Grand Tetons & Dazzling Fall Colors

After spending two days in Yellowstone we drove 50 miles south to Grand Teton national Park, definitely one of our favorite areas. We had managed to get into the Colter Bay campground which is at the far north of the park. It has always been full on our previous trips, and it was great to have access to a part of the park we don't normally explore. We arrived early evening and on an impulse enjoyed a great meal at the local ranch house. After cooking in the RV for weeks it was nice to have someone else prepare a meal. Tuesday (September 16th) was a chilly morning, but it warmed up quickly and we enjoyed a lovely sunny day driving through the park with some great views of the stunning Teton Mountain range. We stopped for the night at the Gros Ventre campground which we have stayed in before and enjoyed relaxing in the afternoon sun - very pleasant after several cold days. 

Wednesday September 17th, we got up early in hopes of seeing moose who apparently hang around the campground in the mornings. No luck this time, but it was a pretty morning. We had a long day of driving through Wyoming into northern Utah, staying again at Lodgepine campground in Flaming Gorge, Utah. We had stopped there in July and it was a good halfway point between the Tetons and Colorado. We also remembered some stunning fall colors from a previous trip. We had a great evening with the whole campground ourselves. This is the cats favorite location since it is right on the side of the forest, and even better when there aren’t other campers! The trees were starting to change color, but it was still a bit early for the views we saw a few years ago.

We finished the trip how we started, staying with great friends in Colorado. The fall colors were peaking and John finally got the photos he had been hoping to capture.

We finally arrived home Wednesday 24th September having spent 86 days traveling 7,400 miles. We had an incredible time and it is hard to pick our favorite locations. We are already planning next year's summer trip to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, with many stops along the way. We have some upgrades to make to the RV, and we leaned a lot on our first big trip so the next one will be easier. Our big unknown had been how the cats would adjust, and it was great to find they are adventurers too!  

For now we are all enjoying being home for the cooler weather and enjoying more space and unlimited water!

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Bears and Geysers

We left the Kootenay mountains on Monday September 8th, it was time to start heading south. The campgrounds were starting to close for the winter, and the nights were starting to get cold. We stopped for lunch in the tiny town of Invermere and enjoyed the warm afternoon and the numerous flowers around town. Our stop for the night was Crowsnest, an area still in the Canadian Rockies. We had the campground to ourselves which was lovely and another sign of the end of summer. 

We were starting to wear down after 2 ½ months and just over 5,000 miles. It had been a wonderful trip, but we were ready to start the 1,800 mile drive home. Last time we visited the Canadian Rockies we had managed to drive home in two very long days; this time we wanted to take it slowly and continue to enjoy the journey.

We spent two nights at Waterton Lakes National Park, an area north of Glacier National Park, Montana. We hadn't been able to get a campsite at the start of the trip and were glad to be successful on the way back. The weather was still hazy from the forest fires, but we enjoyed a bike ride through the main area of the park and exploring the side roads. 

We crossed the border back into the US on September 11th at Chief Mountain the original start of our Canadian adventure. We were finally able to get into the Glacier National Park Apgar campground for one night and enjoyed seeing the area again. Sara attended a great ranger talk about the life cycle of forests.

After stopping in Kalispell, Montana for groceries and pet food we drove an hour to the CSKT Bison Range. John had been given a tip from a customer about the nature reserve which focuses on bison conservation and has a herd of about 350 bison. We enjoyed driving around the reserve and the cats were transfixed with the bison; we got a few good photos of them staring out of the window. We spent the night in the tiny town of Drummond, Montana (population 294) at their local campground. We've found these campground are basic, but great value for a quick overnight stop. 

We had managed to get two nights at a campground in the center of Yellowstone National Park. We hadn’t visited the park in over 20 years and since it was on the way home it made sense to stop for a few nights. We arrived late Saturday September 13th and while checking in got a tip about a location for bear viewing. We got up early the next day to a chilly 45F at 6:30am, but we were rewarded with some stunning morning light over Yellowstone lake. 

Our tip was about an elk carcass on the side of a small lake that was attracting bears. We found the location but the small parking pullout was already full, so we had to drive further up the road to another pullover. We were pondering our options since we couldn’t see anything from that location when a local who had a spotting scope said, “look there’s a bear over there”. 

