Canada: Heading Home

We packed all of our stuff and loaded the rental car one last time before checking out of the hotel. We tried to wander around some of the art gallery and market neighborhoods near the old railroad station but the heat was causing my mood to darken. We visited several bike shops to see if we could find a Canada bike jersey for Hans since he regretted not purchasing one in Lake Louise but were unsuccessful. We ended up back at the mall with three hours to kill before we had to go to the airport.

What better way to spend some free time than to visit the indoor amusement park? Hans was extremely excited to see their most extreme roller coaster was open and I rode with him. I had never been on a roller coaster before, so picking the most twisted, high-G-force, prayer-inducing, ride as an introduction was probably unwise. I went with him a second time but declined to go a third and fourth time. Still, I was happy to watch Hans go two more times. We went on many other rides until we felt sick and I amused Hans with my squeals of fear and excitement.

After returning our rental car we had a fairly easy time getting through customs, even though once we reached our gate they announced our flight was going to be an hour and a half late. It was just going to make our layover in Seattle shorter, so Hans and I sat down to play cards.

Canada: Edmonton Again

A few days earlier we had decided to cancel our next University of Alberta reservations and opted for a mid-range chain hotel in Edmonton. We got up early in Drumheller and drove straight to the hotel. Private baths! Air conditioning! Soft beds! After 9 nights in a tent we were appreciative of some creature comforts at the end of our vacation.

Feeling the need of societal trappings, we went to the West Edmonton Mall (Canada’s answer to the Mall of America). We did some last-minute shopping and saw the latest Harry Potter flick. We cooled off in the hotel pool later and spent a quiet hour in the hotel bar for some snacks and drinks before going to bed.

Canada: Red Deer River Valley Badlands

We tried to get up early enough to catch a badland hike at the Tyrell Provincial Park but the drive took longer than anticipated and we had missed the last group. The park is an active dig site but due to the extremely hazardous heat conditions most of the trails are only passable in the cooler morning sun and only with a park guide. There were still a few short interpretive trails to do but I was dying in the heat and increasingly cranky. The hoodoos were interesting to look at and the visitor center was informative (and air conditioned!). The rest of the day was mostly spent lazing about the campground and eating ice cream. We went to bed early.

Hoodoos


Badlands

Canada: Drumheller

We arrived at the Royal Tyrrel Museum in Drumheller at about 10:30 am after a three-hour drive. Hans purchased some food at the cafeteria and I had a small coffee. We spent the next three hours exploring the best dinosaur museum I have ever seen. Apparently, Alberta’s Red Deer River Valley is a paleontological gold mine second only to the Gobi Desert. There were many impressive examples of Canada’s answer to the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Albertosaurus.

Size comparison of Hans vs
the shoulderblade


The albertosaurus

We took a break to check in at the campground and eat dinner. Our tickets were good for the day, so we returned in the evening when the museum was much quieter. Often Hans and I had whole exhibits to ourselves. It was extremely hot in the evening and even though it was dark by 10:30, we did not turn off our headlamps until 11:30.

Canada: Sulfur Mountain

We got up a little late and drove straight to Sulfur Mountain, named for the smell of the now closed hot springs that used to be one of the main tourist attractions. There was a $21 gondola to the top but we gained the 2200 ft climb by a grueling switchback trail. The views of Banff valley were well worth it, even if there was a ridiculous ice cream shop and large amount of people. We talked to a friendly park worker from south of Edmonton and immediately spotted three bighorn sheep that seemed oblivious to the dozens of camera clicks and pointing excited children. The mosquitoes were dive bombing, unfortunately. One of the buildings was an abandoned cosmic ray observatory, manned by one park worker for most of its operation. This was before the gondola was built. For him it was a brisk 2200 ft climb to work every day.



Banff Valley



The sun was sweltering by the time we were at the base of the mountain and so we got some lunch before doing some window-shopping. We killed a couple of hours at the Laundromat, followed by an excellent dinner at St. James’ Place Irish Pub. We spent some time before bed cleaning and organizing the car, as the back seat was turning into an incomprehensible pit and the trunk was full of wood chips.

Canada: Banff

Castle Rock: a stop along
the way to Banff

We were still fairly fatigued today. We took advantage of the cooler weather and left the bustling town center for the old residential neighborhoods where there were many original homes and cabins built by influential first explorers of the parks, including the home of Mary Schaffer, the first white person to set eyes on the Maligne Valley. We purchased a red meritage at an excellent wine shop

On our way back to the new campground we stopped for groceries to have another campfire dinner. To our delight we found that yes, Schweppes Raspberry Ginger Ale does in fact still exist. Feeling nostalgic, we bought a 2-liter bottle and a liberal amount of ice. Later we entertained each other with uproarious dirty Mad Libs that became more offensive and ludicrous by the hour: “Dear Pen Pal, I am a teenage rapist…you can visit me and play with my pet abortion…”

Canada: Moraine Lake and a Sneak Peak at Banff

We had planned to hike Fairview Mountain (otherwise known as Overtime Mountain, due to the number of rescued hikers) but the trail reports were discouraging and since we were fairly tired we drove to nearby Moraine Lake. Like Lake Louise, it had the cloudy blue color derived from suspended glacial sediment. Unlike Lake Louise, there were far fewer people and a more relaxed atmosphere.

