On our way home from Canada, we decided to swing over to Mt. Rainier National Park and squeeze in a couple of days exploring the south side of the park. We were arriving late so we found a wild campsite outside of the park boundary and then claimed an available campground site in the park the next day.
We got up to the trailhead at Paradise fairly early and hiked the full Skyline Trail loop. There happened to be a black bear and her two cubs near the lodge and we saw yet another black bear while on the trail as well as a mountain goat and a bunch of very tame marmots. We could also see Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens in the distance.
A three-minute video of our visit to Mt. Rainier
The following day I did an out-and-back hike alone to Comet Falls on the Van Trump Trail because Darlene wasn’t feeling up for more hiking. We also visited a bunch of roadside points like the Longmire Museum, Christine Falls, Narada Falls, Box Canyon and Silver Falls. We couldn’t easily check out the east or north side of the park due to road closures so after two days, we headed out and home south.
On July 26th, Darlene and I set out in the camper van for a two-month journey across western Canada with the possibility of going all the way to Alaska. The goal was to visit a bunch of their national parks like Banff and Jasper without any particular time constraints. We didn’t have any camping reservations because we didn’t want to have to decide in advance how long we would want to spend in any given area. Of course we expected that would be a bit of a challenge in the more popular parks where the campgrounds tend to fill up and you can’t just camp anywhere in the wild, but somehow we’d manage!
We ended up getting as far as the southwest corner of the Yukon territory before we had to make our way back by the end of September. Two months and 7,658 miles! It was a great trip and we saw a lot of gorgeous scenery and we didn’t get mauled by a grizzly even once!
I’ve broken up the trip into separate posts and galleries for each of the national parks and other major travel sections but I created one video montage of the whole trip:
Kluane National Park and Reserve takes up the entire southwest corner of the Yukon territory and includes the Canadian portion of the Satint Elias Mountains – the highest coastal mountains in the world and the highest points in Canada.
After hitting up the visitors center and talking to a park ranger (“park wardens” in Canada), we opted to start our exploration of the park on the Alsek River Valley Road by mountain bike. We found a nice secluded wild camping spot from an offshoot of that road just outside the park boundary. The next day gave us cold and heavy winds but we set out anyway by bike. We didn’t go as far as I would’ve liked but the scenery was fantastic all the way. That afternoon we had a surprise visit from a local who was out for a walk who chatted me up for a long while.
Following the Alsek River Valley Road
We took off again the following day and explored a little further along the Alaska highway to Kluane Lake, the Ä’äy Chù (Slim’s River) trailhead and the Silver City ghost town. We walked around the ghost town for a bit trying to figure out what we’re looking at – lots of kennels for animals of different sizes apparently. (A fox farm according to this web site.)
Our next destination was Kathleen Lake. We looked for a suitable wild camping spot but eventually settled on the established campground there. The next day we took up the King’s Throne trail and it was quite the climb the entire way but ever more fantastic panoramic views. Darlene tapped out around 4100 feet but I continued for a while longer (4900 ft) before deciding it was getting late and the trail feeling more precarious on my own.
Half-way up the Kings Throne Trail above Kathleen LakeA little video of our ascent of the King’s Throne trail
After the hike, we looked for a wild camping spot off the highway by following a rough fishermans road along Quill Creek until we picked out a nice open sky spot. That evening we were treated to a spectacular aurora display. (I’ve broken out a description of what we saw in a separate post here.) We had already decided that we needed to start making our way back home but that aurora display was a wonderful topper for our whole Canadian road trip.
Continuing north along the Icefields Parkway in mid-August, we eventually came up the Sunwapta Pass into Jasper National Park in sight of the Athabasca Glacier pouring over from the massive unseen Columbia Icefield. We ate at the Glacier View Lodge and viewed the exhibits but passed on the bus tours to the glacier. Instead we stayed a couple of nights at the Wilcox Creek campground near the boundary between Jasper and Banff National Parks.
Saskatchewan Glacier Valley
We had a great hike from the campsite up the Wilcox Pass Trail for more views of the Athabasca Glacier and surrounding mountains and we came across a herd of bighorn sheep. Later that day, we explored a bit more over the boundary into Banff NP and happened upon the very cool Panther Falls where the water is so thick with glacial silt (or rock flour) that it’s plastering all the rocks and trees white below the falls and along the creek. Another great hike was up to Parker Ridge (also technically in Banff National Park) and the stupendous view of the Saskatchewan Glacier Valley.
Athabasca Falls
We then continued north stopping at Sunwapta Falls and the quite fantastic Athabasca Falls before reaching the town of Jasper. We could see the remnants of the wildfire that burned down a third of the town and some 96,000 surrounding acres last year. We had meals in Jasper but stayed in a campsite to the east of town in a little ways. We tried to visit the popular Maligne Canyon but the fire had also burned through that area and it was still closed to visitors due to hazards.
