Travelogue: East through the Rockies (Days 37-40)

The first leg of our home stretch took us back through the Rockies, but by a slightly different route than the one that had taken us to Vancouver two weeks earlier.

Whereas the trip west had taken us across the mountains by way of Jasper and Kamloops, the trip back east took us through Kelowna, Revelstoke, and Banff. It's one of those drives that makes you worried you might be building up an immunity to natural beauty.

Our first stop was Vernon, which is part of a surprisingly built-up stretch of towns in the Okanagan Valley that sprawl for more than 50km from Vernon down to Kelowna. This is the part of BC that saw the hottest recorded temperature in Canadian history; a toasty 50 degrees in 2021. The whole region has a Californian/Southern France vibe, with its dry-yet-fertile landscape and endless vineyards.

It was also home to the tenth Jumpstart playground of our trip, a cute little playground located right next to an airstrip, which gave it the novelty of being a nice viewpoint for propeller plane take-offs every few minutes.

We hit up another great playground in Lake Country, which featured a super-cool piece of playground equipment called the "Cliff Rider" and which the kids spent a long time inhabiting.

Then it was out of the Okanagan Valley and back into the mountains for two nights in Revelstoke.

This part of the trip became unintentionally train-themed. On the way into Revelstoke we stopped at "The Last Spike" - which isn't so much a historical site as it is a glorified rest stop, but it was a welcome stop anyway.

Despite visiting in the middle of the week outside of the summer season, we were by far the only ones taking in The Last Spike. As we parked, a group of rowdy high school students were just making their way back to their school bus, and as we sat down for our picnic lunch, a less-rowdy but equally numerous group of retirees from Québec pulled up in a coach bus and invaded the place with their charming accents and cameras they couldn't quite work properly.

An active railway runs right past the plaque commemorating the completion of the Canadian National Railway, and as we watched the French-Canadian retirees, it became clear that they were gathering at the fence, pointing at the tracks and debating which spike was the last one.

I wanted to intervene, but I didn't know the proper French phrase for, "they've probably replaced the spike at some point in the last 141 years, don't you think?" So I left them to it.

But their debate ended up being interrupted in the best possible way: with the blaring horn of a freight train that came rumbling through right on cue, much to the delight of the assembled crowd.

The train theme continued in Revelstoke itself.

Upon checking into our hotel, we noticed that the bathroom had, along with the customary tiny soap and crisp white towels, complimentary ear plugs. We couldn't quite understand why this would be a hotel feature, but when we lay down to sleep and the first train of the night thundered past just metres from our window, we figured it out.

Apart from being a skier's utopia in the winter, Revelstoke has a significant railyard and is home to the Revelstoke Railway Museum, which we visited the next day. Having been train fiends in their younger years, my kids very much enjoyed exploring the museum's refurbished cars and various relics from the glory days of rail travel.

(Side note: the road to the museum's parking lot runs right over the tracks, and as we pulled in we had to wait ten minutes for a freight train to pass, and I couldn't decide if this was exceptionally annoying or whether it enhanced the museum experience.)

After Revelstoke we drove out towards Calgary. This gave us a chance to see a couple of neat sights in Yoho National Park and take a quick pause to move a fallen tree from the Trans-Canada Highway before hitting up a new and fantastic playground in Banff.

With snow in Yoho and rain everywhere else, this plan felt like it might be over before it began.

But miraculously, the rain let up just 15km outside of Banff, and the playground was completely dry when we arrived. And it was spectacular. Not many playgrounds would be able to match the surrounding beauty of the Banff landscape, but somehow, this one came just about as close as possible. With its huge wooden tower, giant nest complete with a so-big-you-can-sit-in-it egg, and a nice pump track, this one is a can't-miss if you're in the area.

After a good long play, we drove out of Banff, and ultimately out of the mountains and into Calgary. It was strange to come back to a flat landscape after almost three weeks in the mountains.

As if to tell us they'd miss us, the mountains provided a surreal sunset as we drove away.

Before you ride off into the sunset...if you believe in the power of play (and if you're here you probably do) please consider donating to our cross-Canada road trip by clicking here. It would mean a lot!