When your adventurous partner-in-crime calls and tells you that she misses the Pacific Northwest and is coming up from California for a visit, you plan a roadtrip! After brainstorming several different PNW locales, we settled on what we considered the ultimate autumn Canadian Rocky Mountain tour:

Bellingham  ->  Garibaldi Provincial Park  ->  Golden/Yoho National Park  ->  Lake Louise/Banff National Park  ->  Icefields Pkwy  ->  Radium Hot Springs  ->  Republic/Wauconda  ->  Hwy 20/North Cascades National Park 

Kilometers driven: 2575 (1,600 miles)
Kilometers hiked: 40 (25 miles)

A few months prior to our roadtrip, Sarah had “tagged” me in her friend’s Facebook photograph that was captured above beautiful Garibaldi Lake and commented “Let’s go here!”. This set the stage for our adventure plan, as little did we know, Garibaldi Park was less than a two hour drive from Bellingham!

After Sarah’s arrival to the PNW, we reserved our camping permits online, checked-off items listed on our backpacking, camping, and roadtrip gear lists (items which were strewn around my living room), packed up my Subaru, and headed north into Canada.

We arrived at the Garibaldi Lake trailhead around 3pm, finished loading up our food/camping supplies into our backpacks, and started our 9km uphill climb to the Lake. For a 3 day trip, the weight of a tent, thermarest, sleeping bag, stove, food, clothes, and camera gear got old, real fast. In hindsight, as two professional photographers who document life for a living, I can’t believe that we didn’t take a picture of us with our huge backpacks!

The hike up was fairly uneventful, save for a bear and cub sighting along the way. Although we were packed to the brim, we didn’t include bear spray or a bell but a very nice hiker gifted Sarah her very own bear-bell, which we continued to “ring” over the course of our various hiking trips.

It was dark by the time we reached our lakeside camp and I have never been so excited to take off my backpack! After selecting a site several steps away from the lake, we set up camp, made dinner in the shelter, and bundled up in down coats and sleeping bags for a crisp night in the mountains.

The next morning, we arose at sunrise and enjoyed the alpine lakeside calm at dawn.

Garibaldi Lake sunrise

Garibaldi Lake Dawn

After breakfast, we packed our daypacks and headed up the Panorama Ridge Trail (7km from camp). It was an absolutely beautiful sunny day and it felt fabulous to hike without heavy backpacks! We met several people on the trail, most of whom were on early morning day hikes.

The final stretch to Panorama Ridge; Garibaldi Lake from above

Panoramic view of Garibaldi Lake – our camp is down on the far right-hand side

A view of Black Tusk from Panorama Ridge

Enjoying the view

After a leisurely hike down the trail, we returned to camp just in time for sunset. The light was unreal – so beautiful and clear.

Garibaldi mirror; Arrow and target pose

Meditating on Garibaldi Lake

Token jump shot

The next morning, we packed up our camp after breakfast and headed down the trail. Although we were still a bit sore from 2 days of hiking, the downhill hike was a welcome respite.

Spoils of field mice

I had a bit of trepidation as we got closer to the car as I had heard that vandals liked to frequent the trailhead parking lot. Luckily, none of the car windows looked broken and we were very relieved. After further investigation, however, we found that a different type of thief had “broken in” and stolen a few things: field mice had squeezed their way in, chewed through our cloth grocery bags, and ravaged our Costco-sized bag of raw almonds and a half loaf of bread – and left a generous gift of mice droppings, littered throughout the car.

After cleaning up/disinfecting the best that we could for the time being, we stopped in Whistler for a healthy snack and coffee.  From there, we started our drive on scenic Highway 99 along the “Discovery Coast” towards Lillooet and Cache Creek. We also had our 2nd bear sighting, just outside of Whistler.

A bear in our sights; Heading down the valley into Lillooet

Seton Lake off of Hwy 99

That evening, we stayed in Kamloops for the night, enjoyed a dip in the hot tub, a hot shower, and a place to dry our gear at Hotel 540. Despite the idea that it would be fun to go dancing and to “get loopy in Kamloops”, we decided that we wouldn’t be able to keep up with the 19-year-old partiers and opted for a mature, classy drink at The Plaza.

After picking up coffee drinks for the road, we headed on to Revelstoke. As snowboarders, we had both heard so much about this mountain and wanted to see what it was all about. Unfortunately, it was so cloudy and foggy so we weren’t able to witness the “Most Vertical in North America” for ourselves – which gives us an excuse to come back in the winter (heli-boarding is on my list of must-do’s!)

