I was back on the road again after a lovely, if short stay, looking forward to seeing my aunt Heather again for a longer time in a couple of months on my way back home. I drove out of town, before sunrise, heading for Montana.

There was a pretty sunrise, and I was driving into the sun for a while, then turned south through the fairly flat land characteristic of Alberta, with rolling hills, looking fairly dry. Mountains loomed very slowly in the distance, and in a bit under three hours I was at the US border. This was a very quiet crossing, as I had hoped it would be. There were no line ups at all, I was the only car around, and I had a nice chat with the man there. I think he may have asked me if I had any fresh fruit or veggies, which I didn’t, and the usual things about cannabis, weapons and cigarettes.

Off into the US I went, and stopped not far over the border at a general store in a very small town called Babb, to get some fresh fruit and veggies, bread and cheese. Just out of the town was a lovely view of Lower Saint Mary Lake, where I pulled over to have a look. Another half hour and I was in Glacier National Park, on the famous Going-to-the-Sun road. Before Saint Mary Lake was a pretty river, which joined it with the Lower Saint Mary Lake, where I stopped briefly, before going on to Saint Mary Lake itself, so beautiful in the sunshine, with large mountains behind it.

The road followed the lake for some time, and I stopped at Sun Point and other spots to take photos, then walked to Baring Falls, which was pretty. The walk to it along the lake was more impressive though! There were great views over the lake near the start of the trail, and I spent a while around there.

There had been relatively little traffic when I started on the Going-to-the-Sun road, but it got increasingly crowded as I went up the hill from the lake. I managed to get a spot to look at a view and waterfall, then further up, every spot where a car could fit was occupied, as we got close to the Logan Pass, which was the highest point.

I was treated to amazing views but couldn’t stop, which was disappointing. For about 2km either side of the pass, there was absolutely nowhere to stop, with cars jammed in everywhere, and a line up for parking at the visitor centre at the top. About 2km down from the summit I found somewhere I could pull off the road, which had a beautiful view of the other side, and I made lunch, and had it there. I contemplated hiking back up again, but it was a steep grade, quite a distance, and along the main road, and I think there was nowhere really to safely walk along the side of the road.

Parking wasn’t so bad as I got further from the summit again, but the road was very busy, lots of cars coming and going, and it was also very narrow, with a rock face on one side, and a rock wall on the other. I was rather nervous about scraping the side of the van! The lookouts were mostly on the other side of the road, so I had to pull across the traffic in and out each time. The views were amazing though, down through a huge valley, with some autumn foliage scattered around.

There were old-fashioned “charabanc” type open minibuses coming and going, with a number of doors on each side. These were apparently renovated versions of the buses that had been purchased in the 30s. They were beautifully polished and painted convertibles, providing a bus service for people who didn’t want to drive the road.

   I stopped off at a couple of places on the way down to Red Rock point, which was a river which had glacier-coloured water, and red rocks, which made for a colourful combination!

There were roadworks for a long way after that, with the road unsealed, before I ended up at Lake McDonald, another beautiful lake with mountains in the background. A short drive from there deposited me in the town of West Glacier. After a while the road headed out into beautiful countryside, with lakes and forests. Montana, unlike some other states, had 70mph (112km/h) rural roads, and as I was to find out, 80mph (128km/h) interstate highways. This was nice!

It was about two and a half hours drive from West Glacier to my campground at Salmon Lake. I stopped for some photos at Swan Lake, then drove through more forest and by more lakes to Salmon Lake. There were roadworks along a decent stretch of road by the lake and campground which slowed things down, but I got there about 7ish and settled in.

The campground was right on the lake, which though small by the standards of what I had seen, was still pretty big, and a lovely spot. It was near sunset, and I got some nice photos of the reflections of the forest and hills on the still lake, and some cabins on the far shore. It would have been a great spot to have a cabin!

I had a nice chat with a couple camping nearby, then after making dinner, settled in for the night.

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The van was ready in the morning, so I picked it up, thankful to the Lord that everything had disrupted the trip so little. I got all the receipts for the expenses and sent them off to the van hire company. We were running out of places to see, but Heather thought of Aspen Crossing, which was not too far away, and she prepared another picnic lunch and we headed over there.

