Canada’s west coast

In 2019, we returned to Canada, two years after a first trip to Québec.

This time, we headed west.

The first week was spent in Vancouver, where Sandrine’s sister had recently moved.

Sandrine was pregnant with Victor, so this trip naturally had a slightly different rhythm from some of our previous journeys: fewer long hikes, more gentle walks and a little more time to slow down.

Vancouver worked perfectly for that.

A week in Vancouver

We walked along the waterfront with skyscrapers on one side and mountains on the other.

We cycled around Stanley Park on a tandem along the Seawall, crossed over to Granville Island on one of the tiny passenger ferries to eat at the market, and explored Gastown, Kitsilano and the area around the university.

Then, for the second week, the scale changed completely.

We collected a rental car at the airport and drove almost 870 kilometres in a single day to reach Canmore, at the entrance to Banff National Park.

The Canadian Rockies

This is where the part of the journey shown on the map begins.

Finding accommodation in the Canadian Rockies during summer had been difficult, even though we booked several months ahead.

We ended up moving between a hostel in Canmore, a motel in Golden outside the park and a chalet near Jasper.

Banff and Yoho National Parks

Our first day in Banff began at Sulphur Mountain.

Rather than hike the 5.5 kilometres to the summit, we took the gondola.

With Sandrine pregnant, it wasn’t a particularly difficult decision.

From the top, we got our first real sense of the enormous scale of the national park.

That afternoon, we walked through Johnston Canyon along the suspended paths above the gorge to the waterfalls.

The following morning meant an early start for two of Banff’s most famous places: Lake Louise and Moraine Lake.

By nine thirty, the car parks were already full.

The access roads were closed, so we had to drive to an overflow parking area and take a shuttle.

At the time, Parks Canada was even using yellow school buses to transport visitors.

Lake Louise was already spectacular, with the glacier visible at the far end of the valley.

But the colour of Moraine Lake was even more intense.

We simply climbed to the viewpoint above the car park.

This wasn’t a trip about completing the longest possible hikes.

On the way back, we continued into Yoho National Park.

By late afternoon, Emerald Lake was almost empty and the mountains were reflected in the water.

We also stopped at Takakkaw Falls and even spotted a moose from the road.

On to Jasper National Park

Then came one of the most beautiful drives of the whole trip: Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper.

More than 230 kilometres of mountains, lakes and glaciers.

We stopped above the turquoise water of Peyto Lake, then opposite the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefield, where the temperature had dropped to just nine degrees.

We also visited the Glacier Skywalk and stopped at Sunwapta Falls and Athabasca Falls before continuing to Jasper.

The next morning, we drove towards Maligne Lake, partly hoping to see wildlife.

The day started with elk beside the road.

At the lake, we boarded a boat towards Spirit Island.

Morning mist still clung to the mountains, completely changing the atmosphere of the landscape.

Seeing bears in Canada

But our most memorable wildlife encounter came a little later, at Maligne Canyon.

A small crowd caught our attention.

About twenty metres away was a black bear with her cub.

I took a quick photograph and we moved away, all the more quickly when the frightened cub climbed into a tree.

Neither of us particularly wanted to find ourselves between a mother bear and her young.

A few hours later, we looked across the entire valley from the Jasper SkyTram.

And on the drive back, as if to confirm that Jasper really was the place for wildlife, we saw another black bear beside the road.

So this journey was almost two trips combined into one.

First Vancouver: relatively flat, beside the ocean, with parks and neighbourhoods that invite you to simply wander.

Then the Rockies, where everything suddenly becomes huge: the distances, the mountains, the glaciers and even the roads themselves.

And with Sandrine pregnant with Victor, the trip also taught us that you don’t necessarily need to spend eight hours hiking every day to experience Banff and Jasper.

Sometimes the road, a short walk and the right viewpoint are more than enough.