Allthegobro

Our final two days at sea have us heading north by north-west out of the Inland Passage and across the Gulf of Alaska. First viewings of the glaciers are in Glacier Bay, the day is heavy with cloud which covers the tops of the mountains on either side of the Bay. At the start it’s wet and rather cold, beanies and weather jackets on but as the morning advances it clears up a bit. Still no blue skies for those postcard like views one sees in the travel brochures, apparently the weather we have is more the norm. The glaciers though are still impressive and the quiet misty waters surrounded by mountains really emphasises that we are in a quite remote and special part of the world. Our big ship moving very slowly around the Bay seems out of place, an invader if you like!

Another cruise boat leaving Glacier Bay , only room for one boat at a time.

Entering Glacier Bay

We get to the end of the Bay in front of the Margerie Glacier and the ship does a slow 360 pivot several times so that all can get a good view of the scene. Many of the glaciers in the bay are clearly in retreat up their valleys, others seem to be close to having their noses crawl out of the sea. No more pieces breaking off and plunging into the water. There is one though that is still advancing, the Johns Hopkins Glacier. Apparently it is fed by part of the Ice field on Mt Fairweather which still gets enormous quantities of snow each year.  Mt Fairweather was named by Captain Cook on his 3rd and final voyage when he was searching for the long hoped for North West Passage across the top to Europe. Unable to find it he turned back near present day Anchorage and headed south for Hawaii.

Margerie Glacier at the end of Glacier Bay

Margerie Glacier up close

We leave Glacier Bay around lunchtime and head across the Gulf of Alaska. Our next viewing is in College Fjord late in the afternoon the next day. College Fjord is found not far to the south of Whittier which is our final port and where we leave the ship for the land journey  to Fairbanks. College Fjord and many of the glaciers along side it are named after the famous American Universities. So at the end of it is Harvard Glacier, Yale Glacier is beside it.

Mt Fairweather at left pokes its top out of clouds

Smith Glacier comes down beside the Harvard Glacier into College Fjord

Ice cave in Smith Glacier up close

Harvard Glacier was responsible for carving out College Fjord, before retreating and having its valley inundated. A number of the glaciers are still well in the water and are known as tide water glaciers. All of them though are receding and one wonders how long the current scene will persist? It has been pretty gloomy and cold in College Fjord as well. At the end of the Fjord we do a few half pivots in front of Harvard Glacier and a little patch of blue sky appears above the glacier. Not for long though!

Iceberg in the fjord, carrying some moraine rock along for the ride

Harvard Glacier at the end of College Fjord, this mighty glacier carved out College Fjord

We now head off to Whittier and the end of the cruise early on the following day.

We’re going on a bear hunt

We’re going to catch a big one

We’re not scared

What a beautiful day

Uh-Uh!

We are still at Skagway and are off on a tour to see if we can see some wildlife in the wild. Particularly a grizzly bear or two. We have seen black bears and a grizzly (brown bear) would be good. Now a grizzly is very distinguishable from a black bear because it has a hump on its back behind its head. Its snout is also a bit longer. It is also a bit more aggressive if annoyed, challenged etc.

We are off to Haines which is a town on an inlet about a 45 min boat trip away from Skagway. There is a small river here that runs down into the bay. It is a spot were the salmon run. And the salmon are running strongly when we arrive. Our transport heads up the river and stops for all to alight to check out the river and the salmon, there are lots of sea birds flocking around and the salmon are going this way and that.

Salmon thrashing around, some going up stream to spawn, others have spawned and are dying.

The ones that haven’t spawned yet are heading up-stream and the ones that have spawned, well they are dying and thrashing around in the shallows and pooling against the river bank. On the bank itself we have to be careful where we tread as there are lots of dead salmon lying around on the ground. Bellies slashed open and innards exposed. These have been the victims of bears it seems.

Dead salmon, quite an odour along the bank.

Victim of a bear

Bears like to eat the roe of the yet to spawn female salmon and don’t worry too much about the other parts, so just leave them lying around to rot away. Apparently, a bear can pick the female salmon from the male salmon and so the male may well feel more secure in his travels. Comforting thought if you are a male salmon.

We then come across evidence of bear, a modest size bear paw print in the muddy bank. There is a lot of interest shown in this bear paw print by our fellow travellers. Cameras are working hard.

Bear paw print

THEN someone gets excited and calls out BEAR,  and on the other side of the river this grizzly comes out of the brush beside the river and proceeds to gaze at the stream. Then with a bit of a splash she wades into the water and starts chasing fish around. Our guide lets us know that this grizzly is about 2 and a half and is ‘learning’ how to fish. For about 40 minutes we follow this bear up and down the river as she chases salmon around the shallows. She is sometimes up to her neck in the water and at others plunging around after fish. Quite a show.

A grizzly (brown) bear out fishing

She got up to her neck in the stream.

Our guide said that the bear would have known we were around watching the performance, but being on the other side of the river was not in an insecure place. So she was quite happy to put on a show for us! We lingered a while watching this inter play of nature before heading back down to the river mouth to see some seals patrolling the river mouth and eagles flying around cleaning up fish pieces drifting by into the bay. We finally headed back to Skagway for an 8.30 sail away.

