Catching-Up: Days 9 & 10

First off, apologies for falling behind, but it’s bound to happen again on a trip with this much travel into areas where we really don’t know what to expect. We’re sure you’ll forgive us…

Day 9

Day 9 started at the Best Western in Golden, BC, where I somehow managed to turn onto the TCH in a manner that had me driving against traffic. Yes, I did that. Thankfully, we realized it quickly, stopped, pulled a U-Turn, and we were set. This must happen often as other drivers didn’t seem surprised, let alone upset about it. Still, I was “that guy”.

Our plan was to start a little later so that we could hit Morraine Lake later in the day, when everyone else was having supper, but as one might expect in a region so large and so full of spectacular things to see, we got sidetracked by the Yoho Valley Rd, inside Yoho National Park, which is open only during the summer months.

The road leads to Takakkaw Falls, where glacial melts, you guessed it, falls 384m creating a spectacular sight and cold, fine mist in the air. The drive there is pretty spectacular in its own right, too.

From there, we headed towards the Lake Louise ski area, which unlike a number of other ski areas, doesn’t offer mountain biking in the summer. Rather, the market their lift rides as an opportunity to access views, see wildlife, and take in a great meal.

We road the chair lift, took in the wildlife interpretive centre, took the chair back down, and grabbed an early dinner at the Bear’s Den at the base of the mountain. Here are some photos from our time on the mountain and a video captured as we rode the chair down the mountain. Sorry for the audio, it was windy.

As you heard at the end of that video, we were heading to Morraine Lake. Well, that didn’t go to plan. The place was over-run. I’ve never seen such a concentration of bodies outside of an amusement park or Canada Day festivities. Traffic was backed up, parking lots were close, roads were closed, Parks staff were directing traffic. It was nuts! Turns out the Calgarians were spot-on about the challenges of this area during a summer long weekend.

We managed to find a parking spot at the Lake Louise parking lot so we had to “settle” for that run-of-the-mill lake, which likely had the world record for most simultaneous selfies within a 500m radius. It was nuts, but we joined in, taking a selfie and capturing the photo that millions before and millions after would take. In short, don’t underestimate the drawing power of this region. We heard so many languages, but the common expression was joy and amazement at what before them.

At that point, we called it a day and started the trip back to Golden for the night. Here are some photos from the drive. The dark truck in the image ended up being our partner for the drive. We actually got a wave from the driver as peeled off the TCH.

Day 10

August 5 was a short travel day that saw us continue along the TCH to Vernon, BC, where we would spend the afternoon and night with T’s cousin, Lynne and her husband, Klaus. Lynne and Klaus were wonderful hosts and we had a lovely evening getting to know them and enjoying their home’s idyllic setting. They even took us up to Silverstar ski area, which is only 20 min or so from their house. Thanks so much for hosting us!

While with Lynne and Klaus, we came upon this little number that was for sale. It wasn’t flawless so the price was really good and we are currently figuring out how to bring it home given its lack of trunk space!