Canada's Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and Whistler. One of the world's best roadtrips!
- Mandy Watson
- 2 days ago
- 24 min read
Updated: 11 hours ago
If you can picture a myriad of pristine aquamarine lakes dotted with mountain reflections,
ancient glaciers that tower above the snow line,
and lush, giant fir tree forests sprinkled with the odd bear or two,
you are well on you way to imagining one of the prettiest places on Earth.
Helllloooo, Canada!
In August/Sept 2025, we had the absolute pleasure
of taking our sweet time driving through this majestic part of the world,
all the while enjoying the rapidly changing colours and magnificence of
autumn in British Columbia!
We needed another word for 'wow'.
This adventure simply started out by saying 'yes' to my brother.
Tony had mentioned previously that he and his partner Deb,
had always wanted to see this part of Canada,
as well experiencing the luxury train travel of the world famous
'Rocky Mountaineer',
before jumping on their first ever cruise ship, to head north to Alaska.
OK, that sounded brilliant, and all new for us too, well, apart from cruising,
which we were happy to help navigate and pop his cruise cherry, so to speak!
🛳 🍒
As my title suggests, we were road tripping whilst Tony and Deb went on a tour that included that fabulous train ride.
We chose to drive, for two reasons.
First one being that we love the independence to choose where and when
we like to travel sometimes,
and having a hire car means we have the freedom to stop wherever we like.
And secondly, to be perfectly honest, this way was considerably more affordable,
and seeing we had nine weeks to factor in,
we decided to lose the train experience in favour of a longer and more diverse holiday.
We still had a glass domed train day trip ahead in Alaska to look forward to anyway.
The Rocky Mountaineer is a spectacular experience, don't get me wrong,
but sometimes we have to draw a line between what we want, and what we want to pay! 🤔
Sometimes we just have to pull our heads in, in order to accomplish greater things.
We still had a similar itinerary, and hung out with them at all the stops, so we only missed out on the two days on the train...oh and staying at the Fairmont Hotels.
There's another wow place.
The Chateau at Lake Louise for example...
But we'll get to that.
Now that was decided, we chose a Cruise Line that
I knew would be more suited to our cruise newbie guests,
one having a similar age demographic, less kids, mid priced, and it had what's called 'Grandfather Rights' - which meant our ship had docking privileges, where some other lines had to anchor and move people ashore via tender boats.
Holland America won the vote.
And whilst we are die hard Viking Cruise line fans, this one did the trick nicely.
What could go wrong in just seven days, hey?
Nothing, I can assure you!
We also included a seven day land based Alaska tour after the cruise,
so the trip was packaged neatly as
'The Ultimate Denali'.
Mt Denali being the highest peak in North America, and one of the world's 'Seven Summits.'
But first, we have nine days now to travel from Calgary to Vancouver,
where the ship will depart, to head north through the
Inside Passage to the wilds of the last true frontier: Alaska...
And boy, this was a road trip and a half!
Like I said, we needed many different words for 'wow'.
Arriving in Calgary as our starting point,
it was great to meet up with Tony and Deb, as they live a fair distance from us in Australia -
I actually don't think we'd seen them since the onset of the Pandemic -
ewww, remember those days?
Shudder.
Anyhoo, after a free (plus tip) walking tour of the city, we met up at a local bar for some bevvies and laughs, before synchronising our next few days.
NB: A great way to see a new town or city,
is to Google 'Free Walking Tours' of the particular place your are visiting.
There's usually a few to choose from, and although they are free, you do need to book as sometimes they'll place limits on how many people can be in a group. Often your guide is a Uni student, or even a part time actor, but either way,
they are always well knowledged as well as full of random info you'd never
read about in an online search.
They donate their time, so please, a $20 or so tip is all you need to keep them working,
as well as getting yourself a very cheap local tour.
Next stop for us was to pick up our hire car, and start the drive to beautiful Banff,
which is only a short hour and a half away.
Easy peasy!
The imposing site of a snow free Cascade Mountain appearing before us,
indicated Banff was just around the corner. The driving around here was breathtaking, and I can assure you, we had seen nothing yet!
Keep an eye out for local wildlife!