We are now at sea for a couple of days making our way north-west to Anchorage …………… but before reaching it we will check out a few more glaciers. You could well ask whether once you have seen a few glaciers do you have to see any more? Only time will tell it seems!

Well the reasonably good weather has continued for us as the journey continues north up the Inland Passage. We have an early start in Juneau. This city/town is the State Capital of Alaska, it is unusual in that it is landlocked. There is no way in except by sea or air, no roads out! In the morning we are off on a tour taking us to the Mendenhall Glacier. This is not far out-of-town and is a major attraction as you can almost walk up to the nose of the glacier, although with it retreating the nose is getting further away. It is an interesting walk through the rainforest to get to one of the viewing platforms.

Temperate rainforest walk

Bears go for these with great enthusiasm.

Along the way there are markers indicating where the nose was in years gone by, the first marker is 1916 and it is a fair way back from where the glacier is now. What is fascinating is how the forest has reclaimed the area vacated by the glacier. At the 1916 point there is a very significant area of rainforest which slowly ‘thins’ out as you move towards the viewing platform.

Point where the Mendenhall Glacier nose was in 1916. So the forest here is about 100 years old.

Mendenhall Glacier nose. Rock on right has been exposed this summer.

Leaving the glacier we then head off to the harbour for the second half of the trip out onto the water to search for a few whales and other sea life. The group is led by a photographer who passes on photo taking technique tips. We search around the waterways and eventually find a couple of humpbacks entertaining the crowds in a number of boats with fluke waves and dives. We also sight a ‘gang’ of harbour seals lying on a beach and some Stella sea lions that have taken over a buoy.

Whale tail

Stella sea lions

Back in Juneau for the afternoon we do our usual wander around the town. As well as eyeing off the usual  eateries and souvenir shops it sinks in that there are numerous jewelry shops in these towns. It transpires that many of them are actually owned by the cruise ship companies and that is why they get the never-ending plugs on board the ship. We avoid them.

Juneau’s is Alaska’s State Capital

Very popular place near the port in Juneau.

Next stop along the way is Skagway. We have another long all day stop in this town which was the step off place in the 1890s for the thousands who headed off on the trek to the Yukon during the gold rush period. It was a pretty treacherous trip (500 mile?) up and over the coastal mountain range and then along the Yukon River to Dawson City in Canada.  Many of the buildings in the town are preserved structures from the late 1800s and the National Parks service look after them.

Skagway’s main street

This engine was used to clear the snow from the track up to Whites Pass and beyond.

We took the easy way up in a small bus and fog to Whites Pass and the Canadian border, it’s about 3,000 ft up the steep route. The road follows in part the old railway which fellow cruislings are doing aboard the train. The train doesn’t stop for pictures, so in some ways the bus is an advantage in that we stop along the way and are able to take in the atmosphere of the place. It also allows us to reflect on the journey the gold seekers endured a hundred and thirtysomething years ago. It was a bit chilly up there too!

At the border

The train crossing a canyon on the way up to White Pass

A the top of White Pass, a clear patch amongst the fog

We headed back down to the ship and lunch on board, after which it was off on a late afternoon wildlife expedition. It would see us back on board around 8 o’clock for the sail away. The amazing events of that wildlife expedition though must await the next blog.

We awake to our first day at sea with gloomy weather on the port side and gloomy weather on the starboard side and gloomy weather ahead of us and gloomy weather behind us. It is rainy and foggy as we push out across Princes Charlotte Sound bound for Ketchikan in a days time. We are following the Inside Passage up British Columbia’s coast and then cross the border with Alaska just north of Port Rupert, where we had been a few days before. However, we are using a different channel to the one we did with the BC Ferries trip down from Prince Rupert. We are further off the coast in ‘wider’ water.

Looking into the waters of Queen Charlotte Sound

Pine Island Lighthouse

In a way its lucky we are having this weather as it is helping put out the fires that are still burning away. We are also at sea for a full day and can enjoy a quiet day on board. It is a formal night and people on board are really into this. Allthego and Homealone left their best behind as did a good many others. No one seemed to worry and we ate in the non formal area, the Italian restaurant. A very nice meal indeed. It was also time for the champagne waterfall, quite a performance with numerous bottles being poured by guests over the stacked glasses. Not sure what happens to the champagne though when it’s all over. Entertainment for the night was a ‘British Invasion ‘ show, with music from the 60s/70s from all those British musicians of that era.

Champagne waterfall

Veal chop

Dusty Springfield in action

We arrived in Ketchikan with improved weather, a little misty rain in the morning cleared out and we had some sun and a cloudy blue sky for the afternoon. Ketchikan is one of the wettest places on the north-west coast and can get up to 13 ft of rain a year, a sunny blue sky day is a rarity we were told. We were off the ship early for a tour of the temperate rain forest and a chance for wild life sightings along a salmon stream. Another black bear was spotted in the water, along with plenty of bald eagles in the trees. A short visit to a ‘animal hospital’ allowed a close up of a bald eagle and a few other birds of prey. These guys had been injured and rehabilitated but could not be released back into the wild because of their conditions.

