STEPPED INTO A PAINTING!
Canada is
an awesome tourist destination with picture perfect lakes, mountains, glaciers
and charming cities as well as the mighty Niagara
falls.
We had the good fortune to enjoy the lovely country recently. We felt as if we had stepped into a painting by a maestro like Monet!
The gardens are fabulous too!
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| Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver |
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| Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver |
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| Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver |
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| Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC |
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| Butchart Garden, Victoria, BC |
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| Botanical Garden, Niagara Falls |
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| Botanical Garden, Niagara Falls |
Canada is celebrating their 150 years of Independence (2017) and entry to all national parks is free.
I’m sharing the report of our trip here. This is the intro and as usual there will be detailed report of each day following this.
What to see?
Rockies have been on our
wishlist for quite a while. Banff
national park, Jasper national park and the Icefield parkway are so popular and
were first on our itinerary. YES, we drove the Icefield parkway twice over
south to north and then north to south as recommended and it was AWESOME!
We included
Yoho national park as well which is as spectacular as its more famous cousins.
In
western Canada, along with
Rockies in Alberta, we included a bit of British Columbia driving down to Vancouver. Our stopovers for the night were
Lac le Jeune in Kamloops on the way to Vancouver and three
valley lake at Revelstoke… both so scenic! In central Canada, Toronto and Niagara
falls were our choices. The rest of scenic Canada awaits future visits.
Below is the map of the places we visited. You can zoom in
and read my notes on the bubbles as the travel research shaped up.
When to go?
Driving windy mountain roads is best avoided in snowy winter
conditions. As a personal choice, we like to avoid peak tourism season which is
July-Sep for Canadian Rockies. We would have loved a spring visit but our work
scheduling did not oblige. We could spare 17 days during Labor Day holidays, so
Aug 25-Sep 10, 2017 was the period of our visit. Thankfully, we could enjoy all
the sights without crowds.
Wild Fires:
Canadian summers do see wild fires in some
provinces. This year there is a big fire in Okanagan valley due to a lightning
strike during a thunder storm and many ongoing other fires also. Our heart goes out to all those affected by the fires. Wind carries dense smoke in any direction
and Smoke levels were part of daily reports for all places. Tourists hope for clear
skies to enjoy mountain and glacier views and those with pre-existing health
conditions have additional worries.
As these are beyond our control, we kept
our fingers crossed and hoped for a good outcome for all concerned. As it
turned out we had one full smoky day on our drive from Revelstoke to Calgary airport on Sep 5. Also a bit of a haze in the late afternoon on Aug 29 and full day of Aug 30.
On the whole, weather and conditions were GREAT!
Flights:
Return trips or multicity trips as in our case were all
priced as individual components on the air line sites, so we bought all our
tickets as single legs. Our flights were
booked separately as follows:
Aug 25, Friday 8.30 pm: Houston-Calgary
Sep 5, Tuesday, 7.10pm: Calgary-Toronto
Sep 10, Sunday, 12 noon: Toronto-Houston
Car Rentals:
We booked car rentals from Enterprise to avail a corporate discount. We checked
out rates for hiring from the city but went for hiring from the airport. The rental
company gave us free shuttle rides for pickup and dropoff at Calgary. For Toronto the rental office was right at the
airport, so no worries.
Calgary
Airport car rental:
Scheduled pickup at 9am Aug 26 and drop off before 5 pm on Sep
5th.
Toronto
airport car rental:
Pickup sep 6th morning, drop off sep 10th
morning.
Our plans changed a bit because of Hurricane Harvey which struck
the Gulf of Mexico.
Aug 24, 2017, Hurricane Harvey:
We were scheduled to take the United Airlines flight (code
share Air Canada express) at
8.30 pm from Houston
on Friday Aug 25th when torrential rains were predicted. The office
got closed early on Thursday evening (and reopened only the next Thursday). We were
taken aback by these developments and wondered if we’ll be able to fly out for
our vacation. We rang up Air Canada
and they directed us to contact United. That night’s flight was full but they
could accommodate us on the next morning’s flight (Aug 25) without any extra charges.
Aug 25, 2017:
We opted for the direct flight at 9 am and made it under
cloudy skies and light drizzles! Later of
course, the Houston airport will be totally flooded and the city also pummeled by
torrential rain.
