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Unfolding Journeys

NOW HOP ON A BUS! 31 JASPER 34 GOAT Lick VIEWPOINT 37 GLACIER SKYWALK We’ve got out of the coach at If you’ve ever dreamed of 40 WINTER SPORTS GOAT LICK VIEWPOINT – and walking on the clouds, then the GLACIER SKYWALK is for you. Fun time – we’re off SKIING yes, there are mountain goats in one of the resorts around down by the lake. Banff, . 28 H TeTE JAUNE ere w Wow! Towering above us is lea e are! W ve the e’ve rea the spectacular 3,954m train an ched th d take a e little (12,972ft) peak of MOUNT luxury town coac of 44 ELK h dow JAS ROBSON, the highest mountain n H PE VALEMOuNT ighw R This handsome beast is in the Rockies. ay an 9 d a Rocky Mountain ELK. 3 t it’s o C tim The First Nations called 30 ATHABASCA FALLS alg e ar to it a wapiti, meaning y. R That noise is not an animal – ‘white bottom’. it’s the roaring of the O ATHABASCA FALLS in the C . ICEFIELDS K PARKWAY 36 ROUTE 93 HOwwWW THE END! Y We’re back on Highway 93 WLL North, aka the ICEFIELDS We’ve made it to CALGARY, folks! What M PARKWAY, one of the most 43 O spectacular roads on WOLF a journey! U N the planet. Listen! It’s the call of the T A wild: the long, mournful I N M O U N T A I N S howl of a WOLF. T R Y SS What’s that elk doing up there? E N C K RPA It’s using a WILDLIFE OVERPASS C H N A D I A N R O OVE to cross the road we’re now on, C A L the Trans- Highway. MA NI 26 CED 33 A AR- 27 SNOWMOBILING 32 39 HE MICA DAM We’ve swapped buses to ML Wheee! We’re zooming along on a go glacier gazing in this six- OC SNOWMOBILE near Valemount in the The massive MICA DAM blocks wheeled ICE EXPLORER. K the Columbia River and creates 42 HOODOOS R Monashee Mountains. 29 MOUNTAIN A a lake 260km (161 Those strange white IN F miles) long. OT needles sticking up out O LION H R RMONT CHA ER FF of the forest are the E Leaving the train It looks like a big 35 FAI TEaU PP AN S U B bath Banff HOODOOS. T for a few hours, cat, doesn’t it? The luxury FAIRMONT CHATEAU HOTEL GS – But don’t get started life as a single-storey log cabin! IN we enjoy the PR dripping majesty too close – it’s S . of the CEDAR- a COUGAR, It’s warmer in SPRINGSthan out HEMLOCK also known as a time in Banff’s UPPER HOT mountain lion or RAINFOREST. 45 puma. BANFF 41 CALGARY 38

BANFF

We’ve stopped for a break in BANFF. Short of breath? Not surprising. We’re over 1,500m (almost 5,000ft) above sea level. 23.6 BLACK BEAR 25.6 TÊTE JAUNE 27.6 SNOWMOBILING IN 629. MOUNTAIN LION 631. Jasper 633. COLUMBIA ICEFIElD 635. FAIRMONT CHATEAU 37.6 GLACIER SKYWALK 639. ANIMAL OVERPASS 41.6 BANFF 643. WOLF 45.6 CALGARY Like people, black bears (officially known Back in the early 1800s, the mischievous VALEMOUNT The cougar is a crafty beast. It hunts Like most towns in the Rockies, Jasper was Most of us have read about glaciers or In 1882, Thomas Wilson, a worker on the The scenery of the Jasper National Park Problem: what do you do when the George Stephen, There are more grey wolves in Canada The city of Calgary, standing at the as American black bears) come in all sizes. Pierre Bostonais was a well-known When it snows in this part of the world, it alone, usually at night, and captures its founded by hunters and traders. A century seen them on TV. But actually driving onto Canadian Pacific Railway, became the first is stunning. Until recently, the best way to country’s major road (the Trans-Canada President of the (about 55,000) than anywhere else in meeting of the Bow and Elbow Rivers, On average they’re about the same height Canadian hunter and fur trader. Because really snows! In Valemount, the resort in prey by ambushing it. Deer are its favourite later, when the government set up the one is something else! We take a trip in our white man to see what his local guides knew see it all was to fly over in a helicopter. But Highway) cuts through one of the Canadian Pacific the world except Russia. The wolf is really has grown from humble beginnings. In the and weight as us. Also like us, they’re of his long blonde hair, everyone knew him the Monashee Mountains, heavy snow falls food, but if there aren’t any around, it’ll Jasper National Park, the settlement grew special vehicle to the , a as the ‘Lake of Little Fishes’. Astounded by clattering along in a polluting metal machine country’s main wildlife reserves (the Banff Railway Company, was a wild dog, which is why it looks like the 1870s, it was Fort Brisebois, a base for omnivorous – they’ll eat whatever takes as Tête Jaune, meaning ‘Yellow Head’. He between November and April. By the spring eat almost anything that moves, including in importance and a railway line was built to frozen river 6km (3.7 miles) long and 1km its loveliness, he called it Emerald Lake. It is not exactly environmentally friendly. So, National Park)? born in the Scottish seaside town of domestic pet. But don’t treat it like man’s Canadian police trying to stop American their fancy. A black bear will happily chew link it to the rest of the country. was later renamed Lake Louise in honour in 2014, a new way to view the park was best friend! Wolf attacks on humans are whiskey smugglers. Though