If you can find a carpark, the town is quaint, yet larger than I had pictured,
but easy to get around on foot so definitely worth exploring.
The Christmas store is enormous and is absolutely worthy of your time.
And perhaps money. 😁
We had two nights staying nearby, so we popped into town quite a few times,
and enjoyed amazing food and service at The Three Bears Brewing Restaurant. Scrumptious, buttery toasted sourdough sandwiches, and even better baby back ribs!
Check out the pizza options...who doesn't like a 'grease wheel'?
Funny that nearly all the service staff here in Banff, (and further along this drive)
are Australian.
At least the ones we came across were...
It felt, aside from the scenery, that we had barely left home!
It's always great to have a bit of a yarn and chat about the footy scores in our native tongue- ... well, accent at least!
There sure are a heap of things to see and do around Banff outside of the ski season.
Plenty of stunning aqua lakes and hiking trails, mountain biking, and even hot springs,
not that we had time to do it all, but we did our best!
We did head over to the closest lake for a look see...
The name of this lake always made me giggle. Doesn't take much. 🤪 Such a child!
You could hire little boats and canoes, or take a two hour cruise on the lake,
but we were content just to drive around to find the best scenic spots to photograph. Apparently it offers exceptional sunrise photo opportunities,
as well as it's 'Northern Lights' viewing, when they show up. Yup, we're still waiting!
But certainly picturesque all the same and
just begging for our boofheads to get in front of it!
Just watch out for the bears!
We often laugh at how much people fear Australia, due to our 'deadly' wildlife.
At least ours doesn't hunt us!
Not that the brown and black bears truly hunt humans, (just don't get in their way)
but what about lions and wolves?
And the polar bears further north?
Not to mention the danger of a fully grown bull moose!
I digress. 🤔
The accommodation that I had chosen was about 45 mins from Banff,
and at first I thought I had stuffed up as it wasn't in town.
But once we arrived at Sunshine Mountain Lodge, we were most pleasantly delighted to find out that we had to take a gondola just to get up the mountain to our hotel.
FAB-U-LOUS!!!!
This place is a world renown dedicated ski resort!
Look at the little welcome we received, and then check out the view
from our upgraded hotel room. ❤️
The log cabin here was the original building, built back in the beginning of last century!
The main lodge has an enormous outdoor hot tub, and the massive log fire inside was the perfect place to enjoy the best espresso martini I've ever had.
I may have had two. 🍸🍸
This is a rare occasion where I did jump online to give them a great review.
They deserve it.
I can't begin to imagine how awesome it would be here during the ski season.
We're contemplating a return trip to find out!
Edit to say, Trev and I aren't skiers.
Sadly. However, living our lives in tropical Queensland has had us enjoying boating,
water skiing, swimming, horse riding...but never snow skiing.
Don't get me wrong - I wish we had, but at our age now, with new knees
and dodgy old ones, plus worn out shoulders, we won't be starting now!
Doesn't mean we don't love the mountains and we do get more than the tiniest bit excited if snow starts to fall, but here in Banff in the Autumn,
it was all about the hiking trails and foliage colour.
And looking out for bears!
Apparently up at this altitude, they are Grizzlies.
It's not recommended to walk on your own without bear spray.
So when we get to ride a gondola or chair lift, we are a little geeky,
and just love every second.
Brings out the inner child in us.
Not that it's ever very far away...
After catching up with my niece, Kate, Tony's daughter, who was living not far from Banff,
we left them all for the day to catch up whilst we took off for one of our little exploration excursions, and that was to hike the nearby Johnston Canyon.
I say hike, when I really mean walk.
Sounds more adventurous, hey?! 😏
Again, not knowing anything about it, but locals encouraged us saying it was a 'must see'.
They were correct.
After we managed to park half a mile from the entrance, as the carpark was chockers,
we headed in to find some waterfalls.
There were two choices of lengths of walks, (I mean hikes) 😁 to go on,
each offering differing waterfalls.
We just chose just the one hour return trail, as my new knee was still a little uncertain sometimes, and this early in the trip - I didn't want to risk it.
That said, if I had seen an image of the upper falls, I would've made the effort.
But no cell phone signal meant I couldn't find out.
