Roadtrip through the Canadian Rockies

In September 2017, Miki’s parents met us in Seattle, where we rented a van, said hi to my parents, then headed out on a 10-day road trip through British Columbia.

Me, my mom and dad, Miki, and her parents (left to right) in the yard at my parent’s house in Shoreline.

Our first day was a long drive to Clearwater, where we rented a lovely AirBnB cabin on a lake. The next day we spent exploring Wells Gray Provincial Park.

One of many spectacular waterfalls in Wells Gray.

From Clearwater, we headed to McBride, which provided our base for day-trips for the next five nights. Our first was to Jasper, a popular ski resort town.

On the drive to Jasper (here and below).

We took a skytram to the top of Whistlers Mountain and Miki and I hiked the extra 45 mins to the top of the mountain. We heard later we’d gotten really lucky with the weather. A new dusting of snow made everything extra picturesque, yet there was almost no wind—a rare occurence.

Before heading back to McBride, we stopped by the beautiful slot canyons heading up to Maligne Lake.

When Craig’s cousins from BC visited in the summer, they invited other cousins who also live in Ohio to join them at Craig and Diane’s house in Athens. Turns out, they have a beautiful piece of property just south of McBride, outside Dunster. So we stopped by to have a look.

The walk into the property.

The view from the barn living space (left) and the very inventive outhouse.

Exploring the property’s river frontage (above) and enjoying the beautiful misty mountains (below).

While we were there, we stopped in the Dunster general store, as well as the historic train station. Then we had a great chat with the friend who kept Craig’s cousin’s keys, whose family helped settle the area and which, coincidentally, was featured in an exhibition inside the train station.

A vintage train poster (left) and mom and dad on the 50s-era train that still runs through McBride an Dunster.

The guy who ran the cabins we stayed in told us about a pretty walk to a waterfall just outside McBride. We didn’t stay too long, since it turned out to be private property.

Another day, we headed to The Ancient Forest, a small protected area of inland temperate rainforest about an hour north of McBride. It’s creation and care seems to be due entirely to a small group of dedicated locals, a few of whom we ran across putting in new bridges on the trail.

Nails and wood for the new bridge.

A pretty gazebo just outside of McBride where we stopped on our way home.

Lest you think Canada is all spectacular natural vistas and civilized government policies….

When we weren’t day-tripping, we spent a good amount of time playing Halsey (how would you bid that hand?) and, well, you know.

Once we checked out of McBride, we spent one spectacular day driving the Ice Fields Parkway as far as Golden. The highway runs between the Canadian Rockies and the Caribou Mountains, often so close on either side you feel you can reach out and touch them.

Glaciers spill over many of the peaks along the drive, but the Athabasca is the most famous, probably because it’s easy to walk to its toe. Or it used to be. It’s now a 30-minute walk from the parking lot, past signs marking its precipitous receding over the past 30 years, and you can no longer get close to the toe since a huge melt lake has formed at its border.

Above: Craig returning the landscape to its natural state. Below right: A sign warning not to let your kids play on the glacier.

After a very cold night in some very un-heated yurts in Golden (where the Northern Lights were spectacular), we headed back to Seattle a day early and spent our extra time seeing the city with my mom and dad.

Lunch at Ivar’s (above) and a walk through Gasworks (below).

I found my dream car (that’s a DeLorean, fyi) (above) and we killed some time at Denny’s before dropping Craig and Diane off at their AirBnB.