Journeying on, we passed through the town of Golden, determined to find a camping spot in Yoho National Park. Unfortunately, we found out that almost all campgrounds close at the end of September – for tent camping, anyway. We considered poaching a spot in the Park but decided to head back to Golden instead and found Golden Municipal Campground. We weren’t crazy about the idea of camping in the middle of town, next to the busy Canadian railway, but it actually wasn’t too bad. Plus, we found an awesome restaurant in town called the Wolf’s Den, which had amazing burgers. As an added bonus, Sunday is their “Jam Night” and we enjoyed bluegrass-type bands, rap flow by Electric Jon, and a cover of Bryan Adams hit “Run to You“. It was also the bar manager’s birthday, so we shared shots with fellow patrons, all of whom truly lived up to the friendly Canadian stereotypes.

The next morning, we stopped for coffee at Bacchus Books and while perusing a few shops downtown, we bumped into several of our bar buddies that we had met the previous night – gotta love small towns!

My purchase at Bacchus Book – hilarious!; A Metis Nation mosaic

On our drive back into Yoho National Park, we spotted our 3rd bear thus far, as well as a herd of bighorn sheep.  We decided to hike to Wapta Falls, even though there wasn’t much, if any, information about this landmark. It was definitely worth the walk – we were rewarded with the sight of cascading, beautiful blue-green glacial water.

Top o’ Wapta Falls; Tree-huggin’

Mist from Wapta Falls

Women of Waterfall self-timer

After Wapta Falls, we continued through Yoho and stopped at beautiful Emerald Lake and the Natural Bridge.

True to its name, Emerald Lake

Red canoes resting alongside Emerald Lake

Bridge au naturel

Within Yoho National Park is the tiny town of Field, which consists of quaint historic buildings and the awesome Truffle Pigs Bistro (Chuck and I enjoyed this restaurant on our visit a few years back).

Historic water tower, church, and telegraph building in Field

Our tent-home for the week (when we could find an open campground); Elk in a field near Field

Immediately after leaving Yoho, we crossed into Banff National Park. This was Sarah’s first visit to the park, my second – it’s truly a magical place!

Gorgeous Lake Louise

Lake Louise boat house

With no campsites open for tents, we “Hotwire”d the Lake Louise Inn and had a great dinner at Bill Peyto’s Cafe (located in the hostel across the street). After dinner, we reviewed the maps around Lake Louise and decided on an ambitious 14km hike for the following morning that included Lake Agnes, Big Beehive, and the Plain of Six Glaciers. Highly recommended!

The Big Beehive

Icy Lake Agnes

I love watching the wind blowing snow off of the glaciertops

Finishing the POSG hike

Panoramic view of the Plain of Six Glaciers

Evening reflections on Lake Louise

The next morning, we drove 130km up and back on the amazing Icefields Parkway, all the while, wishing we had more time to complete the route to Jasper!

The glacier-fed goodness of Peyto Lake

Head over heels the Icefields Parkway

The Icefields Parkway – linking 2 amazing National Parks

The Columbia Icefield; Bundled up for our interpretive walk

After our Icefields excursion, we drove several hours south towards the U.S. border and stopped at Radium Hot Springs for a soak, which felt amazing after many kilometers of hikes!

We again experienced the wonderful friendliness and hospitality of our Canadian neighbors later that evening, this time at the only restaurant open past 10pm in Radium. We had smiled and said “hi” to the road construction crew (consisting of two older couples – the excavator guys and flagger ladies) whom we had passed earlier on the Banff-Windermere Highway, our way into Radium.  After our pizza dinner, we chatted with the Ukrainian restaurant owner and when we requested our bill and he told us that the couples had bought our meal – random acts of kindness warms my heart!

Although there is no photographic evidence, the remainder of our trip consisted of:

• Tent camping in Dry Gulch Park
• A mocha stop at Tim Hortons
• Border crossing at the tiny Danville station
• Tasty beers at the Republic Brewing Company
• Dinner with dear friends Dan and Emily at the Knotty Pine in Republic (while watching the Thursday night Seahawks game)
• A night spent at the family house in Wauconda
• Tasty Coffee at Blue Star Coffee Roasters in Twisp

Finishing our trip with a gorgeous, sunny drive through North Cascades National Park – the perfect ending to our grand adventure.

“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living” ~Mary Ritter Beard