I watched the sunrise colours reflecting on the snow topped mountain visible from my campsite, and the mist rising from the nearby river, before setting off along the extremely scenic Icefields Parkway to Banff, full of snow capped mountains, rivers, lakes, glaciers and waterfalls. It was 90km/h all along the highway through here to Banff and a bit beyond. The temperature was around freezing again.

About half an hour into the trip was the Athabasca Falls, upstream on the Athabasca River that also ran through Jasper. I was heading into the mountains where the river started. These were impressive falls, as the river channelled through a narrow gorge, and the mist from the early, chilly morning added some atmosphere.

Another half hour took me to the Sunwapta Falls, a tributary of the Athabasca River, which were also impressive, especially the gorge that the river went through. The sun was just starting to show over the hills.

There were more rivers and snow-capped mountains at a stop a little further on, with views of the Stuffield Glacier, one of several along the route.

After looking at Tangle Creek Falls, a beautiful multi-tiered waterfall, I came to the glacier nearest the road, the Columbia Icefield, where I’d planned a bit of a walk. There was a big visitor centre, and across the road, the glacier itself, with a car park for people hiking.

It’s possible to walk onto the glacier, but it’s a guided tour that takes quite a while, and I didn’t have time to do it. So I just hiked up to where you could get a good view of the glacier. All along the road to the parking lot were signs showing where the glacier had been in earlier years, starting I think in the late 1800s, and going up to 1990 or something like that. It was amazing how far it had receded in that time, maybe 1km or more. Even in the last 10 or 20 years it had gone back a fair way.

It had turned into another sunny day. As I walked up as close as I could to the glacier, I was thinking it was quite small now. Then I saw some dots on the lower part of the glacier and realised that they were actually people. It wasn’t quite so small after all! Other than the people there really wasn’t anything that could give a sense of scale.

I kept driving, and as the road was steadily gaining altitude, the Big Bend overlook revealed a view through the valley, on the way to the Weeping Wall, a tall rock face with water running down a wide area. I saw it from the road, a bit of a distance away, and then noticed a little track heading into the forest in its direction. I followed this uphill for a while, and ended up right at the very bottom of the wall. I could get right up to the water coming down. It was an impressive sight close up, with rainbows showing in the small droplets coming down.

Around midday I came to Mistaya Canyon, small but quite deep, with a river running through it, a few minutes walk from the highway. The river came out into the open a little further down, revealing a fantastic scene, with the strikingly blue water, pine forests, and snow capped mountains in the background, one of the most beautiful spots, a classic Canadian Rockies scene.

Not far along from there was Waterfowl Lake, beautiful with reflections of the mountains behind it, and some autumn foliage along the edge. There was a small parking lot off the road and I was able to snag a spot and make my lunch. There were quite a few people around, but it was hard to beat the view for a lunch spot!

Another half hour took me to the highest point on the Icefield Parkway, Peyto Lake. This is one of those iconic postcard-type spots. I parked at the trail parking lot, then after a short walk through the forest I suddenly found I was facing a view of a beautiful blue-green lake a long way down, surrounded by forest and mountains, with a mountain range going off into the distance. This is a very photographed view, and there were plenty of people looking!

I had read about another lesser-known lookout, along an unmarked track. I followed the directions that had been posted, and found what I thought might be that track. It went down fairly steeply, and I was hoping it wasn’t just going to dump me way down at the bottom, but before too long there was a little track going off – I think I had asked someone coming up, who told me there was a view not far away, so I was looking for it. It was just as good a view as the main spot, but there was hardly anyone there, so it was much more peaceful. The lake was an amazing colour, in the full sunshine.

Only a few kilometres further along was Bow Lake, from which the Bow River comes I think, which then goes through Banff, and Calgary and beyond. This was a very popular spot indeed, and there was a large car park, but very full looking. Thank the Lord I found a spot to squeeze the van into, and went and had a look. There was a wooden lodge, quite impressive looking, and a gift shop. It looked as though perhaps you could stay at the lodge.