There was a larger male grizzly bear at the other location guarding the carcass and two younger female grizzlies were hanging around hoping to get their turn. Since they were about 200lbs smaller they weren’t having a lot of luck and started wandering our way. All the local photographers know the bears and their names, and we were told the two female bears were called Jam and Snow. We were delighted to watch Jam for about 45 minutes while she ambled around searching for grubs under the rocks in the hill below us.

We enjoyed touring the west side of the park before returning to the campground for the afternoon and mundane tasks of showers and laundry. We will never take our washer/dryer for granted again!  Yellowstone is a popular park and is very busy in the summer. It was still busy in September and a bit challenging driving the narrow roads and finding parking spaces at the main locations.

We spent most of Monday September 15th driving around east Yellowstone, including a stop at the Old Faithful geyser, before heading to Grand Teton for two nights.

We have been home for a few days now and will have one more post with photos from the Tetons and some great fall colors from our return through Utah and Colorado. For now enjoy these photos!

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Travel Challenges & Sparkling Lakes

We left the Revelstoke area on Monday September 1st and traveled east on the Trans Canada highway to Glacier national park an area surrounded by steep mountains and glacial alpine rivers. There was potential for northern lights that night and we thought this might be a good location for photography. As we were driving around the campground looking for a site to pick there was a loud grinding sound – we had hit the front right leveler on a sneaky dip in the road. The RV has four automatic jacks that are great at leveling the RV, the downside is reduced ground clearance. We were pretty dejected when we looked at the jack and realized it was bent. Little did we know it was about to get much worse. 

The following morning we decided to move on to Golden, a small mountain town about an hour away. Sara has a skydiving friend there who owns a café (Papa Bears) and we wanted to pop in and say hi to her. About 5 minutes outside of town we got a scary warning on the dash screen saying 10 starts remaining for the RV. We had been warned that if you get too low on Diesel Emission Fluid (DEF) the engine shuts down and you have to be towed to the dealership. We never received the low DEF warning - just went straight to the countdown. 

We stopped at Papa Bears and had a great lunch and quick catch up with Veronica and her finance Rob who have created a wonderful coffee shop and café. Next up was trying to work out what was going on with the van. After John called our Dallas Mercedes service rep. and tried a few things it was obvious we had to find a Mercedes Benz dealer. We were parked on a side road outside a house and the homeowner came out to see if we needed any help, offered us cold drinks and a ride to the local repair store – Canadians really are great people!

Wednesday September 3rd we were up early and headed to Calgary which was 160 miles and about a 3 hour drive. We had luckily found a dealership who had availability and told us to get there asap and don't turn off the engine on the way. We had no idea what was wrong, or how long a repair would take. John’s birthday was the next day and we had visions of celebrating it in the Mercedes service center waiting for parts. The drive took us past what was meant to be our next location Yoho national park and Emerald Lake, then past Lake Louise and Banff. The haze from forest fires combined with the rising sun created some stunning pastel-like views as we drove through the mountains.

The dealership was great and diagnosed the issue quickly. When we hit the bump in Glacier the front leveler bent and severed the DEF hose. Luckily the part was in stock and all was fixed, including the bent bracket by 3:30pm! The trip was back on!

We decided to get out of Calgary before the traffic got worse and drove 1½ hours to the Kananaskis valley. The cats were not happy about the day’s activity and clearly were unsettled about being locked in the RV bedroom as the van was repaired. Flash who has started to sit on our laps and look out the window loudly meowed his disapproval of the Calgary traffic instead of the mountain and forest views.

As we were backing into the campsite a red engine coolant light came on with a message saying shut off engine. Really, what else could happen? Turns out the shroud around the radiator wasn’t connected correctly – that was an easy fix for the two of us to manage so thankfully we didn’t need to return to Calgary. Phew that was a long day.

