Victoria

We caught the BC Ferry from Tswassan (Vancouver) to Swartz Bay (Vancouver Island) on Wednesday evening, which took a little over an hour and a half. We then drove the short distance to Victoria stopping along the way to cook dinner, this travelling home thing is great!!
Victoria is a lovely city, full of hanging baskets, old buildings, character and charm.
We booked into the Fort Victoria Camping Ground for four nights. It has it's own train station on the VIA Rail network, we can't seem to leave the trains behind.
We spent our first day in Victoria walking around the city seeing the sights and most importantly 'Mile 0' the end (or start if you prefer) of the Trans-Canada Highway. Although this officially starts up in St John's, Newfoundland, which we didn't get too, we feel we have crossed Canada!
The next day we went on a Whale Watching Tour, apptly named 'The Prince of Whales' and we saw lots of Orca's which was amazing. They were all feeding on the copious amounts of Salmon in the water.

Okanagan Valley

From Valemont and Salmon spotting we headed down to Kamloops, with the idea that we would spend a few days in The Okanagan Valley enjoying the lakes and scenery. Kamloops is a functional sort of town, a good link if you are travelling somewhere but not a lot for the tourist.
We headed out in the morning toward Vernon, the top town of the 3 sister cities of the Okanagan Valley the others being Kelowna and Penticton. We stayed down by the beach off of Kalamalka Lake and spent the day sunbathing and swimming in the fantastic blue waters of the lake (not like the Glacier fed ones of the north) .
The Valley of Okanagan is a wine growing region and sees about 2000 hrs of sunshine a year. The side of the lake looked picturesque with lines of orchards running up into the hills and the grass was all scorched brown in the summer sun. Not the scenery we were used to in Canada but in someways a welcome relief as it looked alot like some Sth of France Valley or Spanish hillside lake.
Down in Kelowna the buildings of the city are even coloured in that Terracotta colour the Spanish and Italians love so much. The downside was that the wildfires in Washington State US, were starting to blow the smoke north through the Okanagan, So while we had a sunny day in Vernon (30+ deg) , down in Kelowna the next day with not a cloud in the sky - the smoke almost choked and it looked like Cairo on any given day with an air quality index of just 51, which I'm told would be most definately not normal. Planning on spending the day in the sun again, swimming and taking in the scenery the smoke somehow managed to usurp all 3 options, through the haze it looked spectacular though.
We headed from the Okanagan Valley across towards Vancouver Island and had a few stops on the way - mainly to sleep or eat but still they were interesting.
First was Merritt the Country Music Capital of Canada and they have the rednecks and cowboys to prove it! The town has a Country Music Starwalk that scatters around town, the idea being that local business sponsor a star and then get that star to sign and put their handprints in concrete, It was great fun walking around spotting stars like Travis Tritt, The Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban (recently married to Nicole Kidman). Every radio station was of course Country and while in town we grew fond of such lyrics as "Give me two Pina Coladas - One for each hand" and "Hold my beer, while I kiss your woman". Country Music is great... These towns are nestled near the rockies, so surrounded by high peaks and often bordering lakes or Rivers like the Fraser River.
From Merritt the town with almost no merit we headed to Hope the town with almost no... Hope is where they filmed "Rambo - First Blood" and the first capital of British Columbia, its since dwindeled in size and stature to become predominately a truck stop through to the rockies. Which is why we only ate there then continued westward to Vancouver Island.

Leaping Salmon

We left Jasper and headed down the Yellowhead Highway (This Highway starts in Manitoba and goes through Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC) to Mt Robson Provincial park, there we discovered the Chinook Salmon were migrating and spawing so we went to Rear Guard Falls and we could actually see the Salmon leaping out of the water into the falls. It was quite a sight (No Bears eating them though apparently that only mainly happens in Alaska). We drove further along to Valemount, a nothing town except for the Salmon, for the night. We saw the Salmon spawning (making their nest and laying their eggs) we thought they were huge between 1 and 2 metres long but apparently they have lost 40% of their body mass since they left Vancouver according to the guy who gave a free talk on the Salmon in the evening.

