A few words about our trip to the Canadian Rockies in 1994 as a part of a 42-day journey through the USA and Canada. We traveled there from Calgary after flying in from Toronto. Near the airport, we saw a food market where locals buy provisions by the crate, as the market does not work daily. We had to work hard to convince a vendor to sell us just a kilo of plums—big and beautiful. However, after tasting them, we threw them away, as their flavor was not so much different from an artificial fruit.
Our first stop was Banff. At the visitor center we could find accommodation only at Lake Louise, so after strolling around Banff, we set off. On the way, we stopped by the bison reserve nearby, hoping to see these rare animals. We drove around the forest for a long time, but none appeared. Then I got out of the car, made horns with my fingers to amuse my wife, and we moved on. Later, I learned that getting out of the car in the reserve is very dangerous—bison can kill, and such an incident had happened just a year before.
In Banff, you can take a special gondola up to the top of Sulphur Mountain. The Banff Sightseeing Gondola is just a five-minute drive from town. Fourteen kilometers from Banff is the long (about 20 km) and narrow Lake Minnewanka, where from mid-May to September, you can rent a boat, fish, and swim. In this area, you’ll also find the beautiful high-altitude Moraine Lake and Yoho National Park, which can add to your itinerary.
After spending the night at Lake Louise, we walked along its shores a bit, though we didn’t make a full circuit as we usually do with smaller lakes, and then we set off. The names sounded like music: Saskatchewan (I think there was a song by that name once), Athabasca.
We went on a tour of the Athabasca Glacier, which descends from the mountain of the same name. This glacier is a tongue of the vast Columbia Icefield, which covers an area of about 325 square kilometers, with an ice depth ranging from 100 to 365 meters. This icefield includes six glaciers. Huge all-terrain buses, overcoming a descent of at least 45 degrees, if not more, brought us to the icefield, where we walked on the ice for a bit so that later we could say, “We walked on a glacier!”
I found online that now they also offer tours in SHERP all-terrain vehicles. I also read that somewhere in that area, they have built the Columbia Skywalk, a glass-floored viewing platform on the edge of a cliff, offering a stunning view of the glaciers and the Sunwapta Valley. The platform is located at an altitude of 280 meters.
In Jasper, which was then a quiet village, we easily found accommodation in a private house. While strolling in the evening, we saw a large moose calmly munching on someone’s garden, sticking its huge head inside and completely ignoring our presence.
From Jasper, we went up the Squirrel Mountain, lured by the guidebook’s promise to see and hear these whistling creatures. However, instead of squirrels, a strong, bone-chilling wind (it was early October) was whistling, forcing us to take shelter behind large rocks and then quickly retreat.
After the Rockies, we planned to drive to Vancouver, but we had to sacrifice this two-day, likely interesting journey to first visit Edmonton, where my classmate lived, and then fly to Vancouver. On the way, we took a 93-kilometer detour (round trip) to visit Maligne Lake, originally named by the French.
There are two theories about how it got its name (which in English means “malignant”). The more common one is that the river flowing into and out of the lake was named for its wild nature in spring by Father Pierre-Jean De Smet in the 19th century, and later, the name extended to the lake, canyon, pass, mountain, and valley. The second theory is that it was named so by members of a French expedition who lost some of their horses and men while crossing the river.
Lake Maligne is the largest natural lake and the most beautiful lake in the Rockies. It is probably the most photographed lake in the world. It is of a post-card beauty, so no wonder its image can be found on almost any item in the local tourism business. In the middle of the lake lies Spirit Island, which can be reached by boat.
At its far end, the lake is bordered by a range of high snow-covered mountains, which can also be reached by a boat tour. We didn’t take this tour, so we didn’t see the mountains up close, but as compensation, we had a great time renting a canoe (as regular boats were no longer available—it was the end of the season). We rented it for an hour but ended up paddling for three or four—the vastness pulled us in. Landing on a rare stretch of shore free from dense forest, we felt like real discoverers.
On the way back, a headwind forced us to exert all our strength to get back, but that only made the pastries of a Parisian baker working in a local restaurant taste even better. After a short rest, we set off on the long journey to Edmonton, encountering various wild animals grazing by the roadside. That day, I drove 450 kilometers, which was exhausting, but I endured it and spent the evening catching up with my classmate, whom I hadn’t seen for 30 years.