Thursday September 4th – John’s Birthday! We decided to stay in the Eau Clarie campground another night. It was really peaceful with only 5 campers spread across the 50 sites; just what we needed after the crazy previous days. We had planned to visit the Kananaskis area so the diversion worked out. We enjoyed the mountains and lovely lakes, although haze from forest fires was an issue,  

Our approach of not planning ahead very far does cause a bit of anxiety about whether we will find a place to stay. We have noticed it always works out and our next location was a great example. On Friday September 5th, we drove north again past Banff and Lake Louise, returning to Yoho national park. We pulled into Kicking Horse campground and asked if they had any availability. There had just been a cancelation, and if we could fit the van into site 13 we could stay the night. Perfect, and yes, we fit!  We were excited because we wanted to visit  Emerald Lake which was just 15 minutes from the campground. The lake is a very beautiful and popular and we have wanted to return since visiting 25 years ago. We spent a delightful evening at the lake, wandering around the shoreline finding different spots for photography. The lake wasn’t quite as turquoise as we remembered, possibly because of the smoke haze and the late afternoon sun not shining directly on the lake. It was still a magical time.

The next day we stopped for a great lunch in the tiny village of Field. The Truffle Pigs Bistro is a small family-run restaurant recommended by John’s college friend Alex. Apparently, people come all the way from Calgary just to eat at the restaurant. It was a great meal! 

We drove east back past Lake Louise (those spectacular views never get old) and then went south on highway 93 into Kootenay National Park. We keep thinking we will run out of beautiful scenery and mountains, but they just kept coming and coming. We camped next to the Kootenay river and loved the turquoise color of the water. The turquoise color comes from "rock flower" which are minerals deposited in the water as the glacier scrapes the rocks. 

Sunday September 7th we drove further south and stopped at Radium hot springs for a relaxing soak. On the way to the next campground we drove through the small town of Radium and stopped at a great Austrian restaurant. We’ve been cooking in the RV most days, so it was a treat to eat out two days in a row! 

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Revelstoke!

We arrived in the mountain town of Revelstoke on Wednesday August 27th. The area sits at the base of three mountain ranges and is well known for all kinds of winter activities including some very good heli skiing. We had one night booked at the National Park Snowforest campground, and planned to stay in the area until Monday after the Canadian Labor day weekend. We loved our campsite nestled in the trees and decided to try and stay two nights. Sara checked with the office about availability for the next night. After a sharp intake of breath from the rangers, and a few sad head shakes they said "let’s check". Turns out our exact site was available, and yes we would love to stay in that location another night!

We enjoyed the cooler temperatures and built a great fire using the wood included in the camping fee. We had been plagued with damp wood at previous campgrounds and finally had dry wood! The campgrounds are very strict about burning wood from other areas to prevent the spread of invasive insects and disease. Some of the National Park campgrounds enable you to purchase a fire permit and then access unlimited wood which is always nice, especially when it burns well!

The next morning we relaxed in the peaceful campground. The cats loved this location and spent hours outside with us wandering around the area. We thought Zeke was sitting in the undergrowth relaxing quietly and were horrified when he walked into camp with a little vole in his mouth. We were not sure of the park regulations about killing voles but assumed we had broken them. 

Around 3pm we drove 27km up the Meadows in the Sky parkway. The rangers told us parking at the top was tough during the day, so we waited until most people had hopefully left. It was a lovely drive up a road with some sharp hair pin bends and great views of the valley. We found space to park at the top and hiked a long path to the top of mount Revelstoke which had stunning views of the surrounding mountains. There were some lovely ponds with reflections and an old historic fire lookout cabin. The views were a bit hazy due to smoke from forest fires in northern Canada. 

Friday August 29th we needed to find a camping site early for the long weekend before everything filled up. We had researched the area and decided to explore a small road that headed north about 100km to a dam that had created Lake Revelstoke. There were several British Columbia recreation site campgrounds and if needed some wild camping. We first stopped to top up our propane which we were doing every 3-4 weeks to be safe. The gauge had stopped working in Idaho and the only way to check capacity was for John to slide under the RV to look at a manual gauge. We also stopped to dump our black and grey tanks and fill up on drinking water. We've learned RVing is a lot about tank management, especially if you aren't sure where you will be camping! 