Jasper - Rodeo and Cowboys

We arrived in Jasper in the evening after travelling the Icefields Parkway and found a campsite, although there were over 700 sites we had to queue for over an hour to get in.
The next day we took the Jasper Tramway (a Cable Car) up to the highest lookout point in The Rockies that you can get to without hiking. We had an amazing day and could see for miles. We walked further up to the summit and could see Mt Robson and back to the Columbia Glacier.
We then went to town and found out the Rodeo (which tours Canada) had arrived in town so we bought tickets to that nights opening show. We started out viewing it a as a bit of a cliche, with little boys in 10 gallon hats, boots and jeans with big belt buckles - everyone walking with a swagger. This soon turned to appreciation of how physically demanding some of the events where. I'm sure the bareback horse riders must suffer some sort of whiplash! The events ran through in this order, Bare Back Broncos, Saddled Broncos (completely different movement), Steer Roping, Pack Horse Race, Ladies Barrell Race, Calf Roping Tie-down event, Steer Wrestling and lastly and most spectacularly - Bull Riding. These riders looked big and mean then they brought on the bulls. The were massive and with only 3 riders on the night out of 7 competing it was all over too quickly for me. The other 4 riders were nursing injuries ranging from a broken leg suffered the night before in 'practice' to broken ribs, torn knee cartilidges etc etc all sounding more likely to have been suffered in a car wreak. In less than 8 seconds in 2 occasion and in just over 8 seconds for one it was all over. Love the Rodeo...
The rest of our time in Jasper was spent spotting wildlife, going to Edith Lake and driving along Maligne Parkway out to see the Lake and generally relaxing.

Icefields Parkway and Columbia Glacier

After leaving Lake Louise we drove along the Icefields Parkway to Jasper; billed as one of the most spectacular drives in the world it certainly lived up to it's name. It's very hard to capture the beauty and experience in a photograph as well.

We had many stops along the way: Crowfoot Glacier (there used to be 3 toes to this glacier back in 1919 as the old picture shows, but one has since gone) and Lake Peyto.
We also stopped and did a tour up the Columbia Icefield. The only Glacier in the world that you can take a vehicle (and boy is it a big one) out onto. The glacier feeds 3 different oceans, the only one in the world proven to do so.

Closer to Jasper we stopped at Athabasca Falls and Sunwapta Falls, very impressive in their own rights.

Lake Louise

We drove along the Bow Valley Parkway from Banff to Lake Louise, along the way we spotted a big Elk with lovely antlers.
The campground that we stayed at backed onto the train line and oh my god was the horn loud at 4am in the morning and about every 30min around then. Is it really neccessary to toot it for that long!
Aside from that Lake Louise is a beautiful place.
We got up early and drove to Lake Moraine, a spectacular place. Then we drove around to actual Lake Louise and did a walk up to Lake Agnes and Mirror Lake, which gave us beautiful views around the Rockies.

Banff

We arrived in Banff and experienced some of the worst weather of our trip, heavy rain, lightning and thunder but you still can enjoy the Rockies.
Having been to Banff before we didn't need to do all of the tourist things again so we went for a walk up Tunnel Mountain and we timed it right with the weather and got lovely views over Banff.
We also visited the Banff Springs Hot Pools, I have to say not quite as impressive as say The Blue Lagoon but it was nice and relaxing and quite cool when it rained.
The next day we drove to Lake Minniewanka and went for a walk to Stewart Canyon. We also drove around Two Jack Lake and walked around Johnson Lake.
On the way out of Banff we stopped to climb up Castle Mountain, it was a very steep trek and quite exhausting, but at the top we could see for miles and got lovely views of the Rockies.

Drumheller and The Badlands

An early morning start took us to Drumheller which is Dinosaur Country. As quoted from The Lonely Planet; "More complete dinosaur skeletons of the period 64-140million years ago have been found here than anywhere else on the planet." We paid a visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum which displays many of these skeletons found in the area. It was very well presented.
Drumheller celebrates this by having the worlds largest replica of a dinosaur (T-Rex) outside their tourist information.
Upon entering The Badlands, the scenery changes dramatically, instead of flat Prairies, it is now deep canyons with hills showing all of the different periods in time. For example the dark layer at the bottom of the Hoodoos is where the sea was around 70 million years ago.
The Hoodoos are towers of sandstone formed by erosions.
We followed the Dinosaur trail loop which took us to the Bleirot Ferry. Basically a barge that we drove onto that takes you across the river for free.
The Badlands are definitely a must for anyone coming this way.

