British Columbia - 2023 - Banff to Spokane and Seattle

Today I had planned to go to Banff, but because the AirBnB was one hour away, it seemed like it would be too much driving to get to Bonner's Spring (where the hotel was booked). So I cancelled the booking and we made a new one in Spokane. So skip Banff and go south back to US. Sounds good to me. 

The drive today was a bit sad because the forest fires were producing a lot of smoke. We could not see the fires, but the effects were visible, and there was the smoke smell in the air. We drove past Radium Springs, had some Thai lunch somewhere (quite forgettable), crossed the border and stopped in Bonner's Spring which is in Idaho. Beautiful little town. We stopped at the lake, which had a huge beach and people were enjoying their time. It was warm and sunny.

Bonners Spring

Reached Spokane in the evening. Checked into our hotel and then drove to the Spokane falls in downtown. Downtown was so empty that it seemed weird. When I visited last time there was so much activity and there was also a lot more water in the falls. Had some good Mexican food  (Rancho Chico - good food) and that was the day. There were some nice views during the drive but not as yesterday. Quite uneventful.

Next day after breakfast it was time to see the beautiful Manito gardens in Spokane. They were as beautiful as I remember. I think the family did not enjoy as much. Oh well....I still like them (both the family and the gardens - hehe).

Manito Park

Time to drive to Seattle. There were some short walks we took to some scenic points but in general just a nice drive.

Reached Seattle in good time. Had lunch at an Italian place (Due Cucina) - some pasta and salad. Went to the waterfront area for a while since the flight is almost at midnight. 

Seattle Waterfront

Mt Ranier from near the airport

All in all it was a good trip. I would have stayed longer in Banff and extended the trip by 2 days. Did not do much shopping or even walk around in tourists shops - another reason why I need more time! But there were some hikes that were just great. Very enjoyable and beautiful trip.

British Columbia - 2023 - Jasper to Banff

I am writing as if Jasper is in British Columbia, but it is actually in Alberta, just on the border of BC. This morning is the drive on scenic Hwy 93 to Lake Louise. Packed up in the morning and checked out of the hotel. 

The main stop I had highlighted is Athabasca Falls, rest of the stops are whenever and wherever. The falls are only about 30 mins from Jasper, so that is the first stop. Parking was already full around 10 am. There was a little easy walk to the falls. Lots of water!! Nice falls, and then we took the walk around a bit. About 30 mins is good to see these falls.

Next stops are just scenic until we get to the glacier. But there were some lovely waterfalls, lakes and glaciers in the middle.

And then we reach the Columbia icefield point. There are tours that go over the glacier walking or vehicles. We did not do that, we did walk up to the glacier. It has receded a lot in the last 100 years as shown in the visitors center. Oh, and we had fries and tea there in the view of the glacier...beautiful.

Then it was on with the driving to Banff. Views are really good! 

Bow Lake

Lake Louise was crowded. I did not enjoy it as much because of that. I would like to come sometime when it is peaceful.

Lake Louise

Lake Morraine is a different story. You have to park your car and take the shuttle. But since we did not know when we were reaching, we did not book the shuttle and the last one was gone. It was too expensive to get a private one, so we gave up on it. It's fine. I think we should come back and do Banff some other time. It needs 2 days just like Jasper.

We drove on to our AirBnB in Golden which is about an hour drive. Drive was nice and scenic. The house was lovely and comfortable, 3 bedrooms, great big kitchen, but only one bathroom! Today is over and now its just making dinner and talking or scrolling on the phone :-)

British Columbia - 2023 - Jasper

Breakfast again was in the room. None of these places included breakfast at the lodges/hotels. Today we are going to the Malign Canyon which has of course the canyon, but also some points of viewing that are scenic. Then a Valley of Five Lakes hike.

We did not do the entire hike of the Malign hike. Instead we drove to the various bridges starting from bridge 5. The canyon itself was deep. 

Malign Canyon

The drive to Medicine lake was nice but we could see the burnt forest. It was sad. The lake looked as if it had a hair cut! It must look beautiful with all the trees around it. We have to wait years to see that again.

Medicine Lake

Then we drove to Malign Lake. (Just a note: all these lakes start looking alike and more beautiful than the one before!). I am glad I took photos of the names otherwise I would have forgotten! There were many people here, boating, kayaking, pincnicking. It was a nice atmosphere. We hiked about 1 mile to a scenic point.

Malign Lake

Then it was to the hike. Now this is a 5 mile hike all around. Until about 3 miles there is no lake, then they start coming one by one. So be patient, and walk carefully. There is no boardwalk or anything. There is a sort of "walked on" trail that guides where to go. I did fall down here! Darn - again! But was okay. No pains at all. First we thought we (Bhaiya, my nephews and I), that we will come back after the first one, but no point as the walk back is as long as going all the way around. Boy I was tired after this one!! The lovely thing about these five lakes is that they are all green and just pristine. 

Stopped for some dinner (some poutine - Canadian dish - french fries with some sauce on it) at Jasper and went to the hotel to rest up a bit. Came to see the sunset at one of the lakes, but there were too many mosquitos to enjoy, so we kind of left early. 