After an hour’s drive north we arrived at Downie Creek campground which still had a few sites available out of the 22 available. The sites were very close to each other; the campground was surrounded by trees with no views and there were a lot of children running around. Initially we weren’t looking forward to the next three days, but it turned out to be a great stay. Everyone was a local and they were very friendly and welcoming and we enjoyed chatting to them. A short walk or bike ride took us to the shore of Lake Revelstoke an 81 mile lake surrounded by an interior temperate rainforest and glacier-capped mountains. 

The weather was warm and the lake water very pleasant for swimming and paddle boarding,  which we enjoyed all three days. We found a trail that took us into the trees and away from the campground activity. The cats, particularly Zeke, loved exploring this area going deeper into the forest each day. On Saturday evening following the afternoon rain, Sara explored the lake shore for several hours on the paddleboard. The water was smooth as glass, and when she returned we both cycled back to the lakeshore for evening photography. 

Sunday August 31st was an amazing day, one of the best of the trip. We started with an early morning 15 mile bike ride on the quiet road, enjoying great views of the lake and mountains. In the afternoon we both got on the paddleboard and carefully paddled around the corner of our camp inlet and found a private sandy beach. We spent the afternoon there swimming and just sitting on logs with our feet in the water enjoying the amazing mountain views. It was a magnificent day!

Monday we got up unusually early at 5:30am for some sunrise photography. We cycled down to the lake and waited several hours for the sun to come over the mountains – guess we didn’t need to get up so early!  Most people were heading home after the long weekend, and we too packed up and said our goodbyes. As we left one of the campers gave us a hand knitted towel as a parting gift – it really was a special experience for the three days.

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Mount Robson and the Thompson Valley

After leaving Jasper we entered the “no plan – plan” phase of the trip. We were driving west, south then east in a large loop of about 600 miles, exploring the North Thompson Valley in BC. The goal was to be back in the mountains of Yoho national park in early September when hopefully things would be quieter and campsites easier to find. 

Our first stop was Mount Robson provincial park, which at 12, 972 feet is the highest peak in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. When we arrived, the top was completely covered with clouds, but in the morning it was clear blue sky. John prefers photos that include clouds however we spoke to a local who said he had only seen the top of Mt. Robson a few times, so we thought it appropriate to show it clear and visible. Friday August 22nd, we drove to the trail head of the mountain and Sara rode her bike up a steep rocky path with steep drop-offs into the fast-flowing river on one side. Not being used to off-road trails she almost turned around a few times; however seeing a family with two young children who had ridden up the night before and camped she was inspired to continue. The view at Kinney Lake was well worth the fear going up and down; an alpine lake surrounded by steep mountains. 

That afternoon we were relieved to get a camping spot at the second campground in the park. Everything was first come first served, and our backup plan was wild camping at a gravel pit up the road. It was still early enough on a Friday afternoon to have spots available, even better they had hot showers!

The next day we drove north to the tiny community of Dunster (population 24). The area had caught Sara’s attention because Google maps showed a place nearby called Croydon and Sara’s Dad was from Croydon which is south London. Dunster has a railway station built in 1913 which is now a restored museum and a cool historic general store. It was a fun afternoon chatting to the locals about the area’s history. Plus the general store had fire starters, Sara’s favorite tea and a post office where we bought some stamps we needed. We decided not to go any further north and turned back south to spend two nights in Valemont since we needed to do such mundane things as grocery shopping and laundry!

The campsite in Valemont was next to the Swift River which was a dedicated salmon spawning habitat. The Chinook salmon swim all the way from Vancouver to lay their eggs. There were a lot of salmon swimming up the river and it was quite moving watching their struggle after a 3-month journey about 850 mile journey.  The water was turbulent and hard to photograph, but John persevered and managed to get a few shots. They were quite big, about two feet long, and we were careful to follow the directions to not disturb them, even a shadow can prevent them from laying the eggs. 

We left Valemont on Monday August 25th and drove south to Clearwater which is the entry point to  Wells Grey Provincial Park which has 42 waterfalls. We were staying at a campground north of the highway to have a quiet night. Most of our campgrounds had been off the highway so had road noise and sometimes train noise. The area is quite wild and all facilities are close to the main road, including the train track which we seemed to have been following since Montana!  The only noise that night was our neighbor having a terrible argument with someone, he did apologize the next day. The campground had some interesting buildings and we thought it had been a military base, turns out it was a minimum security prison some years ago.

