Taking the Rocky Road

Nathen, sitting on our veranda, waved hello to someone walking up our steps. I turned round in time to see a familiar hat rising up followed by my Dad's head and the rest of him. My dad who should have been on a bus at Cambie Street. Hello!! And so began the parents' visit. Dad, Q and I headed back to the cafe where Mum was guarding the bags for a very cheerful and chatty brunch. There followed a day of exploring Vancouver and dinner at ours - although by the time this came around, jet lag had set in so we entertained a couple of very dazed parents in our somewhat madcap house. The word you're looking for is: interesting. I think the model breasts someone found on a night out were not the living room ornaments/art work they had anticipated.

The next few days were better. Tofino, at a lovely BnB for whale watching (saw humpbacks very close up), hiking - although the steep Indiana Jones trail we took them down didn't prove quite so much fun when wet and slippy (Q saw all his built up brownie points rapidly sliding away down the hill), exploring remote beaches and sea kayaking. Then it was back to Vancouver to meet Dave at the airport and head up to Jasper.

First stop: Hope. Set in stunning surroundings, this is pretty much all Hope has going for it. Trying to find any food for the evening was hopeless (pun intended as example of the many Q and Dave had fun inventing). The drive to Jasper was, as you would expect, stunning. And Jasper itself was beautiful. Busy and lively, but not unbearably touristy, with plenty to do, and constant views of skyscraping peaks. First on the agenda was white water rafting, early in the morning before the sun had had time to vaguely warm the glacial river we'd be rafting down. I remembered what it was like in Toronto to not be able to feel my fingers. But constant beauty, fresh clean air, incredible light more than made up for the cold. The rest of the day was spent at a nearby lake, walking and swimming, where I saw a near bear (cough..dog - in my defense it was shaggy and a long way off).

The next day, we went to Maligne Lake, another incredibly beautiful drive away. It's not really possible to do justice to the rockies' beauty, except to say that everywhere you looked, the mountains were immense - tall, wide, just immense. With forests at the bottom, filtered sun, flowers, clear water, bright blue mineral lakes, the lot. Wildlife tally started with Q seeing a moose at the side of the road, and from that point, our eyes were peeled. From Maligne Lake, we did a few hikes, the best one being a steep climb up to a mountain-top meadow, possibly one of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever found myself in. Wide, open, green, rolling with many different scents of pine mingling around, snow peaks to the top, mountain ranges across and the lake below. Stunning! But possibly the most exciting bit of the day happened on the drive home. Up ahead were several cars parked and people out looking at something down the side of the road. We pulled up and went over, and sure enough: BEAR!! A black bear was quite contentedly eating and snuffling around in the grasses not 10 meters from us! We stood and watched until it went away. Q, ever the adventurous, jumped over the fence (after checking there was no mummy bear around) to get a better photo. He came away with cuts and scrapes - not bear inflicted, but as the result of a quite spectacular trip over the road barrier that flipped him neatly upside down landing at Dave's feet.

After that, Jasper was complete. And so we moved on. We travelled down the Icefields Parkway towards the Columbia Icefield. Again, too much indescribable beauty on all sides of us. But then came the glaciers, and our mouths dropped open just a few milimetres more. Stopping at the icefield centre, we had spectacular views of the Athabasca glacier and walked up to the edge of it. It was huge. And cold. And windy. But amazing. However, we decided to press on southwards and not do another hike. So we drank it in, and headed back to the car.

And so to Lake Louise. Now, forgive me, but I'm going to go out on a limb and commit Rockies heresy here and say that I was a little underwhelmed. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I anticipated, and wanted, that big expanse of shocking opaque blue stretching out ahead of me (photoshop I'm sure has a lot of let-downs to answer for) but the reality was quite different. The lake that day was a pale jade, which of course, in the sun shows all the reflections and shadows. Surrounded by cliffs and forests, it was smaller than expected and full to the brim with tourists. I think that was it. I don't want to detract from the beauty of the place. Walking round the lake (we declined the most expensive canoe in history at $40 for 30mins), it's clear that actually, it really is quite stunning. The green really hits you at different places, especially if the sun goes behind a cloud, and the reflections and colours of the rocks and trees combine to make it really lovely, and worthy of the name, Emerald Lake that it was given on discovery.

We carried on to our hostel in Yoho National Park. This was awesome. A small wooden building in the middle of the forest, across the road from the Takakkaw Falls - one of the most impressive waterfall's I've ever seen. The hostel had no electricity, ran completely off gas and was closed during the day so you had no choice to get out and explore. Which we did - a 17km hike up the mountain we were at the foot of, walking along the glacier line - more spectacular views of other glaciers and icefields before descending, once again into the pine trees. After the rocky, brown/beige wilderness of the iceline, it was beautiful to be down in the trees. Butterflies and scents combined on the warm air - several different types of pine, all contributing something different; citrus, honey, floral. We followed the glacier stream down the mountain to the valley bottom and walked back to the falls and our hostel for a very welcome dinner and card games and scrabble.

And all of a sudden we were homeward bound. First, a couple of days in Kelowna, one of Canada's top wine-producing regions. Kelowna itself I didn't think much of. Maybe because we didn't get to all of the good stuff, but after Jasper and Yoho, well, anything was going to have a hard time living up to it. Except our BnB. Set in the orchard grounds of a house, our apartment was beautifully furnished, complete with outdoor hot tub. Not to mention fresh apples and cherries straight off the tree. Our last stop was the desert region of Osoyoos before driving back through Hope and in to Vancouver. The parents deposited myself, Q and Dave at home before scuttling off to their posh waterfront hotel. The next day, we had lunch and then Mum and Dad set off for the airport before the three of us collapsed in front of the US Open on TV where we stayed put for approximately 48 hrs, moving only to go see Inglourious Basterds and get food.

The rest of the week was spend doing chill things around Vancouver - pitch n putt, the aquarium, eating proper pancakes with syrup and bacon, doing the Grouse Grind - and discovering the Grizzlies up there - massive bears, you do not want to meet one of those in the wild! All in all had a very relaxed week, hanging out with Dave and coming back down to earth from the adventures of the previous month.