We started driving Thursday evening, direction Kamloops. We booked the Accent Inns for the night. Quite nice actually, pleasant memories! It’s the same hotel chain we stayed at (for 3 weeks) when we first arrived in Vancouver. Funny how all those hotels have the exact same interior.

Friday, early morning (way too early, but for a good cause) we headed in the direction of Jasper. We could have easily made the decision to go straight to Banff, but we wanted to drive along the Icefields Parkway. We’ve visited Jasper before in the summer which was nice, but not at all comparable to the winter scenery. We were even able to walk on the Athabasca Glacier together with Grizzly which was quit fun (and cold). The glacier is actually the most-visited glacier of the North American continent.
I’m not going to talk about climate change, but it is definitely one of the only glaciers I’ve seen that shrunk that much in such a short amount of time. There’s signs everywhere that show you the history of the size of the glacier.

For pictures:

Late afternoon we arrived in Banff. We decided to go for a stroll along the boulevard, just to be able to stretch our legs and paws a bit. Grizzly of course was over-excited and wasn’t too fond of practicing what we learned in our dog classes (aka: not pulling).

After our stroll, we had some dinner and headed to the Banff Upper Hot Springs.
The Hot Springs are in the top 10 of the best in the world. I have to say, I think I agree, the view is just amazing. Just what we needed after a long drive. And because Kris gave me a waterproof camera as a Christmas present I was actually able to take some pictures.

Kris and Griz

Kris in the Banff Upper Hot Springs

Hot Springs

On Saturday we drove from Banff to Cochrane to visit Olivier and Saartje. We hadn’t seen them in ages and it was really nice to catch up and talk about our similar experiences from the last couple of months.

They both prepared the most amazing Easter dinner at their lovely new home!
We started of with some appetizers (dates, stuffed eggs, olives,…), followed by lobster Gnocchi (Saartje, I still want that recipe:)) some very tasty ribs (prepared by Olivier) and of course dessert: the best brownie I had in ages and some wonderful carrot cake. It was actually the first time I tried carrot cake and it was truly delicious!

We were very well taken care of and we had an amazing evening! (don’t forget guys, we owe you big time! Thanks again!)

Enough talking for today, some pictures of our road trip (credits go to Kris):

Grizzly has a paw infection so we were obligated to buy some boots:)

On the road

Mountain goat, Grizzly’s best friend (NOT)

Athabasca Glacier

Taking a nap while we’re driving

Some of my pics:

Some coyotes in the distance

Town of Jasper

Icefields Parkway

So that was pretty much it. We’re planning to go on a hike on Sunday. We haven’t really decided where, but we’ll hopefully be able to post some pictures. Hope you’re having a good week. Enjoy the weekend!

Tomorrow we’re going to one of the nightly Victory Ceremonies where they hand out the medals to the winners and have a concert of a different Canadian artist every night. Tomorrow seems to be Alberta night, so they have an Alberta country artist named Paul Brandt on the schedule

We’ll be Alberta bound when visiting our friends Oli & Saartje in Cochrane, Alberta in a month and a half, so it seemed like the perfect song

On Thursday we’ll be at the Ladies Half-Pipe snowboarding event on Cypress Mountain, which we’re both very much looking forward to and this weekend we’ll spend the whole weekend in Whistler with friends experiencing the Olympic atmosphere over there. It’s going be a great week!

I know I haven’t posted a lot of pictures lately and I’ll try to pick that up again once I get some more spare time.
This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago in Callaghan Valley in Whistler which is right next to the Olympic Nordic sports center where the Ski jumping, Biathlon and Ski Cross events take place.

Alexander Falls, Callaghan Valley

I’ve been away for a couple of days (for work), and I also had to work on weekends. Well not every weekend but I have been quite busy lately.

The trip to Alberta was pretty cool! It was a nice opportunity to meet some new people, to visit Edmonton and Calgary and to visit Olivier and Saar.

The cool thing about Edmonton was definitely the biggest mall in the world: West Ed Mall.
IMPRESSIVE! They have a golf course, water park, skating rink, pirate ship, roller coaster, … You name it, they’ve got it.
Basically: you could get lost, big time!

Besides that they also have an amazing amount of shops (of course). The best thing about all of this: taxes are less in Edmonton, so I actually had an excuse to shop!

After a couple of days in Edmonton, I drove to Calgary. The drive itself was pretty boring because prairie is pretty much the only thing you see.

In Calgary I had my first Red Lobster lunch (finally after all these months of waiting!). It was worth the wait though!

And besides all the fun things I had to work too of course. But it wasn’t bad at all, and even though it was work, I had a wonderful time out there!

It was good to be back home though! I’ve missed my three men! And I think Kris missed me too (he had to take care of everything, and get up early to take out the dog).

So good to back in BC. We are expecting some visitors next week, so it’s going to be busy again. We also have a long weekend coming up so we might end up going somewhere. Maybe Harrison Hot Springs, we’re no sure yet.

I do have some pictures of the mall, but they are taken with my mobile, and not really worth a lot… But anyway:

Galaxyland

Small roller coaster

Humpback whale

Golf course

Pirate ship

Sea lions area

Skating rink

Ooh and we also got our patio furniture. Grizzly likes it, that’s for sure!

