Canadian Rockies Photos - Footloose Trek

Over Calgary Over the Rockies Our transport crossing British Columbia Glacial River Emerald Lake Emerald Basin Hike Emerald Lake Emerald Lake: I did swim in it honestly! Takkakaw Falls Cathedral Mountain Riding to Victoria Glacier Lake Louise Cowgirl! Scenery! Banff Gondola Sulphur Mountain summit Banff Top of Sulphur Mountain Banff Banff: Tunnel Mountain 4,419 miles to England!!! Tunnel Moutain Resort Banff Trek Barbecue, Banff Amazing Views Peyto Lake & glacier Peyto Lake view (mosquitos aargh!) A lake! Going for a ride! Heliocoptoring! Glacial Lakes, Icefields Parkway from Helicopter My feet, A helicopter, 500ft up! Echo 1 to tower: Roger, Roger, do we have Clearance Clarence? Blimey a Bear!!! He's coming this way!!! The Road thru the Rockies Athabaster Glacier Putting my toe on the Glacier toe! 2 hours of hiking up the glacier... bloody cold! Jasper chalet hotel view Yeeehaaah! Save a bear.. ride a cowboy? Cycling fashion... around Jasper Our chalets outside Jasper Lake Beauvert, Jasper Lake Beauvert Jasper Mt Robson 3954m (highest peak in Canadian Rockies) Canadian cowgirl! Totem Poles Stanley Park Vancouver Vancouver Skyline - last stop before Seattle and home.

Canada Diary Episode 4 - British Columbia/Alberta

July 11-20 This week I've been mostly in the Canadian Rockies. There's not been much chance to update my blog and the pc's here are really slow. So, a quick summary. Left Seattle with 11 other travellers - mixed group all ages. Very fun people from UK and Denmark. Tour leader Andrus - a cool dude! Kamloops - large boring town amidst a dry desert like valley. Golden - middle of Kicking Horse valley - very scenic and a place to list for future ski holidays - this is being developed on a big scale. Emerald Lake - beee ute iful !!! Hiked to emerald Basin and then took canoe on the water - even swam in glacial lake! Lake Louise - revisited. This time on horseback up to plain of 6 glaciers. Banff - cable car to sulphur Mountain, hot springs, mosquitos !!! Aaarghh! Takkakaw Falls - highest in Canada - stunning! Icefield Parkway - Helicopter Ride over columbia Icefields - awesome! Hike onto Atha Jasper - saw black bear! Bike ride through 5 lakes region, Lake Beauvert - so pretty! Vancouver - pretty location - not much time here though - photos of totem poles and quick tour of city. tomorrow - back to Seattle for one last meal at Elliots on the pier - then home on Saturday/Sunday. Next stop Devon!!!

Canada Diary Episode 3 - Lake Louise

July 4th Up at 6am to watch the British Grand Prix live with Ed - same commentary as ITV so it felt like home. By 8.30am on the road to Banff National Park with a Starbucks and McBreakfast to keep us going! Leaving Calgary, the scenery is mainly grassy plains and distant foothills of the Rockies. On the TransCanadian Highway 1 we soon arrived some 130 km later at the entrance to Banff Park. With many photo stops along the way, our first real stop was at Moraine Lake - a gorgeous turquoise lake with snow capped mountains. We climbed the short but steep rocky mound at one end of the lake to take in the views. Then back in the car to get to Lake Louise. This popular resort in winter is dominated by the ski village - the slopes visible on the mountain. At this time of year it is cyclists, walkers and tourists. At the Lake the stunning Chateau Lake Louise hotel forms a backdrop at one end of the green lake with the majestic Mount Victoria at the other end, surrounded by other peaks all sporting glaciers. We donned out hiking gear to set off on a 10k round trip to a tea house and back along the Plain of the 6 Glaciers trail. Plenty of views and vistas, snow caps, amazing geological features from the glacial activity here make this trail interesting added to that the flora along the way - alpine plants and spring flowers. Some 5 hours later we were back at the car and on our way back into th city. A great day which has whetted my appetite for the Canadian Rockies Tour which I join from Seattle on Wednesday. I have one more day in Calgary then fly on Tuesday back to Seattle.

Canada Diary Episode 2 - YAHOOOOOO !

July 6th - Calgary stampede - Yahoooooo! Yahoo is the battle 'cry of a Calgarian rodeo rider and supporter - not the internet service provider. Ive been practising today and am pretty good - no doubt helped by the alcohol that's cramming my blood supply at the moment...! It's Friday night and I've been here 3 days now. My first full day in Calgary was spent at the Heritage Park - a collection of historic buildings set in a themed park next to the Bow River. With people in costume and authentic surroundings it was fun. Once Ed was home from dentisting, we ate at a barbecue place nearby and took a drive through the city for a drink on 17th Ave - very hip and trendy with people getting into stampede party mood. Thursday was a chilled out retail day with Arlene in the downtown area of the city and malls. I bought some clothes to suit this hot weather and we ate lunch at a sports bar in the city. Dinner was buffalo on the barbecue at home and some great wines - finishing with an ice wine - kind of like a desert wine. Today we got up early to beat the queues into the city for Stampede Parade. This is an annual party event which starts at 9am and kicks off the Stampede which lasts 10 days. The stampede in case you dont know is the world famous rodeo which dominated city life and attracts the top riders from around the world. After taking the C train into the city Arlene and I had a pancake breakfast at ROADHOUSE on 9th Ave and had prime seats to watch the many floats and spectacls passing by during the 3 hour parade. Highlights included the Mounted Police (not mounted though), the Canadian army screeching to a halt in a tank, some mini horses pulling wagons and the many gorgeous horses and natives in their parade finery. The breast cancer charity is supported here and so many people (including us) were wearing pink under the banner 'are you tough enough to wear pink?' I think men look good in pink anyway - and there are lots of real men here! The afternoon was spent in the showground at Victoria Park - a sort of combination of rodeo, fun fair, agricultural show, car boot sale and shopping outlet. We saw some rodeo action up close (Arlene is a committee volunteer so we got in free), drinking booze, eating food ( most of it free) and people watching. We ended our day with Ed joining us for some ore free food and then a stop over in the Nashville North music tent for live country music and more booze! So far I like Calgary - I wish I was a cowgirl! More Rodeo tomorrow, then hiking in the Rockies on Sunday......

Canada Diary Episode 1

July 4th - Calgary Here I am in Canada, I arrived here from Seattle airport yesterday. With all the troubles in the UK and with the US on a high level of security I am glad to be out of the USA for 4th July - especially avoiding airplanes. I'm staying with Ed and his partner Arlene ( I met Ed in Egypt) in Calgary, or just outside. Calgary is in Alberta, and the scenery is fairly flat and green with very few trees or features, but with the Rockies nearby there is playground for the outdoors not far away. It's Stampede week in Calgary which means lots of cowboys, parties, rodeo action and drinking! I hope to be in drunken party stupor for most of this week. Ed has some great wine and we enjoyed 3 bottles last night (feel a bit rough this morning) and today I'm going with Arlene to the Heritage park to see how the old homesteads were in the frontier days of Alberta's history. So - more of an update later. Kx