The Rockies and Banff with a Double F

My first visit to Canada as a tourist was in the West Coast, mainly Vancouver and surroundings and Victoria Island (the actual first visit was in Ontario, but I was a student on a theatre tour back then).

Vancouver made such an impression on me - the majestic and rugged peaks of its mountain ranges and the stunning landscape dotted with glistening lakes, cascading waterfalls, shimmering glaciers, vast alpine meadows, fertile river valleys, limestone caves, and dense forests! It was enough to convince me to consider moving to Canada permanently.

I brought home souvenir items with photos that reminded me of this mountain paradise. Since it is also the realm of spectacular wildlife – grizzlies, elk, wolves, foxes, moose, bison, and horned sheep, chipmunks, squirrels, marmots, beavers, porcupines, and snowy owls, I also got a menagerie of stuffed animals that reminded me of these woodland creatures and cute critters.

Unlike most of my beach-loving friends that favour the sun, the sea, and the sands, I prefer going to the mountains. And for a mountain-loving person like me whose ideal get-away place is a dreamy log cabin in the midst of a forest, this Canadian region ticks all the boxes on my wish list.

The most iconic image of Western Canada is the Rocky Mountains. However, I did not get to see it up close until after I moved to Vancouver for good and started exploring a little further away.

Technically, Vancouver is part of the Rockies, but it is just a small segment of the entire Rocky Mountain system. This huge range stretches some 4,800 kilometers. From the northernmost part of British Columbia, it extends towards the southeast along its border with Alberta, and goes on through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico in the United States. Therefore, in my mind, merely being in Vancouver does not qualify. One has to, at the very least, explore the section that spreads out from the province.

In Canada, the best way to experience the Rockies is to take a long drive between the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. The mountain range passes through four adjacent national parks – Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, and Yoho, as well as three provincial parks – Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine, and Hamber, where travelers will be treated to breathtaking views of snow-capped craggy mountains, verdant river valleys, deep canyons, dramatic rock sheds, crisp glaciers, vast icefields, and charming resort towns. In addition, two more preserves run along this border – the Cave and Basin National Historic Site and the Canadian Rockies Hot Springs.

Another way to enjoy the scenery is by train that goes right into the heart of the Rockies past glorious vistas while enjoying the comfort and perks of a luxury rail ride. This usually includes spacious seats in glass-domed coaches with panoramic windows, gourmet meals prepared by Executive Chefs and served in elegant dining rooms, outdoor viewing platforms, a full sleeper suite, and even stopover overnight stays at five-star hotels.

The rail tour is one of the items on my bucket list, but that is something I would like to do when our son is a little bit older and could handle extended train rides.

My first glimpse of the Rockies was on a long weekend drive with a couple of colleagues at work. This was not even a planned trip.

I remember the particularly busy and intense week before the Labour Day long weekend, when all three of us, working in the same section, were up to our sleeves with tight deadlines and putting out a few fires in the office.

On Thursday afternoon, one of my co-workers, who is also a good friend, proposed doing an all-girl weekend get-away, that is, if we didn’t have anything planned with our respective families. I sensed how stressed she was, and how badly she needed a break, so I told her I would talk to my husband.

My husband thought it would be a good idea. He pointed out that I seemed as stressed out as my friend (probably based on my daily venting at the dinner table that week). An out-of-town trip with the other ladies would do each of us some good, he said. And without me at home, he would be able to accomplish a huge chunk of his decluttering project.

I confirmed my availability on Friday morning, and so did our other co-worker. The next thing to figure out was where to go.

“How about some spa time? We could use a little pampering,” my friend said. Then, she suggested Radium Hot Springs. Another friend of hers just came back from there and told her she had an amazing time.

Radium Hot Springs is located at the edge of the Kooteney National Park and overlooks the beautiful headwaters of the Columbia River. The hot springs is renowned for its rejuvenating and healing mineral waters amidst a dramatic setting in the Sinclair Canyon. Its waters, though containing a variety of minerals, is odourless.

After a tedious work week, we all agreed that this would be perfect.

That Saturday, my friend picked me up at four o’clock in the morning, and then we met our co-worker at a McDonald’s outlet in Surrey for a quick breakfast before heading out. It would be a good day for a long drive – sunny, cool, and crisp. For a long weekend, the roads were not too bad either. And we had the advantage of having an early start.

From Surrey, we drove southwest to Abbotsford, along the Trans-Canada Highway, before slightly shifting northwest towards Chilliwack, following the Fraser River all the way to Hope. Then we took the Coquihalla Highway northwest passing through the towns of Brookmere, Kingsvale, and Merritt, where we took a short coffee break.

The entire trip was estimated for eight and a half hours, but my friend loves to drive and didn’t mind doing all of it. Driving, for her, clears her mind. For us, passengers, it was a relaxing journey with some casual conversation in-between, while enjoying the view that glided by our windows like some zoetrope animation. We continued on to Kamloops, where we had a short stopover, and then west to Revelstoke for a late lunch.

Over our pasta and burger meals at a local diner, we spread out our map to check our bearings. (And yes, it was an actual paper map. This was before the age of Google Maps, GPS devices, and smart phones). It was going to be another three hours to Radium Hot Springs.

