How to do Montreal in a day

So we spent more like two days in Montreal, but the first day we just went to the botanic gardens, which was a massive disappointment. The sculpture gardens that I thought were there turned out to be in Ottawa, and it cost $20 entry fee! But we did manage to do almost everything that is listed as things to do in Montreal, in one day. You read that right... one day...

The only cool part of the botanic gardens

Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore

We spent a couple of days at Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore in Michigan, which ended up being a big disappointment. Partially because our kayak trip got stormed out, and partially because there's not much to do there.

South Dakota

After Yellowstone we stayed one night at the Walmart in Gillette, and scored a free shower at the city pool because it has free entry. We were pretty pleased with ourselves that day! We detoured a little to go to the "Devil's Tower", which is just a big rock. We didn't actually go in, since we could see the rock from the outside so it didn't seem worth the entry fee. Excuse the smudge on the photo below, I think it was a bug on the windscreen...

Two days in Yellowstone National Park

We left the Glacier National Park area early in the morning, and started our drive towards Yellowstone. We ended up stopping at Lock Leven Campground, which is just North of Yellowstone National Park. It costs $18 per night and has drop toilets and a boat ramp. It was a pretty nice night, until it started raining and blowing a gale. We now know the tent stays up in strong winds! It is pretty hard to sleep through though.

Glacier National Park

Peigan Pass

After Waterton National Park, we popped across the border into the USA to check out Glacier National Park. We thought we might have a chance at getting a camp site in the morning mid-week, but no such luck. So after driving almost to the other side of the park we drove out the way we had come and went to a campground nearby. Which had wifi, so it was kind of a win.

Waterton National Park

Well it has been ages since I have written anything, mostly because the laptop screen died and we had to wait ages to get it posted to us (it also cost a bit more than we were really happy with)... So, to start where we left off, our last stop before crossing the border to the USA was Waterton National Park.

Hiking Mount Fernie

 

We've been back in Fernie for about a week now, on our way South. We're regrouping, since the railway to Churchill has been washed out we have decided to go to the USA and East.

Last week we did a day hike up Mount Fernie. It's a pretty decent hike, with a climb of 900m. 

The Sulphur Skyline Hike

Our "big hike" for Jasper was the Sulphur Skyline hike, which is North of Jasper town. It's an 8km summit hike and starts from the hot springs car park. 

Jasper National Park

We spent three days in Banff and Jasper National Park last week, before heading further South. Things are still only just starting to defrost up here, so some nights it hit zero while we were sleeping in our tent.

Driving the Alaska-Canada Highway

Blue lakes in the Yukon

We left Whitehorse with a pretty late start and didn't make it as far as we had thought on our first day driving. We only got to Watson Lake, and stayed at a government camp ground there. The government camp grounds are so cheap in the Yukon ($12.50 per night), but they don't have showers and the only water is non-potable.

Alaska: The cruise bit

 So we began our cruise from Sitka, where we were taken to 'The Fortress of the Bear' first. Which is a rescue place for orphan cubs. If a bear is found to be a problem, it is shot, and sometimes that bear has a cub. Usually the cub is shot too. This place somehow managed to convince the government to let them try to show that cubs can be released, which Canada does sometimes.

Alaska: The land bit

We drove into Haines the day before we had our Ferry booked for Juneau, just to be sure we wouldn't miss it. It turned out there wasn't much to do in Haines, most places were still shut until tourist season started. 

Wildflowers near Juneau

Flying over Kluane National Park

I'm so far behind on posts it's almost depressing. I'm going to skip Alaska for now, because there's too much to write, so I'll start with our flight-seeing over Kluane National Park.

North to Alaska

Our drive from Dease Lake to Whitehorse was a great day for spotting animals. We detoured to Bear glacier, and were really glad we did! It was very spectacular.

This is a real bear

Onwards and Upwards: Historic Hazelton

 The next stop along our way was Prince Rupert. We didn't do much there, other than buy food and sleep in a pretty gross camp ground. Seriously... I had to move dog poo out of or camp site. And most of the other tent sites were so waterlogged that the water would squish up over your shoes as you walked! So, I don't think it needs a blog of its own!

 We pulled in to Old Hazelton the next night, to stay at the native run K'san camp ground. This one was much nicer than the camp grounds in Prince Rupert!

A cheat day

We both quickly started questioning our wisdom at choosing to camp all summer, when neither of us are even remotely excited by camping holidays. So, neither of us complained when we started looking at staying in a little cabin for a night. Then I upped it to two nights. Haha! 

Wells Gray Provincial Park

Helmcken Falls from the view point

So, I saw this awesome photo of a waterfall on Pinterest the night before we were to leave Pemberton. And so we made this whole detour back East to get to Wells Gray park.

