Vancouver
After a few
days in the hugely undesirable city of Seattle, Vancouver came as a breath of
fresh air. Sure it’s a city like most others, but the real difference is it’s
in Canada. There might only be a marginal difference in terms of friendliness
between Americans and Canadians, with the latter being the friendlier, but such
a small detail makes all the difference.
The seaport
city is south of The Rockies (where we would be heading on a Contiki tour four
days later). After settling in, our first excursion saw us visit the infamous
and must-see Stanley Park – Vancouver’s answer to Central Park though some six-hundred
acres plus in size. There we visited the Stanley Park Aquarium where we were
impressed by a performing dolphin and a “false killer whale” and where we
finally, after some disappointment during an excursion in Hawaii, met an enormous turtle. This was of course on
the other side of the glass though, but it was as up-close-and-personal as we
would ever get. Unfortunately, the glass also got in the way of me offering it
some pizza, but never mind.
A view of the city from Stanley Park
Stanley Park Aquarium
Hero in a half-shell
We also skirted
along a beautiful lake known as the Lost Lagoon, but this is really just a
thousandth of what Stanley Park has on offer. A staggering thousand acres in
size, it boasts a seawall with views of the harbour, as well as its own
temperate rainforest, miniature train network, First Nations-made totem poles,
several miles of greenery, hiking trails and plenty more.
After our
week-long Rockies tour, we returned to Vancouver where we spent another few
days exploring. Sadly though, due to torrential rains we never got to return to
the park (nor were we able to visit Grouse Mountain) to further explore it
through bike-hire but we did briefly pass through before finally leaving our
tour bus. We got to see The Lions Gate Bridge which is often used in movies to
double for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge as it offers much better
visibility. It was used in Rise of the
Planet of the Apes when the apes battle the police on the bridge, as well
as the first X-Men film in 2001 when
Magneto tears the bridge away with his powers. More recently, scenes from the
upcoming Apes sequel War for the Planet of the Apes (as were
scenes from the second film Dawn) were
also shot in the lower part of the city.
The easily-found Lost Lagoon
Lions Gate Bridge
Stanley Park Totem Poles
Speaking of
Endor though, we may as well have been on location (if the fictional moon actually
existed, that is) when we made our final Vancouver-excursion to the Capilano
Suspension Bridge. The rainforest here is understandably similar to that of
Stanley Park, but not only that, just look at the network of boardwalks that
take you high up into the trees just under the canopy as well as the
nauseatingly-wobbly suspension bridge itself. It could easily be the home of
the Ewoks. Except sadly we spotted no bears here – even the ones who aren’t
anthropomorphic with forged weapons. We did see plenty of wild bears in The Rockies though, so I’ll take you on a brief journey through the epic mountain range via the only true time travel that is blogging.
Capilano Suspension Bridge Rainforest
No Ewok sightings today
Much less stable than it appears
Whistler
Whistler was
our first stop, though not actually in The Rockies. Nevertheless, this
adventure-based mountain resort offers incredible sights of the snow-sloped
mountains that surround it. Here you can ski, do extreme mountain biking (so
extreme that on average one person a year is killed coming down…), or take a
gondola to the top where you can take yet another
gondola that has a free-wire that runs the length of 4km between both its
peaks. Or you can just take it easy like we did and hike around the Lost Lake.
As safe as hiking through bear-infested forests can be, of course. The Lost
Lake is stunning, as are the deep forests that surround it. Why it’s called
Lost Lake though I’m not so sure, and the same goes for the Lost Lagoon in
Vancouver’s Stanley Park (they’re actually pretty easy to find).
Bear country
The not so well-hidden Lost Lake
Whistler
Jasper
Like Whistler,
Jasper is a small mountain resort, albeit far more modest in terms of
activities. There are plenty of wildlife excursions to do nearby though but the
town itself is fairly small and the surrounding mountains not so immediate as
they are in Whistler. We also did a hike here though, catching breathtaking
views of the powerful falls and river as we did and of those beyond, of the
valleys and the river as they twisted and turned out of sight and deep into The
Rockies.
