Canadian Rockies RV Trip August 18-26 2009
(Gamliel, Gill-More, Savitsky & Horvat Family)
August 18; Day 1
We left home very early in the morning. Our flight left from BWI at 5:40am.
We flew to Houston, TX and from there we took a connection to Calgary. We arrived in Calgary around noon. From the airport we took a taxi to Cruise Canada to pick up our RV. This year again we took a 30 ft. long RV. At the RV office we met Kinneret, Raveh, Gilad and Rinat plus all the kids of course. After we all received our RV’s we headed to the Safeway to buy some groceries. From Calgary we took route #1 west to our first campground; Bow Valley just before Canmore.
It is a beautiful and large campground next to the Bow River. Liron fall asleep on our way and we couldn’t wake her up for the rest of the evening. The kids played for a while outside while we prepared the RV’s and did some cooking. We ate hotdogs and pasta. After dinner everyone was so tired and we all went to sleep.
August 19; Day 2
On Aug. the 19th we all had a slow start even though Kinneret and Raveh were awake since 6AM; the rest took their time to wake up. We set our alarm clock to 7AM but we finally got out of bed around 7:30AM. Liron woke up and asked “where are we?” she slept through the entire night. We all made a great breakfast with pancakes and eggs. We made a small walk along the Bow River and finally around 10AM we started to disconnect the hookups. We had to go to the dump station and Nir showed Gilad and Raveh how it works. From Bow Valley campground we continued on route #1 west and we drove till Lake Louise. On the way we stopped for gas at Banff which looks like a very cute town. We arrived in Lake Louise around 1PM and we stopped at the information center to find out which hike to do. We decided to do Lake Agnes trail. This is a trail that starts at the famous Lake Louise and the Fairmont Chateau. It was pretty packed at the parking and it was hard to find a spot for 3 big RV’s. This trail is a 4.5 miles hike, round trip but the elevation gain is 1,155 ft. and that made it a hard climb but oh so worth it. First you get to Mirror Lake and then you get to a teahouse that was built by Swiss man in their spare time while working on the Canada Rocky railroad in the early 1900’s. The teahouse is build next to Agnes Lake with a stunning view. The people that work there live in the teahouse for 5 months from its opening on May till October. We ate some lunch there that we took with us and afterwards we had a tea with cake inside the teahouse. The hike down was much faster. We are very proud of the girls how they hiked the whole way. Noa only mentioned once that her feet hurt and Liron was leading the whole way up & down. After the hike we drove to our campground at Lake Louise. The kids went to see a short movie at the amphitheater about bears while we prepared dinner; again hotdogs, pasta but this time as variation we had chicken nuggets and salad as well. Everyone took a shower, some at the campground showers and others inside the RV. Noa Gill-More came for a sleep over this night.
It is time to go to sleep since everybody is already sleeping and tomorrow we would like to try to leave early.
August 20; Day 3
Today, Aug. 20, we managed to wake up early and while all kids were still sleeping we started driving to our first destination of the day; Moraine Lake. This Lake is near Lake Louise so it was a short drive from our campground. When we got there all kids had woken up and since it was too cold to eat breakfast outside we decided that each family will have breakfast in their own RV. After breakfast around 9:30AM we took a very short hike to a viewpoint from which we had the most stunning view of Moraine Lake. The picture of Moraine Lake has been famous for being printed on the C$20. When the sunray shines on the lake you get the most beautiful turquoise color in the water and it is surrounded by mountains. We couldn’t get enough of this place. From there we started driving towards Jasper on the Icefields Parkway road.
This is a 230 km highway of continues scenery in 2 National Parks; Banff & Jasper.
This road is named by many travel organization like National Geographic as one of the worlds most beautiful drives in the world. The speed limit is leisurely and large trucks are banned. Along the road there are many pull over sites with amazing views. We left Lake Louise area around noon and arrived in Jasper around 8PM. Wow!!! It was so worth it. We stopped to look at; Crowfoot Glacier, Bow Lake and Peyto Lake. These are located at the Bow summit area. To get to Peyto (Pee-toe) Lake we had to do another short hike but steep up the mountain. The lake is named after 2 horse party outfitters Wilson & Peyto who travelled through this area in earlier eras. We stopped to have a picnic lunch at Coleman Creek. We continued around 4PM and drove over the Sunwapta Pass at 2030 meters elevation which is the boundary between Banff and Jasper N.P. We stopped to have a look at Sunwapta Canyon and Sunwapta Falls. To get to the falls it is a short walk. The kids took of their shoes and started walking and climbing over the rocks in the freezing cold water. Sunwapta means “turbulent river” from the days when only aboriginal peoples moved through these valleys. We stopped at Goats and Glaciers overlook but we did not find any goats. Our last stop was at the Athabasca Falls; this means “the place where the bulrushes grow”. We check in at our campground; Whistlers. Instead of driving to our site we drove into Jasper town where we had dinner in a restaurant. It was nice to eat something different then pasta and hotdogs.