Again, winging things can be fine, until you realised what you missed.
Note to self, (and to anyone else): research the night before if possible!
But it was still a lovely walk, easy enough for most capabilities.
And check out below, how amazing the Upper Falls look in winter,
and look how tiny the people are in comparison!
I came across this photo online so I'll add a link to the photographer and her travels as well. She has some great info in there about these falls, and loads of other exciting outdoor adventures. I'm really tempted to go back in the winter now!
Leaving here, after a delicious lunch we shared
whilst tiny ground squirrels flitted between the tables,
we passed this bad boy which warranted my attention. This is Castle Tower, part of the enormous rock formation known as Castle Mountain.
A rock climber's dream.
Often as we drove along this highway, we would see these 'Cruise Canada' motorhomes,
and as I snapped this shot, I realised that we were driving past the mountain
that is actually pictured on the vehicle!
I only wished we had the chance to line them both up in the one shot.
What were the chances?
Close, but no cigar.
But still pretty cool!
Now it was time to meet up with Tony and Deb at one of the world's most iconic hotels,
I've had this incredible image in my mind's eye for a few years now -
one of the most fabulous views from a hotel you could hope for. And the best part of the dream? An idea of us gently paddling a canoe across the lake itself, under the watchful eye of the massive Victoria Glacier that looms over it.
A lake with the most unbelievable colour water, due to the glacier's impact on the rocks under her, causing what's known as 'rock flour',
which is so fine it remains suspended in the water -
creating this glorious and unique glacial blue colour.
So, part of this dream was to hopefully grab a wall worthy photo to commemorate the day.
Boom! Got it.
You've already seen it.
It is the opening photo of this blog, so it's no surprise.
But there's more.
A nice little walk (aka hike) uphill to gain some elevation over the hotel and lake give us some more epic shots, as well as some fun in the forest.
But not before lunch.
Lunch with a view.
Check. It. Out.
We shared a mediterranean platter, which we all agreed was the best we've ever had.
Aside from the usual meats and cheeses, the highlights definitely were the figs,
raw natural honeycomb, and tiny cubes apple cider soaked fruit.
Combine this with sweet fresh strawberries,
creamy blue cheese and home made crackers and bread sticks,
I can tell you this made us all very happy little campers.
This definitely needed walking off, so we spent the rest of the afternoon strolling to the end of the lake, before Trev and I had to head back to our mountain accommodation.
It was hard to tear ourselves away from all this luxury, but all good -
we were looking forward to another gondola ride to take us 'home'.
The canoeing and hike was dialled in for the following day.
Once back on the mountain, we then had the time to take the chair lift from our hotel,
to go even further up to the lookout.
There is a Banff Gondola in town, but at $81 AUD each for an 8 minute ride,
we didn't bother with it, seeing we could ride the Sunshine Mountain gondola
and chair lifts all day long as part of our accommodation.
Here's a quick time lapse riding down from the summit.
I must say, the beauty of this place without being covered in snow, I find fabulous. Everywhere you turned, there were the tops of fir and spruce trees, thickly covered for the first time in years apparently, with tiny hard little cones; wildflowers seeing the last of their summer colour, and sweet little squirrels, happy doing their 'thing', if you stand still long enough to notice.
These lakes are frozen over in winter, and everything is completely covered in snow.
I love seeing the greens and blues outside of winter.
Not many autumn leaf colours up here with the conifer forests though.
That'll come later...
Fun fact: The spruce tree has the brown cones that hang down,
and the fir tree has the black cones that point up.
Not really fun - but now you know! 🤔
On our last morning we couldn't resist one last ride up to the lookout before we left...
Gotta squeeze out every last drop!
... and this time we had a free guided walking tour, which taught us plenty,
like the difference between the cones!
But here's a great explanation about what to do when (if) you come across a bear.
Just so you know, right?
Ok, Lake Louise here we come!!!
First things first was the hike to the scenic lookout overlooking the lake and Chateau. Tony and Deb run a bush walking club back in Australia,
so they were definitely in their element.
Trev and I, with new knees, still tend to walk quite cautiously,
and were happy to take our time.
Always time for some fun photos...
But the view was worth the effort!
This place has it wrapped up. It's the only hotel on the lake.
