In 2017, I went to Vancouver for the first time to watch the World Championship of Public Speaking live!
BTW, Vancouver is an incredible city!
I could see myself living there because I love coastal cities and it’s so close to some amazing mountains!
Rockies Road Trip!
After Vancouver, I head east to begin my road trip through some of the Canadian Rockies — which are HUGE.
When I set out to visit the Canadian Rockies, I didn’t even realize it was the 150th birthday of Canada and all national parks were free for the year! YEAH BABY!!!
On the way to the Rockies, I pulled over at this “beach”, Rutherford Beach which is right outside of Revelstoke. My timing was on point and the views were fantastic!
I should mention that during this trip there were some pretty heavy wildfires raging in the Canadian mountains. This is normal for the mountains during this time and sometimes it created an interesting ambience of warm colors in the sky. But most of the time it just meant that the visibility was crappy and the sky was tainted. Here you can see the warm tones up in the smoky sky.
Revelstoke seemed like a cool little town, maybe better in the winter when you can hit the slopes!
Yoho National Park
First blog will be about Yoho National Park. There are lots of gorgeous sites and things to do in Yoho, and below is just a sample. I think I spent 3 days there, which is really not enough.
I stayed in the small town of Golden, the Gateway to the Western Canadian Rockies and drove into Yoho each day. Golden was a great spot to post up. One note about the Rockies, is that almost all hotels and lodging are expensive. You are paying national park touristy prices. Golden had a hostel which I believe was about $50 USD per night for a bed in a dorm. I didn’t have all my camping gear, so I needed a hostel.
And, Golden had some incredible poutine! If you like cheese and fries…you need to try poutine. I ate a LOT of poutine on this trip. :P
One of the first places I stopped was Emerald Lake, a gem indeed!
I would have loved to spend more time here and see a sunset or a sunrise, but I had so much to see! Next time…
My solo posing skills are sub-par but I do my best. Nice remote clicker in my left hand.
Leaving Emerald Lake, heading back toward the vacation town of Field, British Columbia in Yoho National Park.
A small lake in the town of Field:
And this is the view in the opposite direction…fascinating colors especially the water juxtaposed against the warm color smoky sky:
When I was in this location, I decided to make a video about my newfound Canadian accent.
Ok, so maybe I didn’t really pick up a Canadian accent but I did find myself pronouncing words differently and picking up the local phrases.
I just recently realized that this accent video has over 200 views on Youtube. Super random, and I’m surprised the video hasn’t gotten troll comments!
Faeder Lake
In the Canadian Rockies, there are some huge glacier fed lakes and then there are some little lakes like this: Faeder Lake. You could almost call it pond cuz it’s so small. There are some picnic tables, a parking lot and then this cute lil cozy spot! Loved it.
I ended up stopping at Faeder Lake almost every day before returning to Golden, because it was so peaceful. Especially when the sun is going down!
One of the nights I ran into these two car-camping, bear-seeking gals from Denmark, Sophie and Julie. They were nice enough to share the lake with me, and we had a great time chatting! We ended up meeting up one more time a few days later up in Jasper National Park. They were so amped to try and see some bears and I personally was so amped NOT to see any bears. I gave them my bear spray as a nice parting gift. Thankfully, they did not have to use it.
After leaving Faeder Lake, I had to pull over for these colors!
Takakkaw Falls
What’s a mountainous national park without some waterfalls, eh?! Takakkaw Falls is a nice short walk from the parking lot and well worth the stop.
I love how every stream, lake, river, pond, etc has its own unique color scheme! Takakkaw is sweet.
And you know the ole saying from the sea: “where there are waterfalls, there are usually rainbows!”
That’s a saying, right?
The road to exit Takakkaw is a view of Yoho Valley. I absolutely love driving in mountain scenes like this! EPIC.
There is a lot more to see in Yoho, so I will have to go back sometime. Lake O’ Hara seems really nice and Wapta Falls also.
NEXT TIME.
Overall, Yoho is gorgeous YOOO!!!