 Click To Play (30:57) I saw a picture of the Canadian Rockies when I was a child, and it has been on my wish list of destinations since then. This summer we finally decided to take a road trip and see them for ourselves. Our route took us east to Glacier National park, then north into Alberta. When we reached Jasper we headed west to British Columbia, then back south through Lillooet and the western coastline. I hadn't really given much thought to Glacier National Park, as we were just driving through on our way to Canada. But it is certainly a worthy destination of it's own with beautiful mountains, scenery, and wildlife. Unfortunately, thanks to global warming, there are very few glaciers still left in Glacier National Park. While we generally avoid most tourist stops, we did stop in Banff to take the gondola ride to the top of Sulphur mountain. The ride was fun and the view at the top was incredible in every direction. It was expensive, but well worth it. The town of Banff was adorable, but quite busy, and we were just passing through. We hiked up Johnston Canyon, and the construction of the walkway was almost as impressive as the natural scenery of the canyon. Thankfully, we had a cabin reserved at the Johnston Canyon Resort so I could recover after our walk. :) Lake Louise was amazing and very peaceful. Glass smooth turquoise water, surrounded by mountains and a glacier in the background. Though Moraine Lake, Bow Lake, and many of the other lakes along the hundreds of miles of the Rockies were every bit as beautiful. We stopped at the Columbia Icefield and hiked up the hill to the foot of the glacier. It was a nice warm day but the cold air blowing off the glacier felt like stepping into a refrigerator. As with Glacier National Park, it was eye opening to see how global warming has caused the retreat of the glacier. It was interesting to look at the various markers they had erected showing where the glacier was in various years and realize most were within my own lifetime. After our stop at Athabasca falls, we took the long bumpy road up to Mt Edith Cavell. At times we felt like we surely must be lost on some curvy mountain road, but the parking lot at the end was filled with RV's and cars. Due to the remote location I'm sure most tourists miss this stop, but we were happy we made the effort to see it. We ended our long day by heading west from Jasper, and stayed in another cute little cabin at the Willow Burl Cabins in Valemount. On our way to Lilooet we stopped to see Dawson, Helmcken, and Spahats falls. All three were impressive, but the drive past cows and farmland really had us questioning whether we were really headed in the right direction to see waterfalls. :) There were a number of wildfires near Lilooet and the air was thick with smoke and haze. It wasn't until we got back home that I learned thousands of homes had to be evacuated. Unfortunately, our local news offered practically no coverage of those fires so that's the last I heard of them. We spent our final night at the Ivey Lake Lodge in the Hummingbird Cabin. Unfortunately, we didn't arrive till after dark and had to leave fairly early in the morning, but it was a nice cabin right on the lake. Very pretty and peaceful. We had a great trip, and saw a lot of beautiful scenery and wildlife. While I had tried to plan only 5 or 6 hours of driving each day, there was still a lot to see and a limited number of daylight hours. It would have been nice if we had a couple more days for a slower pace, but we still saw everything we came to see. Of course, it would be awesome to go back some time and see how it all looks during the winter... :) |
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Equipment:
Canon HF100 with Raynox HD-6600Pro52 Wide Angle Lens, using 37mm to 52mm adapter ring. Editor: Pinnacle Studio 12. Other: Except for a few handheld shots from the car, I used a monopod for all scenes. All footage is processed with the VirtualDub Deshaker plug-in to reduce image shake before editing. I clipped the borders to remove the Deshaker side-effects, then resized back to full HD frame size and sharpened. Music: "Brand New Day" by Joshua Radin "Going North" by Missy Higgins "Home" by Dave Barnes "Drifting" by Sarah McLachlan "Droplets" by Colbie Caillat "I'd Rather Be With You" by Joshua Radin "Got It Good" by Jem "All We Are" by Matt Nathanson "The Longer I Run" by Peter Bradley Adams If you have trouble viewing this video, make sure you are using Flash 10 or higher. Click the box in the right corner of the player to watch the video full screen. |