Road trip around the Rockies

I have a number of places on my ‘Bucket List’ I wish to visit, and right at the top is to see the Rockies. Luckily my wish came true this year. It was just my husband and I this time; we flew into Seattle and spent the night at the Fairmont Seattle before an early start the next day, taking the ferry across to Vancouver Island. On board we booked a trip to Butchart Gardens, which is a must with stunning displays of flora and fauna. The coach dropped us at our hotel the Fairmont Empress, after a tour of Victoria. The following day we had a five min stroll to the coach station behind the hotel for a coach and ferry across to the mainland, and dropped us off at the Fairmont Vancouver. We spent a couple of nights here, taking the hop-on-hop-off bus to take us around the sights, including Stanley Park, Canada Place and Gastown.

Then we began our 3000km circular drive, first heading north via Horseshoe Bay to Whistler, where we had our first sight of the snowy peaks. Whistler reminded us of the film The Truman Show, somewhat Disneyesque, as it is a purpose built resort. We headed northwest from there and encountered our first black bear en route to our next stop at Sun Peaks north of Kamloops. Our hotel the Delta Sun Peaks Resort was contemporary and served the best meal we had on the whole trip. Nice resort, which would be a great alternative to Whistler. Next day we had a long drive north west towards Jasper. The scenery was so beautiful that the time flew by with many photo stops en route. On arrival at the Jasper National Park we had to pay for the number of days we were planning to be in the region, as this pays for the upkeep of the roads and facilities, so be prepared to have some cash to hand. Luckily the weather was glorious, so we had clear cloudless views of Mount Robson and other mountain peaks. Our hotel just outside of Jasper was the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, which was rustically styled, set on a beautiful lake, just a five minute drive from Jasper itself, and surrounded again by beautiful scenery. We took the Jasper tramcar up to a neighbouring peak which gave uninterrupted views of Jasper and the surrounding area.

The highlight of our trip was the journey between Jasper and Lake Louise, which takes in the Icefield Parkway. Our 3 hour trip took us 7 hours to complete as the scenery is so breathtaking. Two thirds of the way along, we stopped at the Athabasca Glacier, and drove onto the Glacier in the Icefield Snow-Coach – what a memorable experience! At every turn there was mountains, lakes, wildlife and places to stop for a short walk. All the roads were well maintained and easy to drive. Everything was well sign posted, and plenty of places to pull in, complete with clean toilet cabins and picnic tables. We arrived at our next hotel, the Fairmont Lake Louise early in the evening to see the sun retreating behind the Glacier across the Lake. We splashed out and enjoyed a Lake View room, as this iconic sight was worth waking up to the next morning. We strolled around the lake, taking heed of the many ‘Beware of bear’ signs - just beautiful. Next we drove out of town to a cable car which took us up to grizzly bear country! Unfortunately we didn't see any, but others mentioned they had spotted some between the trees. Then we enjoyed more mountain views and headed south towards Banff.

The next day we started our trip east back towards Vancouver, passing through the Glacier National Park, and stopping overnight in Revelstoke with a local family, who gave us inside info on the town as a ski resort and local area. We detoured slightly to enjoy a circular trip which took us across a couple of lakes on free local ferries before arriving at Kamloops. Kamloops is probably the least scenic of all the places we visited, but the Holiday Inn and Suites was perfect for our overnight stay before our drive to Vancouver Airport.

The trip lived up to our expectations and rates as one of the best holidays we have had.