A fun-filled and action packed three weeks in the Canadian Rockies – camping, hiking, bear spotting, glacier watching and bungee jumping – this trip really had it all!
Road trippin’ around the Canadian Rockies.
Back in 2018, my husband and I embarked on a three-week road trip around part of Canada that was high on our bucket list – The Rockies! We were so excited to experience Canada, see its beautiful scenery and hopefully spot some bears along the way! We debated the idea of hiring a campervan but with the cost of flights from the UK to Canada at a premium (thanks to school holidays) pushing the price up higher than we wanted, we opted for a simpler option of hiring a car and taking our tent with us instead.
Our three week road trip adventure saw us start in the vibrant city of Vancouver before heading up to Whistler, Jasper, Banff and back again. We stayed in campsites along the way and tried to squeeze in as much as we could in the three weeks we were there. Looking back now, it is probably one of the best trips I have ever had (but I say that about a lot of trips) and I would definitely love to head back to Canada one day.
Vancouver
Our trip started in Vancouver where we spent a couple of days exploring the city. We used this time mainly to settle after travelling, pick up the car hire, enjoy a bit of city life and good food (before camp food cooking became our life), visit the beach and enjoy the stunning sunsets. We knew we had a big trip coming up so we wanted to relax as much as possible.
Vancouver is an awesome, vibrant city (and that’s coming from someone who is NOT a fan of the city life). It sits in a sea-port on the west coast of British Columbia and is surrounded by mountains. If you head down to the water’s edge, you can watch all the sea planes taking off and landing and enjoy the coffee shops and restaurants. If you’re a city person and want to take in the city life, I would spend a few days here but as I’ve said – I’m not a city lover so my knowledge on Vancouver and all it has to offer is limited to say the least!
Vancouver top tip
One of my favourite places in Vancouver was the appropriately named “Sunset Beach”. I mean, just look at the sunset from here…
Squamish
After leaving behind the bright city lights of Vancouver, we headed to a lovely little campsite in Squamish nestled between Vancouver and Whistler. We used this as a base to rest and visit Shannon Falls (a 335m high waterfall), Brandywine Falls, Garibaldi Lake and do a bit of hiking.
We used this website to find some hiking routes we wanted to do in the Squamish area: Squamish Hiking
Brandywine Falls is a stunning 70m waterfall located within Brandywine Falls Provincial Park and can be viewed easily from an accessible viewpoint. Within the park itself there are numerous trails for hiking and mountain biking, which makes it the perfect place for an adventurous day out.
Garibaldi Lake
What a sensational place this is! This turquoise lake sparkles in the sunshine and is well worth the roughly four hours it takes to hike there. The lake lies between Squamish and Whistler at an elevation of 1484m. The walk and lake itself is spectacular and you will find yourself surrounded by waterfalls, mountains, glaciers, forests and protected wildlife.
Whistler
Our next stop was Whistler, a small town north of Vancouver, famous for its skiing and the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. This lovely town is the perfect place for dinner and a beer while taking in the views (and it’s still on my list for some winter skiing!). You can visit the Olympic Park, pose in front of the Olympic rings, marvel at the size of the ski jumps and we even had a go at the biathalon rifle shooting while we were there which was a lot of fun!
If you are up for a bit of adrenaline filled fun, check out the bungee jump in Whistler. I’m a bit obsessed with bungee jumps and if I can find one, I’ll do it! On the day, my husband ended up being a bit of a chicken and backing out so luckily for me I got to do his jump as an extra! The company were called Whistler Bungee and were awesome on the day.
Mt. Robson Provincial Park
After leaving Whistler, we headed for the place we were most excited about – Mt Robson Provincial Park. Mt Robson (3,954m) is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies and is definitely a mountain for the professionals – it’s a demanding 14hours+ summit day with high avalanche risks. However, if you want to see it up close, there is another way – the Berg Lake Trail.
Berg Lake Trail
We did this in one very long, sweaty and demanding day but it is much better tackled as a multi-day hike because when you get to Berg Lake, you can camp and spend a couple of days in the area doing other hiking trails. Berg Lake lies at the bottom of Berg Glacier, which tumbles down the slopes of Mt Robson. It is 13 miles (each way) to the lake but well worth the effort.
You walk through forests, past waterfalls and through bear territory to get the most sensational views. We set off just before 6am in the morning and to say we were a bit worried about bears is an understatement! It seemed like the perfect place for them – so quiet, the morning light just breaking through the trees and nobody else around. We made sure to keep chatting as we walked to hopefully scare away any bears nearby. We saw a few people with bear bells tied to their backpacks, which looking back is a really good idea and means you don’t have to talk constantly.
If you are going to tackle this in one day, be sure to take enough high energy snacks, I spent the last two hours in tears and demanding to be just left to be eaten by bears because we had ran out of water and my husband had eaten the last of the jelly babies – I was hungry and thirsty and literally had no energy left! Somehow I made it back and that evening, as soon as the tent was pitched, I fell straight to sleep.
Icefields Parkway
The Icefields Parkway links Lake Louise and Jasper via a 232km road, winding through glaciers, mountain peaks and sweeping valleys. It is dotted with more than 100 glaciers, one of which you can take a bus tour onto. We chose not to opt for this because it just seemed too touristy and since we had both walked on glaciers before, we didn’t get swept up in the novelty of a tour like this.
