Day 31 Saturday 24 June 2017

Near Jasper is Mount Snow which feeds three major watersheds.  From here the water flows either to the Artic, the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans (via Hudson Bay). There are only half a dozen places in the world where there are three watersheds, but this is the only one that drains into three different oceans. This is located in the Columbian Icefield (sounds like an illegal drug wholesaler) that we are going to visit today.

Our tour guide also tells us, that in all the time he has been doing the job, our group has sighted more bears than any other group.  Excellent! This morning we saw another Black Bear from the bus. As many people have missed out on bears they were now able to take some good photos.  Today was a huge day.  Firstly we visit the Athabasca Falls.

The main events today are the Columbia Icefields and the Glacier Skywalk. The centre is lke an airport terminal and just as busy. Today we walk on the glacier.

We took an icebus driven by an Australian lass from Musselbrook, NSW.  We meet so many young Australians over here we are wondering if there is anyone left behind in Australia.  (If you are the last to leave please turn the lights off.) The icebus deliberately drives through water so it does not take dirt up on the glacier. These are worth well over a million dollars.  Our tour guide opened the throttle and we went its maximum speed of 18 km/hr. We spent about 15 minutes on the ice and our polarising glasses were so dark.  Apparently if you see danger they go completely black.

Here our tour guide is dispensing alcohol to Charles and Lesley, you can Stephen's hands in the shot.

Walking on the glacier was relatively easy but I would hate to do it if it was raining (slippery!!) and take photos on the ice.  The weather was close to perfect for photos. We were then bused to the Glacier Skywalk which is perched 280 metres above the Sunwapta Valley. The glass walkway wasn’t scary as with the sun and reflections you could hardly see through it anyway.  London Bridge was far more unnerving.

Back on our way to Lake Louise, we stopped at the Saskatchewan River Crossing. It is an area steeped in history for the First Nations people. It was here that Elizabeth was the last in the group on the return trail and a little behind.  As she rounded the corner she saw this black shape “OMG”, she thought, “It’s a bear!” No just a pooch but with all the bear sightings the day before I am not surprised.

Next we visited Lake Peyto, named after an early legend of the Rockies, an outspoken and vocal Englishman, I think that just means he swore a lot.  The colour of the lake is extraordinary.

We finally arrived in Lake Louise – wow!  The mountains towering over the hotel. Above Lake Louise is Victoria Glacier which feeds it. We had our group photo before we found our rooms. We have a Lakeside room with a view.

Day 30 Friday 23 June 2017

Today we had a leisurely breakfast as our activity wasn’t until this afternoon.  We had heard that a couple of our tour buddies saw and photographed a Grizzly Bear and her two cubs. Which was great for them. This afternoon we go to and do a boat tour on Lake Maligne.  There are only about 8 on the bus and we have our bus all to ourselves.  Here we find on the road to Lake Maligne a young black bear just beside the road and we got some great photos of him/her as well as a nest of eagles. 

We saw that there were at least two glaciers that still entered the lake where we were but they have receded during the summer.  Apparently Spirit Island is one of the most recognisably photographed places in the world. OK…apparently it was used by Kodak in a promotional campaign and it is one of the most recognised views of the Canadian Rockies. 

This are Elizabeth's photos

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On the way back we saw a Grizzly Bear by the river and people were stupid by getting out of their cars to photograph it.  They can be fined heavily ($500) to $25 000).  The regulation is stay 100 metres away or in your car. It was certainly a large and healthy looking animal.  That was great! 

Further along we saw a Black Bear and her cub and they crossed the road in front of us. That was good too as it’s the first we have seen although he/she is probably a yearling and will be abandoned later in the summer.

Very close to the hotel (perhaps 200 metres from the horse stables) we had a terrific view of a Grizzly with two cubs.  They were probably the group that our tour buddies had seen. The Grizzly seems quite common here but I am not sure that and we actually expected to see them in the wild. What a great day!

Day 29 Thursday 22 June 2017

Today we left Sun Peaks, a golfing/ski resort north of Kamloops to go to Jasper another golfing and ski resort. Along the way we stopped at Mount Robson which is the highest peak in Canada and we saw bits of it. It is the highest point in the Rocky Mountains and in Canada.  It's in the picture somewhere.

Above is Jasper's railway station.

Here is our hotel in Jasper.

Jasper is a picturesque town, surrounded by high mountains, consisting mainly of souvenir shops and restaurants.  The local train station was used for some film shots for the film in Dr Zhivago and the town had been used for the Marilyn Monroe film “River of No Return”.  We had an amazing three course meal tonight in a quite expensive restaurant.  As it turned out, our dinner companions John and Jenny had been on the Gallipoli cruise in 2015.  So we had much to chat about it.

Here are some views of our lake, Lac Beauvert.

Here is the local wildlife - a mule deer.

Day 28 Wednesday 21 June 2017

This morning we are off to the Squamish Lil’wat interpretative centre. There are met by Beth and Redmond who take us on a First Nations cultural experience.  It was an interesting experience, some of us had to dance as eagles, wolves or ravens. We were wolves according to our howling.  Apparently aphids are not big in their culture. 

Not sure this is historically accurate. 

This morning we left on our way to Lillooet.  This small town has the lowest snowfall in Canada but the highest temperatures in summer over 40 degrees Celsius. It is a poor town but some people have started to develop wineries in the area. We visited the local museum and it was quite interesting. 

A view of the mountains above and the information centre that was an Anglican church.

During WW2 a lot of Japanese-Americans were interned in Lilloeet. 

North of Kamloops is Kamloops Lake (how original).

We travelled through Kamloops (where we will pick up the train) through to Sun Peaks, which is another golf/ski resort. Tonight we had an after dinner speaker who delivered a Voyageur talk that was excellent. These were the French-Canadian fur trappers. Being an explorer or early pioneer is not for me.  It was a lot of hard work. A lot of the talk also involved the history of the Hudson Bay Trading Company.  The presenter was dressed as a voyageur and he was very engaging.

Day 27 Tuesday 20 June 2017

Still in Whistler the mountain ski resort, we are off to the mountains through a series of chairlifts and gondolas.  The weather was cloudy with patches of rain but gradually cleared up.  We were forced to remain in the restaurant drinking hot chocolate until it cleared more. 

We spotted Haory Marmonts (not Hairy Marments) around that were unafraid of humans, they seem like common critters here.

It turned out to be a beautiful day and two of our party were within 30 metres of a Black Bear from their chairlift. 

We also did spot Black Bears.  Can you spot them in the photographs?

The Peak to Peak is the highest and longest unsupported gondola section in the world. If you look closely behind the village of Whistler. Can you can see it in the background?

Here is Elizabeth with some of our travel buddies.  One of her companions complained that the wind seem to be going where it shouldn't be.

As we return you can see our hotel near the base of the chairlift.

So many of the workers in hospitality and the ski lifts are Australian.  We stopped at a shop called Peaked Pies which is owned by an Australian-Canadian couple.  They even had lamingtons! Our tour guide had told us about them and so we felt we had to support them.  The pies were excellent and some of our crew had peaked pies.  This involves a layer of mashed potato on top with a crest of peas.

Elizabeth found a hairdresser in Whistler who coincidentally was from Melbourne, so it was a red letter day for her.