The Opposite of Snowbirds

We arrived in Canada a week ago on Wednesday, May 27th. The border crossing officials were courteous and the only thing we got questioned about was a bag of frozen chicken breasts. We presented the bag to the officer and after reading everything on the 'contents label' he handed it back and said we could keep it. A week has passed and we're still enjoying that contraband chicken.

We've enjoyed a lot of the Canadian Rockies over the last 7 days. Our first stop was Canyon RV park at Radium Springs, BC. It was a pristine park next to a spring fed stream and was a great way to start this part of our adventure. We made a mad dash that same day to a cell phone provider to get a Canadian chip for our unlocked android phone. Canadian cell service is expensive but U.S. roaming fees are a LOT MORE!

The helpful sales guy, Jordon, knew something about where we live in Florida because his parents live in Bradenton, near Tampa. Charles asked him, "At home we call visiting Canadians 'snow birds', what do you call visiting Floridians in Canada?" Jordon paused for a moment then answered "Rare".

We've done a bit of hiking at each place we've visited and our "fit bits" tell us we're averaging around 15,000 steps a day (about 6 miles). At Radium Springs we drove into the Kootenay National Forest and hiked to Dog Lake. Never saw any dogs. Saw some geese at the lake and a black bear on the road.

The altitude has been a challenge, we're used to flat hikes at sea level and now we're climbing mountains at over 5000 feet!

From Radium Springs we headed north west to Banff. This beautiful alpine village is famous for skiing and winter sports but gets just as many visitors in the Spring and Summer for hiking, camping, rafting, etc. While many other resort areas in Canada have grown in size to accommodate new businesses and more visitors, Banff has had the same geographic footprint since 1964. This is when the Canadian Goverment declared that cities within the national park systems could not grow unrestricted. Banff and Jasper are the two cities most affected by this restriction but this has kept both cities small,charming, and more than a little crowded during the tourist season. Luckily there are hundreds of trails and campgrounds where you can have as much privacy as you want.

While in Banff we walked around the city and enjoyed the atmosphere then took a trip to Lake Louise and Lake Moraine, enjoying hikes in both locations.

 

After three nights in Banff we drove north to Jasper along the Icefield Parkway. This road travels along the highest part of the Canadian Rockies and a number of glaciers are visible along the route. At the Columbia Icefield we stopped to take a trip onto a glacier.

The Columbia Icefield is the largest one in the Rocky Mountains at over 125 square miles. A number of glaciers are fed from this Icefield and we took a trip onto the Athabasca glacier. Special 'ice cats' with huge tires carry you up the side of the mountain and onto ice 1000 feet thick. From there the view is amazing. One of the Icefield glaciers, snow dome, sits at a perfect three way split on the continental divide. Water from snow dome flows to the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans.

We arrived in Jasper around 4pm and settled in for a 2 night stay. While in Jasper we were warned about Grizzly bears on all of the trails. It seems the Elks were having babies in and around the campground and Grizzlies like to prey on the babies. A grizzly had already killed a few baby elk in our campground so the Elk mothers were not happy either and they attack as well.

Our favorite hike during our stay in Jasper was Maligne Canyon. The trail follows a deep canyon river fed from the glacier lake of the same name. The trail goes over 6 bridges along the way, offering some amazing views.

Tomorrow marks one month since we left Florida and we have traveled 3885 miles. We'll drive another 1500 miles through Canada to reach Alaska. Tomorrow we head for Dawson Creek, the start of the famous ALCAN highway.