Canada 2012
We started in Vancouver. As we were only there for one night on this trip, we just had a wander round the city to see if anything has changed since we last went there. We had dinner in the Old Spaghetti Factory in the old Gas Town area, near the famous steam clock.
The following day we picked up our hire car and headed out of town. We stayed for one night in Kamloops and then headed through some fantastic scenery to Jasper, where we spent two nights in a lovely B&B. We went hiking and horseback riding on one of the days, and drove out to Maligne Lake. We were really lucky to be able to see grizzly and brown bears, also saw a coyote on the roadside.
We then proceeded south towards Banff. On the way we stopped off at the famous Athabasca Glacier and took the excursion in the huge trucks that take you onto the ice. Once in Banff we borrowed cycles from the hotel and explored the area, passing the famous Banff Springs hotel. A lovely town surrounded by spectacular mountains.
After Banff we drove to Lake Louise and did a hike up to the tea house in the woods, about four kilometress uphill, passing Mirror Lake on the way up. The scenery was fabulous and we then walked along the lakeside by the Chateau Lake Louise.
We continued on to Revelstoke for a night, an old logging town. The next day we drove south to the Okanogan area of British Columbia, which is the wine growing region for Canada. We stayed with friends in the lovely town of Pentiction which lies at the bottom of Okanogan Lake. We toured around that area and stopped off to do some wine tasting at several of the many wineries in the area.
We were getting near the end of our trip, which took us back to Vancouver via Harrison Hot Springs, another lovely lakeside resort, which is great for a beach type stop for relaxation. We stopped in another lovely B&B just outside of town; it was in a great spot in the wilderness.
What a great trip this was and being able to see the wildlife of the country, this was a real bonus.
