Tuesday – August 15, 2017- Today is a travel day! This will be our 4th Caravan Tour and the last National Park on our bucket list….Glacier National Park in Montana. But this tour will visit a number of Canadian National Parks as well. Starting and ending in Calgary, Alberta, where the foothills of the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains. As always, we arrived a day prior to the start of the tour. The Hilton Garden Inn, Calgary Airport was beautiful, although situated at the Calgary Airport industrial area. Tonight we rest.
Wednesday – August 16, 2017 – After an excellent breakfast at the hotel, off we went to explore Calgary. We decided on a walking tour of the city. Taxi from the hotel downtown was $30 one way. Public transportation $3.25 round trip each. We opted for the latter. A few blocks from the hotel we picked up a bus which brought us to the light rail train station where we hopped on the train inbound to downtown. Calgary is one of Canada’s fastest growing cities, with sky-scrapers, light rail transit, shopping complexes and contemporary houses. The city’s economy began with – and still includes – ranching and the subsequent meatpacking industry, but the discovery of oil just south of the city in 1914 and just north in 1947 fueled a spurt of growth that turned an agricultural community into a metropolis.
Although Calgary’s growth has been rapid, it has also been practical. The downtown is designed to accommodate lots of activity, even during the winter when the temperatures drop to below freezing. Enclosed walkways called “plus 15’s” connect almost half of the downtown buildings making it possible to
navigate downtown without braving the frigid temps. They are called “plus 15’s” because they are 15 feet above street level. The Stephen Avenue Walk is a pedestrian mall lined with shops, cafe’s, statues and benches. We also walked through Olympic Plaza, the site of the awards ceremonies during the 15th Olympic Winter Games, held in Calgary in 1988. This is often used for events and festivals.
I was surprised to see Chihuly glass sculptures in the lobby of an office building.
We walked along the riverwalk of the Bow River which would have been a great place to take a bike ride which sounded like a good idea at the time. But after walking for 2 1/2 hours (7,000) steps….we opted for a beer instead. The weather today was beautiful. Much warmer than we anticipated. High in the 80’s by the afternoon. Arrived back at the hotel in time for a bite to eat before our welcome briefing at 7:00.
PS – Calgary loves their art! Lots of interesting sculptures around the city. Evidently there was a law passed that required any new building to donate a percentage of it’s cost for a piece of art. I couldn’t help but photograph this creative piece. So ladies, don’t throw away your old bra’s……you can recover a chair with them! (this unusual piece was displayed in a bank)
Thursday, August 17, 2017 – Today we awoke bright and early to begin our journey. Bags out at 7:00 AM with departure at 8:00 AM. Our tour director, Brian and driver, Victor, greeted us as we boarded the coach and outlined our day. Canada is celebrating it’s 150 anniversary and has opened all it’s National Parks for free to the public. We headed south through Alberta cowboy country to Waterton Lakes National Park. This is the world’s first International Peace Park, formed in 1932 by combining Waterton Lakes Park in Canada with Glacier National Park in Montana. Together these parks form Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, a celebration of the friendship between Canada and the United States. We arrived at our hotel, the Bayshore Inn, which was located on the lake right in town. Our room faced the lake with a private balcony. Perfect. This little town had numerous shops and restaurants and a walking path along side of the river. After lunch we had a sightseeing cruise of Waterton Lake. Once again, we had beautiful weather.
Below is the Prince of Wales Hotel – situated on a hill outside of Waterton. Beautiful British architecture complete with Afternoon Tea! We thought we might walk up the hill to have dinner here, but after seeing how steep the hill was, we changed our mind. Instead we had happy hour on our balcony!
Our tour boat, the International, was 90 years old! I was just slightly uncomfortable when I thought about that!
It was interesting to see the US Customs and Immigration and rangers checking passports of the hikers that were entering the US here at the Goat Haunt Ranger Station. Once you entered Montana it was a 30 mile hike to the nearest road.
Dinner tonight was at the hotel’s restaurant and was included with our tour. We were delighted to meet and talk to this Royal Canadian Mounted police officer. We asked him what type of crime could there possible be in this little quaint village with a population of 40. He assured us there was no crime to speak of, but he does pull over anyone driving after 10PM. Lights go out early here.
