that's it, then

And now the end is near

We're staying in a motel called The Bluebird, which was built in 1947. It has themed rooms and ours is the Gene Autry, which is making Steve very happy as there's all kinds of cowboy memorabilia as well as loads of cowboy books, so he's able to tie up some loose ends. Outside the window, just 10 yards away, are two horses - so there's that authentic smell too.

It was a long journey. Did you know it takes 13 hours to drive across Montana and there are three cows to every person? Hmmm, and two people per square mile.... you do the math.

On the way here, we managed a quick visit to Head Smashed-in Buffalo Jump. The Red Indians used to drive buffalo over the cliffs for a quick, easy and some might say rather lazy and unsporting way to get buffalo meat and skin. Legend has it that a young (not so) brave decided he'd like to see them tumble past so he hid behind a waterfall to watch. Unfortunately for him, it was a particularly good day and, as the carcasses piled up, he got buried by them and was found with his skull crushed in under their weight - hence the name. Nice story, heh?

So tomorrow it's off to the airport. Sad face.

Ghost towns

We visited two: Nevada City and Virginia City. Nevada City is more of an open-air museum, Virginia City more restored and active - resident population of 150. Fortunately, Steve has been reading a trilogy of books by A B Guthrie, set in the pioneering days and all around here, so he was full of random information and was able to answer my questions about basic functions etc.

I've made albums of the two cities. They're down the side. You may wonder why I take more photos of ghost towns, products and interiors than I do of views. It's because I just can't do justice to the views. You have to be there to see the clouds moving, the water changing colour, the snow glistening, the trees swaying and the light changing. Having said that, here's a Montana view. Two people per square mile, remember? Click on it if you want to see it bigger, but it won't be nothin' like the real thing.

Wednesday was a day of contrasts in the Big Sky Country. A boat trip down the Missouri River to the Gates of the Mountains with a very knowledgeable guy who told us lots of stories about the past and pointed out a bald headed eagle, ospreys and unusual vegetation none of which, probably, I would have spotted.

Then a visit to Berkeley Lake in Butte which is a mile long and half a mile wide of acidic chemical waste from the mining process and is now a tourist attraction, with chemicals still being pumped into it.

Our log cabin is right by some hot springs so in the evening I took myself off to lie in mineral water. My, it made my mozzie bites sting so it must be good. It was bliss. Like a flotation tank - without the tank.

I totally heart Montana and it's wonderful to be back. We're staying in a massive log cabin between Anaconda and Butte and plan to visit old mining towns and ghost towns. As much as I love the jaw-dropping views that you could roll in, I am fascinated by all the early history and the lives of the pioneers.

We slept last night in Missoula. "So what brought you to Missoula?" a man asked us. "Did you take a wrong turn?" And we saw a bumper sticker which read 'Keep Missoula weird.' Not much else to say about Missoula, except I managed to catch on TV a live webcast of the local council's meeting which work colleagues know would have made my day and, on the way out of town, we saw billboards advertising the Testicle Festival. Apparently it's the world's largest testicle festival - whether that's to do with the size of the testicle or the size of the festival, I don't know - we just missed it. There's a website, though. (Find the link yourself!)

Steve gave me the choice: Visit an old prison or an old mining town called Philipsburg. Family can guess which one I elected (and genuflected). Philips with one 'l'? A no-brainer. Little album on the right hand side. Then we drove to a ghost town called Granite which was four miles up a mountain track. Very interesting and I've done a timeline down the left.

Me and my big mouth

"How do you fancy a helicopter ride?" asked Steve. He was joking - I didn't realise. "Why not?" I said, "I did those cable cars." So he booked it.
Riding in a helicopter hadn't found itself anywhere near the list of things I want to do before I die, but I'd rather walked into this one. And it was one of the most amazing things that has happened to me. For a start there were no bumps or jolts or mighty swoops. We wore headphones which played classical music over which the pilot occasionally pointed things out. It was like being on a magic carpet floating through the mountains. Pics here. Quite the worst bit was landing because that meant it was all over.
Very difficult to describe the sensation, but I realised that for the whole flight I hadn't thought about anything other than what I was looking at. No "did I leave my straighteners switched on?" "what shall we have for lunch?" thoughts and, not even once, "what if we crash?"
So having seen the National Park from above we drove the car back along the Going to the Sun road, out of the park and back in through a different entrance to Many Glacier. We stopped off for a couple of walks and saw a grizzly bear and her three cubs.
But that helicopter ride. It was something else.....

We crossed the border into America and drove on the road called Going to the Sun, said to be one of the most beautiful journeys in the world. It certainly was and it took us about six hours to do around 100 miles, not because it was like the M25, but because there was so much to stop and look at - and gasp.



We got to the Silver Wolf chalets and saw this. It was the twee-ness of the apostrophes around the "two" and the 'nightly rentals' that made me think: "Hmmm, are we venturing into swingers' land here?" Then we saw the age group of the people hobbling in. ( And later thought "Isn't it quiet? No children." ) Got a bit excited when I saw the double shower until Steve pointed out that although there were two seats there was only one shower head. I want to say: up one end.

