A drive on Ice field Parkway

On day 2 of the Banff trip, we were booked on a bus tour to see the Athabasca Glacier. Will write a separate post on the Glacier itself. This post is about the what we saw on the almost all day drive to the place. 

The previous post on this trip is here..

We started at 8AM. We did not know they had a pickup point right outside our hotel. We could have got more sleep! Instead we parked downtown and paid dearly for it. The bus had 23 people plus the driver in it. By the end of the day we were all introduced to everyone and we all got to talk at the various stops. It was an international crowd, folks from BC Canada, Brazil, Australia, UK, Belgium and the two of us representing the US!

The driver was a local 20 year old kid, doing this as a summer job. Hindsight being 20/20, we realized at the glacier that we could have just driven to the Glacier ride point in our rental car in an hour and 15 minutes with stops on the way and saved a good 2 hours to do something else. While it is true that there is only one company that is allowed to ride the monster trucks on the Glacier (Columbia IceField), you don't have to go in a bus from Banff to that place!! You can directly go there and get tickets. 

That said, we still enjoyed being passengers, interacting with strangers and stopping at all these points that the kid stopped the bus at, which we would not have otherwise seen. (he took us to vista points that were not the main parking lots.. which helped get great shots with no crowd in the background!). So from that point, it was a big plus. The only time we could have saved was for waiting for 23 people getting in and out of the bus at every stop instead of just the two of us. The kid did a great job of entertaining us during the drive! 

There was a much bigger plus. He stopped when he saw a car slow down in front of us (I would not have) and we got to see a bear walk by us, up  close and personal.. that was the highlight of the drive.

We also had lunch at a nice quiet picnic spot next to the river. 

This drive on Ice field parkway is very scenic. We go all along the bow river all the way from Banff to Jasper National park. The drive in the car would have taken 2 1/2 hours, but we started at 8 and reached at 12:30 including all the photo stops. 

The spots we could not stop at on the way up, we did on the way down. 

First stop: The Lake Louise Village visitor center. This place had a bunch of places to get breakfast and coffee and it was the first rest stop after an hour plus of driving. Every place had a long line. We were lucky to get some breakfast in the Trailhead Cafe, where the line was at least moving! San had a Vegan Samosa which she rated highly!

We started all smiles.. a good sign. This was in the parking lot waiting for the bus. Did I mention we were early? This is also a "warmup selfie" !

Next stop: Herbert lake

We walked through spruce and aspen tree lined trails to the lake (this was our first of many such lake shore visits over the next 48 hours!)

the path ends and voila... the shades of green and blue and the transparent water hits you!

Next stop.. lunch at Coleman creek..

Next stop (more like slow down..) BEAR!! Unfortunately we could not open the windows in the bus.. this is the best I could get with the SLR from the other side of the bus through a tinted window.. it was an exciting thing for us to see this bear walk along the freeway!

at this point I would like to mention that we were expecting to see a lot of animals on the drive.. but the only other non human creature we saw during that day was this ground squirrel at the lunch stop near the river. 

Last but one stop was a waterfalls across the mountains.. there was a family of four from Belgium. The couple and their two daughters exactly 3 years older than our two girls. Their girls helped us take a lot of photos. This was a good shot of us.. no falls, but I love this picture .. so it goes in the blog!

A video that captures all these stops including the "bear sighting". 

If you want to do things fast, just go by yourself from Banff to Jasper. (then again, you might save an hour tops.. given you have to get a pass .. the bus already had a pass and was waved in).  If you want to just sit back, relax and meet folks and go at a slow pace (if you have more than two days to cover the place), then take the bus tour from Banff. It is actually a decent experience.  They also give you a packed lunch, water bottles etc. (Veggie option included, which again was rated highly by San). 

We enjoyed the drive and the group of people we ended up with!

Now that I am able to sit at a laptop and write longer posts, going to get back to the routine! The next post on the actual Glacier walk tomorrow.. 

Surprise point and Bow falls trail - Banff National Park

The previous post on this series is here..

After dinner, we drove to the surprise point outlook and took a walk. You get a beautiful view of the historic Fairmont Hotel while hearing the roaring sound of the water going between the view point and the hotel.

we had purple skies!

It was us and another asian couple there at the vista point. We were happy to see someone else there as they were! we took photos for each other and off we went to the Bow falls trail. 

This is an amazing trail. Well maintained, just gorgeous attention to detail.. 

then there is the falls.. it is wide and the water flow is something to see! The setting sun (at 10PM) made for interesting hues. By the time we went up the trail and took the photo on the bench (at the top of this post) and got back down, the rest of the folks were gone. We had spent an hour and a half here without realizing it. The walk was not tiring and we were smiling from ear to ear! This place was just beautiful and fresh and inspiring! 

