Canada, eh? — YOFO Adventures

Canada, eh?!

There’s much to admire about our American friends to the north. They’ve got Mounties, two famous Justin’s: Trudeau and Bieber, and Celine Dion. (We know, you’re judging.) We’ve discovered “Coffee-Crisp” bars, whipped peanut butter, poutine, and of course their maple syrup (Canada produces 80% of the earth’s maple syrup). And now, after completing our third foray into Canada, we can add more superb provincial and national parks to their all-star list.

The view from Sentinel Pass near Lake Louise, Jasper National Park.

After a great visit in Washington State, we risked another border crossing to take our adventures north to Jasper National Park. Along the way we overnighted in a Provincial Park in Kamloops, Canada. Like all of our experiences in their provincial parks, this one was again outstanding. Heading northeast from Kamloops, we set out on the only Canadian highway that linked into Jasper from the southwest. Unfortunately, there was an accident that blocked both sides of the highway. Stuck in a canyon-like valley, there was nothing to do but wait. The Canadians got out of their cars to make the most of it; as lawn chairs appeared, folks began chatting with each other out on the highway, while others started catching rays. It looked something like a big block party. We met another American couple from Oregon on their way to Alaska. They popped into their travel trailer to make sandwiches. And we chatted with a German guy on holiday. After a couple of hours, the logjam broke and we were back on our way.

The town of Jasper viewed from the Sky Tram.

The delay cost us our chance at a walkup (first come first served) campsite so we ended up that evening in Jasper’s “overflow lot.” But their overflow lot was nicer than many campgrounds we’ve been in! We could easily have remained there our entire visit; love those solar panels! The next day we landed in our reserved spot in their main campground. Jasper is a small town with a nice vibe to it. They have some good restaurants and a few touristy stores, but it is more low-key than Banff. The park is phenomenal. There are lots of hiking trails, mountain biking trails, road bike opportunities and of course kayaking. We tried to do a little of each.

Highlights included the ride up the Jasper Sky Tram with a follow-on hike up to Whistlers summit (not Whistler, as the Jasperites were fond of pointing out). We also headed out for a hilly but scenic 38 mile road bike along the 93A-93 loop, stopping to take in the views of the “alpine blue” rivers and Athabasca Falls on the way. One early morning we discovered the Bear Paw bakery. They scored three noms! (seriously, if you’re ever in Jasper, just go.) We had lunch the next day in their sister café, The Other Paw, and it also scored three noms!). After loading up on muffin carbs we headed up the Sulphur Skyline trail for a sunrise hike. We were first up the mountain that day, and felt like we earned our Bear Paw apple strudel! Unfortunately, the views were masked by the smoke that had blown in from fires in British Columbia to the west. So, we settled on spending the afternoon on mountain bikes on the Five Lakes trail. We skirted some beautiful “alpine blue” lakes on a hike-a-bike. Parts of the trail seemed designed to inflict grievous bodily harm so we mere mortals humbly pushed our bikes up or down several steep rocky sections. The conclusion to our Jasper visit included a hike along Maligne Canyon and some kayaking in Maligne Lake. Along the lakeshore, we heard a trio of osprey chicks demanding food and got to see a parent bird swoop into the nest.

Columbia Glacier. And questionable hat choices to keep the ears warm.

We left Jasper and headed to Calgary. Along the way we stopped at the Canadian Icefields visitor center to hike Glacial Trail, which probably used to allow visitors to “toe a glacier” but according to the Canadians, global warming is causing the glaciers to rapidly recede, leaving vast lateral and terminal moraines. Go figure - our neighbors to the north believe in evidence-based science. The visit to Calgary was to avail ourselves of their international airport. We had a short weekend planned in Kansas to attend Dean’s brother’s 60th birthday party. We also visited (and stayed with) good friends Robin and Travis. Always a special joy to overeat a breakfast of Travis’ sausage gravy and biscuits. Nom nom nom!

Returning to Canada, Banff was only about an hour and a half drive from Calgary. It lived up to its reputation as the premier park in Canada’s NPS. And as a bonus, Banff abuts Yoho National Park, another treasure, though more rugged and thus, less visited. More on that later. Our first campsite was in the Lake Louise area of Banff. Our three days totaled about 40 miles and about 9,000 feet of ascent. Our dogs and joints were barking each day, but it was all so epically worth it! We can highly recommend the trail from Lake Moraine up to Sentinel Pass including the spur out to Eiffel Lake. We also availed ourselves of the Iceline Trail in Yoho NP. This was perhaps the best 15(-ish, the watch battery died) miles of hiking we’ve done. It had it all, steep climbs, glaciers and their rivers and lakes, scree and talus fields, old growth forest, and epic waterfalls feeding “alpine” blue streams and rivers. And at the end we dipped our sore feet into aptly named Emerald Lake. For the third epic day of hiking we took on Lake Agnes and the Path of Six Glaciers around Lake Louise, and added on the Abbot Hut View Trail.

Abbot Hut View Trail. The Hut is in the snowy pass just to the left of the top of Dawn's cap. He fell to his death near there to get his name on that Hut.

But wait…there’s more! We moved the YOFOhome to a campsite in the town of Banff for a couple more days to cap off our third excursion to Canada. To mix it up a bit, we added mountain biking to our agenda, and were rewarded with some great views of a black bear and a herd of elk. We also got in a sunrise kayak on Two Jack Lake.

Our trip to Canada was amazing. The only drawback I can think of was the smoke that obscured some of the magnificence of the views. But that’s nature, and we’ve already resolved to go back! It’s hard to imagine topping Jasper, Banff, and Yoho…but our next stop was two of the premier parks in the US National Park System: Yellowstone NP and Grand Teton NP. We had planned to visit Glacier NP (and its Canadian partner park Waterton) on the way, but they were battling fires throughout both parks and had all but closed down where we wanted to play. Alas, we shall put it on the “must do” list for YOFO in the spring…or YOFO year two!

As an aside, we’re never nervous about crossing the border into Canada. All they ever want to know is if we’re carrying weapons. It’s the border crossing back into our own country that can cause some anxiety. We were searched the last time we crossed (must be Dawn’s mohawk!) and had a few cherry tomatoes confiscated (that were a “product of Canada” that we bought in the US!). This time the US border agent asked us how long we’d be visiting the US. We were stumped…after a long “uhhhh…” we declared that as citizens, we live in the US, and just might remain there permanently! Then in a stroke of genius, when asked our license plate number, Dawn gave it to the agent using military phonetic alpha-numeric. He immediately asked if we were military and seemed pleased with our “go Army!” response. No further questions, thank you for your service, and we were back in the USA!

Big Horn sheep...not suitable for knitting sweaters!