The thing I was looking forward to most when I booked my exchange to Canada was the opportunity to visit the Canadian Rocky Mountains. I mean, who hasn’t heard of them? With their insanely blue lakes and huge mountains, they’re world famous. They were even more incredible than I could have imagined and I can’t wait to share my experiences with you all! However, the journey to get there was just as interesting and beautiful as the Rockies themselves. So today, I’m going to be sharing all of the places we visited along the way from Vancouver to Banff (and back!).
Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park
The first stop on our journey from Vancouver to Banff was Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park, about two hours out of Vancouver. Here, you can go on a short walk to view the Bridal Veil Falls. I was told this is the fourth highest waterfall in British Columbia but apparently it’s only the 38th. So someone got that wrong!! They were right about it looking like a bridal veil, though. Anyway, it’s a beautiful waterfall and still worth a visit. It’s only a short walk to the falls but you can follow a second trail back to the carpark to make it into a loop.
Hope
A little bit further along the highway you’ll come to the town of Hope. We stopped here for lunch on the way from Vancouver to Banff as well as on the way back, and it’s a beautiful little town! It’s surrounded by mountains, so no matter which way you look you’ll get a stunning view. But it’s actually most famous for its chainsaw carvings which can be seen all over town. Apparently there are more than 80 carvings to be seen and most of them feature local wildlife such as eagles and bears. For lunch, I recommend heading to the bakery. Admittedly, I’d probably recommend the bakery in any town, but they do good sausage rolls here.
Kelowna (spend the night here)
Kelowna is the largest city in the Okanagan Valley and is set on the shores of the Okanagan Lake. It’s quite a beautiful town and is the perfect place to stay the night on the way from Vancouver to Banff. We stayed at the Samesun Kelowna, which was in really good condition and had a nice outdoor seating area where we had group dinners and played card games. The hostel is a short walk from not only downtown Kelowna but also the shores of the lake!
If you like water sports, Kelowna is the place for you! We took part in both jetboating on the lake and parasailing above the lake, both of which were great fun. Whilst the parasailing wasn’t included in our tour, we got a good discount for being with Moose Bus. If you have to choose one of these activities, I’d recommend the parasailing. It was great fun soaring above the lake and the views were pretty incredible! We went jetboating with Kelowna Jetboat Adventures and parasailing with Ogopogo Parasail. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like jetboating is included in the Moose tour anymore, but if you have the time or are travelling through on your own I’d definitely recommend it. You can watch some of the highlights from the parasailing and jetboating in Kelowna in my YouTube video!
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Penticton
Also in the Okanagan Valley is the town of Penticton on the shores of Skaha Lake. This is another great place to stop because you can have a go at stand up paddle boarding! We had a great morning learning how to paddle then going for a swim once we were done. The lake is so flat that even the most unbalanced of us could manage to stay on our boards! It was super hot, though, so make sure you wear plenty of sunscreen.
This is somewhat unrelated but be prepared to run into some issues with waivers if you’re under 19 travelling solo in British Columbia. Nothing major, but in order to take part in paddle boarding one of my tour-mates had to sign the waiver as my “guardian” because I wasn’t of legal age. Similarly, in Tofino, the tour company had to confirm for their head office that I didn’t have a guardian with me in Canada before I could go on the hot springs tour. I didn’t have issues anywhere else so it’s certainly nothing to stress over! Just don’t be surprised.
Revelstoke
Revelstoke is another really beautiful place to stop on the road from Vancouver to Banff. On the tour, we were given the option of going kayaking on one of the lakes here. Last time I went kayaking, my friend had to tie her boat to mine and drag me because I was so hopeless! Needless to say I passed on the kayaking. I wasn’t the only one, though so instead, we drove around to the Revelstoke Dam and had a relaxing lunch admiring the view of the mountains. I’d take that over kayaking any day!
Rogers Pass
I wasn’t going to include Rogers Pass but in my diary I actually wrote about it. With the correct name, no less! So it must have been pretty impressive. And looking at the picture below, it definitely is! This is where the highway makes its way through the Selkirk Mountains. This is the first time that I really realised how HUGE the mountains in Canada are. In comparison, the mountains of Australia are just tiny hills. Anyway, you should stop at Memorial Park and admire the view. You might also learn a thing or two about avalanche control, as this is a very high-risk area in winter.
Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park
Finally, after two days of driving, we made it to our first bright blue lake! And one of the most beautiful ones, at that! Emerald Lake is the perfect first taste of what’s to come in the Rocky Mountains so make sure you don’t miss it. It was named Emerald Lake due to the colour of the water, however, when I was there the water was more turquoise. Here’s an interesting fact: the same explorer that discovered this lake also named a second lake “Emerald Lake” but this lake’s name was changed to “Lake Louise”. More on Lake Louise next week!
We arrived very late in the afternoon and didn’t have time to explore any further than the footbridge. The benefit of arriving so late was that it wasn’t too crowded and the water was almost perfectly still so you could see the reflection of the mountains in the water! If you have time, there is a walk you can do around the lake which is meant to be really nice. You could also hire a canoe, but apparently they’re super expensive.
I hope you like bright blue lakes and insane mountains because there’s loads more of that to come! Next week, I’ll be sharing with you all of the best places to visit in Banff National Park.