Another black bear sighting

Bald eagle

A Barred owl

The late morning saw us back in town checking out the town and its historical Creek Street area, back in the gold rush days of the late 1800s this area was home to the ladies of the night, some of the original buildings have been preserved, although now housing eateries and souvenir shops. The creek beneath the street is also a prime salmon run to a lake at the top. Salmon travel to the lake for spawning and having done so die shortly thereafter, if not the victim of bears, and get washed back down. They litter the banks of the stream and there is a strong odour of dead fish in the air.

Ketchitan’s old historical Creek Street, overhanging the creek

Salmon somehow manage to swim up these streams

Back on board ship at 1.30 pm we headed out for the passage north to Juneau and then Skagway.

We have arrived back in Vancouver from Port Hardy and are spending the night in town before leaving the next day aboard Star Princess for a journey up the Inland Passage to Skagway and then across the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage. BUT we are actually already in Anchorage and I am doing another of those series of catch up blogs, blogging at sea is a painful process with slow internet speeds so I have had a few days away from the typewriter.

Vancouver at night from our hotel room, overlooking Robson Street.

Homealone facing ship’s security, explaining Allthego is taking a picture.

We have no great issues in boarding the ship except it takes forever! We lined up a little before 1 pm with a plan to have lunch on board. But there are 3 ships  leaving and all the boarders are being processed through the same queues. A best estimate is that there were about 6-7,000 people queuing up. Then once through the ship signing up process it was off to get through Uncle Sams border protection processes.  Allthego was getting a little restless with the bureaucracy but was held in check by Homealone. Americans and Canadians had their special line and the ROW was strung out in queues that wound their way back and forth across the terminal.  There was a minor drama when Allthego had to go off behind the scenes because his electronic visa for the USA didn’t seem to be registered on their computers. The border protection person was  a little confused because Allthego had a valid paper copy on file for reference. It was all ok though with things tidied up by a more senior official. We finally bordered after 2 and half hours. All this proves Allthego’s general boarding approach of  arriving late in the process and missing all the queues.

Our departure day is quite gloomy with cloudy and rainy skies to see us off around 4.30pm from the dock at Canada Place. The cruise staff try their best to wind our fellow cruisers up. But it is a little subdued. Allthego and Homealone try to contribute to the frivolities as well as  featuring on the ship’s big screen as we sail away out of Vancouver Harbour.

Allthego on the ship’s big screen.

Homealone on the ship’s big sreen

Homealone won a small prize for being part of the winning team in the ‘how many feet can fit in a hula hoop’ contest. A close examination of the photo below will see her in the lower left corner of the photo. This was quite an achievement. If you can’t quite make her out you can click on the photo and it will blow up bigger.

Looking back at the dock on Canada Place in front of down town Vancouver..

Homealone getting a foot in the Hula Hoop, 4 th in from lower left.

The ship with flags flying seems to just slide under the Lions Gate Bridge as we head out into English Bay and then head north through the Georgia Strait for Alaska. This strait takes us north between Vancouver Island and the mainland past Port Hardy, from which we had flown to Vancouver from 2 days before.

Slipping under Lions Gate Bridge

Heading away out into English Bay

We go to bed a little late after going along to the Welcome Aboard concert. We are in a cabin high up in the ship on deck 12 gazing out at the gloomy skies as we make our way up the Georgia Strait.

We are finally at rest in Port Hardy for a couple of nights after the long boat trip down the Inland Passage  from Prince Rupert. Allthego had booked the Pioneer Motel on Booking.com and hadn’t paid much attention to it’s location. It is about equidistant from the ferry terminal and the town, 6 km in either direction. It is also very aptly named. It is a circa 1950/60s establishment probably done up from time to time, but not much. The room had that funny lived in feeling with a musty overlay of humankind, perhaps the odd fish or two had also been in residence from time to time. The electrics were a bit average, when you plugged something in the lights or whatever else you had on went off. The power point was loaded up with plugs and you wobbled it around a bit to get the power to work. The people were really helpful though and pointed out the scenic features of the 6 km walk into town along the river bank through the woods. The salmon were running and the bears were out they said. Only black ones, no grizzlies on Vancouver island.

The Pioneer Motel

Port Hardy Marina

We caught a cab into town and had lunch at Captain Hardys. this establishment was named after Vice Admiral Hardy who commanded The Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson was the Admiral. The calamari was really good, as was the Fat Tug IPA  Allthego had later on our walk to the marina. The marina being about half way back to the Pioneer Motel. The memorial to the Carrot campaign is a prominent feature,  this was installed after ‘carrots were dangled’ in front of politicians to get the road paved through to Port Hardy. The campaign was ultimately successful.

Calamari at Captain Hardys

The Carrot campaign memorial

A Fat Tug IPA

But the highlight of the day was our ‘walk in the woods’ back to the Pioneer in the early evening, 7 pm or so. It was getting a bit dim under the tree canopies as we walked the trail. Evidence of bear was sighted on the path, relatively fresh too. We paused to look at the stream on an old rustic bridge. It was full of salmon thrashing around in the shallows.

