So you’re stuck in Banff with a full tank of gas… how does that work? I don’t know but I’ve seen it happen. Way too many of you tourist types have come up to me on Banff’s main street and asked where to take your gas guzzlers to get the best bang for your Canadian buck!

So here’s a quick blog entry for you people dragging your feet around Banff, going in and out of the same antiques shop, looking at the same antique book ends. Get in your Mitsubishi Iron Horse and get out of town, go… far away into the Canadian Rockies.

For the tenderfoot, the Tunnel Mountain Drive is a great introduction to the Rockies. This 9km trip is a short one but provides endless opportunities to get out and breathe some fresh air. Put on you hiking boots and head to Bow Falls right there among the many peaks surrounding your car: Mount Rundle and the Hoodoos.

So this might be why they call them Vermilion.

If you have the urge to jump into a frigid alpine lake, than the Vermilion Lakes drive is the one for you. Put the pedal to the metal as you cruise by the Trans-Canada Highway, branching off the Mount Norquay Drive, passing the Vermilion Lakes. If you get there at dusk, you’ll probably see why they call them the Vermilion Lakes. There should be plenty of tourists out trying to capture the moment in little metal boxes with shutters. Make sure and yield to muskrat.

Finally, I recommend the Minnewanka Loop and Johnson Lake. You start this remarkable scenic highway northeast of Banff. Together with your partner, wind through the Cascade Ponds and Lower Bankhead. At the Bankhead notice the abandoned coal mines, but don’t go inside. Abandoned coal mines in the Canadian Rockies are known to keep the souls of the old time miners who lost their lives and livelihoods digging for fossil fuels.

Later down the road, you will see Lake Minnewanka. Here throngs of tourists get on boats to and sail around the area. Rent yourself some gear and sink your hook in a nice, juicy trout. Just remember to catch and release so somebody else can come along and sink their hooks in the same juicy trout!

The Minnewanka Loop is some 20km and easy to do in one day. Just remember to get out of the air conditioned car and enjoy what truly brought you and your overworked spouse to the Canadian Rockies: peace with nature.

Tags: Banff National Park, Banff National Park, scenic drive
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Last night I dreamed of the Canadian Rockies. I saw snow-capped peaks, craggy cliffs that drop into alpine lakes and a home to a myriad of magnificent animals like moose, mountain sheep and the stately grizzly bear.

I was flying in this dream, not by way of my Mountain Man wings, but in a helicopter. The sound of the chopper overhead pushed the machine through the scattered clouds above the mountainous terrain.

Heli-Hiking has many advantages.

As if I were at the controls, I took the helicopter over high ridges, down narrow valleys and around imposing peaks. I’ve never flown a helicopter in my life, but it was very simple. I flew over Lake Louise, over Banff and turned north. There I was following the Icefields Parkway towards Jasper National Park.
The Athabasca Glacier was but an ice cube from 10,000 feet above!

Suddenly I started to get closer to the mountains, quickly downward into the valley. I land the chopper and suddenly Im surrounded by well dressed tourists ready to hike. No cars, no parking lots, no buildings, just me and the tourists. One of them turns to me and says “This heli-hiking business is great.”

Then I realized what I had done.

I had called Jasper-based Overlander Trekking and Tours and was in the middle of nowhere, among the glaciers, on a heli-hiking tour. Skipping the 20 plus kilometer hike, heli-hiking has its advantages.

A typical heli-hiking outing will take visitors up to high altitudes (9,000-10,000ft) where within less than an hour, hikers can visit rarely nature panoramas different from those seen from scenic highways and byways.

Snow-capped peaks make for great wet dreams.

“So with a helicopter you get rid of the long approach to get yourself into the alpine environment above the trees. You’re getting the best possible bang for your buck as far as time spent in the mountains,” Trevor Lescard, a guide for Jasper-based Overlander Trekking and Tours, explains.

So when a dream does not suffice, if youi can afford the $575 per person day trip, there should be nothing standing in the way. Unless, you are one of those hikers who likes the idea of working and sweating in order to reach the goal. (There is something sweet about hiking six hours to reach a high alpine lake, taking a drink and relaxing under the summer sun)
On the other hand, there are the national parks overrun with crowded day-hikers… a helicopter can change all of that.