Friday, August 18, 2017 – After another delicious breakfast, we boarded our Coach and headed to Glacier National Park, via – Going to the Sun Highway. Beautiful ….almost too much to take in. Our tour director, Brian, kept us entertained along the way. Brian lives in Banff and actually works as a supervisor for Parks Canada roads. He has worked for Caravan Tours for many years as a driver, and then a tour director. He does 4 tours a year when he takes vacation from his Parks job. Brian and Victor go back many years and had a great relationship. They were like a comedy tag team. Yet, always professional and extremely knowledgeable. We really enjoyed the two of them. Since we were leaving Canada and entering the US, we had to go through immigration at the border crossing. An officer boarded the bus, picked up our passports and went into the office. A short while later, he returned our passports to Brian, and off we went. We entered Glacier National Park at the Many Glacier entrance. With a rest stop at the beautiful Many Glacier Hotel, we had some time to take some photos. This hotel is the largest hotel in Glacier National Park and is located in “the Switzerland of North America”.
We finally arrived for our tour aboard the “Red Jammers”, restored vintage touring coaches from the 1930’s. Glacier National Park operates 33 of their original buses today on the Going to the Sun Road. Possibly the oldest sightseeing fleet in existence, it holds the record for the longest continuous service of any bus fleet in the US….possibly the world. In 1999 the oldest of the buses had been on the road for more than 64 years.
I had to wonder if kids today would know what these are? There’s one for Facebook!
Here we are at Logan’s Pass where we had a short rest stop. So far, we haven’t really seen any real wildlife, although we keep looking! So far, this is what we saw. 
Back at the hotel in Waterton, we had time for dinner and a walk around town. We did spot some Mule Deer wandering around. Yay!
Saturday, August 19, 2017 – Today we leave Waterton and head for Banff, where we’ll spend another 2 nights. We love this particular tour especially because we don’t have to change hotels as often as on some of the tours that we’ve taken. We had another excellent breakfast at the hotel restaurant with some early morning excitement. One of our tour companions came dashing into the restaurant holding his cell phone and shouting….”Bear!” Well, you can imagine the chaos that ensued. Especially since this is our 3rd day and we are feeling “wildlife deprived”. Sure enough, there’s a photo of a black bear walking down the middle of main street past the restaurants and shops. We left the restaurant in hopes of spotting the little fella, but he was nowhere in sight. Maybe that’s a good thing.
We boarded the bus early today (7:45 AM) and started our journey to Banff. As we were leaving the village, we see 2 Moose (Mama and baby) on the side of the road! Now we’re really happy. Sorry – no photo’s to prove this since by the time we got our camera’s out, they were gone. Next time we have to be “on the ready”.
Our first “comfort stop” was at a horse ranch where we were treated to coffee and pastries, plus a short talk by a ranch hand. As we continued along the way, we had several photo stops along Two Jack Lake and Lake Minnewanka. Beautiful assure blue water. We’ve noticed that as we travel through Canada, mysteriously we’ve been seeing red Adirondack chairs placed in odd locations around the area.
We arrived on time for our appointment to ride the Banff Gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain. The summit is at an elevation of 7,486 feet above sea level and only takes 8 minutes. Once at the top, we had 360 degree views of six mountain ranges. These are some of the most spectacular mountain views in the world and the reason the area has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Our hotel, the Banff Park Lodge is located in the heart of Banff surrounded by the grandeur of the Canadian Rockies and only one block from the Bow River. On a recommendation from Brian and Victor, we decided to go to the St. James Irish Pub for a beer before we decided where we would go for dinner. We never left the pub!
The town of Banff has an elevation of over 4,500 feet and is located on 2.5 miles of land within the boundaries of Banff National Park. Banff National Park is Canada’s oldest national park, founded in 1885.
Sunday, August 20, 2017 – Today we had some free time after breakfast before we had to be back at the hotel to leave for our Bow River Float trip. We enjoyed a walk along the Bow River and explored the area.
Back at the hotel, we boarded the coach and Victor took us for a short sightseeing tour around the area before bringing us to the base of Bow Falls where we would begin our float trip. Our tour was called the “Hoodoo Tour” since we would be passing a group of hoodoos.
The trip down the Bow River was amazing. We had a couple of exciting moments with some miniscule rapids, but for the most part, it was a gentle ride. This glacier fed stretch of the river winds through beautiful forested islands and rocky cliffs. We were told that the temperature in the river was only in the 40’s, so although it is a beautiful blue color and clear, we wouldn’t see anyone in the water. Not on purpose anyway! By the way, no wildlife spotted during this tour. Nada, non, niet. After our trip, Victor gave us an option to go back to the hotel and have free time to shop and eat, or he would drop us off at the beautiful hotel, Fairmont Banff Springs, and we could walk back 2 miles to the hotel. We opted to be dropped off at the hotel where we planned to have a bite to eat before walking back through town.
