When we decided that Canada would be our destination for Summer 2019, we talked to several of the Canadian friends that winter in South Texas with us. We love the way they talk, and how most of their sentences end with "eh." That's pronounced like "ay," and the closest we can determine it's like adding a question mark to a statement. From their advice, we only knew that we wanted to visit Canada's most famous national parks. That would be Banff and Jasper, eh? Now that we are at the end of our Canadian adventure, we thought we would summarize some of the things we have learned as we have wandered some of God's international wonders.
From doing preliminary research, we soon found that visiting those very popular parks at peak season would mean that we would have to make reservations months in advance. We found out too late that national park reservations open up on January 1. When we first looked in February, every camp site in Jasper National Park was already reserved for the entire summer! That's largely because the largest campground there--Whistler's--was closed for renovation in 2019! That's terrible timing for us, eh? That took out close to 1,000 possible camping sites, and we almost changed our plan to go to Canada. But a day later Mark saw a cancellation on the reservation web site, and we snapped up those five days at Wabasso Campground (just down the road from Jasper). Suddenly our trip was a possibility again, and we scheduled everything else around that one camp site. Hopefully any other year wouldn't have been that tricky, eh?
Even months in advance, we couldn't find a campground during the last weekend in July. Later we found that was a civil 3-day holiday, and that was why everything was booked up. That would have been a good thing to know in advance. But that gave us a great excuse for a three night stay at the Icefield Discovery Centre. We found several first-come-first-served campgrounds that would be great for people attempting to travel through the area without reservations. One option is a walk-in camp site at Wapiti Campground in Jasper National Park. RVs line up before the campground office opens each morning, in hopes that some of those will open up. Other examples include the overflow parking lot several kilometers outside of Lake Louise Village, and the parking lot at the Icefield Discovery Centre in the middle of the Icefield Parkway. No hook-ups and it is camping in a parking lot, but both are great locations, eh?
We got good advice for foods that we must try in Canada from our neighbors in our very first campground across the border. Their list included things like poutine (french fries and cheese curds with brown gravy over all), and nanaimo bars. No pictures of poutine because it really isn't very picturesque, but we tried it twice. Nanaimo bars are picturesque, and we found them in bakeries three different times. As far as we know, nanaimo is unique to Canada and is a "delicious, creamy pastry filling generously layered on top of a traditional chocolate and coconut base and covered with velvety smooth chocolaty topping."
After paying around $2.50 per small bar, we really hit the jackpot when we found a whole pan of nanaimo for sale for $10.00 at the Canadian Super Store. That would sell for more than $50 if individually cut at a bakery, eh?
We found the Real Canadian Superstore too late in our travels. It is Canada's answer to Walmart.
They stock some things that are only found in Canada--like Old Dutch Ketchup flavored potato chips. That sounds delicious, eh?
Our favorite Canadian candy bar is "Eat-More." The English description of "dark toffee peanut chew" sounds much more appetizing than "tire foncee aux arachides." As you can see, most packaging in Canada comes in both English and French. We did eat more "eat-more" bars, as you can see this is a four pack.
We had to get used to the Canadian currency, where the smallest bill is a five. So we carried around a lot more change than usual. The largest two-colored coin is worth $2 and is called a toonie. The gold coin is worth $1 and is a loonie (because of the picture of a loon on it). It's handy that their quarter, dime, and nickel are the same size as ours. But you won't find any Canadian pennies, because they don't make them. So totals at the grocery store or restaurant, etc. are rounded to the nearest nickel.
This is a great time to visit the Canadian Provinces, because the exchange rate is definitely in our favor. It's like everything is 25% off. When a price tag says $1 here, we know that will cost us just 75 cents in U.S. money. But we found things to be more expensive in Canada. Even the Canadian Dollar Store advertises, "Everything's $1.25." It seems that should be the Dollar and twenty-five cents Store, eh?
We also found that food at chain restaurants is more expensive. For example, a 12-inch sandwich at Subway that would cost $8 in the United States, cost us $12 in Canada. A Little Caesar Pizza that would cost $8 in the states, cost us $10 in Canada and was smaller than the U.S. pizza. Prices were even higher in the touristy areas. So we bought LOTS of food before we went into our first stop in Banff, and then cooked our way through the national parks.
When shopping for produce, we were very surprised to see fruit priced predominately by the pound. That might be because the prices in kilograms were very scary, eh?