Tags: Banff National Park, heli, Heli Hiking, Heli Sightseeing, helicopter, Helicopter Tours, Jasper National Park
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Most people who visit the Canadian Rockies, come in their cars or rent a car in Calgary or Vancouver and drive over. If you aer like most people than a scenic drive is probably high on your list of things to do.

Some of the best highways and by-ways in the Canadian Rockies can be found in the Banff-Canmore area of Alberta.  For beginners, try the Smith Dorrien Spray Trail drive. These wonder of road takes you along Highway 40 out of Canmore. On the way, enjoy majestic views of the Rockies and alpine lakes.

Burstall Pass - right on the boundary between Banff National Park and Kananaskis Country

The road here is gravel and holds some steep, narrow sections right out of Canmore for the curve-hugging driver. It’s a short drive any car can make in just under 2 hours. From highway 40, visitors can access the Peter Lougheed Park, which is definitely off the beaten path. Here the Spray Lakes offer fishing, skating and boating. Locals will look at you with a sharp grin and wonder how a tourist like yourself wandered away from Banff national park.

The Spray Lake area is heavily infested with moose, and if you stop by the Mt. Engadine Lodge, tell them the Mountain Man himself sent you, and he recommends their crumpets and tea.

The same day, or maybe a different day, start your engines and head towards the village of Kananaskis. This 45 minute route will take you to the world-class gold course there in Kananaskis as well as the Fortress Mountain and Nakiska Mountain ski resorts.

Here too, you can avoid the usual crowds in Banff and see some A+ mother nature with the Mountain Man’s approval.

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Because I simply can’t get enough white water rafting, I had to run the Kicking Horse River near Lake Louise one more time before the 2009 summer transforms and disappears into the cold, dark night towards the Arctic…

Fret not adventure seekers, the Canadian Rockies summer is expected to stretch deep into September, and my friends at WildWater Adventures can provide you your white water fix.

Build family bonds while whitewater rafting in the Canadian Rockies.

The Kicking Horse River is born from the Wapta Lake in Alberta and runs southwest into British Columbia and eventually picks up speed with the Yoho River. It continues towards the town of Golden where it takes a hair-pin turn and flows northwest.

The River reaches its apex in beauty and girth at Wapta Falls, one of Canada’s largest falls, over 500 feet wide! So I was hoping we could drop that in a rubber raft, but the guides at Wild Water told me otherwise.

The Kicking Horse, due to its wide variability, can provide serious class III and IV rapids or gentle calmness for the entire family.  For vacationers staying in Banff, the Kicking Horse is a great way to see the wonderful valleys of the Rockies, as well as a good way to be part of Mother Nature.

Just head over to the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise to book the trip. The actual put-in for the river experience is at Wild Water’s “RiverBase Daylodge” about 40 minutes west of Lake Louise and 1hr 20 minutes from Banff.

When I asked why it was called the Kicking Horse, the guide said horses in these parts play a lot of soccer. And I thought hockey was big in Canada.

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Before the end of October, visitors to the Canadian Rockies can still take comprehensive tours through Banff National Park with my friends over at SunDog Tours.

The tour through Lake Louise and Moraine Lake is the best way to see Banff National Park without having to carry a backpack down a muddy path. The journey with my friends at SunDog will take you past Vermillion Lakes with the spectacular Mount Rundle, Sulphur Mountain, and Sundance Mountain Ranges above.

As I was moving down the Bow Valley Parkway, I saw plenty of elk and a few coyotes. My guide told me that it’s not rare to see bear on the same route. I’m sure glad I was in a nice air-conditioned bus. Part of the Rockies, but safe from the wild animals.

At Lake Louise, Mount Victoria and the Victoria Glacier are often reflected on the glacial fed waters. Here SunDog gives visitors 30 minutes to enjoy this magnificent setting. If you are like me, you will want to stay for 3 hours. So be sure to take the camera and get plenty of photos of the Canadian Rockies. You can also be part of history, seeing the famous Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.

Finally, the tour takes visitors to Moraine Lake and the Valley of the 10 Peaks. All in all, the tour takes 4 hours. There are 5 daily departures from the town of Banff. Look for SunDog vans and personal if you have any questions. And don’t forget to tell them that the Mountain Man sent you.