Bear evidence

The path into the woods

Then out of the under growth came the black bear. It stood on the bank and perused the salmon, before wading into the stream and across to the other side. It wasn’t interested in catching any salmon. Maybe it had already had its fill, perhaps the salmon were not good enough! What a sight!

Bear!

The same bear checking out the salmon in the stream

We rather hurriedly moved on up the trail as darkness set in, occasionally looking back over our shoulders.

The path continues

Now if we hadn’t stayed at the Pioneer Motel we wouldn’t have seen that bear!

We are now back in Vancouver having flown down from Port Hardy. The next stage of the journey begins when we board the Star Princess  and head north to Alaska.

The trip on the  ferry  down the Inside Passage to Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island is going to be a lengthy day on the water. We board the Northern Explorer in Prince Rupert at 6 am for a 6.45 am sail off and are due in Port Hardy at 10 pm, as it turns out we end up being an hour late and don’t get there till 11 pm. It takes another hour to disembark, collect luggage and get to the hotel. Breakfast, lunch and dinner aboard. We have one stop along the way that takes about an hour.

Our hotel in Prince Rupert. We were not allowed to keep fish coolers in the room. Fishing is big here.

Downtown Prince Rupert

We have had a pleasant day in Prince Rupert wandering around and also enjoyed some Pacific cod fish n chips at the Breakers Pub overlooking the marina area. Port Rupert is a container terminal and is a general export facility to  China and Asia. It is actually closer to these markets than Vancouver and Seattle and therefore has a cost advantage.

Allthego thought this was a Bear tour until he looked closely

The marina in Prince Rupert

A very tasty glazed donut, the shop has been making them for 60 years.

As we set off it is a cloudy day and the coastal mountains are shrouded in a smoky haze, the islands seaward are clearer. The one dominant feature of the journey is the trees. They cover the steeply rising land on either side of the passage. We pass these trees at about 20 knots for around 400 km. It’s a lot of trees to pass by.

Another ferry docking as we leave Prince Rupert

Trees

The passage is a waterway for fisherman as well and we see many and varied vessels. At our stop off at Klemtu, a little over half way down the passage, there is a resident whale performing as the vessel is docked.

This waterfall into the passage was unusual, most were steep drops into the water.

Fishing boats in action

Whale

Its tail waving us off

We see more of these majestic creatures as we move further south. There are a number of red and white light house complexes marking key points along the route.

Light house at Boat Bluff

Another light house at Dryad Point

Sunset over the Inland Passage

There is not a lot more to say. The time passes relatively quickly but after the sun sets around 8 pm things start to drag a bit as we start to count down the km to Port Hardy and bed, at the Pioneer Motel. As we are to find out the Pioneer Motel is aptly named.

After 10 days in the Rockies we are heading back to the coast on Via Rail Canada’s ramble through northern British Columbia. This is a day and half rail trip to Prince Rupert on the coast, with an overnight stop at Prince George where we all get off the train and head for overnight accommodation. Coming into Jasper to the train station from our cabin there is a whole lot of commotion beside the road. Cars are stopped all over the place in order to view a herd of elks (?), they are females and young ones it seems……….males have antlers,  lying in the middle of the river on a gravel bank. Interesting location for a herd  of elks to lie around!

I think this is an Elk?

A totem pole near the Jasper Railway Station

The Dome car on the Via Canada train to Prince Rupert

Prince Rupert lies just south of the Alaskan border. Part of this route takes us through what National Geographic has labelled one of its 10 great train trips. It is a remote part of the country but the Trans Canada Hwy follows us along the way that was hacked out of the mountains by the railway builders in the early 1900s. We go past Mt Robson, cloud covered, and at 12,972 ft Canada’s highest peak. Many lakes and streams are passed by. We also see our first black bear in the wild, a brief glimpse as the train scoots by. A little later Allthego saw another one but was too slow with the camera, or the train was too fast!

Big Moose Lake

Mt Robson

Our stop over in Prince George was brief, just enough time to go to bed and then get up to get back on the train the next morning for breakfast as we headed off to Prince Rupert. While waiting to board the train one of the local First Nations peoples explained the meaning of some of his artwork on display in the Information Centre attached to the station. It turns out that he had been locked up for a few years and had found new meaning in his life whilst inside and was now working at trying to reconnect his people to their traditions as well as live in the ‘new’ world. A story we hear all to much of in Australia with our indigenous people.

Prince George elk

Bear! The black smudge in the middle!

A lake along the way

Across a trestle bridge near Prince Rupert

We have a couple of nights in Prince Rupert before boarding the BC Ferries ferry that will take us down the southern part of the Inland Passage to Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

We awoke on our last day in Jasper to a valley full of mist and fog, couldn’t see any smoke. About 10 am the mist and fog had lifted and we had a relatively clear sky and the smoke had almost all gone. So we were off down to the Columbia Icefield to do the Athabasca Glacier Adventure and the Sky Walk. Homealone had already decided to pass the Skywalk opportunity. It is about an hour and half down the road, but we stopped here and there for some clearer pictures of the mountains and the valleys. There are a lot of mountains and valleys and as a result a lot of pictures as well.