Here's a picture of Waterton village which is this tiny place on the lake where we are staying. It's in the Waterton National Park, so you get deer in the gardens - and cougars on the outskirts prowling around the edge wanting to kill them. We didn't see any cougars but saw two bears and we're getting so blasé now we didn't even bother to get out of the car for the second one.

There was a big storm in the night so today felt all clean and new and the colours seemed brighter than they did yesterday. We went to Red Rock Canyon and walked the trail - some pictures here (great colours) - then went on to Lake Cameron for a picnic. This was our view on the right here.

In the afternoon we had a wonderful ride, around the lake as well as in it with the horses - which was different to other rides we've done and very exhilarating. We saw all kinds of recent bear activity, but they were lying low.

We're staying in an authentic 1950s motel. Accommodation in Canada is expensive, as is everything, but this place is quaint and lovely people run it.

Anything but boring

We've spent the last two days on the road and it's been anything but boring. We take our time and stop off every time we see a bear, a lake, a waterfall, a glacier, a loo......

We're on our way to Montana and have stopped off for a couple of days at Waterton Lakes National Park.

The drive here was glorious. We travelled through mountains, foothills and plains on Highway 40, which is called the Cowboy Trail. All kinds of weather: blue skies, grey skies, white fluffy clouds and heavy black ones, sunshine, rain, thunder, lightening and hail. We saw a bear, mountain goats, long-horned sheep, deer, bison and nodding donkeys. Pics on the right and here.



We spent time at the Bar-U Ranch, which by good fortune someone had mentioned at breakfast this morning, and recommended it. I've written about it down the side bar as it's worthy of a special mention.

As we drove into Waterton village, we saw a bear. It was just 10 yards away. You're told not to get out of the car, but you do. Desperate for a good photo. When he suddenly stood up and looked at us, I nearly dropped my camera but Steve got this shot.

The guidebooks say that you only get to see the top of Mount Robson nine random days a year. Well, guess what greeted us this morning. And again this evening.
We had nothing else we wanted to do other than hang out on the balcony here and look at the mountain, as well as eat, drink, read, doze, catch up on the Archers - and Steve finished his book! Yay! Now he has to move on to Dynamic Learning......
The furthest we ventured today was just 20 yards to the river and out to the car to get the mozzie spray.

We're taking two days out. Middle of nowhere in a log cabin by the side of the Fraser River. Nearest village one hour away.



This is such a treat.
Our huge picture window is dominated by Mount Robson, the highest point in the Canadian Rockies.
And there's a 3D view from the balcony from which we can barbecue. Or just sit.

Apparently, the top of the mountain is visible only a few days a year; there's snow on it even now, and the summit is nearly always under cloud. It used to be called Cloud Cap Mountain. It was definitely trying to peep out and say hello to us all evening.

You know to click on any of these pics to make them bigger, don't you?


On the way here, we saw a sign for trail rides. It was just stuck in a hedge. So we bumped down a rough old track and ended up at a corral, where just one guy who's been there for 40 years took us out for a ride. It was very peaceful and got us in the mood for some chill-out time.

Let's get physical

Top day, today. Started with a fabulous ride, which was through pinelodge trees and aspens, along the ridge overlooking Lake Annette and Lake Edith. Responsive horses. Great to be back in the saddle again.

But the highlight of the day, and indeed the highlight of everything so far, was an amazing walk - whoops no, a hike - that we did to the ice cave underneath the Angel Glacier at Mount Edith Cavell. I have done a bit of a timeline down the right hand column and I make no excuses for more photos than usual in this album. It was absolutely stunning and unlike anything I've ever seen or experienced before.

Still one more thing we wanted to do, which was visit the Maligne Canyon. We walked down a steep path which took us into the narrow, deep canyon created from water which comes from Maligne Lake and Medicine Lake (the one with the leaky bottom!).

The Jasper Tramway was a gentle float up Whistlers Mountain from 4279 feet above sea level to 7472 feet. Up to 30 people standing up close and personal in the cabin so you had to be OK about heights as well as not claustrophobic. I'm getting blasé now. At the top we could see six mountain ranges, as well as the town, the lakes and the rivers. In the photo you should be able to see that the colour of the water in the rivers is different to that of the water in the lakes. That's because of the rock flour.


We had a picnic lunch by the Athabasca River then walked to the Falls. Here, the river gets to a narrow gorge and becomes a spectacular waterfall. Very powerful, rather magnificent but also quite threatening. Every couple of years someone goes over and they die of hypothermia way before they drown or their body gets bashed to bits. Why do they do this? For a good photo opp? Bravado? They climb over the rail, in spite of the signs, and the wet rocks are as slippery as ice. Doesn't bear thinking about.