It was an interesting place, with a couple of trains parked on tracks, and a restaurant in one of the carriages. The tracks went on for a while, and apparently they ran the trains sometimes. There was also a store, and Heather found she knew someone who worked there, We tucked into our lunch at a table outside the shop. It was so sunny and pleasant. I wasn’t sure whether sunscreen was needed, but Heather said it was just during the summer months, and there was no need by now. This was definitely different from back at home!

We walked by the trains, and looked at an old police car, which was perhaps from the 50s, not in good shape, but interesting to see. We took a leisurely walk around some gardens surrounding campsites that had been set up there. From there we had a quick look at Mcgregor Lake, which was a nice spot, though surrounded by fairly dry country, and I had been spoiled by mountain lakes with snow capped mountains!

After we got home, I joined in the regular Bible study Heather and her friend had every week, and later on spent some time sorting out issues with moving my website due to my hosting provider getting out of the business. The were planning to shut down things before I got back, so I had to get it sorted while I was away.

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While I was with Heather I think I got a start on migrating my website to my own hosting. My hosting company had said they were quitting hosting, and given us till Oct 31st to move the website to alternate hosting, which was while I was still on holidays. There was an alternative company taking over, but I had decided to host it myself, I think I didn’t entirely like the look of the other company. We found out that the main issue with the van had been fixed – the coolant reservoir, they were just waiting on the wipers. This was very encouraging!

We had a fairly leisurely morning, with a nice breakfast, and Heather made a picnic lunch for the day. We found out that the main issue with the van had been fixed – the coolant reservoir, they were just waiting on the wipers. This was very encouraging!

There was a place called the Badlands, which Heather wanted me to see, about an hour and three quarters drive east. She drove her car there, and we arrived about 2.15pm, in a park called Dinosaur Provincial Park. Getting to the first lookout, I was greeted with a huge canyon, not as deep as Grand Canyon, but with that feeling to it. It was filled with a lot of large domed, weathered hills with colourful tops. Apparently it was called the Badlands because there was little vegetation and water, and few animals.

After looking from the top, we drove down into the canyon itself. A river was running to one side of it, with the start of some autumn colour. We found the visitor centre, and sat outside on another beautiful sunny day, to eat our lunch. Heather had packed a great lunch, with sandwiches, salad, fruit salad, and I think a bunch of other things. It was quite elaborate, and went down well. We were quite late eating.

Once we’d finished lunch, I had a bit of a walk around some of these humpy hills, seeing them up close from the bottom. There were some stairs and walkways to help navigate them. It was easy to get lost in the maze of these hills – they were really smaller than hills, almost just large mounds. I got a bit disoriented, and climbed to the top of one to see where I needed to go.

From there we went to have a look at the river, apparently the Red Deer River. It was quite wide, and fairly still, with some reflections of a few more hills on the other side, and a boat ramp, where a family seemed to be packing up some small boats, maybe kayaks, that they had presumably been on the river with.

It was nice to see some lovely yellow foliage on a few of the trees. Some of the others hadn’t started turning yet. I was still looking for good autumn colours, it was a bit early in most places still, and I think the colours were late that year, from the warm dry weather.

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This was a bit of an errands day. I ran a load of washing through and took the perishables out of the fridge. I wasn’t planning to bring them back into the US, and also I wasn’t sure how long the fridge would run for while I wasn’t driving the van. Someone suggested only 12 hours, but it had run for a couple of days at Yosemite without any apparent trouble, and it seemed to be going the whole time while I was here.

I dropped the van off at the mechanic near my aunt's house, for an oil change, to change the wipers if they needed it (they were a bit of a menace, hardly wiping the windscreen at all, which made driving in the rain challenging!), and of course to replace the leaking coolant reservoir. Heather got us some lunch, and we visited the Walmart in nearby Strathmore, which was quite a decent sized town. I needed a new pair of shoes, and found some Dr. Scholls shoes which seemed to be a good fit, and weren’t very expensive.

Late in the afternoon we visited Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park, on the Bow River. There was a weir there, with quite a decent flow over it, and big warning signs calling it a drowning machine. According to the signs, if you got under that flow, the water was rotating in a kind of cylinder all along the bottom of the weir, and it was next to impossible to get up for air again if you ended up there. Presumably one or more people found that out the hard way.

