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
We had several hours to kill before we hopped on our ferry to Seattle. We’ve been wanting to see Craigdarroch Castle but didn’t want to spend our time indoors and decided to walk to Beacon Hill Park and have a look see at the Emily Carr House. 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
Our last day in Port Renfew was spent hiking Avatar Grove, a patch of forest saved by the Ancient Forest Alliance. I forgot the names of the areas we drove through, some of it is First Nations land. Everyday at the cottage I wondered what as across the water and finally got to check it out. 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
If you want to see Vancouver off the beaten path, go to Port Renfew, this was home for 3 nights. Last year we stayed in Victoria and Toni picked us up from our hotel. This trick snagged us an extra 3-4 hours on the trails. She doesn’t usually book stay and play tours but we became friends with her (we feel special). It was nice having this as our home for a few days. Continue reading
Yes it was, we bumped into Beau and his family eating lunch while we were nature walking with Toni from Rainforest Tours. I thought Toni was walking over to a group of friends (Vic recognized him), turns out she was walking over to the the other guide in her company and the group she passed over for us because we reserved her months in advance. We are touched we were priority since we booked forever ago but it’s Beau Bridges. We told her she has to frame his disclaimer form and that she should have brought them to Port Renfew with us. We really wish we could have asked for a picture but you know, respect the privacy of celebrities, at least we got to meet them. Continue reading
After three years, the grizzly cubs leave their mom but sometimes some siblings are so bonded they hang out for an extra one or two years, then go off on their own. Here my friends, are two bonded grizzly bears. Continue reading
Jebus Mews & Andrea 