We arrived at our campground around 10PM. We all have different loop so our camp sites are not close to each other. The girls took a quick shower and went straight to bed, they fell asleep immediately. Tomorrow we are going to explore the surroundings of Jasper and we hope to see some animals since we didn’t have any luck till now.
August 21; Day 4
We woke up early again, at 7AM and left the camp site at 7:45AM to go to the supermarket and Raveh had to go to the launderette. Nir in the meantime prepared pancakes and was baby-sitting all the kids; apparently he did a good job. After I did the groceries I walked down to Jasper’s information center to hear about the “must see and do” in the area. After everybody was finished with the grocery, laundry and breakfast we started driving to Maligne Canyon. This is a beautiful short hike along the Maligne River and falls that leads a path all the way along the limestone corge. When we walked back to the parking lot we finally saw the first animal of the day, an Elk. It was beautiful and amazing to see so close. We continued to our next stop which was at Medicine Lake. This is a fascinating place to see. The lake fills up in the spring when all the snow melts and slowly the water level goes down in the summer but there is no river taking the water out of this lake. So how does the water level drop? On the bottom of the lake there are small tunnels that drain the water and lead it under the soil for a few miles to another place. Now at the end of the summer the lake is completely empty and you can walk on it and you see the grass growing. The south part of the lake had still enough water for the kids to play in and Nir and Raz were brave and crazy enough to take a dip in the freezing cold water. When the other kids see it they ran back to the RV’s and changed into their bathing suits. Lee was as well brave and took a dive in. Nir challenged Amit and at the end he also took of his cloth and jumped in. We drove to a picturesque picnic area along the Maligne River. We had a good lunch and it was hard to leave such nice place with good weather. From there we drove to Maligne Lake. We did a nice hike; Moose Lake trail. It is a 2.3 km. loop hike. This hike is mainly in the forest till you get to Moose Lake and from there you continue walking to Maligne Lake. It is a wonderful and easy hike. On our way back we finally see a grizzly bear. It was eating and walking high on the mountain so it wasn’t easy to really see him very clear. On that same road we suddenly see a group of big horn sheep; later on we also see white tail deer. It was our lucky day that we finally got to see some animals. The weather has been warmer than the usual so all animals stay away in the shaded areas but later in the day they come out to drink from the rivers and lakes. Apparently there are supposed to be many animals in the area of the golf club of the Fairmont Jasper lodge so we drove through it but only found more white tail deer and big horn sheep. Kinneret, Raveh and we drove back to the campground but Rinat and Gilad went to buy some hiking shoes for Rinat. Each family had dinner inside their own RV since it was raining a bit. The girls had pizza and Nir made for us shakshukah. We all took a shower and Einat came to sleep with us. We played a few times the Bungee game and at 10 pm the girls were sleeping. Nir is also asleep already so it is time for me to close my eyes too.
August 22; Day 5
We woke up early and we started heading back towards Lake Louise.
We took again route #93 south from Jasper which is the Icefields Parkway. We had breakfast at one of the overlooks (Mushroom & Diadem Peaks) and continued after eating towards the Columbia Icefield Centre where we were going to do an ice-walk on the glacier. This is the largest accumulation of ice south of the Artic Circle, straddling through two Canadian National parks and two provinces and with meltwater flowing into the Artic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Columbia Icefields is immense! Our guide was Bernard and he took us for a 3 hours walk on the Athabasca Glacier. We had to wear winter cloth in the summer because it can get really cold on the glacier. We got spikes for our shoes so that we couldn’t slip on the ice. This was an amazing experience! After the walk we continued driving south and stopped at “Bridal Veil Falls” overlook. This is a beautiful waterfall. From there we drove to our picnic lunch destination at Saskatchewan Crossing. We arrived early evening to Lake Louise campground where we celebrated Raveh’s birthday. Einat, Noa and Amit preformed a little song/rap and we ate cake. The kids made decorations and pictures for Raveh.
August 23; Day 6
From Lake Louise we drove west on route #1 to Yoho National park which is located in British Columbia. After we took some info from the Information center we drove to Emerald Lake where we had breakfast. It was too cold to sit outside so each family had breakfast in its own RV and we all shared something; Raveh/Kinneret made Pillsbury bread, Rinat & Gilad made eggs and we made Pillsbury croissants. Our day started with a beautiful easy walk around Emerald Lake. We took many pictures there since the landscape changes around the lake and the mountains around it reflect in the water. Driving back to the main road we stopped at the Natural Bridge. This is a nice viewpoint of a natural bridge which forms a rock arch over the Kicking Horse River. We had to take a very interesting road to get to Takakkaw Falls.
The road has two very sharp and short turns, since our RV’s are 30 ft. long we had to stop traffic and drive up in reverse. It was just crazy to watch, but we made it and I am happy we did.
