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Beauty & The Beasts!
Hello from Whitehorse, Yukon!
So we left James and Morgan’s (thanks again guys) and headed off for a very touristy week or so driving through the Canadian Rockies, seeing loads and generally being awestruck by the natural beauty of the place. Words and even photos won’t do the scenery justice, so we won’t even try – we’ll just say that it was stunning.
A quick rundown – Canmore; cute town, farmer’s market – Banff town; very touristy, busy – Banff National Park (NP); beautiful, very busy, lots of smoke from wildfires, we walked up & down the very steep Sulphur Mountain rather than pay the even steeper $62 each for the gondola – Lake Louise; stupidly busy, we had to park 8KMs away and get a shuttle bus to it, spoilt by commercialism – Yoho NP (British Columbia, gained an hour) beautiful, more wildfire smoke, helicopters dropping water – Glacier NP, quiet, excellent riverside camp for 2 nights, lots of hikes to pretty lakes – back to Banff NP (lost an hour) – drive the Icefields Parkway (smoke now cleared, sun much improves the views) – stunning Peyto Lake, nicer than Lake Louise – wildcamp near Saskatchewan River Crossing, huge thunderstorm (again), fork lightening seems to be very near us, we bottle it and drive the quickly flooding dirt track back to the highway and camp on a little gravel turnoff instead - Athabasca Glacier, beautiful but slightly worrying how quickly it is shrinking, again we hike to it rather than pay the exorbitant fees for the tour bus onto it – Jasper NP, bigger and less busy than Banff NP, more wildlife, saw our first bear of this trip - Jasper Town, quieter than Banff, but not as picturesque – Medicine Lake, excellent reflections – Maligne Lake, not too busy, stunning, nice walks around edge rather than the $50 per hour kayak rental. Plus numerous side-trips off the highway to explore / take in the scenery / avoid the crowds.
Very beautiful, very touristy, very busy, very expensive. Lots of lovely food and drink, or exciting excursions, or souvenirs (one place had a jade sculpture of a bear priced at $1 million, plus tax!) at every turn – great for a two-week holiday, but when you’re on a budget to travel for a year, it becomes either torturous or vulgar excess, depending on how hungry / poor / deprived / pious we feel at the time!
So now we’re back on the road proper again, heading north on the Alaska Highway. We’ve driven through northern British Columbia and are now in Yukon, heading to Rob & Cath’s (who we met at James & Morgan’s) somewhere north of Whitehorse. It’s the sort of place where they have to meet us at the road, else we’ll never find it!
We’re currently sharing the driving as we’re doing about 600kms a day. The highway snakes around, up and down through endless mountains, trees, lakes and rivers. A proper wilderness, but with real beauty, rather than the barren wildernesses we’ve driven through in Asia and Australia. Loads of wildlife as well, more bears, elks, caribou and bison, just wandering about – it’s like a safari park with a 1500 mile road through it! Not seen any moose yet though.
We’re looking forward to seeing Rob and Cath again and then after that, it’s off to Alaska.
A quick “Hello!” to the delightfully named Ben & Jen, a couple we met at Walmart in Dawson Creek. They want to do some overlanding themselves – we hope our little chat inspired them to take the plunge – just do it guys, you won’t regret it!
If this uploads OK, it should still be Bry’s Mum’s birthday – so Happy Birthday Mum – we love you and miss you very much!! And yes, we will be careful and stay safe!
TTFN