It was nice to have a free afternoon in Banff. Caravan Tours offers a nice balance of touring and free time for us. We enjoyed the walk back into town but didn’t spend any time shopping. As primarily a tourist town, we found it to be pricey, even with the exchange rate in our favor.
Monday, August 21, 2017 – Today we had another early start as we departed from Banff and headed to Jasper with stops at the gorgeous Moraine Lake in the Valley of the Ten Peaks. Moraine Lake is at an elevation of 6,183 feet and is glacially fed, giving it a distinctive shade of blue. The color is due to the refraction of light off the rock flour deposited in the lake on a continual basis. The area around the lake has several hiking trails with the most common called Rockpile Trail. The view from the top to the lake is one of the most photographed locations in all of Canada. There was a rock slide here years ago and a lot of the “young people” were climbing. Kos and I started the hike to the top, but a short way up, I decided it was too difficult for me. Uneven steps plus nothing to hold on to. But Kos went on to the top. I took some photo’s and went to the gift shop.
Our next stop was Lake Louise, which is the most famous glacial lake in the Canadian Rockies and one of the most beautiful in the western hemisphere. The lake, named for Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, daughter of Queen Victoria, is 5680 feet above sea level. The world famous Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise sits at the opposite end of the lake from Mt. Victoria and Victoria Glacier. Melting glacier silt creates the striking turquoise color of the lake and keeps it at frigid temperature year round. We were lucky to be here during the solar eclipse but didn’t get any good photo’s. We had enough time here to pick up lunch in the deli and have a picnic along the lake.
On our way to Jasper, we drove along the world famous Icefields Parkway where we made several photo stops along the way. Awesome scenery.
We finally arrived at Jasper House which is located in the heart of Jasper National Park along the banks of the Athabasca River. It is sheltered by Whistlers Mountain and about 2 miles from town. This would be our home for the next 2 days. We are staying in rustic cabins with no phones and no air conditioning. Fortunately, it is cool…jacket weather. This resort has 2 large old dog residents who greet everyone as they arrive. Love it. The Canadian National Parks are spectacular. We drove the Icefields Parkway past more glaciers than I can count. Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies at 4,200 square miles.
Tuesday, August 22, 2017 – Today we had a scenic drive to glacier-fed Maligne Lake, which is the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. There were a variety of recreational activities, including fishing, boat cruises and kayak and canoe rentals. Lots of hiking trails. Afterwards we went to Maligne Canyon which a 165 foot gorge was carved by the Maligne River. Another stop was at Sunwapta Falls, a breathtaking series of waterfalls. We had some free time in the quaint village of Jasper before Victor shuttled us back to the cabins. Weather today was cool in the morning (40’s) and went up to 80 in the afternoon.
Back at Jasper House, we enjoyed happy hour by the river before we met our group for a lecture with a naturalist.
Below I’m hanging out with Seria, one of the local pups. Actually, she is 16 and has one eye. She wanders around the grounds begging for goodies. She also rides the golf carts helping to deliver the guests luggage to the cabins.
Wednesday, August 23, 2017 – Today we had another early start. We travelled from Jasper National Park back to Calgary, where our tour started and ended. We visited the Columbia Icefield’s Athabaskan Glacier on an all terrain ice explorer vehicle. Amazing. We actually walked on the glacier…….although I was very skeptical about this. It was exceptionally slippery because of the warm weather and the melting of the ice. We were assured this was safe, however quite a few of our travel companions opted to stay on the vehicle. I very carefully made my way down to the icefield holding tightly onto Kos. Took a few pictures and then climbed back on the ice explorer. There are 23 ice explorer vehicles in existence, 22 at the Columbia icefield and one in Antarctica.
We enjoyed lunch in the outdoor café overlooking the icefield. An amazing experience. We returned to the Hilton Garden Inn Calgary where we had a farewell dinner with our travel group. Tomorrow, we have an early flight back to Newark, with a stop in Toronto.
Today we finished our tour of the Canadian Rockies and Glacier National Park. This was the last National Park on our bucket list and by far the most amazing. Brian, our tour director, and Victor, our driver were knowledgeable, professional and as funny as hell. They kept us interested for 9 days! Many of our travel companions have traveled with Caravan Tours before and we heard wonderful things about Caravan’s Costa Rica tour. Got us thinking!
