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Hampton Inn, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Odometer — 7721

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After a rainy morning of packing things and laundries we finally left the campground after 11am. We drove a whole 5km to Stanley Park, which houses a great aquarium. Stanley Park is to Vancouver what Central Park is to New York. It is large, filled with interesting things to do, and unlike NY, in some places is very wild and untamed. (more…)

Capilano Campground, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Odometer — 7685

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We drove the last 100km to Vancouver today on the beautiful Sea-to-Sky highway. It probably is a very pretty drive when

a) The sun is out and it is not raining

b) There is no construction work on over 80% of the road, reducing the speed limit to 30-50km/h when not standing still waiting for a construction truck to get out of the way.

So instead of 90 minutes, the drive took us twice as long and we didn’t really enjoy the view. Se la vie, as they say. (more…)

Riverside Campground, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Odometer — 7592

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Most people get to Whistler on the see to sky highway from Vancouver. We got here from inland, driving 250 miles today, mostly on side roads that were rather empty. From Clearwater we drove on highway 24, then took 97 and finally 99. There were plenty of forests, rivers and lakes along the way. (more…)

KOA Campground, Clearwater, British Columbia, Canada. Odometer — 7350

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Wells-Gray Provisional Park is huge, but since it is not a national park it gets less attention from tourists. We found ourselves driving through an almost deserted park today. Most of the park is wilderness but there is one access road for 50km that takes lazy tourists to 4 different waterfalls all within 5 minutes walk of their respective parking lots. (more…)

Clearwater Country Inn and RV Park, British Columbia, Canada. Odometer — 7290

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We left Japser today heading west towards Vancouver. It will take us 4 days. There are interesting things to do along the way. Today we drove over 300km to Clearwater, a tiny town that is gateway to a huge provincial park called Wells-Gray.

Our first stop this morning was in Jasper, to fill up on some groceries, especially water, which came down to the last 3 bottles. We went to a different supermarket than on the first day, and it was actually not too bad. We even got a baguette. After Paola made a phone call we headed out of town. (more…)

Whistler’s Campground, Jasper, Alberta, Canada. Odometer — 7086

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Happy Bastille Day to our French friends and Francophiles worldwide!

Today was going to be just as hot as the previous two days. We discovered that the heat really sucks away any intent to hike or be outdoors, so we looked for the coolest place to be. Luckily, Mount Edith Cavell was the perfect solution.

This mountain is 30 minutes drive from our campground, up a steep and narrow road. When we turned in to the road we didn’t notice the sign limiting the vehicle length to 7 meters (we are 8.5m). And good thing we drove on, because at the end of the road a beautiful sight awaited us. And the drive up was not problematic at all. (more…)

Whistler’s Campground, Jasper, Alberta, Canada. Odometer — 7033

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Shabbat Shalom!

We took Shir to the hospital today for a checkup on her broken arm. After another set of X-rays and doctor’s assessment, it looks like the bone is set correctly and the arm is on its way to a full recovery within 3-5 more weeks. We’ll check up again in a few weeks and maybe the cast can off then.

The hospital visit took all morning, and then another hour for me to fill out the insurance claim forms and mail them to Blue Cross. By then we had lunch and found a wi-fi signal in town to check and send emails. (more…)

Whistler’s Campground, Jasper, Alberta, Canada. Odometer — 6963

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Today we completed the drive up Icefields Parkway to Japser the town. I started the day early with a hike to Wilcox pass. The hike began from the campground and went up to a long and wide alpine meadow between Wilcox Peak and Nigel Peak. The views just before entering the meadow were awesome. It was early morning, good light and I saw the Athabasca and a few other Glaciers to the west. A ranger told me that when the snowy peaks have a burning orange tinge to them in the sunrise minutes, it is called alpen glow. (more…)

Wilcox Creek Campground, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. Odometer — 6882
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We journeyed today northward to Jasper on the world famous Icefield Parkway. This is a 230km road built in the 1930’s to connect the towns of Banff and Jasper. Since it runs along the Rockies, grand sights await the weary driver at every corner. Today was a sunny and warm day, which made everything that much more spectacular.

We managed to wake up early and leave the campground in Lake Louise before 9:30. In less than one hour we were already at our first stop, Bow Lake. (more…)

Lake Louise Trailer Campground, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Odometer — 6796

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Shir woke us up before 4am, and refused to sleep for about half an hour. By the time she was dreaming again, I had to get up for my morning hike to The Plane of Six Glaciers. This is a beautiful 8 mile hike that starts along Lake Louise and then continues up the valley that feeds the lake to uncover the 6 different glaciers looming overhead. One of the guide books we have says that if you can do only one hike in the Canadian Rockies this would be it.

I started off with sunrise pictures of Lake Louise and the glaciers of Mount Victoria. The lake was like a mirror. (more…)