Canada: Part 1 (British Columbia)

Arrival: Vancouver

Arriving in Vancouver we felt pretty alert despite the significant time difference. Customs complete, we hopped on the sky train to downtown Vancouver. Sounds easy, right?

One of us proved less than alert here, faffing around thinking they had to buy a ticket while the other tapped on using a credit card. Next thing we knew the train doors were closing and off he went! Thankfully it was Bruce on the train and he’d listened to where we had to get off. Had it been the other way round I’d have no doubt been clueless! I got onto the next train and moved to the front, my thinking being that either:

A) He’d have travelled one stop and got off to wait for me, or

B) He’d have continued to our destination (Yaletown Roundhouse) and be waiting for me there.

He chose B.

From Yaletown Roundhouse station, we found our way easily to our hotel, assisted by a kind lady who offered assistance as she saw us look at a map outside the station. We dumped our bags quickly and headed out to sample the local beer at the Yaletown Brewery to avoid sitting down and feeling tired. The beer went down very well and the poutine was pretty good too!

Day 1: Stanley Park & Granville Island

Despite sleeping fitfully and waking often, I got up feeling refreshed. Due to the impending rain forecast we opted to head for Stanley Park as our first stop, walking round the seawall path. This is a rather awesome walkway, split for cyclists and people on wheels with another pavement for walkers and runners.

We followed the seawall round to the lighthouse, enjoying views of the Lions Gate Bridge, before cutting through the park to visit the totem poles.

Around these were warning signs of denning coyotes, cautioning against ignoring warnings. We didn’t see any but did see a few black squirrels and lots of Canadian geese. Again we found really friendly folks – on asking for directions to Granville Island from someone working in the park he chatted and said, ‘welcome to Canada!’ Such a lovely thing to do.

Cutting across the park, we followed the seawall round to Sunset Beach where we picked up a boat to Granville Island. These little boats dot around the bay with high frequency. Granville Island is home of a great market and lots of little shops. Definitely worth a visit!

We enjoyed delicious crispy tacos for lunch and bought some cakes for later, then visited the Granville Island Brewery for a beer. Great chat there, really friendly staff – great to hear people enthuse about our trip to add to the excitement of what lies ahead!

Leaving Granville Island the rain had started. One of the things I had on my to-see list was the A-maze-ing Laughter sculptures; much to Bruce’s delight, it turned out we’d pretty much walked past them on our way back from Stanley Park. However, despite my suggestion that I visit alone he trudged back with me to see them. Despite everything they did make me smile!

Day 2: Exploring Vancouver & Gastown

Disappointingly found the forecast was right; we woke to rain and it continued to rain all day!

Not to let this curtail our plans, we went for a wander to a different part of the city to peruse the outdoor shops. This was a colourful area with some great street art on show to brighten up a driech day!

Later we headed for Gastown and visited the Steam Clock. I made Bruce hang around to hear the 15 minute chimes much to his delight!

Finally it was a respectable hour to visit the Steamworks Bar where we sampled a range of beers – 10 beers between the two of us (1/4 pints). My preference was the sour beers while Bruce preferred something heavier.

A huge sharer of nachos helped the beer go down!

Day 3: Vancouver to Whistler

In my wisdom I’d booked the car rental from the airport. Hindsight is a great thing and perhaps I should have checked the airport location rather than assuming I’d be onto an easy route away from the city. Who knew that Highway 99 would pretty much take us through Downtown Vancouver and pretty much right past our hotel? Not quite the drive I’d planned, but hats off to the Canadian drivers for their patience and tolerance; I never felt harassed, just stressed by the lack of knowing where I was going!

Once past Vancouver it was a relief to be onto the open road. With the Guide Along app giving suggestions, we stopped at Shannon Falls on the way, almost reluctantly due to the rain. Wow! We were so glad we’d stopped. I’ve never seen falls like this in my life!

We followed the path to the upper level but due to the low cloud and sheer volume of water couldn’t get near the falls to take any photos.

Back in the car we headed for lunch in Squamish. This seemed like a pretty chilled wee place. However, we didn’t hang around as we were keen to get walking.

We headed back to the Sea to Sky Gondola car park to go for a walk, the original plan being to walk up and ‘download’ on the gondola.

The mist put us off though; no point walking up to see nothing. We therefore opted for a walk up Stawamus Chief. This was quite a tough walk, initially with lots of staircases to lessen the impact of the ascent. There were also lots of big boulder steps, with a steep ascent from the outset.

Sadly the shroud of mist that had put us off walking up the gondola route didn’t clear so we didn’t really see anything.

Or maybe I should say that Bruce didn’t see anything. Having managed the pull up the chain successfully, a ladder was a step too far (and a little too slippery for my liking) so I opted to wait at this point.

The climb back down was easier, the water flowing alongside very impressive!

Returning to the car, Bruce took a turn to drive us to Whistler. I was greatly relieved at this decision on seeing the hotel’s underground car park! Car secured for the night, we set out to explore the locale.

Day 4: Whistler

We decided to enjoy Whistler today. While there are many options for touring round about we don’t want to arrive, sleep and leave, so opted for a morning walk and an afternoon relaxing.