Tags: Banff National Park, Guided Tours and Activities, lake louise, SunDog
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I almost shed a tear the other day when I saw a newlywed couple flitting around in their limousine rental through the beauty of Banff National Park. I remembered my first marriage, way back then when I was still a simple lover boy. I wish I had gotten married in the Rockies, it might have changed everything.

It is my opinion that a wedding in Alberta and the Canadian Rockies offer some of the most visually appealing surroundings for weddings of any destination in the world. Of course, if I had to choose between the Bahamas and Lake Louise, obviously I would rather wear boots than sandals, any day of the week.

This could be you and all your sisters.

Combining a helicopter ride with the day’s festivities is a beautiful and symbolic way to cement those vows with your beautiful spouse. In many ways, marriage is like a mountain, and getting to the top is not the goal, because we all know you still have to get down alive.

Your friends will love your Ansel Adams-esque wedding photos. And when it comes time to make the lifelong commitment to each other, enjoy the moment in the Canadian Rockies, Banff National Park and Lake Louise.

For any wedding planner, convenience is primordial. Banff National Park, for example, is located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains and the Calgary International Airport is only 1.5hrs away, making the transfers very simple. If you have to fly her entire family over from the Indian sub-continent, you might want to rent a bus.

Now, if you want to take your love to an even higher region, the small mountain community of Lake Louise provides breath-taking glaciers and beautiful turquoise waters. Lake Louise is one of the most famous backdrops for weddings. You and your guests would have the entire village to yourself, since there is little or no night life.

Finally, your guests will be entertained to no end. The national parks, including Jasper National Park and Waterton Lakes, are all within a day’s drive. My friends at SunDog tours will outfit whatever it is you need. Tell them the Mountain Man sent you, and may your wedding joy be warm and merry.

Tags: Banff National Park, lake louise, rockies, The Canadian Rockies Wedding Planner
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As summer inches closer to the change of the seasons, tourists are still arriving in large numbers and many of these won’t want to miss the famous Columbia Icefields. If you’re an adventure seeker like myself and would like to walk on your first glacier, the Athabasca Glacier located on the boundary of Banff and Jasper National Parks is a great place to start.

I’ve walked on a more than half a dozen glaciers, but my favorite glacier walk continues to be the Athabasca. Getting to the glacier is part of the fun, along the Icefields Parkway the scenic route that takes travelers  over 230km from Banff to Jasper along the shoulder of the Great Divide, passing alpine lakes such as Lake Louise and affording amazing views of Victoria Glacier, Athabasca Falls, Lake Peyto, Crowfoot Glacier as well as other natural wonders.

The Snocoach poised and ready to embark on the Columbia Icefields.

If you’re timid, you might want to call up my friend Paul Hardy over at Sun Dog Tours. He takes tourists along the Icefields Parkway as well as up onto the glacier. Sun Dog has its very own Snocoach, or a special with some serious tread meant to drive over ice.

“It’s without a doubt the most popular attraction in the Rockies” Hardy told me once we were in the Snocoach. “And the Icefields Parkway is one of the most spectacular stretches of highway in the world and it is often referred to as the Wonder Trail”

The Columbia Icefields are considered one of the largest accumulations of ice and snow south of the Arctic Circle, and can reach depths of 2,000 feet. The Columbia Icefields feed all three, Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic oceans, making it a primordial source of water for the northern hemisphere’s ecosystem.

The day tour, which takes some 5-6 hours of the day, runs at US$130 per person, including the 90 minute Snocoach tour over the Athabasca Glacier. Tourists can pick up on the tour from either Banff or Jasper. This is how you can get through the Rockies without a car!

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With fall quickly approaching, I thought now was a great time to begin talking about photography in the Canadian Rockies in September and October. Autumn is a fantastic time to visit Banff, Jasper or some of the less travelled spots like Yoho or Kananaskis Country; there are fewer people around, the wildlife is more active, and the scenery is kicked up a notch with the golds and yellows of the aspen and larches.

Mt Temple, Fall Photography in the Canadian Rockies

To top it off for any of you Americans looking for a quick, easy, and relatively inexpensive photography trip to a beautiful location, the Canadian dollar is still about 15% lower than the US dollar, providing all American travellers with an instant ‘discount’ on trips to Banff or Jasper.