Lake Waterton National Park

Our first day in the truck saw us head down to Lake Waterton National Park via Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump (great name!) where the 1st Nations chased buffalo over a cliff to their fate as rugs and jackets 5000 years ago.
Lake Waterton, a boundary with Glacier National Park in the US to form an 'International Peace Park'. The scenery was spectacular, seeing The Rockies rise out of the Prairies to fantastic heights.
During our evening drvies we spotted more deer, plus an elk wandered past our campsite. Finally we saw and brown Black Bear and her cub just to the side of the road. We were able to see the bear because of the resulting 'Bear Jam' that occurred, caused by about 7 cars and 20 old people. This let us know it was safe to exit the truck. They were very cute and we watched them for about 10 minutes while they made their way from about 10 metres away into the bush.
The days in the park were spent lazing in the 30 degree sunshine and the dusks and dawn driving to the lakes to spot wildlife.

Truck Camper not a Van...

After reserving and paying for a Van. The company picked us up and showed us what they had avaliable as an upgrade. A massive Truck Camper with a popout side big fridge/freezer, oven double bed shower, toilet etc... basically everything a small apartment has. We were a bit apprehensive at first because of the size but after living in it a few nigts its actually not that bad.

Calgary

We caught the Greyhound from Edmonton down to Calgary 3 1/2hrs. A fitting way to end the public transport section of our journey as Greyhoung was the first piece of public transport we caught when we left New Zealand 6 yrs ago from Vancouver to Banff, incedentally where I am writing this from. A brief 1 night stay in Calgary saw us take in the sights in the afternoon. They have a tower similer to Toronto. But the main reason for the stopover was to pick up the camper to continue to the next leg of the journey. Steak for dinner as we are in cowboy country and thats what you do...

Edmonton

We arrived in Edmonton at 3:30pm (due at 9:30am) and made our way to the Hostel in Old Strathcona District. This is the nightlife hub of the city and the main street is littered with Bars, Restaurants and Nightclubs for all tastes. The next day we went into town to lookaround the centre and check out the civic sights, the Legislation Building and gardens surrounding. Saturday was spent at the West Edmonton Mall. The largest in the world with a water park complete with wave pool, an amusement park with indoor rollercoaster and 4 different miniputt courses plus a truck load of shops. Also in the middle was an Ice Rink and a Water Aqarium with Sea Lion shows twice dialy, we watched them both (free). After 7 hrs we had more than seen enough. Craig bought some shorts - hats it for 7 hrs shopping we are useless...

Northern & Mid-Saskatchewan

After leaving Regina we headed north to Prince Albert National Park.
There we rented cabins which were quite cool, one was more modern than the other but they would be great to hire for a week or so for your holidays.
Our first full day in the park we decided to get out, stretch the legs and do some trails. We picked the Spruce Glacier Trail as although it was only 8kms they said it was strenuous and had great views. It was also extremely muddy in some sections due to recent rain, one time we had to walk across the swamp on a fallen tree. But they were right is had great views and it was really peaceful, but yes quite strenuous.
In the afternoon we did a short 2km trail called Mud Creek. That turned out to be the most eventful as when we were nearing the end, Craig being driven mad by mosquitos, a black bear jumped out of the trail in front of us. Craig thought it was a cub and that it's mother would be close by so we backed up. It looked straight at us and ran off fast. It was probably more scared than we were. All of this happened in seconds so no time for a photo but great memories!!
After leaving Prince Albert the next day we headed back to Saskatoon. Dropped our bags at the Train Station - discovering our train was going to be about 7 hours late due to a fatality (someone playing chicken with the train) outside Toronto - and headed into the town centre.
We walked along the river and booked tickets for some evening culture - Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. We saw the 8pm performance of Two Gentleman of Verona and it was really entertaining.
Afterwards we headed to the station to begin our LONG wait. The train was due to depart at 1.30am. We slept at the station which can only be described as a hut in the middle of nowhere, although it did have a water fountain and a toilet but that was it. We slept on the benches and the train turned up at 9.30am. An hour and a half after it was due to arrive in Edmonton. But one bonus we saw our last train leg by day instead of at night they also gave us a free pancake breakfast with a side of ham steak and lots of maple syrup which satisfied Craig and all was forgiven.
Now we are in Alberta's Capital Edmonton.