Tangle Creek Falls

Athabasca Glacier

We arrived at the Icefields Centre around 12.30pm  and found out we had to wait about 2 hours to get a slot on the tour, it was going to be long day as the tours went for around 2.5 hours. So Allthego had an expensive lunch of a very average semi warm burger and chips, Homealone had some luke warm soup and some of the chips. We then watched a documentary type film on the mountains. It was an arty thing. As a young boy this chap finds a small rock on a mountain walk, carries it with him for years and then as a 20s something on a snow shoe hike across a glacier it falls out of his pocket into a crevasse, then many years later as an old bloke he is walking around the mountains and finds the rock again. He puts it in a stream for someone else to find………………great scenery …………a bit mystical…..there was a message to it all I suppose.

The film filled in some time and we set off in the big troop carrier up the side of the Athabasca Glacier, then climbed up a steep track over the side moraine and then down onto the glacier. There was a grader on the ice keeping a track clear for us as we progressed towards the centre. There were about 6 of these big buses, they hold about 50 people. So there were about 300 people on the ice in the roped off area. Homealone had joggers on so she was slipping around a bit on the ice, Allthego’s hiking boots gave a bit more grip but care was still required. An Indian chap in sandals kindly loaned his walking stick for balance. There were a lot of selfie takers in action all jockeying for positions.

Snow Dome, the Columbia Icefield cap and Dome Glacier

Homealone on ice

You didn’t really see much of the features of the glacier so it was like going for a short walk on a big ice block. The glacier has been retreating since the late 1800s at about 30 m a year, there are various pictures around to prove this. The glacier I think is about 3 km long (will stand to be corrected and will check) so at the current rate it will be gone in about 100 years and probably not impressive in 50. But it has been coming and going periodically over the last 10,000 years or so. Interesting experience being  actually on a glacier,  but Allthego has been on a bit of hard packed slippery snow before. The Icefields Centre also runs small party trips on the glacier looking at the features to be found there, crevasses, fissures and so on. That would be different.

Allthego and his Indian (sub continent) friend in sandals, no socks!

On the ice

After this we headed off to the Skywalk. This is one of those high up places hanging over a deep gorge. The Sunwapta River is about 1000 ft below. Now this is selflie taker paradise! Allthego had no trouble getting one of the guides to take a few pictures of himself out on the Skywalk. Pretty good views up and down the valley.  Great spot and well done! Homealone had gone back to the Icefields Centre for a cup of tea.

The Skywalk

Allthego on the Skywalk, in blue in centre

Allthego finished up bout 6pm on the Skywalk and we headed back to Jasper. Going through town we stopped for dinner. Readers will remember the big bull elk from the last blog. Well Allthego thought he would try some Elk meatloaf at the Jasper Brewing Company. Quite tasty with the mushroom and bacon sauce. Homealone didn’t have this and neither of us can remember what she had.

Elk meatloaf

We crawled into bed at the cabin around 11pm. We leave Jasper in the morning aboard the Via Canada train for Prince Rupert out on the coast.

We stayed at Jasper for 3 days. Weather has continued to be good, however the smoke has persisted and for the first 2 days we have ‘pottered’ around the general Jasper township area. Washing duties called and we spent a pleasant hour and half in the towns laundromat. It is an advanced laundromat with structured pricing based on the size of the machines. There are $5, $6 and $7 machines and there are quite a lot of them. While waiting for the washing you can have coffee and cake at the onsite coffee shop. If you are feeling a little dirty yourself you can have a $5 shower at the onsite bathroom, the loos are free. It was quite a busy place.

Our Cabin (front section)

View from cabin balcony

Our cabin is a little over 50 km from Jasper and located just off the highway to Edmonton. It is up in the hills and looks down a tree-lined valley with mountains towering around us. If not for the smoke the views would have been great. Although the smoky hazy outlook is eerie late in the afternoon.

There are a few hot springs in the Banff/Jasper National Parks. The one at Miette, about 25 km away from our cabin claims to have the hottest flow, having to be cooled from over 50 C down to about 40 C. There are 4 pools at the complex. The real hot one, a less hot one, a cooler sort of one and real cold one. The waters, not unlike all these sort of  springs, lay claim to regenerative powers. Allthego had a plunge in the real hot one. It was full of all sorts, including some real hot ones, some less hot ones, some cool ones and a lot of cold ones. After walking around in the hot pond for a while he tried his toe in the real cold one, it was real cold and there was no one in it. One lad did  plunge in but got out quick. As for the regenerative powers, other than for looking a bit pink,  Allthego noticed no difference in himself from/after the experience.

Miette Hot Springs

Allthego going all the way at Miette Springs

On the way back from Miette we looked  closely along the roadway for wild life having been told that this could be a good area to spot bear. None was sighted. BUT near the junction with the main road  there was a big bull elk just grazing away seemingly oblivious to all the stopped cars and onlookers . It was almost as though the Trading Post people, where we had stopped to buy some milk, had him tied up behind their sheds and had brought him out for show in the afternoon. A few intrepid photographers got up quite close but stepped back quickly when the big fellow started coming their way.