We have also learned that terms like restroom or bathroom are not used in Canada. We learned to ask for the location of the washroom instead.
Our AT&T plan gave us a Canadian roaming bonus, that allowed us to make unlimited calls and texts while we were in Canada. That was great! But it limited us to 1 GB of data. So we got pretty good at finding free wifi sites throughout the country. Our most-used wifi was found at Tim Horton's, the national bakery chain. We tried everything in their bakery case during our many stops to their stores. Town visitor centers and national park offices also had wifi. Besides, who needs wifi when you have such beautiful places to explore, eh?
Because we were making so many purchases at Tim Horton's, we got their rewards card. After seven purchases, you get one free item. Denisa counts it as her biggest Canadian failure that she had only six purchases on her last reward card. She left her almost-finished card with the managers at our last campground. It was our farewell to Canada gift to them, eh?
Our motor home prefers 50 amp electric service, but we know how to function well with just 30 amp. That's a good thing, because all but one of our camp sites were 30 amp. You can probably find 50 amp in bigger and more expensive campgrounds in Canada, but traveling on a budget we were glad that we know how to live on 30 amp. The picture below doesn't have anything to do with 30 amp electricity, but that's a pretty view for lunch, eh?
We are also glad that we know how to live without television. We never have activated the satellite dish on the top of our motor home, as we have always gotten by with the over-the-air (OTA) channels that our antenna finds. We had good OTA stations in the first several campsites in southern Alberta, but we got zero OTA televisions for the last month of our trip. That's not a problem for us, but we would have enjoyed listening to the local news as that's another way to learn about the place you are visiting, eh?
After six weeks of living in Canada, we are now used to measuring distance in kilometers and temperatures in celsius. We've figured out formulas that we can calculate in our heads so we can convert back to the more complicated American system of measurement. But by the end of our trip we were thinking in metric instead of always converting. We knew that 21 degrees was a perfect weather day and a nice length hike was 10 kilometers. When you see a speed limit sign of 100, just remember that's really 62 MILES per hour.
While the United States is divided into states, Canada is divided into provinces. We traveled first north into Alberta, then came back south through British Columbia. We found that each provincial government has much control over such things as taxes and fees. It looks like British Columbia is a more expensive place to live and visit.
Buying fuel was one of our least favorite activities. We filled the motor home's 100 gallon tank in the United States right before we crossed the border. That meant we only had to fill up twice during our six weeks, but both of those times were painful. We found out that fuel is considerably cheaper in Alberta than British Columbia, so we made our second fill-up right before we crossed that provincial border. The price on the sign outside the filling station looks pretty good at $1.229. But we had to remember that was per liter--not per gallon. It takes almost 4 liters to make a gallon, eh? With the good exchange rate, we paid the equivalent of $3.13 and $3.52 per gallon for diesel while we were in Canada.
In the most touristy areas of Banff and Jasper National Parks, we saw more Asians than Canadians. Just like in the United States, the national parks have been over-ran with foreign visitors. This time we were one of those foreigners! We really enjoyed our time at less-popular places, where we got to interact with Canadians. They are wonderfully friendly and welcomed us to their country with open arms. We heard tidbits about their health care system and their political system, and we had some great conversations with our fellow North Americans. We heard some complaints that this summer was unusually cool and rainy, but we much preferred it to hot and smoky weather. We loved wearing jackets and pants this summer! We couldn't think of a better place to spend the summer of 2019, eh?
Our last stop in Canada was Cranbrook, British Columbia, about one hour's drive north of the Canada/USA border. In anticipation of this border crossing, Denisa has been carefully doling out the fresh fruits and vegetables to be sure we used them up before leaving Canada. We were still eating even as we drove that last hour in the motor home. Denisa ate a salad, and cut up the last peach and apple, then washed the last of the grapes, as Mark ate the last banana as we drove south through the Canadian countryside.
We're both getting really full of fresh fruits and vegetables on this one hour drive, but we can't waste it! So we keep eating as Mark drives us closer to the border. Harvest is just being finished as we get our last views of the mountains behind the wheat fields in southern British Columbia.
We rounded the last curve towards the Kingsgate border crossing and found ourselves in a very long line this Sunday afternoon.
