When researching the best way to get from Banff to Vancouver we discovered the salmon run. Every October you can see lots of red sockeye salmon returning to their place of birth, to spawn and die. It just so happened that 2014 is a dominant year so millions of salmon are expected to make the journey. As a comparison, had we come in 2016 (a … Continue reading Run salmon run
After our adventure in the clouds and rainforest of Mount Revelstoke National Park, we drove to Salmon Arm for that evening’s accommodation. Salmon Arm is a small ‘city’ on the shores of the Shuswap Lake. The lake and surrounding rivers are known for the annual migration of spawning salmon every October. The prevalence of salmon here is where the name Salmon Arm originates, given that … Continue reading Salmon Arm and a dislike for tea and coffee
Now in British Columbia, our time in the town of Revelstoke and the adjacent Mount Revelstoke National Park started in fog and rain! However, with waffles for breakfast at our hotel, it wasn’t all bad! Revelstoke is one of those classic towns – clearly only there because it grew up around the railway industry. In fact, carrying on from the train theme from previous blog … Continue reading Mount Revelstoke National Park
After our visit to Banff, we began to journey west towards Vancouver. Our first port of call on the way was Yoho National Park, which borders Jasper and Banff National Parks to the west. Yoho features much of the same landscape as Jasper and Banff, but probably doesn’t receive quite the same acclaim given the lack of a major settlement, thus making it a bit … Continue reading Yoho National Park (and Glacier National Park)
Despite being located in Banff National Park, we felt that Lake Louise and the neighbouring Moraine Lake deserved their own blog post, as their location is very much distinct from that of the town of Banff. Lake Louise is supposedly that stereotypical Canadian Rockies view – a blue lake hemmed in by snow capped mountains and forests of pine, and is therefore a very popular … Continue reading Lake Louise and Moraine Lake
Our time in Banff National Park started with our first walk up a mountain. Not a very big mountain, but it still has ‘mountain’ in its name, so it counts. Tunnel Mountain is located on the outskirts of Banff, and its summit offers good views of the town and valley below, and the surrounding mountains. With an average gradient of 11% (if our calculations are … Continue reading Banff National Park
As some people (hi Selina) were getting worried that we aren’t eating I thought I’d write about a few of the things we ate in Banff. Not having a kitchen meant we got to eat more exciting stuff than the usual pasta and sauce or bread and hummus! Sushi train First up is the sushi train! Rather than the traditional conveyor belt method, the sushi here … Continue reading All aboard the sushi train!
The Icefields Parkway is lauded as the world’s most scenic road. It’s not hard to see why. This is anything but the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon. Flanked on either side by mountains – some bare, some snow capped, some glistening under the weight of a glacier – and by an unfathomable number of conifers, every mile of road seems to open up yet another … Continue reading Driving the Icefields Parkway
Our stay in Jasper didn’t get off to the best of starts. 3am on our first morning, and we are woken up by a dripping noise. Turns out that the room above was having a shower (who showers at 3am in the morning!?) and it was leaking into our room and bathroom! We spent our first day in the town by going on a walk … Continue reading Jasper National Park
Yes that’s right – we’ve seen our first bear(s)! And not just any bear, a mummy black bear and her 2 cubs. Black bears are the most common bears in North America, but we still hadn’t expected to see one on our first visit. I’m glad that when we did see one, it was whilst we were more than the recommended 3 bus lengths away … Continue reading Welcome to bear country
Brown Bear Travels 