The Canadian Rockies

It's been a long time since I last visited the Canadian Rockies, maybe 17 or 18 years ago, before Kathy and I were married, and then again maybe 16 or 17 years prior to that on a family trip with my parents and grandparents. I don't know why it's been so long between visits. Perhaps I had forgotten just how beautiful these mountains are. The Canadian Rockies are really unlike anywhere else I visited in the world. Over the past two weeks we visited and stayed in Jasper National Park, Banff National Park, and Waterton Lakes National Park and I feel like we barely scratched the surface for what these parks had to offer.

Looking down to the town of Banff, AB from Sulphur Mountain

I tried to write up my description of how these mountains are different than the US Rockies, and went looking online for help in describing the mountains. I found this description in Wikipedia that strangely looked very similar to my own, so I decided to go with their description:

According to Wikipedia’s article on the Canadian Rockies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Rockies#Geology):
“The Canadian Rockies are overall more jagged than the American Rockies, because the Canadian Rockies have been more heavily glaciated, resulting in sharply pointed mountains separated by wide, U-shaped valleys gauged by glaciers, where as the American Rockies are overall more rounded, with river-carved V-shaped valleys between them. The Canadian Rockies are cooler and wetter, giving them moister soil, bigger rivers, and more glaciers. The tree line is much lower in the Canadian Rockies than in the American Rockies.”

Looking down from Tunnel Mountain in Banff, AB

In the US I've seen much of the Rockies from New Mexico, through Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and the US stretch of the Rockies is definitely beautiful mountains, but the Canadian Rockies truly are unlike anything in the US. It isn't difficult to imagine giant glaciers carving the valley thousands of years ago. From the main towns in either Jasper National Park (Jasper) or Banff National Park (Banff) you look in any direction to steep cliff faces of mountains stretching thousands of feet above the town. With seemingly endless options for hiking without traveling further than the edge of town, and both Jasper and Banff have easy access from the (relatively) warm valley floor to the cold snowy high mountain tops near town by tram (Jasper) or gondola (Banff).

On top of Whistlers Mountain near Jasper, AB

I really don't know why my three visits have each been separated by so many years. I would very much like to think that my next visit to the Canadian Rockies won't be so many years from now. We have already talked about returning in a couple years on a ski trip, or perhaps a future summer visit. However, I know that once back home in my comfortable life, the Canadian Rockies will seem too far away, too foreign, too cold. I will tell myself they are too far away to drive for a typical vacation. I will say that in the winter they are far too cold, even in the summer I'm sure I'll convince myself that I want to go to some place warmer. But maybe my daughters will remember this incredible place and demand a return trip, or perhaps I will remember to read this blog post and remind myself that it's worth the trip.

Athabasca Falls in Japser National Park

Hello Week Four...

Hello Week Four…  

We spent 8 days in Jasper and enjoyed all it had to offer. Even in rainy and snowy weather we still found fun things to do, hiking, swimming, hot springing and lots of exploring. And some not so exciting activities as well, including grocery shopping, laundry and hunting down Internet to get some work done. Now we are in Banff and Lake Louise, we have 4 full days here and have a bigger town and more area to cover. We hiked the most popular trail in Banff, the Tunnel Mountain Trail which offers awesome views of the town, mountains and the rivers around. We are visiting Lake Louise as well and will do more hiking and learning about the Canadian Rockies.

View from the Tunnel Mountain Trail 

As we make our way into our first month of the trip I am feeling once again grateful and happy for this opportunity (I feel like I say this in every blog post, but it is the truth and I don’t want to take it for granted). I am happy to see how we are all getting used to the ins and outs of the daily routine. Although each day is different, most days there are a lot of things that remain the same. Coffee, tea and some down town time each morning, with reading, mediation and relaxation before we start the day is something we try and do each day, we had this same ritual at home and it is carrying over here in the camper as well. And now, since we are all in the same tiny space the girls are starting to get in the same groove as well. We spend many mornings reading in our beds, and it is almost 10am before we realize we need to have breakfast. Even if this means we start our day a little later, it is nice to have something that feels like home. Another ritual that some times gets shuffled around at home is family dinner. These days, lunches are either out and about either sandwiches or quesadillas at a trail head  in the camper or at a local brewery with wi-fi so we can get check our email, but dinners have regularly been in the camper or around the camp fire. Most nights it’s a simple dinner, grilled meat and veggies or a bag salad – served right out of the bag (one of our new favorites). But the one thing that is always the same is that we are all together, we are not waiting for Andrew to get home from work or not fitting it in between after-school activities, but just dinner after a long, fun day. The girls also have figured out how to make the camper feel a little more like home, they were only allowed a small box of legos and Playmobile items, but they are so great with playing pretend with these guys,  they spread them all out and its like they go into their own little imaginary world. They also enjoy roasting pinecones on the fire and making little “wedding banquets” for the squirrels, but they like to have both indoor and outdoor activities.  