Our walk took us to the Whistler Trainwreck and then on alongside the Cheakamus River. I’ve honestly been blown away by the views, uttering the word, ‘wow!’ on many occasions thus far. There were signs warning of bears; we didn’t see any, but were later advised by our hotel of where to see them at dusk. We decided against this, feeling that we’re on their territory. While we’d love to see a bear it also seems wrong to try to track them down.

To get to the trainwreck we crossed a suspension bridge over the river. Thankfully it wasn’t busy so I allowed Bruce to cross before bouncing over by myself!

The train crash occurred in the 1950s. Those carriages and parts that could be salvaged were removed and the remaining carriages just hauled off the line to allow the crucial infrastructure to be restored. These have now become the preserve of graffiti artists.

Continuing beyond the trainwreck we followed the river path, at times being very close to the operational railway line! We laughed at how this would never be allowed at home; the route guide advises against walking on the tracks!

As the path tracked the river, there were spots where we could get fantastic views.

Proper wow moments, a stunning walk, and to top it all off we found a great coffee shop that we enjoyed before heading back along the route. The return leg was so much quicker!

In the afternoon we relaxed in Whistler, wandering round the shops and drinking more coffee. Such a great vibe, we can only imagine what it must be like in the height of the winter season.

Day 5: Whistler to Kamloops

This was the first of our big drive days. A little concerned about mountain roads, I was relieved that Bruce was happy to drive today. It turns out the speed limits are really low here so there’s no pressure to go anywhere fast. Despite this I was happy to be a passenger, all the more so when we were heading steeply up or down around pretty tight bends.

The drive turned out to be pretty stunning and was broken up by regular stops. The first of these was Nairn Falls, a lovely site but not so easy to photograph!

Our next stop, Joffre Lakes, was the main walk for the day. Once again, this was an area that totally took my breath away! Absolutely stunning!

The Lower Lake was really accessible, just a couple of hundred metres from the car park. We were very excited by this as we saw a glacier, first time I’ve ever seen one, other than on TV or in photos.

Continuing on, the real climb started with a very well maintained path to guide the way. There were some stepped sections, a combination of those fashioned out of halved tree trunks and some big boulders. Before we knew it we’d reached Middle Lake, another stunning location, even more scenic!

The path continued, still leading the way clearly but slightly rougher than before and not quite so well maintained.

One thing we did find particularly novel was the composting toilets at each stage of the walk. Canada is definitely set up for tourism!

The final lake, Upper Lake, was absolutely beautiful! It really was something to be so close to the glacier. We admired it for some time, chatting to those sharing the space, as we languished in the wonderful scenery.

The return leg saw us retrace our steps, making far greater time as we weren’t continually stopping to take photos and admire the views.

Next up was the Duffey Lake Viewpoint. It was literally a pull in lay-by, no effort required.

We stopped at the stunning Seton Lake viewpoint, a short walk that gave the most amazing views over the Duffey Lake Road U-turn. This gives a little inkling as to why the road takes longer than it might otherwise do given the overall distance.

Next up, Lillooet, a wee village, for a late lunch (or mid-afternoon snack. We stopped to fuel up the car ahead of this and were totally bamboozled by how to do this! At home, diesel is the black handled pump, never fill a petrol tank from this, so it took a bit of questioning and explanation to get our heads round the choices on offer (from the black handled pump). That done, we made the long journey to Kamloops, helped greatly by the fact that the road was so much better (straighter and wider) by this point.

We passed lots of tiny settlements so got quite a shock when we arrived in the huge city that is Kamloops! Bruce won the prize for remaining cool under pressure as we had no idea where we were going and darkness had descended. However, we did it, arrived safely and promptly holed up in the Sports Bar for the remainder of the night (being old, that means 20:45!)

Day 6: Kamloops to Jasper

Thankfully it was easier to find our way out of Kamloops than it was to get in under the cover of darkness.

I took a turn to drive which was pretty enjoyable once on the open road as traffic was minimal.

Our first stop was North Thompson River. The main attraction here is the joining of two water sources – one glacial, the other not – which gives a really interesting colour contrast.

We stopped for coffee in Clearwater, sadly not finding the independent bakery we were after, settling for Tim Hortons instead.

After this we drove for a long time before finding anything else worth stopping for. The landscape was fairly featureless until around Valemount where we stopped for another coffee and a rather tasty breakfast wrap.

After this we stopped a few times before reaching our final destination for the day, Jasper. Rearguard Falls was the first impromptu stop. Signposted from the road we pulled off to have a wee look and were certainly not disappointed! Yet another of those, ‘Wow! This is what we came for,’ moments.

Mount Robson had been on the horizon for some time so we stopped off at the (closed) visitor centre to admire the views. Along with it’s neighbour, Cinnamon Peak, Mount Robson looked rather splendid with the snow and cloud covering it’s uppermost reaches.

The final stop of the road was Overlander Falls. Again, just a short walk from the car heralded great views.

The longest leg of the journey complete, another time zone entered, we now settle in and acclimatise to the colder temperatures! Our time in British Columbia completed, next instalment, Jasper. Cheers!