Travelogue: The Rockies (Days 20-22)

After hundreds of kilometres of prairie driving, I was more than ready for this stretch of the drive. And it delivered.

From the moment the landscape started undulating into foothills, the scenery left us constantly picking our jaws up from the floor of the minivan, and required me to consciously keep my eyes on the road when I was tempted to open the sunroof and spin in slow circles to take it all in.

Let's divide the trip from Edmonton to Vancouver into three sections.

Section 1: Jasper. I've often thought of Jasper National Park as being the neglected second child to the flashier, cooler Banff national Park. But Jasper is absolutely breathtaking.

Our first stop in the park was the Miette Hot Springs, where we bathed in springs that have been attracting visitors since the 1930s. It was surreal to see the steam rising from the pool into the cool fall air until you couldn't tell where the steam ended and the low-lying clouds began.

We spent some time exploring the town of Jasper itself. It was small but cozy, but surrounded by evidence of the 2024 wildfires that nearly decimated the town, and whose scars can be seen on the mountainsides that surround it on all sides.

Most of the town - including its main street - were unscathed, but there was a fair bit of construction happening which, I assume, was to replace housing lost in the fires.

A highlight of our time in Jasper was taking the Jasper Sky Tram up the side of Whistlers Mountain (not to be confused with Whistler, BC).

The view from the top was predictably spectacular, but what was perhaps even more mesmerizing was seeing the clouds form as wind rushed up the back side of the mountain, compressing the air and squeezing the moisture out of it.

Section 2: The Interior Plateau. It's normal to think of the progression of landscapes in western Canada as being Prairie - Mountains - Ocean. But this neglects a significantly different landscape that sits between the Rockies and the Coastal Mountains.

The landscape changed suddenly as we drove towards Kamloops. At first we thought it was evidence of more wildfires, but the brown, sparsely-treed hills were in fact a signal that we were entering the Interior Plateau.

This semi-arid region was a full ten degrees warmer than Jasper, and if it weren't for the pine trees, you might think you were driving through south Californian valleys. But to me, one of the strangest features of this section of the country was the clouds.

The glowing UFO-like cloud shown here is just one example of the other-wordly formations that clouds can take on this this area.

Section 3: The Coast Mountains. Shortly after leaving Kamloops, it started to rain. When we hit the Coast Mountains, it started raining in a way that would make the Amazon envious.

It was absolutely torrential, and although it meant that we couldn't see much of the mountains that were (presumably) all around us, it did mean that every once in a while we'd be surprised by a sudden break in the clouds that would reveal a monolithic green mountainside behind it.

Our only stop was in the Coquihalla Valley, where we took a brief hike through a trail known as the "Othello Tunnels". The trail follows a long-disused railway across bridges and through tunnels, and it was incredible. The stone tunnels, steep cliffs of the river valley, and the thick moss that cloaked the trees combined to make it feel like a scene out of Lord of the Rings.

At one point while filming the river, I heard a sharp crack behind me, and turned just in time to see a small rockfall. I wondered briefly how many years the old train tunnels would last before succumbing to a similar fate, but quickly decided that pondering that question would severely detract from my enjoyment of the walk.

We got back into the van and drove on towards Vancouver, and I was just resigning myself to the idea of nixing a couple of playground visits because of the rain when the clouds lifted, the sky cleared, and by the time we hit the Vancouver suburbs, it was looking like a beautiful day again.

One of the playgrounds we visited was mind-blowing...but I'll save that for the next post.

But before you go...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!