From Jasper we decided to continue on our way by traveling west through Prince George to get to Fish Creek near Stewart where there is a viewing platform to potentially see grizzly bears feasting on the salmon run at this time of year. We stopped for lunch and to see the visitor center exhibits (and a very interesting video about dealing with grizzlies) in Mount Robson Provisional Park.
After visiting sights between Banff and Lake Louise, we decided to detour over to neighboring Yoho National Park for a few days. First we came upon a small crowd of folks awaiting the passing of a train through the spiral tunnels that climb Kicking Horse Pass. We then continued on to see the Takakkaw Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in Canada before returning to our Kicking Horse campsite.
Photo op in the red Adirondack chairs below Takakkaw Falls
The following day we had a nice quiet hike up to Sherbrooke Lake, visited the town of Field and strolled around Emerald Lake late in the afternoon – which is another beautiful and popular (and thus very busy) destination. We drove all the way out to the town of Golden for dinner before heading back to find a wild camping spot along a forest service road that skirted the edge of the park boundary. We hiked down from our campsite the next day to see the wide and roaring Wapta Falls. We moved to a new campsite in the park the next day and hiked up the Hoodoo Creek trail to see the views and a group of hoodoo formations.
Emerald Lake
There was plenty more to see in Yoho and I would’ve liked to experience a long day on the Iceline Trail but instead we returned to Banff National Park to continue our road trip north.
Banff National Park is huge and full of incredible scenery. There is so much to see and explore even just via short day hikes. Unfortunately, it’s also very busy in the summer months and there are always crowds of people at the more popular sites, much like many US national parks. Some locations are so popular that special planning is required. For example, Moraine Lake Road is closed to personal vehicles year-round and the parking lots at Lake Louise fill up at sunrise in the summer months. It’s even difficult to secure time slots on the required shuttle buses a day or two in advance because they sell out so quickly.
Mountains towering over Lake Louise
We ended up spending two five-day stretches in the park over two weeks (visiting Yoho National Park in between) before continuing north on the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. Wild or dispersed camping isn’t allowed in any of the national parks and we didn’t have any advance reservations so we just had to grab spots here and there as they showed up online. We managed to snatch up a few consecutive nights at one of the large campgrounds near the town of Banff, another few nights near Lake Louise and then some first-come, first-serve sites further north at Waterfowl Lakes. We also stayed in a hotel in Banff when we couldn’t get a campground site (like Friday and Saturday nights) to avoid having to drive all the way out of the park. It was probably even more difficult than usual this summer because the Canadian government had granted free access to all the national parks along with discounted camping fees.
View of Banff from top of gondola
We explored the town of Banff by bike and on foot, visiting the Cascade of Time Gardens, the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum, the river walk and Bow Falls, hiking up the Sulphur Mountain Trail and riding the Banff gondola back down. We also rode the Lake Louise gondola up to the ski area for lunch and to go hiking and enjoy the ultra wide views of Lake Louise and the surrounding mountains. It was kind of freaky to pass through the big gates of the electrified fence that protects the top of the gondola visitors area from grizzly bears.
Peyto Lake viewpoint
A major highlight was visiting Moraine Lake for sunrise and hiking from there up towards Wenkchemna Pass on the Eiffel Lake Trail. Afterward we briefly visited Lake Louise itself but never ended up doing any of the classic hikes up from the lake. Another favorite was the gorgeous Peyto Lake viewpoint and hiking up the valley from there. We enjoyed hiking through Johnston Canyon despite the crowds and the insane lines for photo ops at the waterfalls. It is impressive but admittedly still cooler to see the canyon iced over in the winter (without crowds of people) as we’ve done in the past.
Hector Lake and the Pulpit Peaks
We enjoyed still more hiking from Bow Lake up towards Bow Glacier Falls on a cold wet morning, a late afternoon hike from our campsite to Chephren Lake and a short hike to more stupendous views at the edge of Hector Lake.
We crossed into Canada from Idaho in the camper van on the morning of July 28th, heading for the Canadian national parks in the Rocky Mountains. We stopped in Cranbrook for lunch and groceries and challenged ourselves to the “voted most challenging mini golf in Canada” at Elizabeth Lake Lodge (it was pretty cool) before continuing on to Kimberly. We checked out the town that evening and found a good overnight spot near the mountain biking trails above town and rode some of the trails the next day before heading on to Kootenay National Park.
In Kootenay National Park, we managed to snag a campsite for a couple of nights and spent one day hiking the beautiful Stanley Glacier Trail and checking out the incredible Marble Canyon gorge. The following day was a bit of the rest day to enjoy the Radium Hot Springs as well as visit the town of the same name. We made a couple more stops while making our way on to Banff.
Nearing the end of our southern Utah road trip, we swung south and around from the eastern side of Canyonlands National Park, crossing the Colorado River on the northern reach of Glen Canyon to eventually make our way to Capitol Reef National Park. We had only one day to spend hiking among fantastic towering rock walls on some trails accessible from the main highway before boondocking overnight just outside the park and then having to head home. I’m sure there’s plenty more to see in Capitol Reef and of course there’s still so much more to explore across all of southern Utah in future trips!