it now has over came to a sticky end (murdered!) but in in the snowfields above the town, the snow insects and rats. It stalks along silently (1,093 yards) wide. When we arrive, we Answer A: Erect tall, steel fences beside Banff. So when some of his workers found grass and flowers, then munch on a few of one of Queen Victoria’s daughters. opened, a man-made walkway known as much rarer than they used to be, but they one million inhabitants, it still guards the 1825 a few log cabins were built at the lies deep (14m / 46ft), crisp and even: and, like a household cat, purrs rather In some ways, things haven’t changed much step out onto a finger of deep ice that has the road. hot springs on the mountainside near where Wilson’s vision – the blue-green waters of do happen: as recently as 2010, a pack of nuts and roots, and end the meal by fishing place beside the where he ideal for snowmobiling. Especially on what is than roars. since then. Jasper is still tiny (4,000 lain here for 10,000 years. the Glacier Skywalk. This glass-bottomed he was building his railway, he decided to frontier between the wild the lake overlooked by snowy peaks and the Answer B: Build six wildlife overpasses and four wolves attacked and killed a Canadian to the west and the broad sweep of the a salmon out of a nearby river. used to bury his valuables. The settlement known as a ‘bluebird day’ - a clear blue sky Weighing between 45 and inhabitants), remote, and surrounded by There was a time, as the Earth was coming viewing platform, 280m (918ft) above the build a station there and call it Banff too. glistening ice of the Victoria glacier – is now 38 wildlife underpasses so that animals can geologist who had ventured alone into the Canadian prairies to the east. Unlike grizzlies and polar bears, black bears took his name: Tête Jaune. after a night of heavy snow. 68kg (100-150lb), the some of the most stunning scenery on out of the last Ice Age, when glaciers ground, juts out 30m (100ft) from the Well, why not? hailed as one of the finest mountain scenes cross the road in safety. wilderness. are not under threat. But their eating muscular cougar is not quite Earth. It’s a quiet place. By night it’s advanced down the mountainsides like side of the Sunwapta Valley. Having built the railway at great cost, The overground railway helped Calgary The town boomed when the railway was With tracks at the back and skis at the in the whole world. habits often land them in trouble. Once they built nearby, and it grew into a bustling, front, a snowmobile is a sort of winter go- king of the Rockies. almost completely free from all pollution, gigantic bulldozers of ice. The Athabasca Not everyone approves of the Skywalk. Thankfully, answer B was the winner here. Canadian Pacific needed people to use it. Wolves live in packs of up to a dozen, led grow – but nowhere near as much as get a taste for human food, they prowl into wild community of 3,000 bar workers, kart. The really powerful ones can reach If it comes to a fight, whether by noise, dirt or light. It’d be Glacier still slips down by about the width of In 1890, a lakeside log cabin hotel was built Environmentalists say the whole point of Coyotes, black bears and cougars were To tempt them, they built smart hotels by an alpha male. You can recognise him what was found underground. Oil. When town to rummage through the garbage. hoteliers, engineers, miners and fortune 160kph (100mph), but we’re happy to spin packs of wolves and nice to spend a bit more time here, your hand each day. However, due to melting for ‘outdoor adventurers’. It soon filled with a national park is to preserve Canada’s quickest to learn how to use the crossings. at Banff and turned the place into an by his sticking-up ears. The large reserves were discovered nearby in Returning home after a pleasant night hunters. Bustling, that is, until in 1913 along at less than half that speed. We don’t big bears, especially wouldn’t it? caused by global warming, it is shrinking by climbers, skiers and sightseers. Twenty natural heritage. The enormous structure Then the deer, elk, and moose caught on. It international tourist resort in the heart of other wolves crouch 1947, the city’s population shot up from out, a black bear is not exactly what you when the Fraser River rose dramatically want our engine noise to disturb the skiers grizzlies, usually come off about 5m (16ft) per year. In the last 125 years later the cabin was replaced by a of glass and steel, they complain, is an took rather longer for grizzlies and wolves ‘Rocky Mountain Park’ (now Banff National around him with their 100,000 to 325,000 in just 18 years. want to see on the front lawn. And if you and washed away Tête Jaune’s wooden and the wildlife. Out here you’re in the true best. Like other large wild years it has lost half its volume. larger, more comfortable building. Further eyesore and has no place in the wilderness. to get the message, but they got there in Park). Visitors flocked in – and they still do. ears flat and their Skyscrapers appeared, new businesses rebuilding created the Fairmont Chateau, the end. Thank goodness. tails