Phil & Paula's Canadian Adventure: Part Two
We're back with our intrepid explorers! Phil & Paula's first week of adventure saw them city-exploring, zip-lining, wild swimming and heading out on the open road in their RV! We pick up with them as they leave Banff, and head west via Jasper...
Day 9. Lake Louise
We pack up, bid farewelll to gorgeous Banff, and take the short 45-minute drive to Lake Louise. What a stunning drive this was!
On arrival at pitch 177, we hooked up the electricity and head out to explore our site. We made our way to the river, ever-watchful for bears and dodging mosquitoes…
We cooked dinner on our gas bbq, ate like kings, laughed like clowns, drank wine like Lords and reflected on how incredibly lucky we are, whilst playing UNO… And, with all that excitement, headed to bed to get ready for tomorrow's visual feast.
Day 10. Lake Louise
Note, there’s not a lot in Lake Louise, it’s more like a town you pass through and stock up at before moving on, to be honest, but we're not here for the shopping!
Our Lake Louise hard-sided campground was okay, but there’s a few things you need to know if you are camping in Lake Louise.
If you want to visit the Lake - which is the only reason you visit here (in the summer) - there are two ways of getting there.
- The bus - It must be booked well in advance (when you book your campground) and it's approx $44 USD up to the Lake.
- You can walk up - It is quite steep and UPHILL all the way. I took it very slowly (with my dickie ticker) and it took us an hour. Fit walkers can definitely do this quicker. The reward for your effiorts are just incredible, as the trail follows a waterfall fed by the Lake. At the end of the trail, walk through the car park and you are greeted with a view that certainly doesn't disappoint.
Turquoise water to the backdrop of snow capped mountains is what makes Lake Louise so attractive to visitors, and affords the picture postcard setting used so frequently by marketers to showcase Canada. It's fed by meltwater from the glaciers and this is what gives it that turquoise look. The Lake itself was named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (daughter of Queen Victoria), and today efforts are being made to preserve the natural beauty and delicate ecosystem of Lake Louise.
After taking a few mandatory photos and selfies, we were rather hungry and thirsty, so we headed for the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for lunch. I should note here, that this was pre-arranged by Paula, because the hotel isn’t widely open to non-guests.
The Fairmont is one of Canada’s grand railway hotels built at the end of the 19th century by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was a luxury destination to draw wealthy travellers to the west, and still has the same appeal today.
The hotel seated us on the Terrace with a table overlooking the Lake - location, location, location as they say. Stunning red wine, sliced lobster salad, a caesar salad handcrafted in front of us and a prawn cocktail were delivered in true Fairmont style. This was a lunch that we will never forget and a memory we will cherish forever.
After quaffing the last drop of wine we headed off to walk down the side of the Lake, to take in the views and get some more memory making photographs.
The walk back down was equally as stunning, but sooo much easier and this time it took us just 45 minutes to reach Lake Louise Village where our campsite courtesy shuttle took us back to the RV.
What a trail! What a lunch! What a view! And... overall WHAT A DAY!
Day 11. Columbian Icefields and the Skywalk. Enroute to Jasper.
A 90-minute drive north-west and, even before you get to the Icefields, there’s several amazing viewing points to stop and take in the sheer vastness, magnificence and beauty of British Columbia. Please, please make sure you allow at least an extra hour on your journey to the icefields. I’d suggest you book the Icefields Tour for around 12.30 - 1.30pm and get up early & hit the road before 8am. Please tell our Travel Village agents otherwise you will be rushing and miss some incredibly beautiful spots.
The Icefields are incredible, although isn’t everything around here! They're well worth a visit and quite interesting - especially the vehicles they use to get you up and down the glacier! This part of the tour takes around 1 hour but you can add on the Skywalk (we did) which will add another hour onto your tour.
A note on the Skywalk - it does offer incredible 360 degree views and hangs over a huge valley. It’s NOT recommended if you don’t like heights, because this hangs right over the valley with a drop of hundreds of feet. Oh, and there are NO TOILET FACILITIES once you start the tour, until you get back to base. Once you are back at base though, there’s a restaurant and a Starbucks to get you fueled up before you continue the scenic drive to Jasper.
This is a proper Mid-West town, with the train station right at the heart of it. Also, it has a huge self service laundrette which is extremely handy because in many cases Jasper is your halfway point on a tour from Calgary to Vancouver or vice versa.
We parked the RV beside the railway station and nipped across the road for groceries and liquid refreshment.
