops, but it was good the expectations were not high. The B&B was awesome though - backing onto the Thompson River. Coops managed to make swimming sound appealing, until I got in. Shall we say it was....'refreshing'.
I was so disappointed to head back to Vancouver, but one has to earn a living to maintain this tough and demanding lifestyle. It was a great week, long driving, but the kind of experience you don't even want to blink to miss! To all of you yet to tackle to Rockies - please take longer than a week! Its awesome, and I hope one day I can get back in winter to see the postcard views in person!
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