On the way out we stopped to see Spahats Fall which is 197 feet tall and enjoyed a pleasant walk through an old growth forest. Then we headed to Kamloops for groceries and pet food. It was a really hot day, almost 100F, and we of course managed to hit town at the hottest part of the day. Kamloops is in a dry hot area and was the largest town we had gone through since leaving Kalispell in Montana. We were able to get everything we needed and then headed to Salmon Arm for the night. We knew the area was hot and were trying to get through to the lower temperatures in the mountains of Revelstoke as quickly as possible. 

We had driven just over 4,000 miles by this point and everyone was settling into van life. We’ve memorized most of the places in the van that cause a nasty head strike if you’re not paying attention, and we have learned to move around each other in the 160 sq feet of interior space. Finding campsites has got easier, aided by Google Maps and iOverlander.com. The cats continue to enjoy getting outside and certainly enjoy the forest sites the most. Best to avoid any area with small children or dogs which particularly scares Zeke. We have tried to walk them together, but they always go in completely opposite directions, even if we are trying for a quick photo!

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Icefield Parkway & Jasper

We left Banff on Friday August 15th, returning to the train station to park and return the rental car. It was very convenient having a car and we are considering towing one in the future; although it is an additional complexity to manage. We stopped at Wild Flour bakery again for lunch since it was so good and then headed north up the Icefield Parkway. We had two days to explore before our next reservation in Jasper national park. Our first stop was Peyto lake. It's a steep hike up to the viewing area but a beautiful lake. It was a foggy, rainy day so the light was muted but always worth seeing. We were in the area about 25 years ago and don’t remember the long hike at all. Luckily last time it was a sunny day so we had seen Peyto lake in all its glorious color.

We turned off the icefield parkway and drove east a bit alongside the North Saskatchewan river and stopped at the Wild Horse Creek Rustic Camping area. It had been recommended by a local we spoke to in a Lake Louise coffee shop and turned out to be a great spot. We found a lovely location in the trees overlooking the river and the cats loved the remoteness of the area and exploring the woods. 

The following morning the rain had stopped, and John fixed a crack in the windshield we had picked up on the way to Canmore. All the glass repair companies were busy so he had found a do it yourself kit. On the spur of the moment, we booked the last tour of the day at the Columbia icefield, perfect since we were only an hour away. We had planned to just stop there to see the glaciers and spend the night, but we were fascinated with the idea of riding the Ice Explorer buggy up on to Athabasca glacier. The Ice Explorer is a specially built machine with huge low-pressure tires that holds about 50 people, there are only 25 in the world and 23 are on the Columbia icefield. It has a massive amount of torque and can ascend and descend a slope of 35 percent. It was very cool to get up on the actual glacier but walking around on the glacier was pretty tricky. Walking on ice without ice cleats on your shoes has a great potential of a nasty slip and fall, which fortunately we managed to avoid - although it was close a few times! We enjoyed the tour commentary about the area and the impact of climate change, with a much hotter planet causing the glaciers to shrink. It was very clear where the glacier used to extend to, and how much it has retreated.

We spent the night in the RV parking lot which also works as an overnight campground. Not bad for $16 a night. The temperatures were almost freezing with the cold air coming off the glaciers, but the views in the morning were incredible. Well worth getting up at sunrise to view!

Sunday August 16th we had a leisurely 100 mile mile drive to Jasper, stopping numerous times to take photos of the beautiful scenery. There were several great glacier viewpoints, Tangle Creek Water Falls and Honey Moon Lake which is a hidden gem. Zeke particularly enjoyed a long walk through the woods at the lake.

We spent four relaxing days in Jasper at Whistler campground which has 700 sites, but still managed to avoid feeling crowded. After the bustle of the Banff area we enjoyed a slower pace and spent an morning wandering around town getting lunch, a great coffee with a bear image and a quick trip to the barber for John. We also visited Miette hot springs, about an hour east of town and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon in the warm and refreshing cold waters. 

Jasper had a devastating wildfire last summer which burned part of the campground, 358 structures in town and around 90,000 acres.  It caused an evacuation of all residents, workers, and tourists. There was no loss of life except for the unfortunate death of one firefighter. The cause of the fire was lighting, and it will take many years to recover. 