We were in Calgary
by noon instead of later at midnight as planned. Got the shuttle to the hotel,
checked in, called up the car rental and scheduled pickup in the evening
instead of next morning. So everything got sorted out. Thankfully our home area
did not have any impact because of the hurricane. Our heartfelt wishes for all
the victims for a quick recovery!
Itinerary:
Our itinerary played out like this:
Aug 25, 2017: Landing at Calgary, collecting car.
Hotel: Hampton inn, Hilton, Calgary
airport (1 night).
Aug 26, 2017: Driving to Banff,
Hotel: Red Carpet Inn (3 nights).
Visited the Bow Falls, a stone's throw from our hotel...
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| Bow River |
No parking was available at Johnston canyon at
11.45 am.
We attempted to drive to Lake Louise gondola for their free shuttle, got
into an overflow parking lot with free shuttle to Lake Louise; lovely visit to Lake Louise (Plain of 6
glaciers hike).
Aug 27, 2017:
Arrived at the parking before 9am. Lake
Moraine rock pile trail.
Next was Yoho
National Park:
Spiral tunnels (saw a train snaking in! Have posted the video; link below at end of this post).
Emerald lake was FANTASTIC.
Confluence of 2 rivers( Kicking Horse river and Yoho river) was beautiful.
Misses: Wasted a lot of time driving upto Wapta falls
trailhead, turned back as the road was gravel and we were rattled by the
warnings at the parking place.
Aug 28, 2017:
Arrived by 8.30 am at the main parking lot, did Johnston
canyon lower and upper falls hike including cave visit.
Had a ride on Lake Louise gondola (lovely
views, no sighting of grizzlies, guess morning visit would have been fruitful
in this regard).
Aug 29, 2017:
Checked out of hotel.
Icefield parkway drive to Jasper.
AWESOME! I've posted more pics in the day reports that come after this post.
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| Crowfoot glacier |
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| Bow lake |
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| PEYTO LAKE |
Weather turned a Little hazy at and after Sasketchewan glacier view. Thankfully we had clear skies on our drive back 2 days later!
Stay: Checked into Cozy Crystal home, Jasper (2 nights).
Aug 30, 2017:
This was a hazy day. Activities:
Medicine lake
Maligne lake
Maligne canyon hike
Sighting of black bear.
Aug 31, 2017:
Drove north to south on Icefield parkway from Jasper to Lake Louise. Clear skies, great day!
Little bit of smoke in a few pockets on the way near Kamloops, clear skies at
Lac le Jeune where we stayed.
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| Lac le Jeune |
Hotel: Lac le Jeune resort and nature center (1 night)
Sep 1, 2017:
Drive from Lac le Jeune to Vancouver
Stay: Kings corner (3 nights)
Visited Queen Elizabeth park, Blodel bird conservatory. Fabulous!
Sep 2, 2017:
Sea-tto-sky highway drive (Shannon falls, Brandywine
falls, Portman cove).
Peak to peak gondola... Whistler, Blackcomb mountains are
awesome!
Saw Alexander falls on the way back.
Views are better on the way back from Whistler to Vancouver as Howe sound is on the
side we drive on!
Sep 3 2017:
Day trip to Victoria
on BC Ferries. We had reserved tickets for 10cad each way just a week before for the ferry, 8am departure from the pier at Vancouver and 6pm departure from Victoria.
Visited the FABULOUS Butchart gardens.
Miniature world was MAGNIFICENT!
Sep 4, 2017:
Drive Vancouver
to three valley lake, Revelstoke.
Stay: Chateau, three valley lake gap (1 night)
SEP 5, 2017:
Drive back to Calgary
airport. Fully smoky day.
7.10 pm Flight delayed to 8.30 pm.
With the 2 hour time difference in the zones we landed at 3
am Toronto time.
Hotel shuttle was so delayed and we reached Best Western Plus Dixie
road at 4am!
Stay: Best Western
Plus Dixie road (1 night)
Sep 6, 2017:
Collected car rental from Toronto
airport after 1 and drove to Niagara falls
avoiding toll road 407.
Stay: Hilton
Falls view room (2 nights)
Walked to table rock for view of the falls.
Skylon tower observation deck had great falls and sunset views.