Our campsite was still reserved for another night but we did not feel much like spending any more time in town for fear that our wallets might empty and instead drove to Banff, the next stop on our itinerary.

Ever a resort town, the streets were lined with shops and buildings made to look like those found in a Swiss mountain village. We decided to get out of the hot weather and went to a matinee showing of Transformers. After, we visited the local museum, which was more of an homage to the Whytes, husband and wife who were avid skiers and explorers of the national parks.

We returned to Lake Louise Prison, er, Campground for one last night.

Canada: Lake Louise

Still awake, I watched the light through the window as dawn began. I whispered to ask if Hans was still awake and he immediately responded that he’d been awake all night. I asked if he wanted to just leave and he immediately agreed. So, completely exhausted and slightly prickly, we hastily packed up our belongings and got the hell out of there. We checked our watches: it was 5:40 a.m.

We headed to the campground at Lake Louise, our next destination. The sky was particularly lovely and Hans wanted to take pictures but I was tired and cranky and just wanted to get there. I did grudgingly pull over a couple of times.

There was a strip mall with an overrun bakery but we were hungry and so stood in the obscene line for the obscenely-priced and mediocre pastries (but much-needed coffee). However, we did find a public laundry facility and I was glad to have clean clothes again, even if our rental car now looked a little silly with socks and underwear drying in the back window and clotheslines strung between the back windows.

We drove back to the parking lot for the Fairmont Lake Louise that also serves as public parking for trail access. The hotel is placed slap-bang right on the edge of one of Alberta’s crown jewels of natural beauty, Lake Louise itself.

We did the Path to Six Glaciers hike that took up to an old historic teahouse that has been serving hikers tea, lemonade, and various food faire for over a hundred years. Supplies are brought in daily by horseback. Okay, it is exactly part of what Hans calls “Prada Point”, but I had to appreciate the quaintness of the building without electricity, where bread is made in a wood-fired oven daily and they have teas from all over the world. Hans was extremely annoyed by the crowds but I was trying to make the best of it and enjoy the scenery. We continued on the trail (at which point there was considerably less people) up to a glacier viewpoint. While Hans waited for me to catch up a bold ground squirrel stood right next to where he was sitting and posed for a picture. It was satisfying to be high up in the mountains and see how miniscule the Fairmont resort looked, as bold and imposing it was made to look.

A sideways bloom of fireweed

Hans is trying not to make
eye contact with the tea house

The resort doesn't look
so bad from here...

Hans' friend

The campground was a little disconcerting. One has to drive over a cattle grate and enter through an electric fence that runs along the perimeter. Poor camp hygiene and a relatively large bear population prompted its installation. Even though it is meant to keep the bears out one cannot help but feel we are being kept in. Ground squirrels leap through the narrow gaps between electric lines with practiced precision. Their burrows are strategically placed within easy crumb-snatching distance of the picnic tables.

We had an excellent (though, expensive, like everything else in this town) dinner at a youth hostel of all places, washed down with some Albertan brew.

Canada: Columbia Icefield

Hans rose first and went to the shower house. I had bathed the night before, so as I was getting dressed in the car I was startled by more than the usual number of people walking through our campsite. This was odd since our site was near the back of the campground and not near any main thoroughfares. Additionally, Hans arrived from the opposite direction of the showers. Apparently, a herd of elk had also camped on the grounds during the night. They were just moving out when Hans and a group of people were caught unawares and surrounded by the animals. Hans tried to sneak past the herd but a female grunted and took a swipe at him. He had no choice but to find another route to the showers and then take a backwards loop around the campground to get back to our site.

We packed up our tent and checked out of the campground. The guidebook recommended breakfast at Papa George’s in town, so we decided to give it a try. We felt shamefully scruffy in our hiking shoes and bright polyester outdoor clothes as we were shown to our table in the decorated room by the well-polished staff but upon looking around we saw we weren’t the only ones dressed for a day out in the woods. I had excellent eggs Benedict and Hans had an enormous egg-and-everything skillet served on a sizzling plate and piled high. We slowly enjoyed our last coffee before driving south to the icefields parkway.

