From Business Suits to Backpacks: From Vancouver to Calgary by (crappy) car

Kelowna, down by Lake Okanagan

After driving all over Vancouver Island in our van-with-attitude which we nicknamed 'Darth', it felt a little claustrophobic when we climbed into a little 4-door Toyota Matrix. I suppose it made sense to drive something small over The Rocky Mountains, since driving a van the size of a spare room hadn't been particularly fuel efficient.

Big smiles after wine tastings :)

A couple of hours east of Vancouver and we were high up in the mountains, in a large town / small city called Kelowna (pronounced cologne-uh). Kelowna is a relaxed place built on either side of Okanagan Lake, and is right in the middle of the Okanagan wine region. Seeing as we had some fun wine tasting on Vancouver Island, we thought we would give this place a chance as well. We weren't disappointed, and found a few smaller, mostly family owned producers who only really made the wines that they would enjoy, and not just the regular stuff that would sell. A brave, somewhat stubborn approach to winemaking, and no better way for me and Kate to find some new styles to try. By the end of our little self-led wine tour we had 4 or 5 absolutely amazing bottles tucked away in our ugly car.

The town of Kelowna was nice to walk around in as well. There was an enormous public park running along the side of the lake, with pathways, piers, skate parks and other interesting stuff available for people to use. It would have been nice to spend more time in Kelowna, but after two nights we had to get back on the road and get to Revelstoke for our next two night stopover.

Us, atop Mt Revelstoke

Revelstoke was absolutely beautiful. A tiny, tidy town hidden between a dozen or more snow capped mountains, it felt very untouched. Remember, we were there during summer, so seeing snow on top of all the mountains came as a surprise. During our short time there we made it to the top of Mount Revelstoke, the local mountain. I should mention that we didn't climb the whole way up. Remember, we were only in town for 48 hours. We drove up most of the way, then walked up the last few kilometers through the snow. Thanks to the perfect weather we were able to wear light summery clothes, despite walking through snow almost up to our knees at times. The view from the peak was like something out of a painting or off a postcard, and we took a bunch of photos before making the slippery trip back down.

Lake Louise. Just Amazing. Oh, and freezing.

The next day we said goodbye to Revelstoke and made our way further east, heading for Banff, which is a popular alpine town known for it's ski slopes. Along the way we stopped at Lake Louise, which is an enormous, milky blue, glacier-fed lake. The colour is caused by the ground up rock particles which are suspended in the water. One thing we have learned about Canada is that it doesn't matter how far inland you live, you are never far from a large body of water. The day we were there was Canada Day (July 1st), so there were masses of tourists, both domestic and foreign, all bustling around the lake. We walked around a portion of the lake, taking in the fresh air and even wading into the freezing water temporarily. The water was like ice, but there were still some mad people swimming around anyway. We lasted only a couple of minutes up to our knees before we had to retreat to the shore.

Banff was just a few miles down the road from the lake, so we got to enjoy some of Canada Day in the midst of the tourist-crazy town. All the bars were chock-a-block, and there was an open air concert going on in the public park near the river. We walked around all this stuff, and later watched the fireworks over the river. We had a fun, loud time in a town which would be a tourist circus even on a quiet day.
Before leaving Banff, we made time to explore the lengths of the Johnston Gorge, which had a river running through it with a lot of force, thanks to the melting snow and some recent rains. It was an easy walk, and very scenic, thanks to the many waterfalls of various sizes which we walked past along the way to the main waterfall at the end of the trail.

I wasn't too upset about leaving Banff. It has some beautiful views and a lot of great hiking to do, but the town itself is a bit of a joke. Too many tourists for my liking. So we hopped back in our bright red Toyota and rolled down out of the Rockies, headed for Calgary. The Calgary Stampede was due to start the day after we arrived, so I suspected there might be a few tourists waiting for us there as well. Never mind, it was time to find a cowboy hat, chew some tobacco and lose my front teeth in a bar fight over a woman I might be related to. Ya-Hooooo!

Till next time!
//Brendan