Oh, Canada…

We crossed into Canada on June 21 and spent five days exploring on the way to the Alaskan border. We stayed two nights in Banff exploring Banff National Park and the surrounding area.

 The campground in Banff was different from what we’ve seen before. Instead of having a small driveway type of spot for each campsite, you just kind of pull up on the road and stop next to your table and hookups. It was unusual, but worked for us.

We tried to do a hike, but found a sign letting people know that a baby bear had been spotted not far down the trail only 20 minutes before we got there.

So, we poked around at the trail head and decided not to take the chance since we’d so brilliantly left our bear spray back at the RV.

We did get to see the Continental Divide!

It was pretty neat to go a few miles toward Banff  and see the rivers flowing one way and go a few miles toward Kootenay and see the rivers flowing the other way.

Everywhere we looked it was like looking at a postcard here!

 We had to celebrate our first night in Canada with s’mores!

A good portion of the next day was spent at Moraine Lake.

We had a great time hiking around the lake and up what felt like 200 stairs to the top of this path to get the picture above. You can see part of the stairs below.

But with a view like that, it’s hard to complain…too much.

All along the roads in Alberta we saw this flower.

They grow in patches and clumps. I love the way they look like flames!

 We crossed into British Columbia and started down the Columbia Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper National Parks. The views along the road were wonderful! We stopped at the Icefield Center toward the middle of the drive where you can hike up close to the Athabasca Glacier. It was our understanding you could hike up and touch it, but it was all roped off.

You can take a guided tour up on to the glacier, but we didn’t have time and to be honest, it’s a little pricey to just go stand out there. You can’t walk around on it because you might fall in a hidden crevasse. The view of the glacier was better from the visitor center.

We stopped to get a picture of Bridal Veil Falls.

We found a “trail” down to another waterfall. So, of course, we had to climb out and get a picture with it!

We made it to Jasper and only had one afternoon to get any site seeing done.

We stayed at the Whistler Campground which was right down the road from the Jasper Gondola. The gondola takes you about 2300 meters up Whistler Mountain where you can then hike another mile or so to the summit.

 The view was spectacular!!

The boys had to throw snowballs off of the mountain. They thought it was pretty cool that there was snow during the summer.

And, we had to get a photo to prove we were actually there!

From the gondola center on top you can see the town of Jasper. I love the different colors of the lakes and river!

Can you spot the rainbow in the picture above? A rain storm had just passed by.

We got half way up to the summit and this came over the top of the mountain.

We pressed on. It was just another shower… Ten minutes from the summit…

..this happened and it wasn’t just rain. It was a winter mix of sleet and snow and wind! We kept going since we were sooo close…until the lightening started. The first zip of lightening had my hair standing up and had us all hot-footing it back down the mountain to the safety of the gondola center. By the time we got there we were soaked and frozen, but we have a great story and memories that we’ll never forget! We were bummed to get so close to the summit and not make it.

Once we dried off, we ran back out to find the Athabasca Falls. We got there about 9:30 pm and had the place to ourselves! It was wonderful!!

  The double rainbow was the icing on the cake! It’s faint, but it’s there!

The next few days were…well…a blur. We had very long days driving.

We got to drive the ALCAN Highway,

got some of the best cinnamon rolls ever (they were still warm from the oven),

saw mountains, glaciers, rivers, and lakes…

And then there was the wildlife…Stone sheep,

wild bison,

and bears! We saw some moose, elk, and deer too, but I didn’t get any good pictures of them.We entered the Yukon on the fourth day and made a short side trip

to Carcross, YT. The town was neat, but we really went to see the desert.

Yup, you read that right…there’s a desert in the Yukon!

We strolled around the dunes for a few minutes, then hit the road again!

The roads weren’t too terribly bad. We’ve seen worse. We had to drive down this dirt road between Haines Junction and the border into Alaska.

Our poor RV is a mess!!

We’re still adding stickers to our map! This is what it looks like right now.

We spent five very long, very eventful days traveling through Canada and we loved every minute of it!

Oh, Canada…we’ll definitely be back to visit!

See y’all on the road!

 #alaskabound