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
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
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
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
We have been working our way along the Juan de Fuca Trail with Toni on this trip as well (hiked some of it last year). It’s a lovely trail in the very beautiful British Columbia on Vancouver Island. Last year we saw China, Mystic and Sombrio. On this day, we hiked our way through Parkinson Creek Trail to the beach with monster sized drift wood and Payzant Creek with little waterfalls. 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 