Vacation - finally!

Well hello, its been a while. and staying true to my promise I am going to write about our summer vacation - how that feels so long ago!

Its time for the North American Family Vacation

Craving for a break we took a family holiday in August. Having exhausted all of our finances moving here we opted to holiday close to home instead of somewhere like Mexico or in the States as many Canadians do. So off we went in our SUV to one of our favourite destinations Banff. Although only an hour away Banff was the perfect location to use as a jump off point  for exploring parts of the Rockies we hadn't seen before. Our plan was to visit Golden & Radium stopping off at various points on the way.

In Banff we stayed at Douglas Fir. We have stayed here previously when Alastair and I first came to this part of Canada in 2008. Douglass fir is set a few minutes drive from down town on Tunnel Mountain Road - there is also a free bus for residents. The resort backs into the woods where you are spoilt by wildlife and views. If you ever come to visit us and we have a weekend away in Banff it is very likely that we will end up staying here!

Imogen taking a walk out the back of the chalet.

Banff really is an all year round destination. Serving hikers, fishing (even scuba divers!) & mountain bikers in the summer. By winter it turns into a winter wonderland serving skiers and those looking for that enchanted little alpine town covered in snow. Banff has a great range of shops, restaurants and bars to visit. It is essentially made up of one main street full of shops and restaurants running through the middle of the town and to the west of the main street has a few more streets of shops etc. Down town area is very flat so easy to get round on foot but soon you are met with hills into the mountains. Banff is part of Parks Canada and is in Banff National Park. To stop here you have to purchase a park pass as you do if stopping in any of Canada's 42  national parks. As we visit the area so much we have an annual park pass (as many Calgary residents do).

Golden

So as I said from Banff we went to explore two areas. The first was Golden BC- in particular the kicking horse resort.  Golden is a 2hr drive from Banff and takes you into the province of British Columbia.

The Kicking Horse Resort has a Bear refuge which is what attracted us to the area. We were very lucky to catch Boo (the bear) taking a bath just before the tour started! 

Boo finished with his bath.

On the way back down from the Refuge.

Whilst here we dined at the Eagle's Eye Restaurant (Canada's most elevated restaurant). the views were breath taking - I told Alastair if we could go back and plan our wedding again - it would be here!!!!

Dining on top of the world!

Radium

Again Radium is a 2hr drive from Banff. We stopped for a picnic on the way with our Cob BBQ by Vermillion Crossing.

 And further along at some beautiful sights. If you can see in the back ground of the photo above the trees look grey. Unfortunately this area suffered from a wild fire in 1968. The fire was started by lightening, burned for four days and destroyed 6029acres (that's like 7500 football pitches!). All around the national parks there are fire warnings (low, medium, high) and bans on camp fires etc according to the severity of the warning.

  We were visiting Radium to go to the Hot Springs.Which would have been a more joyful experience if it wasn't 30c out! The springs were however a welcome rest even if they smelt a bit from the sulphur! After visiting the springs we took a little detour to the other side of the town of Radium where we saw the most amazing views of the Wetlands.  The Columbia Valley's are definitely on our to do list for a future vacation.

The weather was very good to us all week apart from the last day - which it rained - typical! By this point Imogen had developed a cold and needed her own bed. So we left earlier than we had wanted which meant we couldn't go to Lake Louise to see our relatives Mat and Mel.

Here is a link to a Holiday Album  on face-book with more photo's. Now to start writing about our family invasion!  Oh and still no bear sightings!