Jasper National Park
Countless waterfalls
See any bears?
Kamloops
Unfortunately Kamloops
was a very quick stopover. Or perhaps not so unfortunate as it was a tiny
little town with apparently not much to do. There were some surrounding hills
and quarries though, and as we arrived on the coach it was obvious that this
was the town that doubled for Power
Rangers 2017’s Angel Grove, as I instantly recognised the main street as
the area where the Megazord and Goldar did battle in the film’s climax. We
arrived late and headed straight out for an included meal with the group, but
afterwards I made the effort to explore as much as possible and managed to get
a few snaps of the area. Sadly I recovered no power coins.
Enter CGI Megazord and Goldar here
The real Angel Grove
Any power coins up there?
Banff
Easily the most
gorgeous stay during our Rockies trip. The main town offers mesmerising views
of its beastly snow-topped mountains, and it even snowed heavily during our
stay there. In fact it snowed so much that we decided against going up on the
gondola we had already paid for as the views were completely obscured. Instead
we decided to go on a short hike into some nearby woods. Once inside, it was
eerily quiet and we stood watching as the snow fell. Suddenly we were alarmed
by the cracking of twigs nearby, and we hastily returned to the town (but not
without interrupting a small wedding in a snowy clearing just outside the
woods). Once in the safety of a local Starbucks, some internet-research
confirmed my fears: wolves lurk in those very forests…
Wolves are lurking nearby
Morning after the snowfall
Minutes after the snowfall
The Rockies
As we made our
way back down towards Vancouver, we stopped over in Vernon for the night.
However there’s really nothing to say here other than the fact that we enjoyed
a delicious meal at the big all-day breakfast chain Denny’s. And on that note, I
haven’t yet mentioned just how well Denny’s and also Tim Hortons – all-day
pastries and coffee - served us in Canada, and how they’ll be sorely missed
(enter sad face here).
That doesn’t conclude
our time in Canada though. Don’t forget – we explored the Rockies which
involved countless hours of scenic journeys between stopovers. Alongside the
roads we spotted several black bears, as well as a grizzly. Seeing these
animals up close – from the safety of a coach of course – was pretty awesome.
This is their natural habitat, and we’re lucky that they let us pass through
without quarrel. There are several “bear rules” to follow in Canada of course,
and while they’ve been known to attack or even kill humans, for the most part
they are relatively harmless – provided those rules are adhered to. Sadly we
didn’t see any elk, beaver or moose, though I’m not so sorry we didn’t see any
wolves after the Banff incident…
Grizzly Bear
Black Bear
Yogi's cousin, I think
And to end on a
high, we stopped at the incredible and otherworldly Athabasca Glacier. The
glacier, a quarter kilometre thick, is one of six “toes” within the Columbia
Icefield, located partly in the northwestern tip of Banff National Park and partly
in the southern tip of Jasper National Park. To get up onto the glacier, we had
to take a terrain-appropriate glacier truck – awesomely one of only
twenty-three on the planet. Once we exited, the cold tore at our skin like
razor-sharp claws. The landscape was white, barren and rocky and the frozen
ground beneath our feet a strange, almost ethereal sky blue; like I was
standing on an alien world. Before jumping back on the ice-friendly monster
truck, we filled our bottles at a stream of volcanic water. It was the most
refreshing, most crisp water I’ve ever tasted.
Athabasca Glacier
Ice Monster
Views from the top
Unlike New Zealand, Canada’s
natural landscape holds distinction; a somewhat wintry appearance no matter the
season. In fact, its countryside is perhaps the richest I've seen; rolling
hills of dense and seemingly endless woodland, rivers broad and fast-flowing, countless
waterfalls both fierce and majestic, and distant peaks rising suddenly while wisps
of flog and cloud cling to them like cotton. The land is also visibly thriving
with a diverse and robust ecosystem of black bear and grizzly, moose, deer,
elk, wolves, caribou, beavers, horned sheep and mountain goats, which only
further enriches this landscape of indisputable and unbeatable striking
beauty.
In closing, here are some more
pictures for you to enjoy…
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