A couple of observations…

• The Canadians are indeed one of the friendliest people we have ever met. It was very easy to strike up conversations with the locals, which allowed us to learn whole lot more about Canada. For example, we were told the Yukon residents can buy campground permits for just $50 per year that allow them to use any campsites in Yukon. Firewood is provided for free.
• The businesses in Canada have figured out how to handle credit card payments efficiently and safely. In the US, we typically pass a credit card to the server, the server vanishes with the credit card, the server comes back several minutes later with a bunch of paper receipts, we the “math-challenged” folks calculate the tips in our head, and finally, we write the incorrect amount of tips on the “top copy” of the receipts before scribbling our signature on it. In Canada, the server brings a portable credit card reader to us, the server vanishes, we insert a credit card to the reader, we select one of the predefined tip options on the reader, and finally, the reader prints a receipt for us. Mind blown.
• Most Canadian drivers are rather courteous and they do not generally hog the fast lanes. They use the fast lane solely to pass slower vehicles before merging back into the slower lanes. In the Land of the Free, the American drivers, especially in the Midwest area, think their “3 miles over the speed limit” give them all the rights to stay on the fast lanes until they reach their final destinations. That said, when the Canadian drivers try to pass you, they tend to follow very closely behind your vehicle as if they are sitting right at your back seats when you look at the rear mirror.

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The Columbia Icefield, the largest icefield in the Rocky Mountains, feeds 8 major glaciers and Athabasca Glacier is the most accessible one from the Icefields Parkway. Equipped with our winter gears and the provided crampons, we did a 3-hour guided ice walk on Athabasca Glacier because it allowed us to freely explore the glacier without taking the crowded snow coaches.The hike was rather leisure and we learned a lot about pressure cracks, crevasses, moraines, mounds and crystallized ice, and most importantly, the effects of climate change on glaciers.

We spent half day visiting Mt Robson Provincial Park, which is located on the west of Jasper National Park. Unbeknownst to us, this area observes Pacific Time Zone. So, after arriving at the park at 7:30AM, we technically arrived at 6:30AM… and since it rained heavily in the morning, we took a short nap in our hamster car outside the visitor center. At 12972 ft, Mt Robson is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies. It is the second oldest provincial park in British Columbia. We did a 6-mile round trip hike to Kinney Lake in the rain where part of the trails along the lake were flooded. During the drive back to Jasper, we experienced weather system malfunction at the mountain area. Heavy rain, sun, cold wind, cloudy, near zero visibility due to clouds on the road… all in the matter of minutes.

Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies. It has also one of the highest concentrated black and brown bear populations in Canada. We spent the entire day in the Maligne Valley and we were very fortunate to see some black bears. Maligne Lake is the second largest glacier-fed lake in the world. We did a 2-hour boat tour to the Spirit Island, made famous by Kodak early advertising of color film in the 40s. We initially planned to hike Edith Cavell Meadows Trail (5.3 miles), but due to road closure to Mt Edith Cavell until August, we ended up spending a day hiking Sulphur Skyline Trail (4.8 miles) on the north side of the park… not a bad alternative plan because we got to soak ourselves in the Miette Hot Springs pool at the end of the hike. During our drive back to Calgary, we visited Athabasca Falls and Sunwapta Falls to do some short hikes in the morning.

An interesting tidbit… we were supposed to visit the Jasper Skytram, the longest and highest guided aerial tramway in Canada, on late Monday afternoon but decided to swap our plans around with other day. That night, we found out the strong wind gust caused a power surge that shut down the tram system, stranding 160 people on the top of Whistlers Mountain. 110 people were ferried down by helicopters until late night and the remaining folks had to stay overnight in the restaurant at the summit. We didn’t get to do the tram ride because it was closed for the next 2 days for maintenance and to investigate the problems. However, we visited the base and enjoyed some beautiful views of the townsite. That said, it’s probably not a bad idea to get stranded on top to enjoy the best views of Jasper National Park.

A couple of observations…

• Jasper National Park is probably our most favorite national park among the 4 national parks we visited. It is not as crowded as Banff National Park, hence, it was quieter, more peaceful and much more laid back.
• We were blessed with one blue sky day in Jasper and we decided to make an unscheduled visit to the Valley of the Five Lakes in one late afternoon to fully enjoy the beautiful day. This place has some of the most impressive and insanely beautiful lakes we have ever seen.
• The landscape in Jasper National Park is a little different than Banff National Park. While Banff National Park has lots of big snow-capped mountains, Jasper National Park seems to be surrounded by thick lodgepole pine forest with beautiful milky green curvy rivers. We had initial unfounded fears that the scenic views in Jasper would look identical to Banff.
• We gained much appreciation on how glaciers work and how much they have receded over the past decades. At the same time, we continue to be baffled how some powerful people in the world still think climate change is a hoax because they struggle to understand the difference between “weather” and “climate”.