The Takakkaw Falls is the 2nd highest waterfall in Canada. These falls give credence to their name, which means “magnificent” in Cree. We followed a short trail to the base of this majestic falls, which plunge over 1000 feet into the Kicking Horse River. We left Yoho National Park and drove route #1 east to Banff. We checked into our campground at Tunnel Mountain but drove back into town for dinner. We had dinner at Keg’s which is a nice steak house, located on Banff Ave.
After dinner Kinneret, Rinat and I went to Safeway for some groceries. This night Leehi and Raz came for a sleep-over.
August 24; Day 7
It was really cold last night and we had to turn on the heater for the first time at night. Till now we used to put on the heater in the morning as soon as we wake up but last night it was 32F. We slept in. Nir woke up at 8 am to make some phone calls to rafting companies.
I got out of bed around 8:30am. Kinneret woke up at 9:30 am. We decided to go rafting which would be a nice change for the kids. We went with Chinook rafting company which do family trips from the age of 5. They do this on the Kananaskis River. We had to drive past Canmore and more or less where our first and last night’s campground is at Bow Valley. We met them at the Nakoda Lodge where you get all your equipment and you take a school bus to the river.
At the river we got the longest explanation about how to raft and what to do if you fall out.
Finally we got onto the river. Leehi and Raz came with us and Rinat, Gilad and Hila where together with Raveh and his kids in another boat. Kinneret had to stay behind with Tamar since she was too young to go rafting. We left them in Banff where they did some shopping. Leenoi decided at the last moment not to do it, and so she stayed in the RV for a nice long nap. Raz and Liron where sitting all the way in the front to get soaking wet. The river was very calm and the rapids where not at all rough or hard. We got to jump into the freezing cold water and our whole boat went in, even Liron went for a dip and we were so proud of her. Our guide was from New Zealand and I do not even remember her name since she called herself “Kiwi”. Even though it was really easy we had a lot of fun and most important everybody enjoyed it. After our rafting adventure we had dinner in a park in Banff next to the Bow River. After dinner we went into town for some shopping. We bought some cloth for the girls at Roots which is a Canadian brand. We saw very cool ski cloth for Noa, also from a Canadian company; Orage but they didn’t have the jacket in her size anymore and so we decided not to buy it. In the evening after we put all the kids in beds the Kinneret, Raveh, Rinat & Gilad came over to our RV for a cup of coffee and we decided what to do tomorrow. Nir is already asleep and the time is around 1 am now, so it’s time to go and close my eyes too.
August 25; Day 7
Today we all slept in. We woke up at 8:30am but the other families close to 9:30am.
I went to take a shower in the campgrounds bathrooms. It was very clean at Banff Tunnel Mountain Campground. After eating breakfast we unhooked and drove to Bow Falls viewpoint parking where we started our hike. We did the Bow River / Hoodoos hike.
This is 3 mile (5.1 km.) one way, with elevation gain of about 197 ft. (60 m.)
We hiked all along the Bow River. On the other side of the river you could see the golf course of Fairmont Banff Hotel. The kids had a good time playing with the pebbles on the little pebble beaches along the river. Slowly we started gaining elevation and the view became stunning.
At this hike it was clear that we were all very tired and also sad because we knew it was the last day in the beautiful Rockies. At the end of the hike, on top of the mountain, you had different viewpoints to look at the Hoodoos. This was for us some kind of disappointment. Not that I expected to see Bryce, because there is only one Bryce NP but I did expect to see more Hoodoos. The view from up there was breathtaking thou. Luckily we had left one RV on top of the mountain where we finished our hike which was close to the RV campground. The men, Kinneret and Tamar drove down to the start point to pick up the other 2 RV's. After our hike we decided that we needed some down time where we could all relax and enjoy the last day with each other. We drove to Johnson lake. At Banff's info center they had told me that it is the only lake in the area warm enough to swim in. Our brave girls had put on their bathing-suits and dared them selves in the “warm” water but they came out running and screaming pretty fast.
We enjoyed a wonderful picnic lunch and tried to finish most of our food.
At a certain point Rinat excused her self and went to take a nap in the RV.
Later in the afternoon we drove to our campground where we slept the first night as well, in Bow Valley. The kids took off to a playground and the adults started packing. We cooked the best dinner of all nights ;-) leftovers from the whole trip. Anything that we could eat and was in the refrigerator or freezer was on the table. We had to say goodbye to the Horvat family who was leaving very early in the morning to catch their flight to Toronto. Leehi and Raz came to sleep in our RV for the last night.
August 26; Day 9
We woke up early and Raveh came to wake up Leehi and Raz. They left before us to the airport.
We left the campground around 9:30am and drove to Calgary to return the RV. From Cruise Canada we took a taxi to the airport. Our flight was at 2:05 pm. to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Our connection was at 7 pm and we arrived at BWI at 10:40 pm. It was nice to have the car at the airport. The girls didn't even fall asleep in the car instead they watched a movie.
After a long vacation it fell good to be back home.
This was truly a wonderful and beautiful trip. The Canadian Rockies is definitely a place to go back to, you just can't get enough of it's beauty.
It was great to do this RV trip for a change with other families and the best part is that we made new friends.
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