The area is still beautiful and we enjoyed seeing Maligne Lake and Pyramid Lake which were both lovely. We enjoyed a hike through the woods at Maligne lake and were rewarded with a great viewpoint of the lake and mountains. 

The cats had a rare moment of sitting together quietly on the picnic table at dusk one evening followed by a wild active time. They both took off in separate directions - Flash trotting along the street with John telling him to slow down, and Zeke hurtling across the street to a clump of trees with Sara in hot pursuit of the end of the 25ft leash. They seem to go from quiet to active in the blink of an eye and we’ve learned they cannot be left unsupervised for more than a few minutes!

The views from the Jasper campground were stunning in every direction and we really enjoyed our time just relaxing after our busy days exploring.

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Spectacular Banff

We left Canmore on August 12th and headed into the center of Banff to pick up a rental car. It was a beautiful sunny day and Banff was packed with people. We ended up parking at the train station which luckily still had space for RV’s and walked into town to get the car. We had to do a massive amount of laundry and conveniently there was a coin laundry in the same complex as the car rental. Even better was a quick trip to the Wild Flour bakery to reward ourselves for the effort! It was late afternoon and we drove both vehicles to the Lake Louise RV overflow lot, about 50km north of Banff, just a gravel parking lot for $9 a night. 

One of our main goals in Banff was to go to Lake Louise, which is no easy task. Lake Louise is so popular it is impossible to get a parking space during the day, even harder for RV’s, which is why we rented the car. The only options are a shuttle bus or try after 7pm or before 6am. We hadn’t been able to get into the Banff campground for the night, which is why we were in the overflow parking lot and this turned out to be perfect! We headed up the winding road around 7pm and were excited to get a parking space and walked to the lake. It was cloudy and started to rain, and Sara after walking back with her paddleboard bag decided not to get on the lake. We walked back up the hill to the car in the rain and pondered our next move. We were getting ready to leave when the rain cleared and a rainbow came out – so back down to the lake we went for some great sunset photos!

Encouraged by our evening success we forced ourselves to get up at 4:30am the next day (neither one of us are morning people), and we drove up the mountain road in the dark. We were so excited to get a parking spot again as the area was quickly filling up. We had a spectacular morning with incredible sunrise lighting for John’s photography. Sara spent an hour and a half paddleboarding round the lake, enjoying the peace of nature and some unforgettable views as the sun came up over the mountains. It was well worth the early rise and effort!

We stopped in the small village for breakfast and got some tips from a local on where to stay on the Icefield parkway. This would be our next location and we didn’t have any official campsites booked. 

On the way back to the RV we drove the Bow River Parkway and stopped to see beautiful views of the river and mountains. There was one particular place John wanted to check out called Morant's Curve, which has the river and train tracks together. A lot of photographers try to get a photo when the train comes by, but not knowing the train timetable we didn’t want to wait hours. We were treated to a sighting of a large elk by the river munching on foliage.

We were worn out and it had started to rain by the time we retuned to the RV, so we took a nap to warm up before heading to the Tunnel Mountain campground in Banff.  We had a quick dinner and then drove to Vermillion lakes which John had been looking forward to photographing. It was starting to rain again, so the lights weren’t the best, but he was still able to find a shot with some great reflections. It was an amazing day!

On Thursday August 14th we spent the morning driving around exploring Two Jack, Johnson, Minnewanka and Cascade lakes. In the afternoon we drove back to Lake Louise village and took the last shuttle to Moraine Lake. The lake is very popular and access was changed to shuttles only a few years ago to address the 5,000 vehicles a day that were being turned away due to no parking. It’s another beautiful location although conditions weren’t as great as our time at Lake Louise. Sara managed half an hour of paddle boarding before the windy conditions made it too challenging. It was a lot of effort for limited reward, including needing to bang the rudder repeatedly with a rock to remove it so the return shuttle wasn’t missed. We were lucky though, to see a black bear on the return shuttle road!

For a change we enjoyed a restaurant meal before heading back to Banff. We had originally planned on more days in Banff but couldn’t get camp site reservations so we really packed a lot into a few days to make the most of the time!

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