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Yoho National Park, named after the Cree word meaning “awe”, has several stunning places and one of them is Lake O’Hara. Lake O’Hara is indeed a paradise inaccessible by most people due to its exclusivity. Yet, we somehow managed to secure the most coveted bus rides to it. The general consensus is if you only have one opportunity to experience the finest view of the Canadian Rockies, this is it. Regular vehicles are prohibited from entering into this area, but there are 2 ways to get in: a 6.8-mile one-way hike just to the base of Lake O’Hara or get bus tickets provided by Parks Canada. There are 2 bus rides going in per day carrying a max total of 42 hikers due to the strict quota system to protect the fragile alpine environment. Every year, 17000 users tried to secure these coveted bus tickets when the reservation line opens every April, and only 1000 of them succeeded. So, on April 20, 2018, 5 minutes before 8 MDT, I refreshed the Parks Canada website repeatedly. To my dismay, everything was fully booked from June to October the moment the reservation line opened. However, my persistence paid off after refreshing the website for half hour, and somehow, we managed to secure these bus tickets on the exact day and time slot we wanted.

During our all-day hike at Lake O’Hara, the rain poured the whole day with the temperature hovering between low 40s and mid 50s. However, armed with some tasty snacks, rain gears, gloves and plastic-bag-wrapped camera, we were ready to roll. We initially planned to hike the whole alpine circuit loop for 7.4 miles, but part of the trails including Yukness Ledges and Opabin Plateau were still heavily covered with snow and avalanche debris. After consulting with the park wardens, we hiked part of the loop, covering the strenuous and treacherous Wiwaxy Gap, which connects to Huber Ledges, and finally followed Lake Oesa Trail back to Lake O’Hara. The Wiwaxy Gap is only 1.3 miles long but we gained over 1600 feet in elevation… a rather steep hike where we had to cross a dangerous part of avalanche debris with a pretty serious drop to the bottom. In Yoho National Park, we also covered Natural Bridge, Emerald Lake and Takakkaw Falls.

Kootenay National Park, named after the people of Ktunaxa, has been constantly ravaged by forest fires in the recent years. On our “rest day”, we did short and easy hikes at Marble Canyon and Paint Pots before soaking ourselves in the Radium Hot Springs pool to soothe our sore muscles.

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Our adventure got off to a rocky start the moment we arrived at the airport. The airline personnel was unable to issue our boarding passes due to lacking travel documents. Unbeknownst to us, since the last time we visited Canada in 2013, we are now required to have special clearance documents, known as an electronic travel authorization (eTA). Panic set in as we furiously tried to figure out how to salvage this trip without cancelling the whole thing. We were told we could apply for these documents online, and in best case scenario, we would get them in 10 minutes (we didn’t asked for the worst case scenario). So, for the next half hour, we sat by the chairs near the check-in counter and applied for these documents using our phones. Then, we waited, waited and waited. Hopelessness… is the appropriate word. Finally, we received the approval emails 5 minutes later. Relieved. We were thankful we arrived at the airport much earlier than usual. We were also very thankful for the help we got from the Delta lady (didn’t catch her name due to all the commotion). I digress.

Moraine Lake and Lake Louise are undoubtedly the biggest attractions in Banff. Hence, these places attract unimaginable amount of tourists like us. It took about an hour drive from town site of Banff to Moraine Lake, and by 8:30AM, there were no parking spots left. It took us 3 tries to get to Moraine Lake and on final try, we decided to get up 4:30AM and arrived on site at 6:30AM, and even then, the parking area was already half full due to sunrise photographers. For the remaining of our trip days, we started our day very early so that we didn’t have to deal with the bus crowds, obnoxious tourists from certain countries, wannabe Instagram models and the noon heat. Some of other places we covered include Peyto Lake, Johnston Canyon, Bow Lake, Lake Minnewanka, Cave and Basin National Historic Site, Banff Gondola, Banff town and Canmore downtown.

A couple of observations…

• The Canadian Rockies are insanely beautiful with plenty of snow capped mountains, alpine trees and glacier-fed lakes where the rock flours suspended throughout the water produce out-of-this-world turquoise and emerald colors.
• Banff is truly like a zoo… a zoo of people that is. Among the 4 national parks we covered, Banff is the busiest one due to its unparalleled beauty and its close proximity to Calgary. We purposely visited this place in mid June because the school holiday in Alberta begins on June 28. Even then, there were lots of foreign tourists everywhere… truly can’t imagine how it is like during peak season (July and August).
• While it was warm enough in June, some of the trails were still closed due to heavy snow on the ground, elevated avalanche risks and roaming bears waking up after months of hibernation. We checked the trail conditions on Parks Canada site every night and made adjustments to our initial plans.
• With the sun rises at 5:30 AM and sets at 10 PM, we had plenty of daylight throughout the trip.
• A&W fast food restaurants seem to be everywhere in Alberta… and they serve poutines too.
• Most product labels, signboards and road signs are listed in both English and French… it is a great way to learn French.
• We saved a lot of money by making our own meals most days. The only thing we splurged a little was a cup of hot coffee (and maybe a delicious pastry) after coming back from a long morning hike everyday.

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