It's time we got on horseback again. Didn't in Banff as so expensive and terrible reviews on Trip Advisor of the stables. But there's a place here that looks good so we're booked in for the morning.

Getting randy at the dentist

Our first day in Jasper I spent the morning in the dentist's chair. Don't ask! There were three dentists on duty and mine was called Randy so at least I had the pleasure of replying to Steve's question, "How was it?" with: "I got Randy." That slightly took the edge off the $180 bill.

Onwards and upwards, our next treat was a boat trip on Lake Maligne to Spirit Island where we had our picnic with this view in front of us. It had to be a late lunch as I wasn't allowed to eat for three hours after the dental treatment. I said, don't ask!

We saw a black bear with her cub, a young elk, a moose and a brown bear today.

On the journey between Banff and Jasper we went to The Icefields Centre and did the Athabasca Glacier visit, where you trundle onto it in a huge vehicle, then get out and potter around so you can say, "I've walked on a glacier." In the last 150 years it has retreated by a mile, but it's still thicker than the height of the Eiffel Tower so it's not going anywhere in a hurry.

Conquering fear

To get to the top of the Sulphur Mountain, it's "just" an eight minute gondola ride up 7486 feet. Armed with Immodium and Rescue Remedy, I still feared I'd chicken out at the last minute. So glad I didn't. It was mind-blowing. You get 360 degree panoramic views of all the surrounding peaks and a view below of valleys, rivers, lakes, trails, the Trans Canada Highway and the town of Banff. I've made a small album of the views, but you need actually to be there, really.
We walked along the mountain ridge on a skywalk which connects Mount Sulphur with Mount Sanson, named after Norman Sanson who was in charge of the weather centre there, built at his suggestion in 1903. As park meteorologist, he made over 1000 trips up to the peak (he took the King and Queen of Siam up there in 1931) right up to the age of 84. When he died, he left no will; just the request that his epitaph should read "Gone higher.",
There's a couple of pictures of the weather station here, including one of the inside: what it was like in Sanson's time.
I was so happy to conquer my fear of being dangled in space halfway up a mountain, I'm up for the Jasper one now, which is 13 minutes!
We also went to the Bow Falls Hoodoos today. These are tall sandstone columns which have been carved into amazing shapes by the forces of wind, rain and river water. I've put a photo up on the left-hand column. Incidentally, any of the photos on the main body of this blog can be enlarged to fit your screen if you double click on it, but this doesn't work for the pictures down the side, so if you want to see any of them larger, they're in an album here.
And I just realised that I'd restricted all the Picasa albums to just me seeing the photos. Not much good! (I was there!) I hope I've changed the links successfully now. Let me know if not.

The weather is unusually glorious, according to a lifeguard at Moraine Lake, particularly as it's a holiday weekend. In May it was 5ft deep snow; today it glistened in the sun on the mountain tops.

First we went to Lake Louise which was stunning. Full of visitors but we escaped them and walked away from the main drag, by the water. It's the most unusual colour: not green, not blue, not silver or grey. It's because the glaciers coming into the lake churn up and ground down the rocks at the bottom of the lake, producing what's called rock flour which makes it this strange cloudy colour.

You know you're old when

'handsome' and 'young' are used alongside the word 'professor', and I got to sit next to one on the plane here. As we flew over Greenland, I was all wired up to and engrossed in The Little Fockers, unaware of what was out of the window. He's very kindly emailed me these photos which he took with his phone.

Two summers ago we went to the central section of the Rockies, last year we did the southern section and here we are in the northern section. It's unfinished business. We flew into Calgary, drove to Banff, which was heaving as it's a holiday weekend, to discover our log cabin had been booked for August 30 - not July 30, and there wasn't room in any of the inns until we came upon a bed and breakfast which proudly advertised it was established in 1947. This wasn't repro; it was the real deal. But everyone was nice and the cabin people were mortified and could take us the next day and as it had become a 22 hour day we were happy just to get some food and sleep.

There are 37 B and Bs in Banff and we are now where we should be: Banff Beaver cabins. It's a Heritage Site and the cabins were built in 1914. In 1928, Parks Canada let people use "backyard developments" to absorb tourist demands and by 1937 there were over 400 backyard cabins for tourists. Then cabin construction was stopped in 1939 and the Beaver cabins are one of the few remaining. And we'd wondered why the place last night had Wendy houses in the garden. That's why.

So, Day One we went to Lake Minnewanka (fnarr, fnarr) then to the must-see Johnston Canyon which I am sure would have been wonderful if no one else had been there, but it was hard to appreciate nature's silence surrounded by so many people and so many languages, but then we came upon Marble Canyon in British Columbia which was completely wonderful and I will try and upload some pics but the iPad isn't quite as flexible as the laptop.

Rocky Mountains

It's not when you notice that the crisps packets in the supermarket are all puffed up, or when you see the girl with altitude sickness throwing up on the side of the road - no, it's when the rollerball pops out of your deodorant and makes a nest in your armpit; that's when you know you're in the rocky mountains.