A big bull elk

Bird at Jasper Park Lodge

In the Jasper township itself there are the usual array of shops of all types, but we have never seen a Grandma shop before. It was full of Grandma stuff. There is a big old Mountain class steam engine on display near the railway station. Built in 1923 it has 6 foot 1 inch drive wheels, carries 10,000 galls of water and 17 ton of coal. It was used on the railway to Jasper. A big beast!

Says it all!

1923 Mountain Class Engine

In wandering around the Jasper lakes and gardens we have noticed a thorny plant with small roundish red fruits. They are the Alberta Rose, but we had not seen any flowers; being past the flowering season it seems. But outside the railway station, of all places, we spotted 2 pink flowers….late season bloomer! What a special looking flower display these would make.

Alberta Rose

Alberta Rose fruit

Our last day in Jasper draws near and we hope for the smoke to clear so that we can get back down the Icefields Parkway to the Columbia Icefield.

We have moved on a fair bit in our travels and are now at Prince Rupert on the British Columbia  coast. Blogging has been a bit slack. This is mainly because our stay in Jasper was in a cabin set up about 50 km out-of-town and the internet unreliable, we have also had some long days out and about. So Allthego has got to get a move on and catch up with the story.

On our last day in Lake Louise we took off up the Icefields Parkway to see some of the lakes just north of the town. On leaving it was noticeable that there had been a considerable increase in the smoke blowing across from British Columbia. The wind seems to have changed direction. The mountains were shrouded in it and the sky was a very pale blue. So in our travel up the road we decided to ‘look down’ and not ‘look up’. We went as far as Lake Peyto which, despite the smoky air, was still a spectacular view and Lake Bow was a pretty spot to stop for lunch beside the water.

Peyto Lake

Bow Lake

We turned around here and returned to Lake Louise. The Lake put on an eerie look early in the evening with sun setting behind the mountain ridge line and shining through the smoky air. Back at the hotel the sun was a red ball sinking behind the mountains.

Lake Louise at about 7 pm

A big red sun among the smoke from outside our hotel.

The next morning we left Lake Louise to move on to Jasper, 230 km up the Icefields Parkway. We passed by some of the sights of the day before, the smoke was considerably thicker. We had intended to stop at the Columbia Icefield, about half way to Jasper, to do the tour of the Athabasca Glacier and then wander out on the Glacier Skywalk. Because of the smoke situation we decided against this and hoped for a clear day while at Jasper so we could come back to it.

These are The Rockies not the Smoky Mountains!

Smoke filled valley along the Icefields Parkway

Our wildlife sightings took a quantum leap with the appearance of some Mountain Goats beside the road. Still no bears, elks or moose. The goats though put on a good show, like the deer a few days before they seemed to enjoy the gravel beside the road.

Sunwapta River

Mountain Goats

Closer to Jasper we stopped by the Sunwapta and Athabasca Falls. Quite spectacular flows of waters through rocky canyons. At the Athabasca Falls it seems that every couple of years someone falls over and gets washed away, no hope. There are a number of plaques on seats around the place recording their passing. Not places for brinksmanship.

Sunwapta Falls

Athabasca Falls

We finally reached our cabin accommodation late in the evening and had dinner on the restaurant balcony, gazing into a smoky valley below.

We have left Banff and are now at Lake Louise. This is not far up the road and we chose to follow the Bow Valley Parkway, rather than the main drag. This took us past the Vermilion lakes again and up along the valley beside the train line.

Vermilion Lake and Mt Rundle………….again

This is a mountain

Just south of Lake Louise is Morant’s Curve, a famous photo stop. Trains come around a long sweeping curve beside the Bow River, framed by the mountains behind. We pulled up here and selected a spot for the photo (got to edit out that car and foreground in due course!), only problem was…… would a train arrive and when. A couple of intrepid photographers had beat us to the best position and had their tripod and camera set up. They had been waiting there for 3 hours. Within minutes of Allthego taking up position a train could be heard approaching. The excitement was intense. Around the bend it came, a big freight train. Click, click, click….you could go on for ever. Homealone counted 140 carriages. The last carriage went past and off we went.

Morant’s Curve

Lake Louise was not far off and we arrived around lunchtime. People everywhere. Lake Louise Village is about 25 minutes away from the lake. Other than for the famous old Fairmont Hotel (the one that is in all the pictures) beside the lake there is no other accommodation there. It is all down the road and in the Village. The traffic is a nightmare getting to the Lake.

We settled into our room down in the Village and late in the afternoon headed for Moraine Lake. Moraine Lake is about 16 k from Lake Louise and the traffic is also a nightmare. The park people block the road and only let cars through as cars come out, but after about 4 in the afternoon you can get in fairly easily. It is a wonderful place and you here people say it is actually better than Lake Louise. It is certainly less developed than Lake Louise.

Lake Moraine

A walk in the woods

The next morning we went to Lake Louise, it was a Monday so the traffic was a little thinner. Well, what a special place. People everywhere, all taking selfies again. The weather was great, the sky relatively clear of smoke.