We checked out the view from an area high above the river, I think it may have been Warden’s Point, looking across the river, and into the flat area beyond. A lot of the area was quite dry and treeless, though there was quite a strip of trees along the river in places, and the start of some autumn colour.

I usually sleep with a lot of blankets and wondered if I would need more blankets there when the nights got a bit chilly, but I didn’t count on the central heating a lot of houses had, including my aunt's, which kept things at a nice temperature, even at night. There was a big gas heater in the basement, and grills in the floor for the heat to come up.

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I got up early to get to Lake Louise. Parking at the lake was almost impossible to get apparently. A friend had got there at 3.30am to make sure of getting a spot, and slept in the car. So I had booked a shuttle bus well in advance (spaces on these sold out also), for a time between 8 and 9am.

I checked out of the RV park and made the drive back up the highway again, which was starting to get familiar. This time I turned off to the Lake Louise Ski Resort, where the shuttle bus left. There were immense parking lots, only a fraction of which were filled at that time of the morning. I found my way to the information kiosk, and was sent off to where the bus left.

The buses left every 15 minutes I think, and it seems I had just missed the 8am one. There were just a couple of other people waiting when I got there. Eventually the bus came, and we headed off to the lake, getting there around 8.45, and already there were large crowds of people around. I saw the famous Lake Louise Hotel as I took the few minutes walk to the lake itself.

It was partly cloudy, and the sun was starting to shine on the mountains surrounding the lake, which was another striking blue-green shade. With the snow-capped mountains as a backdrop and mirror-like reflections, it was an amazing sight. Despite the crowds, I was able to get photos without people in them.

My plan was to do a four-hour round trip hike, up to a summit called the Big Beehive. I thought this would thin out the crowds, and it did to an extent, but there were still a lot of people doing this hike. I had discovered a few days before, that one of the reasons I was still having trouble with my feet, after the Half Dome hike, was that the soles on my sneakers were nearly worn out, so there wasn’t a lot of padding.

I had got them only about a month before, so I wasn’t expecting that. I had been doing a lot of hiking though. So I had been wearing my bigger hiking boots instead. But I discovered during this hike that with thin socks (it was a warm day), they rubbed painfully against one of my ankles after a while. There wasn’t much I could do about that at this point though.

Part way up the hike, after some significant climbing, was Lake Agnes, a long and fairly narrow lake, with the famous Lake Agnes Tea House at one end, and a waterfall coming from it. Apparently everything they sell there, and all supplies, have to be hiked in, or come in on mules. There was a line up to be served, and I had no desire to waste time waiting in line. I had brought my lunch to avoid having to do this. So onward I went. The trail I wanted went along the side of Lake Agnes, but I didn’t. I found after a little while I had mistakenly taken another trail, which was going up fairly steeply. It was a shame to give up that hard-earned altitude, and go back down to find the trail to the Beehive.

I followed Lake Agnes to the other end of the lake, where the trail climbed steeply again, zig-zagging up the hill with great views of the lake. I was treated to beautiful mountain views too, along the route.

After a while Lake Louise came into view again, this time a long way down. The sun was shining on it at times, emphasising the amazing colour, and a mountain dominated it at one end. With the forest, snow-capped mountains and lake, it really was a postcard view. There were some spots looking directly over the view, and I found one that was being vacated by a couple, and had lunch there.

I had contemplated going on and hiking up to a view a bit further along, but my ankle was decidedly painful by now, and I was unexpectedly tired after only a couple of hours of hiking, so I thought I would head back down again. I went back by Lake Agnes (still with line-ups waiting to be served, it must be very busy working there), and down to Lake Louise again, which had an even more striking colour in the sun.

From there I took the next shuttle bus to Moraine Lake. You couldn’t drive to that lake at all, and could only take the shuttle bus from Lake Louise to Moraine Lake if you’d taken the bus to get to Lake Louise. If you drove to Lake Louise and managed to get a park, you couldn’t take the bus to Moraine Lake.