British Columbia - 2023 - to Jasper via Clearwater

 After a nice self made breakfast, it was time to checkout and drive to Clearwater. The drive across British Columbia is beautiful. I have done this one time before and was looking forward to the scenery.

We came across views like the photos below all along. There was not much hiking, except short ones to see waterfalls. 

Lunch was a picnic by the river. Clearwater was just a small camping place but we had a lodge booked for us at Clearwater Valley Resort. It was a large room divided into three portions - a small bedroom with 2 queen beds, and the living room with the king bed and the kitchen. It was comfortable. It was evening by the time we reached here. 

In the morning we went to get some bread and cheese at the grocery store. 

And then we were off to Jasper. We have a couple stops to make today to see waterfalls and mountains.

There was a short hike to see Reargard waterfalls. The water is just a beautiful color. Sarvesh was able to fly his drone and we got a great view of the falls and river.

Mount Robinson park was inaccessible by car. One can only hike in here, so we just went to the visitor center and took some photos. 

Mount Robson

Then it was to Jasper. We checked in at Lobstick Lodge. This was the most expensive of all our hotel stays. There were two rooms, living room, kitchen and yes - one bathroom. It was early evening. There was time for dinner and then enjoy the sunset at one of the many lakes around. Dinner was Famoso pizza (thin crust - good) and sunset was at Patricia lake. 

Time to go for ice cream in downtown Jasper. Thank god for my allergies to cold because I do like ice cream! That was it for the day. Lovely day...lots of driving. We are here one more night, tomorrow will be some hiking around Jasper.

British Columbia - 2023 - Intro and Whistler - 1

A family summer vacation to the most beautiful state of Canada, British Columbia. We made this one also a circular trip starting and finishing in Seattle. 

It started in Seattle because we wanted to go to Whistler. Not Vancouver, as that would need 3 days of its own. Whistler is okay in 1-2 days. We are going from Seattle -> Whistler -> Clearwater -> Jasper -> Golden -> Spokane -> Seattle. 

There is a lot of driving in this trip. Although the drive is also beautiful but I feel it was a bit much to be in the car all the time and also felt bad for Bhaiya who has to drive all the time (although he loves driving). All the hotels and AirBnBs were booked by Bhaiya and Bhabhi. None of them had any breakfast, so we had to have our own. My role was to make the program, what to see on the way. Although there were some things were changed towards the end of the trip after Jasper, but we had to do that because our AirBnB in Golden was too far and it would be crazy to drive back to Banff.

We were all flying out of Columbus to Seattle. Why Seattle? To rent a car and because there is a cheap direct flight from Columbus. The hotels were more expensive that the flight. For all the hotels we ended up getting one big family room, some with more than one room so we were all able to stay in one room. The only issue with some of these places were only one bathroom (for 5 people) and don't know what is with these hotels - the bathrooms don't lock.

The one good thing about visiting Seattle was meeting my cousin brother who has been there forever and I have never visited him. It was great to spend one night with him and family. All cousins got to know each other. He was gracious enough to pick us up from the airport and drop us to the car rental. We left Seattle in the morning around 11 am to take the scenic drive to Whistler. Its about a 5 hour drive. We had lunch in Seattle itself, a Mexican place (La Terraza) - good food. We had a couple pasta dishes and salad.

There is a specific scenic drive on Hwy 11 from Burlington to Bellingham. It was okay. We stopped in a couple places to take photos, eat ice cream (Mallards) and do a bit of grocery since we will need breakfast and lunch almost everywhere. In Vancouver we stopped at Stanley Park to enjoy the view and then drove on to Whistler. It starts getting prettier after North Vancouver with the mountains and ocean drive. We got to our hotel, Tantalus Resort Lodge, and there was nothing much else to do that night since it was already dark. The lodge was nice, two rooms + bed in the living room and two bathrooms.

Between Vancouver and Whistler

Morning was fantastic as we could see the mountains through the trees in the balcony. And I saw a baby black bear in the parking lot! We checked out and went to lake Alta. It was pretty lake, and from there we drove to Whistler. 

We found parking quite far away from the gondola rides. We got the tickets for the Peak 2 Peak rides and got in the line to go up Whistler mountain. It was a bit cold up top but so beautiful. We walked around the mountain a bit, a short hike of 40 mins or so. Decided to have lunch and go even higher to the Cloudraker Bridge and do the hike there as well. The ski lift ride was great!! The walk on the bridge was a bit scary as it was moving a bit due to the wind. Really good views all around. Came down and walked to the lodge, had some fries and hot cocoa. I remember coming here in 1995 Dec! 

Then it was time to take the Peak 2 Peak gondola to Blackcomb mountain. Scary but beautiful gondola ride. it was high up and the views down below was just great. We did not do much at the Blackcomb mountain. Came back to Whistler mountain and took the gondola ride down to Whistler. 

It was about 5 pm. Walked through the village while the kids found a place to eat - an Italian place (Pasta Lupino - good food).

From here was the drive to our lodge at Hitching Post Motel. These were all cabins little bit north of Whistler. Very comfortable although only one bathroom, but two rooms and living room. Lovely kitchen. It was so quiet here.