As we were having coffee, my friend suddenly remembered a funny anecdote about her cousin, who recently visited Banff in Alberta. Apparently, she enjoyed her vacation very much and couldn’t stop talking about it. The punchline is that every time she’d mention Banff, she’d say it with a prolonged FF at the very end of the word – “Ban-uFh-uFh.” Imagine a children’s TV show where the cast teaches children how to read and pronounce words. “Kids, repeat after me – Ban-uFh-uFh.”

When my friend asked her cousin why she was saying it that way, she shrugged her shoulders and confidently declared like a phonics teacher would, “Well, it has two Fs…so it’s Ban-uFh-uFh…hello??? The way my friend mimicked her cousin was so funny that it became our running joke for that trip.

But this story did not only entertain us. It actually inspired us to change our course. After laughing our hearts out while saying Ban-uFh-uFh several times in the style of a kindergarten teacher, one of us said, “Why don’t we go to Ban-uFh-uFh then?”  

Why not indeed???

The drive was roughly the same length, so by the time we had settled our bill and were walking to the car, we had decided to head out east to Banff, instead of going south to Radium Hot Springs. It was an easy decision because we had not made any bookings for accommodations. At that time, we had wanted to be spontaneous. We thought we’d just find a place to stay when we get to our destination.

And so, our journey continued…and it was the best part. As we approached the Rockies, we were surrounded by a surreal world of mountains and lakes whose natural beauty overwhelmed my senses. I was not prepared for that. I had seen several professional photos of the Canadian Rockies featured in calendars and postcards, and those beautiful images already mesmerized me. But being there was absolutely incomparable. It was like being completely immersed in a 3D painting.

I couldn’t believe the sheer magnificence of what I was beholding right in front of me. As we traversed the winding mountain roads, each turn made my eyes grow larger and my mouth gape wider in awe and astonishment. I remember blurting out, “Is this for freaking real?” 

Several times, my co-worker and I would yell, “Stop the car!” Our driver friend would pull over without any questions or protests, and all three of us would scamper out of the car, stand on the side road, and stare at the scenery, enchanted by Mother Nature.

It is in moments like those that we, as humans, feel insignificant, compared to the majesty of God’s creation. I might have even shed a tear or two out of pure wonderment, and uttered a prayer, out of reverence. Wow!

I should mention that those moments were not solitary moments. For three straight hours, we were enveloped by this beauty. Since we left Revelstoke, we had the privilege of driving through several national parks, beginning with Mount Revelstoke National Park, located in the Selkirk Mountains, and the part of the string of national parks along the Canadian Pacific Railway Corridor. It is characterized by rainforests, rolling sub-alpine plateaus, wild flower meadows, massive red cedars, skunk cabbages, and woods of spruce and fir trees.

Right next to it is the Glacier National Park, carved from the rugged Selkirk and Purcell Mountains by more than 400 glaciers and located within the northern bend of the Columbia River. It is renowned for its rugged snow-capped peaks flanked by immense icefields and dotted with canyons, rivers, waterfalls, and flower meadows, creating a spectacular alpine panorama.

Its sheer valley walls make it ideal for mountain climbing at all levels of difficulty. In fact, this area is said to be the birthplace of mountaineering in North America. It also contains a large cave system, among the top ten known in Canada, which is an underground fantasyland of black pools, hidden waterfalls, and rare calcium carbonate formations called “moon milk,” named as such for their colour. It was there were we encountered a herd of deer crossing the road and a few horned goats munching on grass in very precarious positions on the cliffs.

The national park is also home to Rogers Pass, one of the greatest mountain crossings in British Columbia. Located at the summit of the park, at an elevation of 1,382 meters, one has to pass through five long tunnels, which was quite unnerving knowing that these were built as protection from avalanches. It was a good thing that my friend is a skilled and steady driver.

Then we reached Golden, the town situated in the border of British Columbia and Alberta. It sits between the Purcell Mountains and the Canadian Rockies, and at the junction of the Columbia and the Kicking Horse Rivers.

From there, we entered Yoho National Park, located along the western slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. This spectacular park boasts of notable highlights - Takkakaw Falls, one of Canada’s highest free-falling waterfalls; the Natural Bridge over the Kicking Horse River; Emerald Lake named after the deep colour of its waters; Lake O’Hara, known for its surrounding scenic trails; Burgess Shale, one of the world’s most important fossil sites; and the engineering marvel of the Spiral Tunnels. Most certainly, this park stays true to its name – Yoho, a Cree word that signifies awe.

Before long, we had crossed over to Banff National Park on the Alberta side, our final destination. This is Canada’s first national park, established in 1885 after railway workers discovered a thermal hot spring in the area. Soon enough, the Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise were built, attracting visitors from all over. It has become the flagship of Canada’s park system in the West Coast. Its mountain peaks, turquoise glacial lakes, abundant wildlife, and picture-perfect mountain towns and villages have made it into a prime tourist destination.

After several hours of scenic driving with comfort breaks and photo stops in between, we were ready to explore on foot as we arrived in the resort town of Banff.

“We made it to Ban-uFh-uFh,” we said in chorus.