The prime attractions for photography in the Canadian Rockies in fall or autumn are the usual big two, scenery and wildlife, with the added bonus of some great additional colour in the trees in the valley bottoms (aspens) and in the subalpine meadows (larches). It is the best time of the year for elk photography, as the rut begins in earnest in early September and lasts for more than a month well into October. Anywhere in the Athabasca River Valley in Jasper, particularly along highway 16 East, is a great bet for getting to photograph bull elk with their harems of cows.

Bull elk bugling in beautiful fall colours

And it’s a fantastic time to capture subalpine larches in their golden glory. Anywhere in Banff, Yoho, Kootenay or Kananaskis that is at the edge of treeline will see the larches all turn at the end of September and start of October. Prime locations for photography include Lake O’Hara in Yoho National Park, Floe Lake in Kootenay National Park, Saddleback Pass in Banff (near Lake Louise), and Highwood Pass in Kananaskis Country, which happens to be the only good larch that you can actually drive to!

Larches at Lake O'Hara in autumn - perfect fall photography!

For the best luck, try the very last week in September, though if you have time, a trip from September 20th to about October 3rd or 4th would be perfect. Each year the peak of the fall colours can vary by as much as two weeks.

Photography in the Canadian Rockies in fall or autumn is as good as it gets up here! Hope to see you here!

John

Tags: autumn photography, canadian rockies photography, fall photography, wildlife photography tips
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Some like to hike up, some like to hike horizontally, but every once in a while, I like to hike down, down, down…. Outside Banff National Park, the Canmore Caverns make for a great summer day trip very accessible to tourists.

When I was told that I would be tramping through the mud, sliding through small rock portals and wiggling my body through pitch-black chasms, I knew that this was a real adventure. The Canmore Caverns are located 20km from Banff.

Wild Cave Tours provides cavers with a pair of overalls, gloves, kneepads, helmet, and a headlamp. Remember that the cave temperatures never rise over 5°C, making it unique. “Regardless of the weather outside, it’s always the same in the cave, all year long,” the owner Pamela Young told me.

To complete this tour, you definitely have to be in shape, both physically and mentally, prepared to get muddy and wiggle through cramped spaces. The tour lasts some 6 hours and includes a 60 foot rappel through the middle of the cavern! The highlight of the trip.

When caving in the Rockies, always remember to wear plenty of clothing, carry a headlamp and know the way out. An excellent source of information and advice on caving can be found at the Alberta Speological Society. Contact them to find out about current cave conditions and to learn about the rules and requirements for safe caving. If an independent excursion into the pits of the Canadian Rockies doesn’t strike you as a good idea, you might want to call Wild Cave Tours.

Tags: alberta, Canmore & Kananaskis Country, caves, rockies
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For all you lovers, not lovers of the Rockies, but lovers of mankind, I want to grab your attention just for a minute. The Canadian Rockies, winter and summertime can be the most romantic place in the world. Take a blender, throw in some Venice, a pinch of Paris and a tablespoon of Rio de Janeiro. That’s the kind of romanticism I’m trying to convey.

Banff is a beautiful and romantic place for weddings and honeymoons.

Choosing your hotel and hotel room is essential to the long nights lovers spend doting on each other and the passion they share. Call them honeymoons, call them romantic getaways, the Canadian Rockies has plenty of options for some serious heart-to-heart pillow talk.

Doing research for this blog entry led me to many places and to maintain my modus operandi I had to show up with one very special mountain woman. Or a series of several mediocre mountain women!

Anyhow, the Mountain Grotto in Canmore helped set the mood just right. After we watched the sun set over the majestic Rocky Mountains, my lady and I took a lover’s stroll along Cougar Creek, just out the front door of the bed and breakfast.

Then there is Thea’s House, located in Banff. The mansion first belonged to the owner’s great uncle and aunt who immigrated from Greece and was converted in to a bed and breakfast years ago. If you and your honey can’t heat it up in the bedroom, Thea’s home style cooking is sure to make your mouth water.

Finally, there’s the Bear and Bison, dubbed a country inn with all the style and coziness to make you and your lover never want to go outside! With amazing views of the craggy Rockies, the inn is located at the foot of Lady McDonald mountain in Canmore. If nothing, the jacuzzi in your room will make you forget about all the years ahead that you have to be married!

Tags: alberta, Banff National Park, Jasper National Park, rockies
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