It took us 40 minutes to get close to the customs building, where we saw that only one of the three lanes was open this weekend. Perhaps that was the reason for the long line? We had heard stories of people having their motor homes searched, and Denisa had cleaned out the refrigerator in anticipation of the crossing guards coming on board. But the man at the booth asked only two questions, "How long have you been in Canada?" and "Do you have any food, fruits or vegetables to declare?" Mark answered "Six weeks" and "No" and he welcomed us back to the United States. We're glad we didn't have to "declare" all the fruit in our stomach. We think that eating all that food was a good idea as it gave us an easy border crossing.
Just a few feet down the highway, we got our official "Welcome to the United States of America" and "Welcome to Idaho" both on the same sign. Woo-hoo! We've missed this country!
We drove thirty more minutes to the town of Bonner's Ferry, where we decided to boondock in the casino parking lot. The main reason to visit here comes from a conversation we had with a campground neighbor two years ago. He said they had moose come right up to their house near Bonner's Ferry. In fact, they showed us a picture of the moose drinking out of a kiddie pool on their deck. Denisa has been thinking about that picture for the last two years, and so we are in search of the moose of Bonner's Ferry. The obvious place to look is the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge. It's six miles out of town, and their brochure has a picture of a moose on the front. But when we arrived, we found that the wildlife loop at the refuge is closed for renovation. In fact, the only thing open at the refuge right now is a short hike to Myrtle Falls.
We took the hike, and then we were given the bad news. We were told that the population of moose in this area has really declined, and the chance of seeing a moose is quite low. We were disappointed about our moose, but we were given some great advice for the best hike in the area. It actually took a 45-minute drive on a very rough forest service road to get to the trail head.
But we finally arrived at the Roman Lakes trail head and studied the map to see where we were heading today. We actually have three lakes on this hike, and based on all the zig-zag red trail lines, we can also look forward to a lot of switch-backs and elevation gain.
The first lake was easy. In fact, it was a very level boardwalk the entire way from the parking lot. You can see the end of the boardwalk in the bottom right hand corner of the picture below. That makes it one of the highest mountain lakes that is handicap-accessible that we have ever seen.
Now without a level boardwalk, we are heading straight up for more mountain-top views here in Idaho.
These are the Selkirk mountains, with peaks that are still below the tree line. There are mountain views as far as we can see from this stone out-cropping.
We are sharing this view with our wildlife sighting of the day. We agree with you that it's not quite as impressive as the moose we were hoping for.
We often get confused between ground squirrels and chipmunks. With a close-up view like this we know this is a ground squirrel. A chipmunk would have a stripes on the side of his face.
It looks like this hike is going to be slower than usual as Denisa has figured out that most of the bushes lining our trail are huckleberry bushes. So she is having to stop and inspect, and occasionally finds a berry to eat.
Even with this slower pace, an hour into the hike we arrive at the Lower Lake.
When you see a log across water, you can safely predict that Mark will be walking it. Where Denisa avoids such feats of balance, Mark looks for them. All the practice probably explains why he is so much better at it.
After a few pictures, we were back on the trail towards the third lake. We have to say that Upper Lake would get our vote for the prettiest of the three lakes.
Mark has found a huge rock face to sit on high above the blue-green water of Upper Lake.
The water is clear enough to see the big boulders that continue down the shore line. This was a peaceful place to stop and enjoy a snack--until a shot range out from the surrounding mountains. We're not sure what hunting season has started already, but the serenity of the Upper Lake was shattered when we considered that we had wandered into a hunting zone.
We love a good loop trail, and we had new scenery as we looped back towards our car. Everywhere we looked, we saw huckleberry bushes lining the trail. But they had no berries on them.
More huckleberry bushes were clinging to the rock that Mark is perched on overlooking the first lake. But they had no berries on them.
The leaves are starting to turn red on the huckleberry bushes, and they make a lovely picture with the green trees and the blue skies. But they had no berries on them.
As we're heading downhill towards the car, we spotted a rogue huckleberry bush just covered with berries. After all her searching, Denisa finally has some Idaho huckleberries! She stayed right there until she picked that bush clean.
We learned about huckleberries on our trip thru the northwest two years ago, and we love these little berries! These weren't as big or as plentiful as the gallons we picked in 2017, but they made a nice trail snack today.
This hike might just make our list of top hikes of the year. It had several things we like in a hike--it was a loop, it had three destinations so we always had something to look forward to, and it finished with a few huckleberries. It's nice to be back hiking in the United States, even if we didn't find our moose here in Bonner's Ferry.