between their opened up. What had once been a little leave food outside your tent when you’re houses, shops and businesses. Today only wilderness, so a few words of warning: mammals, human hunters As we stand wondering at all this ice, Others disagree. They argue that the Skiers, snowboarders, hikers, campers and a luxury hotel where we are now lucky legs. He leads the old fort had grown into one of Canada’s camping, a bear visit can be really scary! their stone chimneys and fireplaces remain. never snowmobile alone and always give are the cougar’s it’s astounding to think that when our whole point of a national park is to make spa-bathers pour in to make enough to rub shoulders with winter sports pack when it chases largest, busiest cities. someone your route… just in case you’re most dangerous grandchildren come here the enormous the natural world accessible to everyone – Banff one of the most enthusiasts and international celebrities. or ambushes its prey. not back by nightfall when the temperature foe. Attacks glacier may have completely disappeared. which is what the Skywalk does. Whichever popular destinations in Wandering around amid the ceaseless 24. PYRAMID FALLS 26. CEDAR-HEMLOCK can fall to -20˚C / -4˚F. Brrr! on people are But the real star of the place remains side you’re on, if you do visit the Skywalk, 640. WINTER SPORTS all Canada. But not everyone noise and bustle of a great city, it’s hard 6 6 rare as the big cat unchanged: the breathtaking beauty of don’t step out onto the platform unless joins the chase: after is known as Canada’s to believe that just a few hours It’s not difficult to see how the Pyramid RAINFOREST normally does its best the Rockies. you’ve got a good head for heights. the birth of young, Falls got their name. Water from a melting Protected Playground – and no one ago we were deep in the From the vast Pacific Ocean, streams to avoid us. But if it 34. GOAT Lick VIEWPOINT has more fun there than skiers and some stay behind in the tranquil wilderness of glacier tumbles 91.4m (300ft) down the of warm, wet air move eastwards over feels under threat… 32. MICA DAM 6 lair to babysit the cubs. mountainside in two waterfalls. On the 6 snowboarders. First, though, you’ve got to 42. HOODOOS those wonderful Rocky The trouble with mountain goats is that Canada. This air rises up over the Coast you have been The Columbia River is awesome. Rising in 6 second, it fans out in a sparkling pyramid. they’re not actually goats. The name’s overcome a couple of snags. Banff takes We’ve put on stout walking boots and set Mountains. Mountains, which we passed through in warned! the , it snakes north then 36. THE ICEFIELDS 38. UPPER HOT At its base the waters come together 6 some getting to – it’s 140km (86 miles) off down the Hoodoos Trail to take a look the region of Hell’s Gate (5). It then a mistake. Their nearest relatives in the 6 south before emptying into the Pacific PARKWAY again, rush under the railway, and empty animal world are deer and cattle, so it would SPRINGS BANFF from the nearest airport; plus you can’t at these odd pinnacles of stone. They’re meets the Columbia Mountains, where we Ocean in the United States. As well as into the North . be more accurate to call them mountain The Icefields Parkway runs for 232km Water trickling through the rocks of actually ski in Banff itself, but have to hoodoos, and look like pieces of modern are now. Forced high up again, the damp being long (2,000km / 1,243 miles), the travel to one of the nearby resorts. 44. ELK air produces snow. But at lower levels antelopes. However, like true goats they (144 miles) through two of Canada’s finest descends 3km (1.86 miles) sculpture. In fact, they’re all natural - 6 The river is named after one of the world’s Columbia is extremely powerful because The Rocky Mountain elk is a whopping greatest map makers. When Europeans the moisture falls as rain. This feeds the have beards and long shaggy coats to areas of protected wilderness, the Banff below the Earth’s surface. When it finds We’ve chosen to come to Lake Louise not man-made at all. 30. ATHABASCA FALLS of the weight of water it carries and the and Jasper National Parks. If the driver great deer. The males (bulls) weigh up to arrived in Canada the land had not been awe-inspiring Cedar-Hemlock Rainforest, 6 protect them from the winter cold. These its way back to the surface at Sulphur Village. It was worth the trek. Up we go Three things go into the making of a distance it falls. This makes it ideal for the 315kg (700lb), stand 1.5m (5ft) tall at mapped, so David Thompson (1770– the only inland temperate (non-tropical) The River Athabasca only drops 23m coats have an inner lining of short, thick keeps his foot down (and if there’s not too Mountain, it is steaming hot (47°C/116°F) on the Top of the World Express chairlift generation of hydro-electricity. much snow), we could make the journey in hoodoo: ‘badlands’, hard rock and soft the shoulder and are 2.4m (8ft) long. 1857) set about putting things to rights. rainforest in the world. (75ft) at the Athabasca Falls, but hairs and an outer layer of long, hollow and has absorbed