The beauty of Canada - a travel blog

A typical scene in the Rockies

21." And God said, 'Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds....

29.  'I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit seed in it... 

31.  God saw all that he had made, and it was very good... the sixth day."              Genesis 1     



We spent most of last month in Canada, a country that had been on my bucket list for years and finally we decided to 'push the boat out'.   Not literally, but we did board the Star Princess from Whittier in Alaska for a 7 night cruise.

After a day at sea we spent several hours at the Hubbard Glacier which, although retreating, is still five miles wide.

One of my favourite authors, Lesley Pearce in her book 'Gypsy' describes the heroine's hazard journey across Alaska in search of gold.  The story came alive as we ventured the way of the pioneers whose stories and characters were included in the plot. Our adventure used the railway built later and warm and comfortable.

Skagway, the gateway to the goldfields maintains its original atmosphere, it's buildings mostly wooden. The Red Onion Saloon remains a beer parlour, and although women no longer ply their trade upstairs you can see the cribs they lived and worked in. We ate a BBQ under canvas, were similarly entertained sitting on benches and quite cold, but nothing like they had to endure.

Our next stop was Juneau where the ship moored alongisde the main streets with shops selling familiar brands, and dozens of jewellers where,  having not seen the northern lights, Brian bought me a necklace and ear-rings the stones reflecting their colours.

This photo is of the preserved old part of Ketchikan built on stilts over the river.  A broadwalk passes the houses, now shops, and in one we held a lump of gold which was surprisingly heavy and worth about £19,000!  They have 250+ days of rain, but so far we'd bright, warm sunshine.

Two days later in Vancouver we were dogged with rain, not good for photos but bus,sky train and ferry helped us keep dry as we visited the tourist places.  The third day we took this photo from Stanley Park, the sun came out, we ate outside at Lonsdale Key, visited the Sky Tower both afternoon and evening and really liked Gas Town and its famous steam clock.  Next morning we were up at 5.30 am packed and ready for our transport for our two days on the Rocky Mountaineer.

The sky was blue, the sun shone, the views from the train were awesome as we headed for Kamloops and next day Banff. There we used the cable car, and wondered at the top, how without road access, they'd built such a beautiful three-storey building.  After a late lunch we collected our hire car and began our drive up the Iceland Parkway where rain turned to snow!

We stayed overnight in a log cabin where a smattering of snow covered everything, but at the Icefield Centre three inches had fallen.  Vehicles with huge tyres took us to walk on the ten-storey thick glacier, but the Skywalk was colder and we could barely see the mountains encased in cloud.  The roads were quiet, and no ice or snow had been left on them.

After a brief stop in Jasper where there was no snow, we headed to Hinton to stay overnight.  Our 'Gypsy App' had just told us about   the Caribou in mating season being surrounded by females there were twelve in this photo opportunity.  Unfortunately the wolverine in the road, dashed away before I could snap him.

The next morning after removing three inches of snow on the car  it was time to head back.  Again, due to low cloud we missed seeing lakes, valleys and mountains, but we did see caribou, moose and two elks in the road.  And finally on our last day the sun came out for five minutes at Lake Louise enabling us to see the way the colour changed into the vivid colour you see in pictures.  

I've gone passed the usual 500 words, but hope you have enjoyed this taste of Canada.

Ruth Johnson