The water at Moraine Lake tends to stay blue most of the year whereas at Lake Louise it is now that milky green colour (other times of the year it tends to blue), apparently this is because there is more active glacial action at Louise. The glaciers above the lake grind up the rock into a flour like consistency, this gives rise to the milkiness……….

Lake Louise

A butterfly beside the Lake

We had lunch on the balcony at the Fairmont, a burger for Allthego and a steak sandwich for Homealone. A great view.

Lake Louise from the Fairmont dining balcony

A burger and beer beside the Lake

As to which lake is the best………….all the people, and there were hundreds, crowding around the edge at Lake Louise tended to take away the spectacle of the view. So Allthego votes for Moraine Lake.

Lake Louise Train Station

Back to the hotel for dinner after a short stop at the old Lake Louise Railway Station. There are no train services here anymore, the freight trains still pass by, and the station has been turned into a restaurant. We plan to eat here one night.

Our last day in Banff sees us head off in the orange Jeep along some of the short drives around the town’s environs and then  along the Bow River Parkway towards Lake Louise. The weather has been excellent if not a little hot, getting up in the high twenties,  and the winds have been as such to blow the smoke away for us. So the skies have been pretty clear with a faint haze of smoke when the sun gets a bit low in the sky.

Our hire vehicle is a neat little Jeep and goes well with the occupants!

Mt Rundle is a landmark mountain that towers over Banff, this shot looks across the first Vermilion Lake.

Our first stop was at the Vermilion Lakes. These are not the same type of lake as Lake Louise , but are actually wet lands with marshy areas around them and they are relatively shallow. There is supposed to be lots of bird life  here and we saw some Canada Goose strutting around in the marshy places and lots of ducks digging in the mud near the edge. Bears are also supposed to like this place. The only bears we have seen though are the stuffed ones in the shops.

Lake Minnewanka

Some deer seemed to be keen on eating the gravel beside the road.

Lake Minnewanka is at the other end of Banff and seems to be the place where the locals go for their time off. There is a café here, canoes to hire and also the much publicized Boat Cruise on the Lake. It is quite a large body of  dammed water with what appears to be a small hydro power plant. We encountered a mob of deer on the side of the road, seemed to be mum deer with a number of relatively new-born hanging nearby. They got a bit skittish if you got too close, apparently they will have a run at you if they feel threatened.

Castle Mountain

Along the Bow Valley Parkway

The Bow Valley Parkway is the old road that linked Banff with Lake Louise until the Trans Canada Highway was built. The two roads run  alongside each other on opposite sides of the Bow River. Lower down beside the river runs the railway line on which we travelled in the Rocky Mountaineer, no wonder the scenery was looking a bit familiar! At least though we could stop here and there for a good look!

Having a rest, unaware a bear is approaching from behind.

Don’t know what this is, but there is a lot of it around.

Spent a little time at Johnston Canyon, this is an old tourist spot dating from early 1900s. We set out along the pathway leading to the lower falls, however Homealone pulled out of the walk when it continued along a walkway attached to the side of the canyon.  Allthego continued and found  there were a further two such suspended walkways before reaching the falls. A good view was had of these by going through a narrow tunnel for a few metres to a small viewing area. The only problem was there was a queue to do this, made up of a lot of selfie takers at the other end. An endless wait of self indulgence! Now if you think Allthego has a problem here then you are right! One or two selfies is fine, but there has to be a limit……………or does there?

Johnston Canyon

We left the Parkway at Castle Mountain and went down the road towards Kootenay National Park. Down this way there is a spot that marks the Continental Divide, there are a number of these markers down through the Rockies and their importance rests in dividing British Columbia from Alberta. On the western side water flows to the Pacific and on the eastern side towards the sea to the north of Canada and the Atlantic.

Continental Divide

Vermilion River

There is a drop loo just on the British Columbia side and Allthego thought he would contribute to the Pacific flow, there was no such facility on the Alberta side. The road down here also ran in places beside the Vermilion River, a glacial fed shallow milky green stream racing across a rocky bottom.

We returned to Banff along the Trans Canada Highway, a speed way compared to the Bow Valley Parkway. We now head for Lake Louise.

Our lodgings at the High Country Inn are a welcome spot after the decamp from the train journey. It is a quiet place on Banff Ave, the main drag through the township. Not far from all the action. This action was mostly eating and drinking  establishments, souvenir shops of varying quality and content, arty places and more accommodation.

There were a lot of happy tourists around. In what appeared to be descending order of numbers these comprised Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Indians (from the subcontinent) and the ROW (including quite a few Australians, many of who are bar and restaurant workers). This assortment meant that it was a real battle to get a good picture because of all the selfies that were being taken. All wandering around like sheep grinning at themselves in I Phones etc, quite frustrating at times. Allthego even offered from time to time to take group shots, always gratefully accepted, to try to clear the scene. Now the odd thing was there were not a lot of conspicuous Chinese, Korean or Indian restaurants around. There was a bit of sushi. Not sure what they all made of the burgers and the Italian places which are all over the place.