On arrival at the campsite there were wild animals walking freely (no bears thankfully), and we were able to get pretty up close and personal with a snoozing Mule Deer.
Time to get the barbecue and wine out before calling it a day after another fun filled day in B.C.
Day 12. Jasper
Lazy morning, late breakfast then… it was 39ºC… practically Dubai heat!! So, we decided that rather than walk into town and risk a) bears and b) sunstroke, it would be advisable to get a taxi into town. Our driver even gave us a tip to go to the “Jasper House” restaurant and bar. They specialise in Mexican Tacos and boy, were they good! A selection of the standard pulled pork, chicken, mushroom, chorizo, and not-so-standard Elk!
It was also happy hour between 4-6pm so we obliged and took advantage of this - naturally!
It was now 7pm and time to retire across the highway (short cut, with risk assessment done!) before deciding that a game of UNO would be appropriate before formally calling it a day.
So, a bottle of red was opened and the UNO competition commenced. Paula proclaimed that “we are not going to bed until I have won!”. 1hr 20 minutes later bed finally called us!
Day 13. Clearwater
Acting on another tip, we got up early, visited the “Dunny” and made the RV clean and topped up with fresh water. Then, it was off to Clearwater via Mount Robson.
Mount Robson is quite the peak! We took the opportunity to take a few photos before cracking on to Clearwater, until…. ROAD CLOSED
Well, when you are in Canada, and you hit the town of Valemount and it’s 12.30pm and you are told the road is closed until 8pm - there’s NO DETOUR!
So, with nothing else to do but wait, we went for a walk in the “Town of Valemount”. Eventually (with added tumbleweed for authentic dramatic effect) we came across a bar, The Three Ranges, that ONLY served local ale - RESULT!
Our German hostess was amazing and made us feel extremely welcome. She even sat with us to tell her story of how she came to reside and work in this town. Needless to say, it started to get very busy in the bar, in view of the road closure. There were many stories from lots of countries and truck drivers shared over a glass of ale!
The highway eventually opened up around 5.30pm and we still had another 2 hours 40 mins to reach Alpine Meadows in Clearwater, but it was a great drive. We had an amazing sunset AND…we saw our first BEAR! It ran across the highway in front of us, before disappearing into the flora and fauna - but still, we saw our first bear!
After leaving the highway the drive up to Alpine Resorts wasn't for the faint-hearted. A 12-minute drive in our behemoth of an RV took for the best part of 25 minutes, but we laughed and joked about the state of the road (partly gravel) and put this down as another experience and another day in paradise.
After an 8 hour road closure it’s late and already time to sleep. Tomorrow is another big adventure, which will be with Riverside Adventures - White Water Rafting! Oh yes! Age holds no boundaries and we are going for it.
Day 14. Clearwater
Today is THE day… all fear goes out of the window and, as Paula is keen to remind us, “each day, always do something that scares you”. Ha ha!! How phrases come back to haunt you!
A good breakfast, washing, drying, and then preparation for our big adventure…
WHITE WATER RAFTING!
The team at Riverside Adventures really looked after us and reassured Mrs Nuttall. After a very good safety briefing and being kitted out with wetsuits and helmets we set off to ride the rapids.
Starting with 3 grade 4, then some grade 3’s before stopping to climb up to the waterfall and took the chance to swim underneath the waterfall - something I have always wanted to do. It was refreshing to say the least and the four of us posed for pictures.
We had the most exhilarating experience!! Great fun!
Note - The climb (whilst short) from the river to the waterfall is quite steep and tricky underfoot, you must be careful and be mobile to do this, but it is well worth it. Also, make sure you have appropriate shoes - Riverside Adventures provide these, so my advice is please USE THEM. Open-toed sandals etc would NOT be my recommendation.
After the waterfall, it was back into the raft. I took an opportunity to jump out and, whilst holding onto the raft, was able to float along for a mile through some white water, which was really cool. What could be better than lying on your back floating down a Canadian white water river with Osprey flying high above?! I was simply living the dream!!
Paula definitely conquered one of her fears. So much so she wanted to go back and do it again! However, there's a schedule, and we had to get back to the RV at Alpine Meadows. Our amazing host Jamie, very kindly, picked us up and took us back to Alpine Meadows. The food in the restaurant was superb, as was the very welcoming bottle of Pinot Noir. We moved outside to the fire pit for another bottle and a few stories were shared with our hosts Katie and Jamie - overall a most engaging evening.
Their Canadian Affair adventure continues... Part Three coming soon!