Thankfully.
A quick change of clothes and some sunscreen applied,
and we were ready to hit those canoes!
Seeing that Tony and Deb were hotel guests, we scored a discount
and skipped the line, woohoo, as it wasn't cheap and it was quite busy too.
However it is a one off experience, so it was worth every cent, in my opinion.
I think the going rate is $165 CAD for an hour, (per canoe, not pp)
but we paid perhaps $120 I think.
(Still better than an $81 eight minute gondola ride. 🤣)
Just to refresh your memory. 😁
It's actually one of my favourite photos of the entire nine week trip!
We had a blast!
To think this freezes over in winter, and they do cross country skiing on it!
We fully enjoyed a rest and coffee after our efforts.
I had to laugh at the writing on my coffee cup.
I'll take being X-Hot, thank you very much! 🤣🍮🔥
Alas, it was time to depart.
All good things eventually must come to an end, so it was time to see a couple last sights nearby before leaving towards our next stop of Jasper.
Having Tony and Deb's tour itinerary in hand, we took notice of the places of interest they were being taken to, so we just popped those into the car's Sat Nav,
and we were on our way.
Kicking Horse Pass and the Spiral Train Tunnels were locked in, and off we trotted.
At first, we drove and drove it seemed, not exactly knowing what to look out for or expect. Just when we thought we had gone too far and decided the next spot available we'd turn around, we came across what we were looking for after all!
(Sat Nav often drops out due to no reception.)
The Kicking Horse Pass was very high, open, and very windy...
a little daunting to tell you the truth. I grabbed this aerial shot online to show you, as clearly there was no scenic turn out here!
Not far from here we found the Spiral Train Tunnel viewing point.
We pulled into the designated parking lot, and wandered over to see what it was all about.
This was to be our lucky day.
Within minutes a train came.
Now, what happens with this tunnel, is that it spirals around and back under itself,
to allow the train to traverse the steep grade. If you're lucky enough, you will see the mile long train, watch it passing you, enter a tunnel across the valley then exiting one below it, all at the same time.
Well, guess what?
Yup, we saw it. There was a tour guide there, and he was telling his clients he's only seen this particular length of train four times in the twenty years he's been doing the tour. It took us five minutes, hahaha!
I'll add the video here, hopefully you'll understand what you are seeing.
In the foreground, you'll see the train passing through the trees, then in the distance you'll see it entering a tunnel, and exiting one below it at the same time. Pretty sure this is unique in the world.
✅
Moving on, it was time to find the aptly named, Emerald Lake.
A VERY popular spot, and we were lucky to be there later in the day,
as the parking was crazy busy!!!
But, yep, another wow place.
What a gorgeous spot for a bevvy, we thought,
but the 'closed' sign was coming out just as we entered.
What a shame.
So instead we wandered through the pathways, past all the little cottages,
and found the perfect one we'd love to stay in should we ever return.
The rear has the stunning view of the lake.
💚💙
And here's an out-take of what I often go through to get a selfie with Trev. Bless.
Last stop on the way back from Emerald Lake was another popular scenic spot,
known simply as 'Natural Bridge.'
A quick little walk over the Kicking Horse River,
and we got to see why it was a natural bridge.
The two huge boulders were all but blocking the river...it looks as though it was once
a single enormous rock, now split in two by the force of the water.
After a very long, yet enjoyable day, let me recap! Chairlift up the mountain for a guided walk, hike to view Lake Louise, canoeing on the lake, Kicking Horse Pass, Spiral Tunnel, Emerald Lake, and Natural Bridge ...no wonder we were ready to bunk down for one last night just south of here,
to rest up for our half day's drive tomorrow.
Just another day on vacation, huh?
😅
Jasper, here we come.
Today we had at least a four hour drive ahead of us,
so we took off early to beat the traffic.
Just kidding.
There was no traffic.
Loving this!!!!
Instead, we had the privilege to discover the epic 'Icefields Parkway' -
a stunningly beautiful 232 km road, listed as one of the most scenic drives in the world,
so be prepared for no internet connection, and possibly no gas stations.
Make sure you fill up before you go, have your spotify library downloaded
and have your maps available offline.