Peyto Lake
Peyto Lake is a lake fed by a glacier in Banff National Park. It is located on the Icefields Parkway and is accessed by a short walk to a stunning viewpoint. The lake is a bright turquoise colour and is best viewed from Bow Summit, the highest point on the Icefields Parkway.
Lake Louise
Another turquoise, glacial lake in Banff National Park, it’s name means “Lake of the Little Fishes”. One of Canada’s grandest, luxury hotels, Fairmont’s Chateau Lake Louise, is located on its eastern shore. On and around Lake Louise itself you can enjoy a host of activities including hiking, horse riding, mountain biking, canoeing and even ice skating on the frozen lake in winter!
Moraine Lake
This was the most perfect spot for canoeing and is possibly the most beautiful lake I have ever seen. It’s another beautiful blue lake not far from Lake Louise and for me, this was more dramatic as it is surrounded by more majestic mountains. It is a world famous lake and for 10 years it appeared on the back of a Canadian $20 bill!
Banff
Our final stop before the weather turned, the storms rolled in and we sacked off camping, making an incredibly long, last minute drive back to Vancouver a few days earlier than planned. We needed the comfort of a hotel because the temperatures in Canada were crazy even though it was summer. We would go from 30 degrees during the day to below freezing at night and I think we had just had enough by this point, so we he headed back to Vancouver, the city life and a comfy bed again!
This small popular resort town is dominated by the peaks of Mt. Rundle and Mt. Cascade. The town has many restaurants, bars and boutique shops for you to explore as well as it being a popular skiing destination in winter.
Camping in Canada
Camping in Canada is straightforward but strict. There are lots of dedicated campsites but I would definitely recommend booking on to these in advance as campsites fill up quickly, especially in peak seasons. Due to bear risks, you need to make sure you leave no trace of any food/rubbish in your camping spot. You will be slapped with a hefty fine for breaking these rules, and rightly so. In each campsite, we had our own designated area, underneath the trees with space for our car, a picnic bench to eat at and a fire pit. You can purchase wood to use in your fire pit at each campsite but it’s important that you don’t take this wood to your next campsite because of the risk of spreading pests and disease!
At our campsite in Lake Louise, we woke early in the morning to arguing and shouting next to us. Being the nosey parker that I am, I unzipped my tent to find the rangers and police telling off a family who had camped next to us. Wondering what it was all about, I leaned a little closer and was shocked to hear that after they had finished cooking, they simply tossed their rubbish and left over food into the verge on the other side of the track and had left their dirty dishes out overnight! In this area, bears often come down the mountains and pass next to the campsite to get to the river and head up on to the mountains on the other side of the valley regularly. There is an electric fence but this doesn’t stop the bears, it can just put them off but if a bear really wants to get to your left over food, it will! We couldn’t believe how irresponsible and selfish this family had been and gladly watched them be fined and escorted off the campsite. Fortunately the only bears we saw on this trip were from a safe distance from the car in Whistler and around the Lake Louise area at dusk.
To book campsites in advance of our visit, I used the Parks Canada website which allows you to choose your campsite and pay in advance, safe in the knowledge your pitch is reserved.
Bear Advice
Coming from the UK, bears seemed like such a huge concern to us and I spent AGES researching about them and how best to keep yourself safe. I remember in a small shop outside Whistler, we were buying bear spray ready for our hiking trips and the lady in the shop casually announced; “it’s not the bears you want to worry about, it’s the mountain lions!” Our faces must have been a picture because she giggled and continued telling us about a story from “a while back” where a mountain lion had come down off the mountains one morning and taken a child on their way to school walking through a forest path on their way to the bus. Whether or not this is just a scary story she saves for tourists, I’ll never know but it certainly added a bit of excitement to our hiking trips! Anyway, in regards to bears, this is what I found out and are the rules we tried to stick to while we were in Canada and bear territory…
- There are both Grizzly and Black Bears in Canada – grizzly ones generally live higher up in the mountains and black bears are the ones that stroll around neighbourhoods and raid the bins.
- Bears WILL avoid people in general, they are scared of you just as much as you are scared of them
- Bears are sensitive animals so if you find yourself hiking or in an area there is a high probability of being a bear, make noise. You can talk (loudly), sing, have music playing, clap, use bear bells and this is especially important near streams/rivers and in forest areas
- Look out for fresh bear signs – poo, scratches and paw prints – leave the area!
- Don’t stray off the path
- Carry bear spray with you on trails and ensure you have quick and easy access to it – make sure you read the labels on how to use it BEFORE heading off on your hike.
- If you see a bear, keep a safe distance, stay calm, don’t run. If the bear doesn’t know you are there, just move away quietly.
- If the bear sees you, stay calm and quiet so you don’t come across as a threat. Talk to it firmly and back away slowly – don’t run.
- If the bear comes towards you, make yourself seem big and get your bear spray ready. If the bear doesn’t seem scared you can talk to it calmly and slowly back away.
- If the bear seems like it is curious/threatened by you, you may need to shot and scream at it to intimidate the bear.
- If the bear makes contact, the best advice I read is to play dead by lying on your front and protect your neck with your hands.
I’m not an expert but these are some of the tips I remember reading when researching bears in Canada.
I really enjoyed our trip around the Rockies and I feel like I could have spent twice the amount of time there and still not be able to see everything I wanted to. There is some awesome hiking if you do your research including excellent overnight or multi day trips. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t fit these in our schedule but maybe one day!
Canada is definitely a brilliant and beautiful place to visit – here’s to more visits in the future!
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