The drive only takes a few hours, but we were in no hurry and took advantage of all the viewpoints listed on our map. Gradually, we began to gain elevation as we headed for the highest point in the park, Columbia Icefield. There was an old visitors center that looked like it had seen better days when Athabasca Glacier (one of the “toes” of the icefield) reached all the way down to the highway. Now, it had receded a long ways and was retreating back into the mountains. Despite all this there was still a considerable draw of tourists and there were people everywhere. The moraine had signposts marking where the glacier had been in the past and I stood at the one for 1982 for a photo-op. Despite the easy hike I was a little lightheaded from the higher elevation.

We proceeded down the highway a little further to the Wilcox Pass trailhead. Before the glaciers receded, the valley through which the highway goes was covered with treacherous ice. Instead travelers used the ridge on the east side of the valley to go around. Now the area serves as a recreational trail for backpackers. We gained about 1000 feet but the climb was very gradual and once you reached the top the ridge was fairly flat and one could see further into the icefield and the distant peaks of Banff and Jasper.

After our hike we drove to the Beauty Creek Youth Hostel for the night. We were hoping for a good night’s sleep but to Hans’ dismay the bunks were little more than stacked wooden boxes that were exactly six feet long. Hans is six foot one. He tried to make the best of it but when we had finally fallen asleep two more travelers arrived late in the evening and made so much noise in the cabin (that offered no sound dampening whatsoever) for so long I was never able to fall asleep again.

Canada: Mt. Edith Cavell

The plan was to hike the Cavell Meadow Trail (which was reported to take anywhere between 3-6 hours) but we did not feel terribly inspired this morning. Each of us had blisters on our hands and feet and very sore arms and legs.

We drove to Mt. Edith Cavell up a very windy and loopy switch-backed road to an old glacial moraine and followed it to the snow-capped peak and remains of Angel Glacier. The first few miles of the hike were slow and painful. Once we began to gain some elevation over the moraine we were stopped by a sign that told us the trail was closed due to vegetation recovery. This gave us the excuse we needed to take it easy, since neither of us wanted to be the one responsible for a missed opportunity. We went back down to the moraine and glacial lake to take some pictures and then went back to town for lunch.

It was considerably warmer than the previous day, so we spent the afternoon driving to some of the other park attractions and viewpoints. I became insistent on having a campfire-cooked meal and smores in the evening since we had firewood. In the time it took Hans to use the bathroom and come back I had a blazing fire going since the dried pine needles on the ground were extremely flammable and the wood was also very dry. We enjoyed some sausages and potato salad and our hands were soon sticky from marshmallows. We read our park maps and tried to plan ahead for the next few days.

Canada: Paddles and Pedals

The day began slowly and we had to move the tent because it rained during the night, making a small mud hole where we had pitched it. After purchasing a few pastries in town we went to look at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and found that aside from a small man-made pond (why man-made in a national park is beyond me) and a small horse corral, there was not much else to see. The lodge was neither charming nor rustic so as to fit in with the surroundings, such is the way of forcing material comforts of the upper class onto nature (rather than the other way around).

We returned to Maligne Lake to rent a tandem kayak. One of the assistants asked if we had kayaked before and we nodded (though only one time for either Hans or I). We followed the assistant onto the dock, strapped in our Personal Floatation Devices, lunch and camera in our drybag, and paddles in hand. After helping us get into the boat and put on our spray skirts he pushed us away from the dock with an enthusiastic kick and waved us goodbye before dashing back into the boat house to help other customers.
Our first attempts at paddling would work for a few strokes but then the back end of the boat would begin to drift to one side inexplicably, causing us to go in wide circles. We clumsily found a bit of shore to land on and switched seats, I was now sitting the back, thinking that Hans’ stronger strokes were causing an imbalance in kayaking power. It was no use and in fact made the problem worse. It was around this time that I looked at the back of the boat and saw what the assistant had neglected to mention: a rudder, flipped up on top of the back of our boat. I flipped it down into the water and began searching for pedals to steer with but my legs were not long enough to reach. We landed and switched positions again, but in order for Hans to have his feet on the rudder pedals his legs had to be scrunched uncomfortably. But now we were paddling straight! With gusto we began our assault on the 28-kilometer-long lake to see how far we could get.
Along the way we took in the beautiful blue water that sparkled in the sunlight and refreshingly cold air. We saw a few loons a ways off, who dived for fish as the frequent tour boats dashed out to Spirit Island, the geological half-way point of the lake that was also a popular spot to see glaciers from. We enjoyed a quiet lunch in our boat as we bobbed along the shore. I was very nervous each time I took the camera out of the drybag but was excited to be able to use it on our little excursion. I was able to stay fairly dry, but alas, Hans had just got back in the boat after obeying the call of nature and was trying to attach his spray skirt when the wake from a tour boat dumped a good amount of water into his lap.