Not that you really needed a map.
Jasper was its main destination.
Check that your CAMERA/PHONE is CHARGED.
But boy 'o' boy, never miss an opportunity to pull over for some scenic viewing.
Check this out.
This is Bow Lake.
Some of the best reflection photos I've ever had to pleasure of taking.
Another quick stop and walk (hike 😜) to grab some more altitude,
and see even more glaciers, or where they used to be...
About an hour outside of Jasper, lies the Columbian Icefields.
The main attraction of which is a mammoth glacier where you can catch a 'Lost in Space' styled monster bus and be driven directly up onto it.
Also, part of that package, is you get to walk out on the glass floored Skywalk
for stunning views across the valley to the mountains and waterfalls beyond.
We have time tomorrow to experience that, so I'll go online tonight to book a tour,
as you can't do the Skywalk on your own - you must be taken there by their buses.
The smoke from nearby fires was really starting to impact the sky now,
and the further we drove towards Jasper, we were front and centre to witness the horrendous destruction from the worse fires the park had sustained in recent history.
It was quite reminiscent of the wildfires that hit home in Australia
back in 2019, where a staggering 59 million acres burnt out.
Just a year ago, lightning ignited a fire here that eventually destroyed 81,000 acres of forest,
and causing the evacuation of 25,000 people from Jasper,
as one third of the structures in town were levelled. 😭
Mile after mile of forest had been reduced to charred skeletons, but a year later,
the grass is returning, and with that, the wildlife.
We saw the largest bull elk yet, with his 12 point antlers, grazing right beside the road.
What a treat.
Arriving into town, it was clear that we weren't going to be doing very much.
No hiking through pristine forests, no enjoying beautiful lakes,
and certainly no use riding the gondola up the mountain as the smoke
was making visibility rather rotten.
Hard to believe how quickly the weather had changed. Yesterday we were enjoying those amazing lake reflections,
now today the earth is blanketed with dense smoke.
So, it was looking like a quiet night in for a change, after exploring the local township and finding my favourite New Zealand wine, and some cider for Trev.
This was a fine accompaniment to our charcuterie board dinner
that we enjoyed on the bed,
whilst watching some random rubbish on the telly.
Oh, and time to book our glacier tour for the morning...
On occasion, it's nice to have an easy going evening.
We do often travel at a cracking pace.
Just as well I read the fine print of our Glacier Tour,
as I thought we were being driven to and from Jasper.
Wrong.
We had to drive back again ourselves, another hour each way, but hey, we have a car,
and I'd rather do that than jump on a bus full of people.
No problem!
I had booked the first tour for the day, and that ending up being a very good thing.
Speaking to Tony overnight, he mentioned that he and Deb did this tour at the end of yesterday, and the glacier surface had turned very slushy from all the heavy vehicles,
so they were wading through ice water over their shoes.
Yuck!
Not for us!
First in best dressed it seems, aside from the wretched smoke,
which had thickened up overnight.
It was so dense now, it had turned the morning sun into an eerie blood red ball of fire.
All aboard the Terra Bus!
It was an extraordinary experience, to be walking on a glacier.
Not sure how many places in the world you can get to to enjoy this!
I certainly recommend booking this if you ever visit Jasper. I'm sure its the #1 attraction, so get your booking in early during the busy months.
Not far from here is the Skywalk,
and we probably spent just as much time here as on the glacier,
as we had to ability to stay as long as we wanted.
Just hop on any bus when you want to leave, as they come and go every 20 minutes.
Pity about the smoke.
The views, on a clear crisp day would be amazing. But we have seen plenty of amazing.
This was strangely beautiful in its own weird way.
Watching people clutching the handrail was somewhat comedic,
as the illusion of walking on air is a real thing
when the platform is glass.
Here's how it looks from below, on a clear day!
Photo credit, Brewster Travel.
What an amazing structure!
Quite the contrast to our smoke filled sky!
Back for one last night in Jasper, so we finally were able to catch up with Tony and Deb as they were enjoying a restful stay at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge -
which seemed like a giant Country Club.
We took the opportunity for some fun photos in the beautiful vintage car
they had by the pretty, flower lined front entrance, before heading in to explore the town and fine somewhere for din-dins.
