Since I found out I am sensitive to altitude, we switched our Johnston Canyon Ice walk to Discover Banff. It would help If we could find a private tour for ice walking at our own pace but a 6 night trip is not enough time for my body to adjust to go at the pace of our guides. It was actually nice being on the tourist bus since I was winded walking up hills on this tour. Our guide who is from Wales told us it took him 6 months to get used to the altitude. Continue reading
Grotto Canyon is located about 10-15 minutes from Canmore. We booked the Grotto Canyon Ice Walk with Discover Banff and to our delight, we had Anik as our guide again. The views are amazing while you walk on a frozen creek. You’ll be given cleats or spikes to walk. One of the coolest things about this walk is getting to see Hopi pictographs up-close. Continue reading
This was our fourth trip to Canada in two years. We visited British Columbia twice, Montreal, and now Banff. Little did we realize, our tour we booked with Discover Banff would take us back to BC to snowshoe. So technically, we’ve been to BC three times in two years. The day before we had fresh snow to our delight. Kootenay National Park is located in southeastern British Columbia. It is one of seven parks that form the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. Continue reading
Major Walter Cushing fought with the Filipino-American guerrillas in WWII. I was introduced to him while reading, The Intrepid Guerillas of North Luzon. He kept evading the Japanese by pretending to be a Spanish priest. He was mestizo; half Mexican and half Canadian and could pass for Filipino. His battles against the Japanese were fairly successful but the day came when the Ganaps (pro-Japanese Filipinos) turned him in and gave away his whereabouts. Continue reading
Getting outside the city is a breath of fresh air. It took us many trips to figure out how we needed to travel. Since we don’t drive, most of our trips were to other cities. We like visiting cities but they feel too much like home in a different setting. A vacation is to getaway from it all. Banff was the perfect place to getaway and on this day, we were headed to Lake Louise. Continue reading
We spent our last day in Seattle exploring with Travel Gourmand (other bloggers that we didn’t get to meet, we’ll try and meet up next time, there’s a time and place for everything) and she surprised us with a dose of nature before we departed the west coast for good. Continue reading
We were sad for our outdoor adventures to come to and end. We stopped in Sooke on our way back to Victoria hoping to see the resident bald eagles since wildlife was a bit scarce on this trip.
Sooke is about an hour drive from Victoria. They have a thriving arts community and are known for outdoor recreation. Sooke has been a destination for a long time and has become more popular due to people visiting the West Coast and the Juan de Fuca Trails. There’s a lot of back country recreation like ATVs, 4x4s, dirt bikes, etc. Recently, Sooke has become a destination for mountain biking. For a better look at Sooke click here to view last years post, we didn’t take pics of the surrounding area this time around. Continue reading
Lower Avatar Grove was our favorite of the two, it seemed greener and quieter. Avatar Grove can be visited all year long, we were here in early October. The trails can be steep but it consists mostly of boardwalk so it’s not that bad. Someone with bad knees won’t be so happy. I didn’t mention the roads in the Upper Avatar post. You will need a 4 wheel drive, the roads can be really bumpy and uneven. It would be best to get a vehicle with high clearance from the ground. Continue reading
Avatar Grove is located around Port Renfew. It has Canada’s gnarlist tree and big red cedars. The trees are 500-1000 years in some areas. There are two portions to Avatar Grove: Upper and Lower. We chose the Upper Trail to explore this rainforest. Continue reading
Botanical Beach and it’s tide pools are one of our favorite hikes. It was relaxing compared to Parkinson Creek Trail which we were all hurting from the day before. By the tide pools, we rock scrambled a little to get to the other beach that connects to the trail. It was a nice change of pace climbing along the shore. Continue reading
Jebus Mews & Andrea 