The lake was a lovely turquoise colour, more blue than the blue-green of Peyto lake – all the lakes seemed to have their own unique shades of blue or blue-green. It was very beautiful, again with mountains behind, and some grasses and small bushes in front that were changing into their autumn colours. I went for a bit of a walk around the area. There was a strip of beach, and people kayaking on the water.

Further along the highway, just before Lake Louise, I came to Highway 1 again, this time a four-lane highway, that had come from Kamloops. If I wasn’t going through Jasper, I would have come to Lake Louise that way. I detoured away from Lake Louise to Yoho National Park, heading for Emerald Lake. There was a turn-off for some falls before the lake, but I missed it, so I saw that on the way back out.

Emerald Lake was extremely popular. I found some parking, and joined the crowds. There was a wedding being celebrated at the visitor centre or somewhere near there, and a sign saying please not to take photos, and to move along. The lake was much greener than Bow Lake, and there were many people kayaking. There was a track going along the lake, which I walked for a while. It was in a little bit from the lake’s edge, but there were spots you could go out and get right next to the lake. There wasn’t much wind in that area, so the reflections were stunning, with mountains in the background.

I saw the Natural Bridge and Lower Falls on the way back out, then headed by Lake Louise as I drove towards Banff. I would see Lake Louise in a couple of days time.

The highway was four lanes all the way through here, and a lot of it was fenced off so animals wouldn’t try to cross. There were animal bridges here and there, where they’d built a wide bridge over the road with vegetation on it, so that animals could get over there, with fences along the bridge. Just out of Banff there was a beautiful overlook, across more lakes, with the mountains in the background as always. I found out later it was looking across the Vermilion Lakes, which I would explore from ground level the next day.

I got to the RV park, the Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court, just out of Banff on the far side, and checked in. This had something like 800 campsites, it was like a small town, and a long road for each 100 campsites. Each site was a pull-through site, off the road, so there wasn’t a lot of privacy. As usual in RV parks, I was one of the smallest vehicles, if not the smallest, and the van looked small in the large pull-through spot. No fires were allowed in the campground, but some people had what I gathered were heaters, which had lights that looked a bit like fires.

I was quite close to the restrooms, which was handy. There was forest around the RV park, and some walking tracks, and I had a bit of a walk around. Though the train line was not close to the park, I could still hear the trains tooting their horns in the dead of night. I was very glad I hadn’t camped at the Lake Louise campground, which I’d read was just meters from the train line!

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I found out that my campsite was right next to a beautiful river. I’m not sure if I was aware of that when I booked the site, but if so I’d forgotten. It was a nice surprise. You couldn’t see it from the campsite, but a short walk came to the banks. What I could see from the campsite, which greeted me when I looked out the back window of the van from my bed, was a majestic snow-capped mountain in the distance, probably Mount Robson.

I had planned to do the Edith Cavell Meadows Trail in the morning, which was an amazing hike by all accounts, but it would have been a half hour drive or more each way in the van, probably up hills, and I didn’t want to risk it. So instead I hiked along the river behind my campsite for a couple of hours, with some lovely views. This was definitely less strenuous than the other hike, which may have been a good thing – I had been doing a lot of hiking.

Along the banks of the river I found a resort with pretty wooden cottages, and seats by the river to enjoy the view. Once back, I headed into the town of Jasper, a few minutes drive away, to get the van looked at. On the way I checked out Pyramid Lake with beautiful reflections, just out of town. The repair place was just across the tracks from the town centre, but I had to wait about 15 minutes for a huge train to go by before I could get there.

Once I arrived, I found that all the mechanics were away, attending an accident, apparently involving a garbage truck in the national park somewhere. But there was a guy there who knew enough to have a look, and found coolant squirting out of the reservoir. I hadn’t suspected the reservoir, because I had been losing coolant even when the level was below the reservoir, but apparently the pressure still made it squirt out. The man rang around, but couldn’t get the part before I was due to leave again. It was in an awkward spot, on a little spigot that came out of the reservoir, so it was difficult to put tape around it or anything like that. In the end he put some glue on it, and hoped it would hold.