Tomorrow, Tony and Deb finally get to board the Rocky Mountaineer,
for their two day, five star train trip to Vancouver.
They are super excited, and rightfully so.
We will meet them there, as we are headed now for the picturesque
alpine village of Whistler for a couple of days.
We are super excited too!
Good night, and goodbye Jasper.
Must admit, we are getting super spoiled now, with all these scenic highways.
We now have a huge day ahead...
Sat Nav tells me it is around eight and a half hours driving to get to Whistler.
Without stops.
But we're Aussies, that's just a walk in the park, right Trev?
Well, so we thought.
We do have an unspoken pact with our road trips.
We stop at any point that's worth a look.
And maybe a pitstop, if you know what I mean...💦
Sometimes we think, nah, only for me to turn back and look, and then proceed to bat the eyelids until Trev turns the car around to go back.
Happy wife, happy life, remember?!
This was one of those moments.
We weren't that far into the drive when we drove over what I thought was 'just another river', but this time my 'spidey sense' kicked in and made me look backwards over my shoulder,
and look what I saw!
If I hadn't, we'd be none the wiser it was even there!
Meet Mount Robson.
The tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies,
and apparently it is only visible with no clouds, on average, 12 days a year.
Our lucky day then!
Worth the turn around, Trev! 👍
Continuing on, and now we were on 'bear watch'. Oh, what I wouldn't give to have a bear sighting,
or even see one safely crossing in front of us.
One of their favourite food sources, berries, were currently lining both sides of the highway,
and they are currently chowing down on thousands of calories per day,
prepping themselves for their hibernation during the long winter ahead.
The signs were a clue...🤦♀️
But when we saw this next roadside billboard, we kept an eye out for the turn off.
Bear boating river safari?
Thats a 'heck yeah' from us!
Welcome to Blue River Safaris.
Again, luck has it that we only had to wait 20 minutes for the next boat cruise. Yippee!
What we thought was just a one hour cruise, ended up being a two hour bonanza!
Flying over the shallows in what felt like a jet boat, skippered by - you guessed it...another rather handsome Aussie, 😳, we were just happy being out on the water again,
having the time of our lives with a gorgeous blue eyed dog for company.
What more did we hope for?
Well, it turns out - BEARS!!!!!
What a thrill.
T I C K!!!!!
Short but sweet videos, not easy to have them hanging around for very long.
After all the fun on the speed boat, it was now onto a calm, electric double sided canoe to take us back to the dock. 😢
Still, we were always searching for more bears, but it ended up just being the one sighting
of the two playful young brothers, known locally as 'Barnem & Bailey',
due to their clown like behaviour.
🐾🐾🤡🐾🐾
Happy days indeed, and a welcome break in the road trip.
It did add about two and a half hours to what was already going to be a long day,
but it was sooooo worth it!!!
Lunch was definitely going to a subway creation and cookie on the fly.
Check out the temp when we stopped at a random part of the train line
that I knew the Rocky Mountaineer would be passing over sometime today.
34 deg cel, at nearly 6pm?
Streuth, its like Australia!!!!
Its all good, the trip was still so scenic,
but the weather heating up like this really surprised us.
I literally only packed three t-shirts, thinking they would be always under
copious layers of warm clothes.
Hells bells, we packed for Canada and Alaska in the Autumn,
never thinking it would be t-shirt weather for the first week and a half.
The last couple of hours drive into Whistler, was outstanding...seemingly sneaking in from behind the mountains in the opposite direction most people come from.
Always climbing in altitude, and cruising by peaceful mountain lakes before negotiating massive switch backs to get us up the ranges.
After a huge travel day, we finally arrived after dark, so it was a quick wander around the charming Whistler village, dinner by an open fire near the gondola,
and we were happy to turn in for the night, with the most delicious bucket of
Butter Pecan ice cream that we devoured whilst lying in bed.
Wow, something we've never done before in our lives!
Aren't holidays exceptional?!
😜
__
Good morning Whistler!
Look at this charming village, in both summer and winter.
Gorgeous.
Time to walk off that ice cream!
Don't suppose catching the gondola really counts...?