It started getting a little chilly at that point and we decided we had spent good time here. We got back to the hotel and it was still bright out. The sunlight finally went down at 10:30 PM and I could make out the light through the shades even at 11! We had to get some sleep as there was a long full day planned for Saturday. Banff is one hour ahead in time compared to California, so it was still early for us to sleep, but we closed all the blinds (reminded us of Alaska!) and got some shut eye!

This video shows you bow falls and the beautiful trail..

Had I known it was going to be this pretty, would have rushed to the hotel to grab the SLR as well.. after this, had the SLR on me throught the rest of the trip!

If you visit Banff, check sunset timings and dress accordingly to see bow falls at sunset time or golden hour.. just breathtaking!

Not to be missed!

A weekend in the Canadian Rockies

We went...

scratch that.. 

My wife took me along,

on a wonderful weekend trip to the Canadian Rockies. She was sick and tired of not being able to go on a vacation. She had tried everything to beg the kids to come so all four of us could go somewhere for a few days, to no avail. Finally she snapped and said "We are going somewhere for two days. You give a choice from this list!". That was it. I picked Banff National park based on photos we had seen from friends and family who had visited from 4 years ago!

It was a last minute plan. We could not find cheap tickets for 4th of July weekend but found decent ones for last weekend. So took Friday and Monday off, flew into Calgary Friday, rented a car and drove to Banff. Monday afternoon to evening was the return back to SFO. We got a night , two full days and a morning to spend. 

San did everything. All I had to do was go with the flow and walk as fast as I could when prodded. 

Home to hotel was 7 1/2 hours! We were treated to amazing views on the drive there and I got to take a few photos and videos while she drove around exits that came rather abruptly while simultaneously getting used to speed limits in kmph! 

A few photos from the drive.

 

It kept reminding us of our trip to Swiss Alps.. the only thing missing was the cows and their bells! and the cottages with the spires in the middle of the fields!

This was a great Ad we saw on the way! 

As soon as we checked into the hotel, we went to find dinner. As usual, when I am hungry or worse case Hangry, we get to eat at an Indian restaurant. There were three options in the town of Banff all within a few minutes drive. The first two were full or had some server attitude problems. The third one was the charm. 

After the dinner, the owner told us that sunset was post 10PM and we have a good two hours left. He suggested that we hike up to see "surprise point" and then come back down and do the "bow falls" trail.  This was going to be a good 3+ miles of hiking after a travel day but we were up for it. The heavy food had to be put to use.. so off we went..

Here is a video of the beautiful drive to Banff!

The post on Bow falls and a separate restaurant review to follow..

ps. It is unlike me to wait for days to post things after a trip like this, but sadly got sick a day after getting back. Just recovering today. Till yesterday the headache would not allow me to stare at a screen at all.. keeping this blog short.. to be continued.. 

It is good to be back on the keyboard and sift though photos and videos. Right now 30 minutes seems to be the limit for staring at a screen before the eyes start watering!

Clouds Rest - a hike to remember

This blog has not seen an entry for more than two months. A lot has happened since. A quick trip to India to combine work with family, a return to the US followed by heavy jet lag, getting way too busy at work to catch up on blogging, singing etc. 

However, every alternate week, there has been a hiking trip and I will get to those blogs soon enough. The highlight of all those recent hikes, is the one to Cloulds rest, in Yosemite the past weekend.

It is the best hike to date since we started hiking during COVID shutdown. An unforgettable experience. Wife is part of a hiking group where they get permits and call for folks to take up open spots. She informed me two weeks ago that we are going to do a overnight camp and a hike. 

The original plan was to:

start Saturday morning, reach Yosemite by 9AM, take a break at the gate after getting the permit paperwork, meet the rest of the group (no cell signals there!) and then drive to the starting point of the Cathedral lakes trailhead, hike with the backpack to a halfway point, camp at 9000 feet overnight, then hike up to Clouds rest Sunday morning and be back Sunday afternoon, drive back.

We made it to the trail head on Saturday as planned. We were just starting the hike on Saturday when there was a thunder storm with heavy hail! There was ice and slush everywhere.

We had to come back and find a camp site in short notice. We were lucky enough to find two spots in Tioga lake. The ground was dry here already!

That also meant, we had to do all the 15+ miles of hiking on Sunday. 

My shoes and clothes were all wet walking from parking lot to the place where rest of the group were waiting. That made it very difficult to walk the rest of the day and the following day. We tried to dry the shoes by putting it near a half assed fire.. and trying to keep it inside the tent! It was hilarious. I did walk the next day in damp shoes and got blisters on four of my toes. 

We spent a beautiful evening around Tioga lake and enjoyed chatting, had masala chai and did a 3 mile walk around the lake. It was just beautiful and serene, with Mount Dana in the background.

What is a hike without a "chaifie"?!

Every 100 feet, my macro mode in the iPhone was put to good use to zoom in on small flowers. The rest of the group were amused by my love for the macro shots.. (most of these next photos are of flowers the size of my thumbnail or smaller!)