9. Swiftcurrent lake, Glacier N.P.

8. Berkeley Pit, Butte

7. Venice, Las Vegas

6. Vancouver Panorama

5. Hot spring, Yellowstone N.P.

4. Peyto Lake Panorama

3. Victoria Government Parliament building

2. Dead Tree in Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone N.P.

1. The Wave, Arizona

I just finished reading a book which is called “The black grizzly of Whiskey Creek”. Why am I so eager to write something about it? Well there are several reasons.

First of all, Whiskey Creek is situated in Banff. Banff is a place we have visited in June. So we know where the story took place.

Second reason, I’m very intrigued by bear stories, bear habits, …

And the last reason: while reading some chapters, my heart was pounding and my adrenalin was coursing because sometimes it got really tense.

Sid Marty, the author, was an ex warden and he was there when everything happened. I don’t have the intention to tell you guys the whole story but at least I will tell you what the book is about.

Back in the 1980s there were a lot of problems with bears going to garbage dumps and feed on it. Wardens were pretty busy with trying to handle the situation. But besides that, everything else in Banff was going like it always was.

One day in August, 2 friends where going to the Whiskey Creek meadows to go fishing. Suddenly out of nowhere, a bear was charging them. The bear terrible mauled one of the guys… The wardens closed down the area and started a big search action for the bear. But they didn’t really know what they where searching for. Was it a grizzly or a black bear? Every lead was pointing in a different direction. After a few days they shot a bear of which they thought was the killer.

Apparently they did not capture the right one, because a few days later a second mauling was reported. So again, they used everything in their power to capture the bear. But a third mauling appeared. It was a 19 year old guy who was attacked. He was critically wounded. His scalp was torn from his head, he was bitten in the arm,… Why am I mentioning this? Well, although the guy wasn’t sure that the bear had left the mauling site, he went to a nearby pond to wash out his wounds and clear his head. He saw how badly he was wounded in the reflections of the water. Still he managed to think straight, start walking and try to find help.

I think it’s so weird that even when you head is that badly wounded, your brain is telling you to keep on fighting and to move on. If you think about a situation like that, a normal reaction would be to loose consciousness (not only because you saw the wound and part of your skull, but also because the loss of blood…). But it’s like your brain knows that if you go in a state of unconsciousness you will probably die…

After the third mauling, a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of hard working people, they succeeded in catching the black grizzly. It appeared to be the largest grizzly ever seen in Banff National Park and like I said, it was a grizzly instead of a black bear.

I can definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in bears and who likes to find out more about how everything works in national parks.

The authors website

Lake Louise | Location on map

Lake Louise | Location on map

As you can see on the pictures, the weather wasn’t too great, spoiling the reflections on the lake…

[Ine]: I would like to add something. Just to make it a bit more exciting .

A few weeks ago, a girl from Antwerp (who’s living in Canada) was mauled there by a black bear. She was jogging not far from the lake, and she wasn’t carrying bear spray. Lately I’ve read a lot of stories about people being mauled by bears. I think it’s mainly because the bear’s hibernation is over. But since bear stories are a topicality, I’ll try to write something, in the near future, about the things I’ve discovered about bears.

Banff Cave & Basin Marsh | Location on map

The trail offers excellent views of Mount Norquay, which is home to one of the many ski resorts in the area, Ski Norquay.

Mount Norquay | Location on map

The pictures in this post show Cave and Basin National Historic Site of Canada. It commemorates the birthplace of Canada’s National Park system, which began here in 1885. Naturally occurring, warm mineral springs can be found inside the cave, and outside in an emerald coloured basin.

Banff Cave and Basin | Location on Map

Actually we had planned to go to Banff Upper Hot Springs, but since we didn’t had the time to sit in a hot spring and relax for a while (we made that up in Vegas, so don’t worry, more about that soon) we visited the Cave and Basin.

Tourists flocked to Banff in the early 19th century to restore themselves in the natural hot springs
waters at the Cave and Basin site. Nowadays it’s not allowed anymore, to use the springs as a swimming pool. People don’t really mind because they can go to the Upper Hot Springs.

Banff Cave and Basin | Location on Map

Like I said, it’s breathtaking, but not only in the positive sense of the word. Inhaling the smell of the sulphur vapours, is really disgusting. Boy, was I happy to leave this historic site… (I had to inhale the smell again while visiting Yellowstone National Park, but it wasn’t that bad, the black and grizzly bears made it all worth it:) ).

Before the melting of the glaciers which starts early June, the lake is dark blue. During the summer, meltwater flows into the lake which is loaded with finely ground particles of rock debris known as rock flour. These particles reflect the blue-green sector of the light spectrum resulting in the unique turquoise color of the lake.

If you look at the left side of the lake, you can see where the glacier used to be a couple of hundreds of years ago. Today, the glacier is so far retreated (losing 70% of its mass since it was first researched) that you can barely see the glacier to the far left of the picture.

Peyto Lake Panorama | Location on map

Sunwapta Falls

Photo freaks only: This picture of the falls was taken with a ND-3 filter and a Circular Polarizer stacked together resulting in -5 stops. This allowed me to take a picture of the falls with a shutter speed of 0.8 seconds at f/22.