To the Rockies

Blog 6   6^th – 13^th July. To The Rockies

Sea to Sky Highway in murky mist!

Don’t miss the spectacular Sea to Sky Highway we were told! But we did… we couldn’t see a thing from the coastal road, as we climbed out of Vancouver in the rain and fog.

However the next day, it was completely different as we approached Mount Robson, the tallest ‘Rocky’ at 12972ft, had briefly lost it’s cloudy shroud and looked magnificent as contrails streamed away from it’s sharp ridge. 

ice glacier mohican?

Full of enthusiasm, we hiked up to Lower Joffre Lake, a mere 500metres…how beautiful!  Then we were told the Middle Joffre Lake was even better, so we trekked a further 6km, all up a notional track requiring energetic clambering over rockfalls and rootladders.  Arriving at Middle Joffre Lake we found yet another fabulous vista.  Then….Upper Joffre Lake was only 1.5km further, (but a climb of 1200ft!) so, completely knackered but unable to resist another level of awesomeness, we carried on climbing up an unmade track. Over the last boulder – wow! the afternoon sun shone on the intense turquoise milky lake at the foot of a crusty glacier with an ice tower mohican. It was surrounded by craggy peaks and dammed by moraine boulders. We just sat there, in wonderment (and wondered how we were going to get down again).

thrilled but exhausted

I thought I had an idea of the Rockies – but nothing can really prepare you for actually seeing them – the size, the shapes, the colours, the contours. The first sighting of Mount Robson was so overwhelming, that I very nearly cried.

Just as you think your brain has adjusted to the size and scale of the Rockies, you go round a bend, and there’s yet another mind-blowing view! 

The Icefields Parkway, from Jasper down to Banff, is the most stunning drive imaginable. The only other comparable icefield is in Siberia. We took the Jasper Sky Tram (50yrs old cable car) up 7500ft to Whistlers Mountain, then climbed up to the top (9000ft), for a stunning view of the world below, whilst  being in the midst of 360deg of rugged snow-covered peaks.  How special is that?

 The wild flowers were so beautiful and we saw a few marmots – they hibernate for 9 months of the year, and sit in the sun for the other 3. Sounds like they haven’t got past adolescence to me!

 

Thanks to Helen and Howard’s book, we did some fantastic trails up into the

these colossal mountains. Wilcox Pass gave us a challenging hike, but then spectacular views across Lake Louse and Athabasca Glacier, especially when comfortably seated in their colour coded lawn chairs with built in picnic table! 

An erratic?

165ft deep

Erosion has created some stunning canyons and chasms while ancient glaciers have arranged random boulders called erratics for more interesting photo opportunities.  Maligne Canyon was really impressive - a deep and narrow chasm (165ft) with torrents of water churning and bubbling below, then disappearing over thunderous waterfalls.

Athabasca Falls was pretty impressive too.

The many lakes, of course, are equally astounding –beautiful and picturesque set between soaring scree slopes and conifer covered crags . Medicine Lake was particularly interesting – it has no river outlet, and empties through 16km of caverns and crevices in the rock below it. We were really taken with the super reflections in Bow Lake.

Lake Louise was packed – traffic and tourists alike. When we did get to see it, we weren’t convinced it really lives up to its own hype. Yes, it has lovely colours and has the glacier above it, but the monstrous hotel village is a bit of an eyesore and we’d seen Upper Joffre Lake, much more stunning.

It would seems that bears are like no 22 buses. We’ve now seen 6 Black Bears (see video of

Black Bear Video Near Maligne Lake

one of them), and  2 Grizzlies, mum and baby, eating buffalo berries which were viewed from the Lake Louise ski chairlift. Brilliant! And our other treat was to spot this Scarface Pika, about the size of Grace’s chinchilla (but a bit more mangled – we think an eagle had a bit for lunch).

Grizzly Mum and Little One

Pika at Kicking Horse Lookout

We didn’t get to Banff, because of time, and also missed out on Head-Bashed-In-Cliff - you can guess what used to happen to Buffalo here! We did find Pot Hole Lane, one for Sheffield to adopt, possibly. Then there was Wrong Way Lane that we didn’t dare go down – or up. 

  

The National Park campgrounds have been in some wonderful locations, each pitch quite secluded, surrounded by trees. One, in Jasper, has to be shared with grazing elk, and has been this way for years. Actually, it seems elk are the most dangerous animal around, more so than bears, wolves and cougars – calving and rutting result in very aggressive and dangerous animals for a while, the rest of the time they look very friendly.  Last night we stopped in a National Forest campground which was free and still had a firepit grill, table and bench and toilets.  You had to pump your own water from the well and a bear was hanging around looking for a free lunch.

Not sure how Rick does it, but he happened on the Rocky Mountaineer pulling in to stations at both Jasper and Lake Louise  and two ‘random’ railside picnic stops have culminated in multiple roaring diesels and Canada Pacific trumpeting….I think it all started back at the Sacramento Railroad Museum.

Apparently we are in the midst of an unprecedented heat-wave, and it’s been dry for so long, there are dozens of fires in the NW Territories. Even our Icefields Parkway to Banff was closed for 24hrs for firefighting and poor visibility, with the smoke still much in evidence the next day.

  We can’t escape technology even in the Rockies and while we were in Maligne Canyon we spotted someone experimenting with his four engined video drone. However he was too wary of losing the control signal to allow it to descend into the deep canyon where the best pictures would have been.  And Rick is also coming home with a new Transformer Tablet…cheap from Walmart’s Techno Toy Department!

If the hat fits…….

We’re now back in America, heading for Olympia – then the Alaskan Cruise…..


More photos at:
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6036352140303208177
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6036351102825608177
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6036351607535344193
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6036350433641901041
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6036349735465707393
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6036349078378223313
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6036348856450783649
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6036348126526452193
https://plus.google.com/photos/112477145672617228065/albums/6036347679622174977