Doug and Kerry Hudson in Alberta

We arrived at Lake Louise with the intention of exploring the Rocky Mountains. Lake Louise was very pretty, and we took some photos of the lake itself and the big hotel there. The lake was still frozen over, but we could just about make out the blue hue of the water. Lake Louise was named in honour of Queen Victoria's fourth daughter, but neither of them ever came here. The whole place was invented by the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company in the 1880's as a tourist resort, and that's what it still is.

At Lake Louise, Kerry discovered that snow balls are really fun to throw at Doug, but that they make her hands really, really cold!

We were supposed to be staying at Lake Louise for this period, but there was too much snow to do the walks we wanted to do, and not enough snow for winter sports activities. Rather than waste four days, we decided to go to Calgary and see some action! When we drove there, we stopped at Banff on the way. Banff was very pretty but much more commercial than we had expected. We did visit a very intriguing store which had moose heads and stuffed bears on the wall, however.

Calgary is probably best known for hosting the 1988 Winter Olympics, and thats how we pictured it before arriving. Imagine our surprise then, to discover a city of glass and steel scryscrapers, funded by the rich oil economy there.

The highlight of our stay in Calgary must be the walking tour we did, organised by the hostel where we stayed. Kent, our guide, explained to us that Calgary was originally a fort manned by the North West Mounted Police, who later became known as the Mounties. The fort was required to prevent liquor smuggling. Later the cowboys came, as Calgary is at the north end of the American plains. The oil industry only arrived there relatively recently. Kent, a former resident of Vancouver, repeatedly made comparisons between the two cities, consistently finding Calgary to be the poorer cousin. Our tour concluded with a trip to the top of the Calgary Tower. Kerry made it to the top, an improvement over Toronto. She soon came down however, when the world started to sway. We met lots of lovely people on the tour, and afterwards we headed to Brewsters Pub for liquid refreshment with Davey (Northern Ireland), Jamie (Scotland) and Rowland (Switzerland).

Although it wasn't as friendly as Penticton, as fast-paced and exciting as Toronto, or as cultured as Vancouver, we found Calgary to be very interesting. We were sorry to leave, but soon forgot that as the Rockies rose into view. At Lake Louise we turned north and joined the Icefields Parkway. This beautiful road stretches for 230km, joining Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. It is reputedly the most beautiful road in the world, and from what we saw it certainly lived up to that reputation. Bare, towering cliffs; glistening lakes; glaciers tinged with blue; and a thick carpet of fir trees. It certainly surpassed all the scenery we had seen thus far.

We spent a few days staying at Patricia Lake just outside Jasper, in the Canadian Rockies. One afternoon we went for a drive up to Maligne Lake and Maligne Canyon. It's pronounced "mah-leen" for some reason, reminding Doug of DelBoy and Boycie of Only Fools And Horses. As we were driving out of Jasper, we passed some wild elk just grazing on the grass at the roadside. It was surprising to see such large wild animals so close to civilisation. We headed up to Maligne Canyon and walked alongside the canyon from the sixth bridge to the fourth bridge. The canyon was pretty amazing, just a couple of metres across but very deep, and with tons of water surging down its course. You could see where the water had carved out bowls in the rock hundreds of years ago when the canyon wasn't so deep. There was a very aggressive squirrel there that chased after Kerry in a very threatening manner! Kerry was not very amused, you know! From the canyon we headed up to the lake, 25km further north into the mountains. As we were leaving the car park, we saw a herd of wild bighorn sheep just grazing by the road. Kerry got a great photo of one that was just an arm's reach from the car.

We drove up to Maligne Lake, as featured in many a postcard. On the way we passed Medicine Lake, which was notable for the lack of any water. Yes, this is a peculiar lake with no visible way for the water coming in to drain away. However it drains into an underground river, and as a result the lake's water level varies every day. Maligne Lake itself was an anti-climax to a very pretty drive through pine forest with a light dusting of fresh snow on the trees. Yet another frozen lake! Oh well, it's the journey not the destination that counts, right?

The next morning it was time to leave Jasper for Prince George. We got up early to find it snowing again. This time the flakes were big and soft, just drifting down slowly. We had heard that the drive ahead of us was our best chance for seeing bears and moose. We hoped we wouldn't be disappointed and so we didn't expect much. However, we are ecstatic to report that we experienced a wildlife extravaganza! We saw a moose, several deer and most importantly six black bears! Incredible, they were all along the roadside and of the six we saw, two of them were very cute cubs. It's amazing that we didn't have an accident at all these distractions, but fortunately for us there were hardly any cars on the road and we arrived at our destination of Prince George safely. It was funny how we didn't see a single bear for five weeks and then we saw six in one day!

World Trip >> Canada >> Alberta

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006