We've been traveling in Canada for almost six weeks, and it's with some sadness that we checked into our last stop--at the Mount Baker RV Park in Cranbrook, British Columbia. This little park is in the middle of the biggest town we've been to for the last month, so we have some shopping to do. We call it "urban hiking" when we stay in town to get exercise. But the area surrounding Cranbrook has some great places to get some non-urban exercise as well.
You can actually bike all the way from our campground to the next town some 28 kilometers away on the North Star Trail. But we decided to begin in the middle of the trail on this nicely paved rails-to-trails path. We love these old train beds that have been transformed into paths that promise to have an incline of no more than the railroad would allow--2%. We haven't been riding our bikes much since we have been in the mountains because Denisa is definitely a flat-land biker. Perhaps she should have brought her protractor along, as some of the grades certainly seemed steeper going up-hill than 2%.
Even though the paved trail was delightfully smooth, it was a little boring when it swung close to the highway. That's when Mark spotted a lesser-used trail through the grassland prairie and we turned that direction.
Much prettier than the highway, we even found a view down to the river with white hoodoos on the cliffs.
Mark snapped a picture as we cruised back through the grass trail head for the ride back to the car on pavement.
The North Star Trail could have taken us all the way to the town of Marysville, but we opted to drive the car there instead. Once at this little town, we took the hike to find Marysville Falls. It's hard to tell how big a waterfall is in a picture, but Denisa doesn't look very big standing to the left of the top of the falls in her bright pink blouse.
The water tumbling over the falls comes down Mark Creek. So we obviously had to take a picture of Mark on Mark Creek . . .
and Mark in front of the Mark Creek covered bridge. Marysville is a tiny little town, but it hosts some nice photo opportunities.
The winds were picking up during our bike ride, and they prevented us from getting the kayak out today. This is St. Mary's Lake, tucked away between several mountains. With fewer clouds and no white-caps on the water, this would be a great lake to kayak.
We had to wait until the next day for better weather. We started it off with a trip to the farmer's market in Cranbrook. It's just a three-block walk from our campground to the main park in town. We went there for music and dancing the first evening, and now back for the farmer's market and more entertainment. We loved seeing the Canmore Bugle Band perform. Made up of female bugle players that marched intricate routines while they played, this band has been a part of the local heritage for over 70 years.
Denisa had to use great restraint to not buy some of the lovely local produce at the farmer's market. But we'll be crossing the U.S. border tomorrow, and we can't take any fruits and vegetables with us. Denisa has been carefully planning menus to finish up our produce without adding any more today! So after the bugle band, we headed out to find the perfect mountain lake.
We drove 32 kilometers east of town to Norbury Lake Provencial Park and put the kayak on the park's name-sake lake. We were excited to see the Steeple Mountains from the water, but the clouds completely covered the tops of the steeples.
Norbury Lake is another perfectly clear teal green lake that is a joy to paddle around.
It was such a perfect weather day that one lake just didn't seem enough. So we balanced our inflated kayak on top of the car and drove a couple miles to the other lake in this provencial park. Peckham's Lake has the same mountain views, and the same clouds.
There's probably some meteorology term that explains the phenomenon that causes clouds to track right across the top of mountains. It was a clear blue sky day, except for these pesky clouds covering the peaks of the Steeple Mountains.
We hope the clouds will eventually lift, and we are patient and easily entertained. We can paddle around until we find a water flower that we have never seen before,
or we can take pictures of each other in the boat.
Or we can marvel at how blessed we are to be able to witness a mountain lake with water so calm that it reflects those blue skies and those darn clouds.
But our patience prevailed, and we finally got the picture we had been waiting for. Below we give you the Steeple Mountains--unmasked from the clouds with all their steeples showing.
We took the long way home, that included a road that went beside the river. Because this tree is down at the river level, and we are on an elevated road high above the river, we got to see this eagle at our eye level as we drove by.
This is a young bald eagle, still sporting his brown head.
But when we look close, we see that his beak is starting to turn yellow and his head feathers are beginning to turn white. It's also a good time to see a close-up of that sharp beak that can tear apart his prey.
We have enjoyed our stop at Cranbrook, British Columbia, as we wrap up our Canadian Adventure. We've biked and hiked and kayaked and saw wildlife here, but now it's time to finish up our fruits and vegetables before tomorrow's border crossing.