We ate what we had packed and went to sleep at 8:30 when it was still light outside. We had to get up at 4:30 AM to pack up the tents etc. That was a challenge without gloves, especially when the dew outside the tent has condensed.. having the right gear makes all the difference!

We drove to the trailhead after the quick packup on Sunday morning, and did the hike to Cloud's rest and back as a day hike! The weather report said 42 F lows but it ended up being below 30F in the night. Given the lack of proper sleep from the cold on Saturday night, our group split into two. The folks who couldn't sleep well hiked up to Sunrise lakes which was a 7 mile round trip and the other three went up!

Yosemite trails are not like the local trails. At most places, you have to eenie meenie miney mo to decide which path is the trail and which is not.. it is a bunch of rocks thrown together with some kind souls trying to mark the path with same rocks..

The views were amazing and we were mostly smiling and laughing all the way to the top.. left to my wife, I would have had to do this in half the time, but thankfully I had company and we went at a steady pace! This also made sure that she was in pictures with me!!

At 10,000 feet the air is thin and breathing gets to be hard, but we had fun doing this hike. On the way up, we went at a steady pace of 1.5 miles an hour.

The last 0.3 miles of this hike is a real challenge. There is a knife edge around 3-4 feet wide made of oblong rocks thrown on top of one another.. You have to put down your backpacks and walk the edge to go to the top and get a breathtaking view of the entire valley below!

At one point there is a two to three feet gap on the rocks and you either have to jump down and climb back up, or do an Indiana Jones "leap of faith" step across the rocks! Taking a photo of that would put the photographer at even more risk.. and San refused to do it. She came down and went back up and we missed a chance to capture Sangiana Jones! Maybe another time.. if there is one!

You get a 360 degree panorama of the entire thing from this point!

No photographs do justice to what we saw.. a video at the end of this post captures the knife edge a lot better.

While coming down we were much faster but the direct sun and mosquitos made it very difficult for me. Got nausea in the last three miles down. It was also a non stop descent. So took a 3-5 minute break every half a mile and made it back. After a 5 minute stop in the parking lot, started driving back right away!

We were treated to more amazing views on the way down.. but you stop walking, the insects start having you for lunch!

Made another 10 minute stop at the Pizza Factory in Groveland to grab a lemonade and kept driving. At some point we started smelling burning stuff inside the car. Kind of freaked out and drove the last 100 miles at 55 mph with minimal breaking! Turns out the brake pads and rotor were burnt and we were lucky to make it back.. The tire treads also wore out completely! The car has had an expensive makeover now after this trip as an unwanted side effect. 

All said and done, we had quite an adventure and were glad to make this trip. While waiting for the hail storm to subside, met a lady who had just come back after climbing Cathedral peak (ropes and all) who told me "there is no such thing as bad weather in Yosemite, only bad gear! you should have bought water proof shoes and dri-fit clothes and better equipment to camp even on ice! but looking at you now, you don't stand a chance of going up now and camping". We were lucky to find those spots overnight and also lucky to make it a day hike!

Clouds rest is not an easy hike and would not recommend it for kids. Get right shoes, blister free socks, right backpacks which don't hug your back, floppy hats with mosquito nets instead of baseball caps, insect proof clothing, beanies to cover ears during night, gloves that are rated for sub zero temperatures, etc. before trying these hikes. Looks like daddy is going to go shopping soon...

One other thiing.. all the local hikes did not train me for this. There is no clear trail in most places.. we end up scrambling on rocks, sometimes a foot and a half tall. So it takes a toll on the knees. The only training for hiking in Yosemite is to hike in Yosemite! 

A video that captures our weekend..

One more item ticked off the list.. 

We were very fortunate to have lovely company on this trip. Our fellow hikers were truly amazing and we loved the overnight camping and chatting and getting to know the group!

Next dream, Half Dome!

Wife thinks I won't be able to do it.. I am hopeful. Let's see what happens..

Calla Lillies at Garrapata State park

Three weeks ago we drove an hour and a half all the way to Garrapata State park area. The main goal was to go to Doud peak, which will be the subject of a separate post. We also wanted to leave early enough and take pictures among the white lillies that grow on either side of the creek as it goes into the ocean.

It is a local seasonal favorite, but we have never made it before. We saw posts on the net that said the lillies are already starting to turn brown, so before the window closed we visited.

We were not disappointed.. 

it was a misty walk to the beach among the lillies..

The new iPhone was put to test and it passed with flying colors..

especially the macro mode..

Nice beach. There were a lot of kids making their way to the beach as we were walking back. Given it is just a short walk from the freeway, this place would probably be crowded once the sun is out. It was good we finished this first!

had the beach mostly to ourselves..

We climbed up to the top and got a beautiful view of the coastline. Then we drove a few miles to go on our planned hike..

Strongly recommend this place, for a mid March or even early March trip. It is a beautiful sight!