A "Spring" walk in Joffre Lakes

We headed off at a reasonable time, for our first stop, Joffre Lakes. We knew there was a change there would be some snow there, but we didn't expect so much. As we got out of the car, it started snowing, and I put on some thermals.

The bottom Lake

Squamish to Pemberton

We accidently overslept again on the next morning, and had to skip our planned breakfast of pancakes for Nutella on bread instead. Rather disappointing. It’s not surprising when you know that a large group of “youths” moved in to the campsite right across from us the night before, and sounded like about 100 people until some ungodly hour.

Shannon Falls Hike

We arrived back on the mainland again, after a nice nap in the car on the Ferry. This time we landed at Horseshoe Bay, north of Vancouver. We were pretty tired from a fairly late night, so we just bought some groceries and went to our campground for the night.

Vancouver Island - Back to the East

Our first bear!

We woke up to drizzling rain in the morning. Not what we wanted, but what we were expecting. We drove down the road to Ucluelet to do a walk near the light house. There's a privately made walk called the Wild Pacific Trail that runs around the headland and then has another section along the coast.

Vancouver Island - To the West Coast

We slept in again, and woke up to rain. After eating Nutella on bread in the car for breakfast, we started driving West to Tofino. A short way along we stopped at Little Qualicum falls Provincial Park. It was a pretty little area, and had some great views of the falls in a small canyon.

Vancouver Island - a fun hike

On Sunday, we got in touch with a young couple who were related to some people from Fernie for meeting, and then we went on a hike near the Nile Creek, 50mins north of Nanaimo. It was a really cool hike. It isn't maintained by any parks company or anything, but seemingly just by locals. So there were a lot of bridges made from fallen logs, and steps made from stumps. It was a very cool walk, with many pretty waterfalls. 

Vancouver Island - Diving

We were feeling pretty disheartened after the afternoon of hunting for camp grounds and coming up empty handed, so we headed to Nanaimo, via Lake Cowichan, to find a big camping ground.

Vancouver Island - Banana slugs and closed campgrounds

We woke up after a massive nights sleep to the sound of construction work in the camp grounds, and found it takes a fair amount of time to pack up and leave when camping. It's also pretty annoying when it's wet and rainy all the time.

Hatley Castle

Vancouver Island - the south bit

Last week we arrived on Vancouver Island in Sidney via Ferry From Vancouver. It's about an hour and a half Ferry trip, and it's pretty boring. Bring a book... Haha. It's also a good idea to get there at least 40mins before the Ferry is due to leave, so you manage to get a spot on the Ferry.

Parking on the Ferry

Skiing Silverstar: the family hill

The last couple of days we have been skiing at Silverstar, which until now, had been my top pick for next year. Neither of us are terribly excited to spend a whole season there though. 

Brandon's face shows how we really feel, my face is a lie

Epic days at Big White

 The past two days we have been skiing at Big White, near Kelowna. It has been amazing! Especially considering it's spring skiing. It is by far the most beautiful ski hill we've been to so far, and also the farthest from town. We didn't get there for opening either day, since we knew the bottom would be hard, as it always is with spring skiing. The first day was magnificent! Sunny and beautiful. The top of the hill was soft and fun and, as the bottom softened, it got sloppy and fun too.

Sitting on top of a tree!

A surprise powder day at Red Mountain

Yesterday we drove to Trail to stay the night before skiing at Red Mountain. We woke up to 20cm of fresh snow on the ski hill! We were both so excited; it feels like it's been forever since we were skiing in powder. And man, is it awesome to ski powder again. It was a bit heavier than true winter powder, but it's just like skiing on a cloud!

I love Snow Ghosts!

Spring Skiing Panorama

Today we spent most of the day skiing at Panorama near Invermere. We've been staying in Fairmont Hot Springs for a few nights again, to kick our spring ski tour off.

Cold and windy skiing at Castle Mountain

I'm going to make this a quick one because we only took one photo at castle mountain and you might get a bit bored otherwise.

Skiing in Whitefish

Brandon has been wanting to take a trip down to Whitefish in Montana for a while now, and since we had to pick up our rooftop tent from Eureka, I suggested we stay overnight and spend a full day enjoying the ski hill. It ended up working well for my birthday, since the couple whose shipping address we were using were off work.

Fat biking in Fernie: Montane Loop

Yesterday we borrowed some fat tire bikes from my new work and headed for the hills. We were probably a bit ambitious choosing an 8km circuit straight up, when we haven't done cardio in months. But we survived! We did get off and walk the bikes up a few hills, and over a few icy bridges. It was fun, and lots of hard work!

Finally made it to the downhill part!

Skiing Lake Louise

Last week I had a massive gap in the middle of the week with no work. So Brandon got a few days off and we booked at trip to Lake Louise to go skiing. Well, sort of. We actually stayed in Golden again because it's so much cheaper than the Banff area.

Why are all the ski hill signs so hard to get to!?