We dried off four hours later when we returned the boat and decided to hike the Opal Hills trail. It was rated as a moderate hike, however having expended a lot of energy on paddling in the morning I had a difficult time. We decided not to complete the loop that took you in back of the hills and instead walked up another trail that went above the tree line and offered stunning views of almost the entire lake and much of the mountain ridges that rose up steeply on either side.Back in town we bought a few souvenirs for the families and celebrated our day of adventure with a filling dinner and a couple of pints each.

Canada: Introduction to Jasper National Park

Neither of us slept very well owing to the lack of air conditioning and stifling heat in the room. We didn’t even use the blankets that were provided. We awoke early and were on our way to Jasper by 7:15 a.m. The 3-and-a-half hour drive was easy enough and the rolling farmlands that swept by were green, spotted with black cattle herds.

We stopped for gas in the town of Eston where Hans spotted an F-80 Shooting Star. We stopped to take pictures and then proceed to the park. The lines at the entrance moved quickly and before long we had an Alberta Park Pass and shortly after that pulled over to look at some bighorn sheep that were perched on a rocky outcrop, licking the salt out of the sediment. We continued to the town of Jasper and wandered around the small, busy streets to familiarize ourselves. We stopped for some pizza and then drove to the Maligne Canyon trailhead and hiked from the low end to the visitor’s center. Doing the hike backwards from the norm proved to be a good choice because most people start at the other end and don’t make it past the waterfalls to the canyon bottom. This made our hike more enjoyable and less crowded. We experimented with the camera and took some decent pictures of water in motion.

Our first glimpse of Jasper

The waterfalls at upper Maligne Canyon


Maligne Lake

After our hike we drove for about 30 minutes to see Medicine and Maligne Lakes. Both were incredibly beautiful. We wandered along the lakeside at Maligne and took some pictures. Across the road we saw a small white-tailed deer. We inquired about early morning kayak rentals at the boat house and decided that we’d pack a lunch tomorrow and see how far we paddle.

We checked in at the nearby Wapiti campground. Dinner, however, was back in Jasper since we were intrigued by the Greek restaurant that looked to be popular. We had an enjoyable meal (I tried the AAA Albertan beef steak). Back at the campground our site had a little firewood, leftover from previous tenants.

Canada: Another Journey Begins

We’ve been traveling since 7 p.m. last night, Alberta time. It’s now about 8 p.m. as Hans is falling asleep on his dormitory bed and I am starting yet another travel journal.

Hans’ mother took us to the airport and I took a Benadryl so as to be able to fall asleep quickly on our flight to Seattle. Hans did not sleep much. When we arrived at SEATAC it was 2:30 a.m. local time and our flight to Edmonton was not for eight hours. The last remaining food establishment that was open was a Starbucks stand. I bought a pitiful sandwich that I hoped would last me for a while longer and Hans prowled the terminals in search of benches to sleep on. I was still fairly exhausted, so I was able to curl up with my camping pillow and get a few hours sleep (though not without interruptions from the automatic PA system, imploring that everyone monitor their luggage and not accept items from strangers).

I was a little unsure about the rental car in Edmonton but the trunk was astonishingly roomy and we were able to fit our large hockey bag (borrowed from my brother) full of camping gear as well as our carry-on luggage fairly well. We purchased a map from a nearby gas station and eventually found our way into the city center, where we’d be staying the night in one of the dorms at the University of Alberta.

After checking into our room we went to the Royal Alberta Museum and saw many natural history artifacts including massive geodes, dinosaur fossils, and aboriginal displays. There was also an interesting live insect exhibit. Unfortunately, none of our pictures turned out very well owing to the low light and moving critters.

By 5 o’clock the museum was closing and we were extremely hungry and tired. Finding a parking spot downtown was a little confusing because some spots are traffic lanes during certain hours and the signage was not very clear. Finding a place to eat dinner took a little longer than it should have but we eventually committed to a family-style spaghetti place that was passable.

We spotted, of all things, a Safeway on our way back to the U of A, so we stocked up on water and groceries for the start of our trip through the national parks and found everything to be more expensive than the expected. After taking showers back at the dorm we each called home to let everyone know we had arrive safely and went to bed.

Canada

Tonight we begin our two-week vacation in Alberta, Canada. It has been four years since our last trip. The first time, we had been dating for barely six months when Hans asked to tag along on my Hawaiian spring break vacation.

This time we've been married for a little over a year and we're going on an anniversary/belated honeymoon trip. I will also be leaving for a graduate program in Missouri in August.

Neither of us has been to Alberta before. Well, Hans rode in his mom's truck during a cross-country drive when he was young, but he does not have any memory of it.

Here will be the account of our travels. Our itinerary can be found on this map:


View Canada 2007 in a larger map