There was a repair place in Heather’s town of Carseland, and the van had already been booked in there for an oil change – since I was driving such a long distance, it needed to be done during the trip, and this was a convenient place. So I was on the phone to the mechanic to book in for a replacement of the reservoir too, and the mechanic said to leave the radiator cap loose, to avoid pressure build up. Though this would make the cooling less efficient (and I was to keep an eye on the temperature), and some coolant might boil off, I’d lose less than if it was under pressure. He said to make sure I had coolant on hand to top it up if it was boiling off. The glue stopped most of the leaking thank the Lord, and I bought some more coolant at a service station in Jasper in case I needed it.

Once I was done, it was getting on for 3, and I had time to take the Jasper Skytram, a cable car that went up a tall mountain, with views of Jasper below. I had planned to do that right after I got back from the other hike. From the top of the Skytram terminal, you could then hike to a higher summit, and then a longer hike to a summit and ridge above that again. I’d been thinking of trying the longer hike, but with the time available, I needed to restrict myself to just getting to the first summit, which was something like 45 minutes hike. The last tram was scheduled to come down at 6pm, so it was important not to miss it!

Going up in the cable car, there was an English guy pointing things out, during the trip of about 10 minutes. The views really were spectacular at the top, and I did the hike up to the next summit. I could see the track from there up to the ridge. It was a big climb, and apparently a bit treacherous sometimes too. I’m not sure if I would have had the energy to do both the morning and afternoon hikes I’d planned in the day even if I’d had time. It was impressive being up so high and looking at the mountains up still higher.

There was very little vegetation up there, just some mosses and patches of grass. You could see a long way, with Jasper, and the valley it was in, and way along, probably towards Banff. I walked to another vantage point a bit further along. There was a long train snaking its way through the valley. Seeing it from above emphasised just how long it was! I had a man ask me if I would take his photo, and I recognised his accent, and how he said, “no worries”. He was from Sydney I think, and we had a little chat.

I got the tram back down again. I was booked on the last tram, but they were running late, and when I got there, they put me on the one that left a little earlier than when I was booked in, which was probably the second or third last tram. The last tram would probably have been quite a bit later than when it had been scheduled.

There was still quite a bit of daylight left, so I visited Maligne Canyon, which is a narrow – sometimes very narrow and deep – canyon with a stream running through it, and waterfalls. There was a trail with a number of bridges over the canyon, and I spent a while hiking through there enjoying the views. There weren’t too many people there at 7pm when I was there. I took a look at the river behind my campsite again as the sun went down. Such a blessing to be so close to an amazing river like that!

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The next morning started off quite chilly, around freezing. It was starting to get up a bit into the mountains. I was well prepared for cold nights – when needed I had thermals, winter pyjamas, thick socks, two doonas, and a warm sleeping bag I’d bought that I had opened out to make another doona. Even I was quite warm enough with all that, even when it went a bit below freezing. The van seemed to be fairly well insulated too. I would lie on the bed in my clothes before I went to bed to warm it up, and that worked well. I enjoyed a pretty sunrise reflecting on the lake, with cloudy mountains in the background.

I set off to get to Jasper, with some stops along the way planned, and a couple of hikes when I got there. I was thinking about what good time I was making, and driving along through fairly sparsely inhabited country, when suddenly the engine light went on, and the engine started to run quite rough, and lost power. I wasn’t sure what to make of this, but it didn’t sound good! I was still able to drive, but not more than about 55mph. The Lord was good, because there was a tiny town only a few minutes further along where I could pull in, and it had a service station, and also phone reception. I think it was Blue River.

I rang the road service line of the Escape Campervan people. There wasn’t a lot they could do given that I was in Canada, a long way from any of their offices, and in fact a long way from much in the way from civilisation, but while I was on the phone I noticed that the temperature gauge was reading quite hot, and then I found that you could actually see how much coolant was in the reservoir, because it was clear. And there was none!

I was parked next to the service station, so I went in and bought a big container of coolant there, and also asked about places which could repair the van. The guy at the counter suggested a place further on at Valemount that might be able to fix it. I got a really nice lady at the campervan roadside assistance, who was also ringing around looking for someone who could repair it, and wanted me to keep her posted on how I was getting on.