Sep 7, 2017:
Breakfast at Hilton Watermark Restaurant, with falls view.
Hornblower cruise.
Butterfly garden
Botanical gardens.
Bird kingdom,
Drive to Niagara-on-the-lake.
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| Smallest chapel in the World |
Sep 8, 2017:
Drive to Toronto
again avoiding toll road 407.
Stay:All days hostel, downtown.
Drove to zoo, but it was closing at 4.30, so bought the Toronto City Pass,
drove to downtown.
Visited Ripley’s aquarium (live rock concert along with the fabulous
display of fish). I've posted a 20 minute video, link at the end of the post .
Went up CN Tower and had great sunset views.
Sep 9, 2017:
Visited Casa Loma as soon as it opened at 9.30 am.
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Next was the Zoo (rode the zoomobile to reduce walking, particular emphasis was on pandas, grizzlies, polar bears). Polar bears put up a great show and I've posted the video.
Sep 10, 2017:
Returned car at airport. Took flight back to Houston.
Wild life sightings:
We had several close encounters with the famed wild life of Canada and took
lovely pics! Ha ha!
Actually we met up with a bear jam on the road on the way
back from Maligne Falls. We have a hilarious video of people running through
bushes chasing a poor bear which was trying to have its brunch! Could not catch
the bear in a pic as we did not want to harass it by approaching close!
Saw some caribou and mountain goats on the road.
Toronto
aquarium was awesome, so was the bird conservatory in Vancouver Elizabeth park.
The polar bears put on quite a show at Toronto
zoo which we caught in a video. Truth to tell, we were relieved we did not
encounter grizzlies on hikes!
HOW TO ENSURE SEEING "TURQUOISE" LAKES:
Main goal is to enjoy the turquoise
color of lakes. So of course, avoid the period when the lakes are
frozen. The usual "ice off" date for Lake Louise falls
between May 25 and June 9th.
Peyto Lake would normally thaw
shortly after Lake Louise. Of course each year plays out
differently...
The color of the water is from
refracted light due to the fine glacial till (fine sand) that is
suspended in the water, you do see significant changes due to
available sunlight and cloud cover.
There is some change in the color of
the water through the season, as the amount of "rock flour"
suspended in the water changes with the amount of glacial run-off.
Colors tend to be more vivid early in the season (and the water
"milkier") whereas the water is much clearer in the autumn,
when melting slows down and there is less silt.
TIPS:
Don't visit the lakes late in the
afternoon or early evening (glare).
Go from 7AM to 10AM when the sun
is behind you or the sun is facing the mountains not behind the
mountains assuming you are at the main "entrance" part of
the lakes.
The higher you see the lake from - the
bluer it seems! it is to do with the angle of the sun/light as it
hits the water/sediment.. Some hikes gain more elevation than others,
for example the hikes up above Lake Louise & Lake Moraine (which
can be quite strenuous). However the hike to Peyto Lake is
a short and gentle 10 minute journey with incredible rewards.
A good way to see the impact of run off
is to get a good view of the far (non Chateau LL) end of Lake Louise.
You can usually see a gradient of colors where the glacial run off
feeds the lake.
It has been a terrific trip and I’ll be giving day to day
reports as usual.
Detailed Report of day 1 and 2 continues here:
VIDEO LINK:
I’ve processed the numerous videos and the videos are posted at this link:
Individual video links are as follows, some have music , others original sounds, all are captioned:
Bow falls, lake Louise, Moraine lake,
Yoho NP, Spiral tunnels, Takakkaw falls, Natural bridge over Kicking
horse river, Johnston canyon hikes, Lake Louise Gondola
Icefield Parkway
Banff to Jasper
Jasper to Lake Louise to Golden to Le
lac Jeune
Alberta drives
Sea to Sky Highway, Vancouver
Vancouver(Queen Elizabeth Park,
Blodel),
Victoria(Butchart, Miniature world),
Toronto (CN Tower, Casa Loma)
Niagara falls botanic gardens,
butterfly conservatory, bird kingdom
Hotels
Vancouver
Queen Elizabeth Park, Blodel Conservatory original sound
Toronto zoo
Ripley's aquarium, Toronto
niagara falls, skylon tower, hornblower
cruise and niagara-on-the-lake