National Park Headquarters overlook the town

Allthego can always find a friend

Anyway the main reason to be in Banff National Park at this time of the year is to look at the mountains and wander around the parks and sit by the streams. The snow has mostly gone, there are some little pockets high up and numerous small glaciers in the high peaks. Many of these glaciers have shrunk in size over the last 100 years or so and some are remnants of past glories 10,000 years back.

We have done or usual town walk, looking at the buildings, nosing around some of the shops and checking out the parks. A little bit of food has been consumed, mostly Italian. Although we both indulged in an open burger, Allthgo’s burger was adorned with Swiss mushrooms, Homealone passed on these. The Italian place had a bread BBQ, you made your own toast on the BBQ with a  choice of topping. Both of us had garlic butter which just soaked into the toast as it was cooking, rather tasty indeed!

The burger with Swiss mushrooms

Rutting Elk Red

In these first couple of days our main activity was the 7 km return wander down the Bow River to see the Bow Falls. This was where the afore-mentioned selfie takers really cut loose. Well worth the effort to get there with the Falls going strong.

Bow River

Bow Falls

We have also picked up the rental car to enable us get further around the Park and ultimately up to Jasper via Lake Louise. Our first port of call was the Banff Gondola which takes one in a 4 berth car to the top of Sulphur Mountain. This takes about 8 minutes, a climb of 2,292 ft (698 m)  and to a height of 7,486 ft (2,281m), a little higher than Mt Kosiusko. It was a very smooth trip, Homealone though saw very little. Some great views from the top.

A great ride up the Gondola, Homealone made sure they shut the door.

The gondola ride

Looking down on Banff from the top of Sulphur mountain.

Golden mantled ground squirrel, atop Sulphur Mountain, they live in 30 m burrows.

Our next excursion takes us out along the Bow River Valley towards Lake Louise, but more on that next time.

The blog has been off the air for a little while due to computer problems. Allthego’s trusty old PC breathed its last in Victoria and a replacement needed to be arranged. It’s loaded with Windows 10 and so  some new tricks have had to be learned, also a bit short on storage so blog production has been frustrated, until now. We are back on air!

A note of warning now, Allthego is going to scatter pictures through this post that may not relate to the surrounding text. This is because there were a lot of pictures taken. Unfortunately a lot turned out unusable, because the train was moving and rocking along and we were shooting through glass windows with lots of reflection at times. Had opportunities from time to time to go to an open air area to snap away, so the outcome of those ones was better.

We returned from Vancouver the same way we went over, BC Ferries. A pleasant trip across the strait, weaving between the islands. Highlight was the sighting of 2 small whales flapping their tails. The sailing was delayed about an hour and we got back rather late to the hotel. This was a pity because it was the Fairmount Vancouver, a rather flash place (all part of the Rocky Mountaineer booking). Various famous types have stayed here over the years. The location was also somewhat superior to our previous digs in Granville Street. We didn’t see much of the room, back from a late dinner at around 11pm and then up the next morning at 5 am to join the tour group heading off to the train station.

Heading out of Vancouver along the Fraser River Valley.

Fraser River

Now this early morning process was an interesting study in human behaviour. Basically there were two groups of people involved. Those that had registered the night before and a smaller group like us who hadn’t. Registered people had got their special bag tags, we had to get ours. Allthego had this all under control and we got our tags, attached to the bags and then onto the bus. A few souls didn’t worry about getting tags and just got on the bus, no tags and no bags. Americans. A few grumbles here and there about having to get off and do it properly. Finally, we were off.

The train snaking along beside the river

Rafting on the River

The train boarded at 8 am and we were bag piped off. All 785 of us plus staff, 22 carriages with two diesel locomotives to drag us along (on the second day this was to become 3 as we climbed the Rockies). A highlight of the morning was viewing the eclipse (through some special glasses of course) through the top of our glass dome carriage. Some friendly Americans shared these around. The train tracked the Fraser River Valley out of Vancouver up into the coastal mountains and then along its rugged canyon.

Fraser River Canyon

Hells Gate on the Fraser River

After lunch we left the Fraser River and followed the Thompson River into Kamloops. This was our overnight stop. All 785 decamped the train and were bussed off to various hotels for the night. We had a little wander around the town and along the river bank as the sun set. After eating and drinking for much of the way dinner was not required.

At Kamloops

Kamloops Mounties

Off to bed early, as it was another 5 am  start. The second day saw us beginning the climb up into the Rockies following a network of 7 rivers. The agricultural landscape soon gave way to the forests and towering peaks. This was an amazing part of the journey.

Valley below the Stoney Creek Bridge

We are now in the Rockies

The original construction of this railway in the late 1800s and early 1900s was quite a task, monumental human and engineering effort. Some breathtaking cliff line runs and bridges to traverse. Two lengthy spiral tunnels in opposing mountains were quite impressive engineering feats to get the train tracks up a steep grade.

A glacier

Near Lake Louise

At Banff

After this it was the run into Lake Louise and then a short time later Banff, arriving at around 7.30 pm. It had been an enthralling long two days on the tracks and in the mountains, bed was very welcome.