Meanwhile I waited for the temperature gauge to go down, so that it would be safe to open the coolant cap. It took its time doing that, and after a while I took a hand towel I had, put it over the cap, and very gingerly started to open it. Well nothing came out. There really was basically no coolant in the van. I poured in the whole container of coolant, and still nothing showed in the reservoir. I bought another one and poured it in, still nothing in the reservoir. Back to the shop and bought a third one, and got part way though that before it started to fill up. It was clear that there was a coolant leak, but I could still keep going for a while now I had filled it up again.

I made my way to Valemount about an hour further on, to find the place that was recommended. I tracked down the mechanic, who said, no he didn’t do that sort of thing, and another similar place in town wouldn’t do it either. When I tried to ask him if he knew of someone who could fix it, he just turned and ignored me and started talking to someone he’d been speaking to.

Someone had parked right behind me as I was speaking to the guy, but I was stopped anyway, trying to find anyone who could repair the van, and he left after a while. For about an hour I looked on Google for any repairers who might be open and be able to do it, and I think I rang a few, but it was slim pickings, and getting well into Thursday, so the weekend was coming too. I also found I’d driven all the way there with the radiator cap off! Looked like a little bit of coolant had spilled out, but not much thankfully, and rather amazingly the cap hadn’t fallen off where I had rested it on the engine, thank the Lord!

I kept going, and took the turnoff for Jasper not far along from there, along Highway 16, which went through a very scenic area. Rearguard Falls had some lovely views not far from the road, with forest and a river of an amazing striking, slightly milky blue-green, a colour that I would see a good deal more of as I went through the mountains, apparently caused by tiny particles washed down from glaciers.

A bit further along was the very impressive Mount Robson, dominating the landscape. Apparently you can see the top only a few days a year. There were clouds on the summit, but I was able to see most of it, with a lot of snow on the top, and even a glacier or two. This was, I think, the northernmost point of my trip. I made lunch at Mount Robson Park, and ate it at a picnic table with one of the best views I’d had. It had been cloudy, but there were bits of sun coming and going.

It would have been around there somewhere I got a call from the roadside assistance lady who had managed to track down someone in Jasper who would have a look at about 1pm the next day. It was a towing place, which I hadn’t though of calling, but the lady said had worked at a towing place, and so she knew that they sometimes did repairs too.

After lunch the beautiful scenery continued, with a visit to Overlander Falls, which also had iridescent water, forest and mountains as a backdrop, then I drove by Moose Lake, with lovely colours, and more of the ever-present mountains behind it. I got to the Wapiti Campground at around 4pm, and got checked in. It was quite large, and there were a number of different loops, and roads going here and there, and it took a little while to find the right way to my site. After checking it out, I had time for one hike, and decided on the Valley of the Five Lakes one, which was quite close to the campground. I wasn’t keen to do more driving than necessary with the coolant leak.

The hike turned out to be very beautiful. It was quite still, and the lakes had mirror-like reflections on them, as well as being so clear it was possible to see things on the bottom in detail. There was a shorter and longer hike, the longer one went around a large lake as well as visiting other lakes. I took that one, but there wasn’t a lot to see along much of it, just going through the forest. The hike did go to all five lakes though, and they were beautiful colours, and the reflections were amazing, especially with the mountains beyond.

There were some autumn colours in some of it too, which were pretty. The hike took about three hours, finishing up around 7.30pm. I was just over the border from British Columbia into Alberta, which was an hour ahead, and this meant that sunset was nearly 8.30, the latest of anywhere I’d been, which gave me plenty of daylight, though sunrise was later too, but still about 7.15, which left a lot of time to do things. With the place being so far north, the days must have been very long at the solstice.

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In the morning, Hannah and Andrew came by on their way to work to open up the church so I could clean up and use the facilities. It was so nice of them, and we were able to say goodbye properly. From there I started up into the mountains, with quite a bit of anticipation. I was excited at the prospect of going through the Rockies and seeing them close up!

I’d picked the campground to be on the outskirts of Vancouver towards my next destination, to give myself a bit of a head start, since it was quite a long drive. Thankfully the church was also on that side, so I didn’t have to go through Vancouver traffic on my way out.