all kinds of minerals. amid the most amazing scenery imaginable. rock. Badlands is the name for a dry, well- the sheer weight of water makes it a In the 1960s, the US and Canada agreed to hairs. Double wrapped, they can survive about three hours. But to pass by a sight The First Nations regarded the bubbling Looking out across , there’s a Stick multi-pointed antlers 1.2m (4ft) wide Working with only a handful of helpers, We are in the Glacier National Park. drained base. Above it, long, long ago, lay spectacular sight. You’d think the river work together to harness the power of the temperatures of -50° F (-46° C). so majestic would be a crime. springs as sacred. European settlers had row of towering peaks in the distance. Now on top, and you’ve got a pretty impressive and sometimes entirely alone, he mapped Standing on a soft carpet of ferns and a thick layer of soft rock. In places it was 2 28. MOUNT ROBSON Columbia. A key part of the scheme was beast! Lady elks (cows) think so too: the around 3.9 million km (1.5 million sq miles) 6 would be fullest in the winter, after heavy To build up their super-insulation coats, The view from our coach windows is an different ideas – they enjoyed bathing look down – Lake Louise boasts more than covered by areas of harder rock. Down mosses, we stare upwards at mighty constructing the earth-filled Mica Dam. bigger a male’s antlers, the more attractive of some of the wildest country on Earth – Originally known as the Mountain of the snow and rainfall, but no. The Athabasca mountain goats need a mineral-rich diet. amazing and ever-changing one: snowy in the warm, mineral-rich waters. To 130 ski and snowboard trails. Added bonus: came the rain, snow and wind. Gradually, cedars, hemlocks and pine. Some are well Four thousand workers living in a specially she finds him. 40% of all Canada! Spiral Road, Mount Robson is probably is fed by water from melting glaciers, so The rocks and soil at the viewpoint here mountains, shimmering glaciers, crashing protect the Springs, in 1885 they and the the resorts open in November and close in very gradually, the soft rock was eroded over a thousand years old – what stories built village completed the project in six named after Colin Robertson, a tough- it is deepest in summer. On a hot July day, and along the nearby roadside is rich waterfalls, clear lakes and broad, tree- surrounding area became Canada’s first May, giving one of the longest ski seasons away – except where it was protected Here are three more quirky elk facts: they could tell us if they could talk! years. A vast new lake, known as Kinbasket, living fur trader who died in 1842. It now enough water to fill a domestic swimming with sodium, sulphur and other important lined valleys. You might catch sight of the national park. anywhere in the world. by an umbrella of hard rock. The result? But age does not protect these flooded the Big Bend Country behind 1. Babies (calves) are born with a spotted lies at the heart of the Mount Robson pool crashes over the Falls every second. minerals, and the goats come here to occasional hiker, but you’re more likely to The Banff Upper Hot Springs are 1,585m A hoodoo! giants. Their wood is valuable, Provincial Park, recognised by UNESCO the Dam. As the waters deepened, coat, no scent, and don’t move for several Before the Falls, the lick it up! Despite their wicked-looking spot one of the native inhabitants: big horn (5,200ft) above sea level. As getting and over the years large (the United Nations Scientific and Cultural they drowned the dreams of the days. This protects them from predators. numbers of ancient flows along a bed of hard rock (quartzite). horns, the goats are easily sheep, deer, black bears, and coyotes. And changed for a dip in the cold mountain air is Organisation) as a site of world-wide small mining communities that had 2. An elk’s top two canine teeth are made trees have been It then plunges down onto softer rock frightened. Please if you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of not much fun, in 1931 the government built importance. stood there since the 19th century of ivory and are used in jewellery. Scientists felled, sawn up and (limestone), carving out intricate patterns give them plenty a wolf or a grizzly. the pool and bath house that we’re using gold rush. believe these ‘ivories’ were originally tusks carried away. Glaciers glide down the mountain’s of potholes, shelves and ledges. The view is of space to get Driver! Slow down, please! today. But psst! Want to know a secret? northern side, where the steep Emperor so remarkable that every few years some on with their There isn’t always enough water from the for fighting. Face challenges the most experienced keen photographer gets too close to the goat-y lives. natural springs to fill the pool. When this 3.Only male elks have antlers. They fall mountaineers. The peak was not edge – and disappears into the churning happens, it’s topped up with heated water off each winter and are replaced by new, climbed until 1913! waters below! from the town. bigger ones in the spring.

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