Rocky Mountain High
Sept 4-6
After leaving Edmonton, we headed for the Rockies and took the kids on a whirlwind tour of some our favourite places, including Jasper, The Columbia Icefields, Peyto Lake, Moraine Lake and Takakaw Falls in just two and a half days!
On Day 1, we made a brief pitstop in Jasper and had supper before continuing on to the Columbia Icefields where we camped in their parking lot. The next morning, we took the kids on a hike up to Wilcox Pass where we had three Bighorned Sheep keep us company most of the day. At the top, we built a family of rock people to commemorate our visit. I was impressed with the kids’ stamina as this was their most challenging hike yet (~8km). After our hike, we took the kids up on the glacier in a SnoCoach and I think Simon was more impressed by the vehicle than by the glacier.
By now, it was almost 5pm and we tried to find a real campsite for the night. Now let me set the scene. We stopped at the first campground we came to which had self-registering sites. The problem was that there were only one or two sites left and we had to find one and then go back to the gate to register it before someone else got it. I think a mad scientist with an evil sense of humour designed the layout of the campground because it consisted of 7 one-way loops, each one progressively higher on the mountain, with only 7 sites on each loop. The kicker was that each loop ended on the road that led back to the entrance of the campground and there was no way to get to next loop without going all the way back to the entrance. I felt like we were part of some weird video game as we joined about five or six other RV’s madly racing around the loops, trying to guess which one had an empty site on it. After our fourth loop, we got stuck behind another RV which would stop at the end of each loop while the passenger ran down it to see if there were any sites, and Claude had had enough (can you say RV-rage?). We gave up and decided to keep going and try our luck elsewhere. We discovered that Banff National Park doesn’t have that many campgrounds and ended up stopping at a roadside reststop for supper. It was a beautiful little oasis next to a gurgling river nestled between several majestic peaks and almost completely hidden from the highway. I commented to Claude that this was nicer than most of the campgrounds we had stayed in thus far and we decided to risk staying for the night. We were soon joined by three other RV’s (some of whom I recognized from the loopy campground) and we had ourselves an impromptu RV park. We even met a nice family from Kamloops who convinced us to consider it as destination when we return from our trip.
The following day, having vacated our illegal but beautiful campsite without detection, we continued on our drive through the Rockies. After stopping at Peyto Lake to admire the heartstopping view, we discovered a trail the appeared to lead down to the water’s edge and decided to explore it. Unfortunately, when we had left the parking lot, we had only expected a short walk to the viewing platform and weren’t prepared for a two hour journey (which is what it turned out to be). Without so much as a water bottle or a granola bar, we managed to climb all the way down the switchback trail to the shores of Peyto Lake where Claude, of course, had to go skinnydipping. I still giggle when I think of what the busload of Japanese tourists with their zoom lenses must have thought about the view. The highlight of Alexa’s day came when she managed to skip a stone, not once, but twice across the surface of the lake – a feat she had been attempting since Yellowstone. It was now nearing noon and we had a daunting climb ahead of us which neither of us had anticipated when we started. But our kids, once again, surprised and impressed us with their stamina and good humour during the arduous ascent. Hot and tired, but exhilarated, we cheered as we finally reached the RV. Lunch never tasted so good!
Finally, we ended our short but sweet stay in the park with a visit to Takakaw Falls which never ceases to amaze. It brought back fond memories of our last visit to Yoho when we hiked the Iceline Trail to stay at the Stanley Mitchell Hut (an Alpine Club of Canada hut) high up in the mountains. That had been our first trip away from Alexa when she was only 7 months old. Now we had returned to share our love of the outdoors with her and her brother. All was right with the world.
Tags: Jasper, Travel
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