After our visit here in Banff, we will head south, making one stop in Waterton, AB and then back to the USA and into Montana. One thing I have been enjoying (and kind of cursing at the same time) is the lack of internet and connection. I find it freeing that I have limited phone service and no data on my phone. I realize how connected to my device I am at home. I like the fact that we have to schedule our internet time to get our work done and then that’s it for the day. Although I do miss sending random texts to my friends and family back at home, I would love to share simple moments with them when the time comes up, I do know there will be time for that as the trip goes on and being gone for 9 months it will be nice to have more of those moments to stay connected, but for now, I really enjoy the simplicity of our life less connected (she writes as she posts this blog using the Starbucks wifi). 

More Adventures in Jasper - Start of Week 3

Moving into week 3 of our trip, we are currently all on our devices in a laundromat/public shower/coffee shop. Every day I feel blessed and grateful for this opportunity, but each day I also have a bit of frustration around the lack of space (or possibly the overload of stuff) and the challenge of doing normal things - like checking email on public internet services, something that seems so easy normally, can make me so frustrated. But again, as my husband points out to me each time, relax - its a little thing. Yes, he is correct, the internet can wait. I think I get the most frustrated because when I am away from it for so long, when I go back to it, if its not immediate I am annoyed. Another activity that I need to remember to breathe through in our "new normal" is grocery shopping. We haven't quite figured out how to make this a relaxing event. Not sure it ever will be when shopping with 4 people all wanting different things, in small packed stores (especially in a tourist town like Jasper), not to mention the unfamiliar environment on top of it all, the combination of all this makes me a little crazy, but again, we are figuring it out and maybe for future trips we will split up - two of us to the grocery, two to the liquor store - because in Canada - no wine or beer in the grocery store. 

Outside of these little quirks, we have been enjoying our time in Jasper, we found a nice campground at Whistlers area that we stayed at for about 4 days and today we will be moving on to our reserved spot for another 4 days and then we will head South the Banff and Lake Louise. We have had some amazing hikes and adventures while we have been here. We took the tram up to the top of Whistler Peak and then hiked all the way back down to the parking lot. My Garmin said the trip was a little over 10 miles, but my legs thought it felt more like 20! The next day we did an easier hike around Maligne Canyon, which in my opinion was absolutely gorgeous! The waterfalls and small pools all along the trail were beautiful to look at and I took more photos I know what to do with. 

  

After 2 days of hiking we took a little break and spent the next day at the Fairmont Jasper Lodge. I had been wanting to get some yoga in and I found a flyer that mentioned the Fairmont had classes throughout the week. Saturday morning we all made our way over to the lodge, while I took my yoga class and enjoyed the steam room, sauna and an amazing shower, the girls and Andrew had some coffee, hot cocoa and took a walk around the lake. After lunch on the deck of the Fairmont, Andrew stayed in the lobby and got some work done (using more public wifi), while the girls and I went horseback riding at the near by Jasper Park Stables. After our ride, we still weren’t ready to call it a day and hadn’t felt like we did EVERYTHING possible at the resort, so we rented a canoe and paddled around the lake for an hour. It was a lovely day and we really felt like we were spoiling ourselves at the luxury hotel. Next stop was the grocery store, as I described above and then back to the campsite for some school work, dinner and evening fire. The girls had some visitors (aka, elk in the campground) during our school work, which makes things a little more exciting. Although, Nadia gets a little freaked out when the male or buck comes around. There are tons of signs and advertisements around town about staying away from the buck and never coming between the buck and the females, so after a run in with the elk at the playground the girls are more aware of their surroundings and make sure that they need to stay far away. 

Starting week 3

As we are entering our third week away it still just feels like a long vacation. We are beginning to all get into the groove of life on the road. The girls are offering to help out more with the daily chores (making the beds, making dinner, daily math and reading homework) but I think everyone in the family is still haunted with the occasional nightmare or at least weird dream associated with the anxiety of our sudden and dramatic change in lifestyle.

enjoying a hike down from Whistler Peak in Jasper

Life is made easier by a change in the weather, at least for a few days. After almost 2 weeks of mostly rain, Jasper Alberta has presented us warm dry days. Today and yesterday have neared 25 degrees (that’s 80 or you folks south of the border). And although Jasper is an expensive tourist town, I believe it is still cheaper than life in Seattle even when we do go out and enjoy the town. As I type this in the lobby of the Jasper Fairmont Lodge sipping a wonderful local IPA, I am fully aware that this horribly overpriced resort is still reasonable for a boy from the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Between Jasper and it’s Southern neighbor Banff we have another 10 days of luxury Rocky Mountain bliss then it is off into Montana and beyond that the unknown.