It took about half an hour to get there. This was perhaps an even more amazing lake. It was smaller, but surrounded by several snowy mountains. I think it was probably at a higher altitude than Lake Louise. This was less crowded, but there were still a lot of people around. There was a cafe there, and I bought a hot dog and cake or something, for a fairly steep price. The seats outside the cafe were full, so I went down to the edge of the lake and found some rocks to sit on while I ate, periodically shooing away the squirrels, which were quite tame, and clearly interested in my food.

There were people kayaking on the lake. I think it was something like US$120 for a half hour for a two-person canoe. I gave it a miss! After walking around the edge of the lake a bit, I discovered a trail going up from the lake to a lookout point above. A lot of other people had discovered it too! I traipsed up with the crowds, to the crowded lookout.

The view from there really was beautiful, and I found a spot where I could take photos without trees in the way, trying to avoid the people who were ending up in the photos. It was rather cloudy, but the sun came out while I was watching the water, lighting it up in its full glory, with the mountains, and some looming clouds behind, just spectacular!

I headed back down, and was able to get a shuttle bus back to Lake Louise pretty quickly. After a last look around there, I also got onto the shuttle bus back to the car park with little delay. The Lake Louise Ski Resort near where the bus operated was a large structure made out of logs, quite impressive. From there I set my course to the town near Calgary where my aunt lives. It was about a two and a half hour drive mostly on four-lane highways, going steadily down from the mountains, getting up to 110km/h a bit after Banff. The route mostly skirted Calgary, and headed out to the east. After coming down from the mountains, the land was quite flat. The vast rolling plains were very different from the territory I had spent the last few days in.

I found my aunt Heather’s house in what turned out to be quite a small town, while it was still light. It was so good to see her in person! We had dinner and talked till quite late.

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I headed off to Banff Park Church, a few minutes drive from the campground, down a steep hill into the township. Google’s route included a very sharp, almost U-turn to get into town, which I wasn’t sure the van was capable of, so I took a different way. Banff Park Church was a lovely chapel, beautifully appointed inside, an A-frame meeting hall, with wood panelling. There had been a survey sent out to members and perhaps regular attendees, to see what things they thought were important. There was a nice emphasis in the sermon on outreach, the church family and the family of all believers.

After church I headed up the main highway toward Johnston Canyon. The Bow River Parkway, which ran alongside the main highway, would probably have been the shortest way to it, but it was closed for a month or two for the exclusive use of cyclists. Towards the turnoff to Johnston Canyon, I stopped and had made some lunch at a beautiful rest area overlooking the Bow River. I made lunch pretty much every day, wherever I stopped, a salad sandwich with whatever meat filling I had going at the time. I had bread, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and tins of things like chicken, turkey and salmon, and would open a tin, then put the rest in a container in the fridge. I was blessed with another sunny day, and it was lovely to eat lunch looking at the view of the strikingly blue river and mountains beyond.

On the way to the canyon was Silverton Falls, a short walk from the parking lot. They weren’t as dramatic as some of the other falls – I was spoiled! – but they were pretty, going down into a narrow gorge. I met an Asian couple there who were very friendly and offered to take my photo, and gave me some grapes.

Johnston Canyon, a short drive further along, was a very popular spot, with plenty of people around. There was a walk going along the narrow gorge which, as always, had a decent river running through it, and also some great waterfalls. Some parts of the walk were on balconies over the river. The gorge was quite deep in places, and the walk worked its way uphill along the river.

There was once place where there was a bridge going into a cave, where you could see one of the main waterfalls up close. You had to wait in line for your turn to have a look, I think I was there about 15 minutes till my turn came to go into a narrow passageway in the rock, which opened out to a cave with a great close-up view of the waterfall going into a pool then down again.

I walked for quite a while, past another large waterfall, then back down again, and drove back towards Banff. Just out of Banff are the Vermilion Lakes, and I drove down a little road that wound alongside the lakes, looking for somewhere to park. I found a spot, and walked along the road for half an hour or so, taking photos, and enjoying the reflections of the mountains in the lakes.

On the way back to the campsite I stopped at the Hoodoos Lookout, overlooking a kind of lumpy mountain which I think must have been the Hoodoos, and what was probably the Bow River, surrounded by forest. I started the usual weekly Bible study Facebook video call from there at 6.30, and got dinner afterwards.

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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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