After leaving the suburbs of Vancouver, and driving for about an hour and a half, I came to Bridal Veil Falls, one of several falls with this name scattered about. It was a beautiful spot, quite high falls, with a short walk to it through tall forest. I climbed up a steep track to get a closer look at the falls.

The mountains were looming as I drove on, and I stopped about an hour later at a little town called Hope, which is where the four-lane highway split off from Highway 1. The main route up north went off as Highway 5, and Highway 1 ended up as the scenic route. Though Highway 5 was quicker, I was after the scenery, so of course I followed Highway 1, which then was just one lane each way for most of the way.

Hope had beautiful scenery, the wide Frazer river ran through it, and the sun was shining through the mountains beyond it. I tried to get down to the river, which turned out to be harder than I expected – there seemed to be a lot of private property along there. But I found a little track going down to the river’s edge, and took some photos there, of the river and mountains. There was someone fishing a little way along, a very peaceful scene. The railway ran through it – a railway that was to follow me in my travels through the Rockies, almost everywhere I went!

Another hour along and I was well into the mountains, near a place called Hell’s Gate, where the Frazer River channelled into a narrow pass. There was a cable car that went across, a bit of a tourist spot. I had contemplated going across there, but time was getting on, so I drove on, after looking down into the gorge with the river far below.

As I continued on, something unexpected happened. The lush landscape turned into something quite desert-like, with rocky outcrops and bare ground with something like saltbush growing through it – a landscape that wouldn’t have been out of place in Arizona, or up around Port Augusta. I guess it must have been some kind of rain shadow. This lasted for a couple of hours or so of the journey. There was even a town calling itself a desert oasis. The river ran through there, and there were some irrigated areas, that stood out as green, among the barren landscape. I stopped at a fruit stall by the road and got some delicious peaches. Maybe they were grown in one of the irrigated areas.

I had lunch at a high spot overlooking the scene of the river, irrigated areas and barren landscape, then drove on towards Kamloops Lake. On the way, I went through a burnt area, where a bushfire had raged through, I think only a couple of weeks before, and had crossed the highway. There had been signs warning of big delays, and I waited for about half an hour at a roadworks traffic light near the burnt area, but this was apparently still the best route. I guess they were repairing the road after the fire. Eventually I was able to go on.

Kamloops Lake is very long, and relatively narrow compared to its length. At the far end of the lake is the fair sized city of Kamloops itself. I had a look at the lake close up at a park that bordered onto the water, at the end furthest from Kamloops. There were mountains, or large hills bordering it all around, and while I was walking on the beach, an enormously long train was working its way along the ever-present train line that at this point went around the lake.

The terrain was still fairly barren, though not quite as desert-like as it had been. I had a look a little further along at the lake at an overlook next to the road up on one of the hills, with a good view to Kamloops in the distance, and an also distant tall smokestack to the right of it with smoke coming out, giving the scene a slightly industrial feeling.

The highway went around Kamloops and joined up with Highway 5 again. It was still just one lane each way though. I’d been heading east for a while, and now went north again. The landscape started to get back to being more lush, as I drove another couple of hours or more, admiring the beautiful river views in a couple of spots, on to the little town of Clearwater, and my destination for the night, Dutch Lake RV Park, which was just out of the town, over a small bridge.

I checked in, then just a short drive out of there was Saphat Falls, which I thought would be worth having a look at. I wasn’t prepared for just how grand the landscape was! It was quite a narrow, deep canyon, which I looked down into from some viewing areas, and a narrow but very long waterfall plummeting out of a forested gap in the rocks, down some sheer cliffs. A bit further along there was a lookout along the valley that the river followed, beautiful with hills covered in pine forest going way off into the distance.

I got back to the park before sunset. It was next to a lovely lake, small by Canadian standards, but still a decent size. There was a small jetty where I enjoyed the views before making dinner. They had a restaurant there, but it was closed for the season. A lot of things seemed to close up after school went back in. There were some shelters where people could cook or eat, which would be handy if it was raining, which thankfully it wasn’t. The Lord kept on providing beautiful sunny weather.

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