But to get there from the Whistler Village, requires a lovely stroll through the woods,
and across this stunning wooden bridge.
This was going to feature heavily in an event tomorrow,
which we were lucky enough to stumble upon. But first...
Only the Blackcomb Mountain & 'Peak to Peak' Gondolas were operating this time of year,
as we aren't in the ski season yet - more like the mountain bike season though!
This is an excellent ride, even without the snow. Once you get off the first gondola, you get to jump on the cool 'Peak to Peak' gondola, which traverses an enormous gorge.
But a few pics first, sans the view, sadly, but I did find a cute chubby Marmot.
Apparently it's the longest single span gondola in the world.
We lined up especially to grab the gondola with a glass viewing bottom,
which was fun for a while, but you end up looking everywhere anyway. Trev made everyone's day by spotting a black bear, not far below us. No one onboard had seen one yet, so they were all duly excited.
Onya, Trev!
I couldn't get a good shot of the full length of the cable car,
with the amount of smoke still around, but even looking online
for an image didn't really offer very much, as its such a long way,
there's no way to really capture it in a single photo.
Once we got across the valley, there was a huge shop and restaurant stop, and yes,
another set of rings to photograph... 😏
Now we were all ready for the very steep chairlift to take us up to the Cloudraker Sky Bridge and Raven's Eye platform which mind you,
is all included in the one gondola fare, which is awesome.
Once at the top, there's the rather giddying suspension bridge to traverse, to get across to the amazing Ravens Eye viewing platform.
Certainly not for the faint hearted!
What view we had - despite the smoke, was still outstanding. Hey, it could've been cloudy!
Always look on the bright side. Just look where we are! Always grateful.
🫶
We are definitely thinking about calling in here again at the end of this trip, to hopefully see it with a sprinkle of snow. But we have a LOT of travelling to do before then.
Our last night in the village was quite the treat. We had been chatting with our son back home, as he had lived here in Whistler a couple of times (even during the Winter Olympics), and he had a friend who still worked in the village, so we decided to pop into the restaurant; '21 Steps' to say hello. And yes, I counted the steps. 😄
Upon standing at the bar, and she asked what we wanted to order, I simply flashed her a photo of Trev and Aaron together, and she immediately smiled and said
"Oh I miss him so much".They apparently had a great working relationship,
so she was rather chuffed to meet the oldies!
Small world.
Thanks, Bren, for the excellent service, company, food and mates rates!
The following day we had to check out, and drive down to Vancouver.
But not before one last stroll across that wooden bridge - and that's where the fun began!
We could hear this loud Indian music, really pumping, and as we got closer,
we realised it was an Indian wedding!
NOW THAT'S something I've always wanted to see...and whilst we weren't invited,
we managed to take a few pics, as it was still a public place. The clothing, the men's silk slippers, the colours, the laughter...wowsers!
Alas, it was time to leave.
We now had to drive the two or so hours south to Vancouver, along,
yes you guessed it - another stunning highway!
This one is aptly named 'Sea to Sky' Hwy, or Hwy 99.
A gorgeous winding road always going down down down in elevation,
and passing the most stunning rock formations which then turned towards
serene mountain lakes - it was an utter feast for the eyes.
Poor Trev, having to negotiate the road rather than look at the views,
but when we return, and we will return,
it'll be via a shuttle, so he'll see what he missed.
Finally arriving in Vancouver, with time up our sleeve to drop the rental car back,
it was down to the waterfront for us to meet up with Tony and Deb.
Time to enjoy a few bevvies, and to recall our varying adventures of the past nine days.
What fun!
What beauty!
What a country!
Thank you Canada, you have exceeded any expectations, ten fold.
If you haven't been, and it's high on your bucket list - I can fully recommend seeing what we have seen.
Whether you are on a guided tour, or winging it on your own...Your cup will be overflowing.
I promise.
Now, we are about to board a cruise ship to take us north to Alaska.
We'll have seven days cruising the inside passage and beyond , visiting charming seaside villages, followed by seven days exploring Alaska by land.
Talk about the Last Frontier!
And fingers crossed for some Northern Light action! 🤞
Come back soon to read that post, as I'll crack straight onto it.
Until then, its
CIAO
M x
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