The Canadian Rockies are stunning. The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks include Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho national parks and Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine and Hamber provincial parks. These seven parks spanning Alberta and British Columbia provinces make up an incredibly beautiful landscape with glaciers, icefields, mountain peaks, alpine meadows, waterfalls, and canyons and diverse wildlife. They take your breath away.

Part One-In June of 2008, my family decided to cross the northern borders of the US and experience an international trip to Canada. Some of you might balk at Canada being international since they speak English. But since we dealt with customs, foreign transaction fees, and international roaming fees for our cell phones, I’m calling the trip international!

Trip planning began with signing up for a new credit card with lots of bonus airline miles. While using the credit card to accumulate miles, I began studying the United rewards program to minimize our flight costs.   By choosing the flight carefully we were able to fly nonstop from Houston to Calgary for only 25,000 points, which is the same price as flying domestically.

Realizing we wanted to maximize our time in the Canadian Parks, we decided to reserve an RV from CanaDream for the first half and then rent homes for the remainder of the trip. I made all the necessary reservations, purchased the airline tickets and then used my excel spreadsheet skills to plan the itinerary and food menu.

Our 3.5-hour flight into Calgary went smoothly and we were driving away with our Sunseeker rental RV in just under another hour. Our first stop was at a Canadian superstore (equivalent to Costco). This was mistake #1. This was not an American friendly grocery store, starting with the Canadian coins that were required to just retrieve a grocery cart.  (Safeway in Canmore would have been a much easier grocery option.) After 2.5 hours of shopping, we were able to unload our groceries for the week into the RV and head to our first campsite along Highway 1 after purchasing the national park pass. It wasn’t long before we discovered mistakes #2 and #3: Crock-Pots don’t work while driving the RV and you can’t run the A/C on high without flipping a breaker. Exhausted from the long day of travel, we quickly settled into our campsite at Banff Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court and figured out how to hook up the necessary connections and then called it an early night.

The next day we headed out for Bow Lake along the Icefields Parkway, a dramatic drive of jaw-dropping scenery with glaciers, waterfalls, and turquoise lakes. Unfortunately, the rain shortened our hike around Bow Lake and mistake #4 occurred: my husband slipped and dropped the camera. Yep, the lense was broken. We then headed to the Columbian Icefield at Athabasca Glacier for our first glacier experience. This giant icefield reaches into two Canadian National Parks and two provinces, encompassing eight separate rivers of ice. We climbed aboard a giant all-terrain vehicle to traverse the glacier.   We saw the hydrogeographical apex where the Icefield feeds into three oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic. The ice is up to 1200 feet thick. To say it was cold would be an understatement! It was an amazing experience to walk around on the glacier and see the blue colored streams throughout the ice. When we returned back to the visitor center, mistake #5 occurred: our daughter dropped and broke her camera. Needless to say, our trip would have to be altered to find a camera shop the next day! We drove to the Wilcox Creek Campground to dry camp, which required navy showers and a fire to keep warm.

The hikes on the next day included Wilcox Pass that offered amazing views of the Athabasca Glacier and the surrounding mountains, Tangle Falls, and Athabasca Falls. The Athabasca River is forced through a narrow gorge dropping over a cliff into roaring water. The sign posted at the bridge perfectly expressed our sentiments.  “Here, in a fury of sound and spray, the power of roaring water and a trembling earth meet. Echoes of timeless battle assault our senses. “ We finished the day with a quick hike around Horseshoe Lake and then arrived at Whistler’s Campground in Jasper National Park to spend two nights.

We headed out the next morning to drive to Maligne Lake to tour Spirit Island. The flowers and wildlife (fish, moose, birds, elk and goats) were plentiful along the drive. While waiting for the tour to begin, we decided to head up Opal Hills for a hike. With nonstop steep inclines and a plethora of mosquitoes, several of us decided to retreat quickly. I’m not into hikes with no rewards. We boarded the small ferry for a 40 minutes ride over to Spirit Island. The water was such a beautiful aquamarine color! It wasn’t hard to see why this is one of the most famous and photographed views of the Canadian Rockies.

Leaving Jasper National Park the next morning, we headed towards British Columbia. We decided to spend some time at Maligne Canyons to stretch our legs, stopped at Mount Robson Park for lunch, and then drove to Wells Gray Provincial Park. We camped at the Trophy Mountain Buffalo Ranch for the night. The next morning we began to explore the quietest, most pristine, dense forest I’ve ever encountered. Unfortunately, it was overflowing with over 30 different species of mosquitoes, which limited our hiking. We than gazed upon Helmelken Falls, a thunderous, powerful display of God’s mightiness. We checked into Lamplight Campground in Revelstoke for the night.

Our kids were thrilled to get to play in snow the next day at the higher elevations of Mount Revelstoke Park at the Caribou Crossing. At the lower elevations, the snow had melted and we were able to hike Inspiration Woods and the Lindmark Trail. The Giant Cedars Nature Trail had an amazing boardwalk through a grove of enormous cedar trees with interpretive signs.   Next, we drove to Glacier National Park to hike the Illecillewaet Sir Donald Trail up to Avalanche Pass and trekked through snow patches. We drove back into Calgary that evening to stay at the Calgary West Campground to get the RV ready to be turned in early the next morning. Next week’s blog will continue our remaining time in Canada.