Home » Canada » Adventure in North America 2002, Part 5: Canadian Rockies

After leaving Mission we drove towards the Canadian Rocky Mountains, stopping at interesting places along the way. This was a particularly scenic drive with different landscapes and mountain formations all the time. We used the town of Golden as a base for exploring the area, visiting the wonderful Lake Louise and the even better Moraine Lake.

Adventure in North America 2002, Part 5: Canadian Rockies

Jan Arild Teland
2006-05-14 15:53:07

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no disappointment, looking fantastic in reality as well. From the picture on the jigsaw puzzle, I had imagined the place to be much more remote than it really was, though!

We had lunch in the only restaurant at the lake. Fortunately, it was not as expensive as one might have feared. I had Biff Stroganoff with egg noodles, which was okay. On driving back to the Lake Louise visitor center, we saw a small deer looking exactly like Bambi in the Disney cartoon!

Shortly after arriving, Tina and me went to walk the Bow River trail. It was supposed to go for a total of 7 km along the bank of the Bow River. Even though the trail was completely flat, it was still a nice walk in the clean refreshing mountain air. However, as we approached the turning point of the trail, the path was blocked with a sign saying that the track had been closed due to danger from bears! We therefore had to backtrack a while before crossing the river and continuing on the other side until we reached a similar sign. Then we walked back to meet our parents at the visitor center. Although we didn't see any bears, there was quite a bit of wildlife, ground squirrels being especially common.

We had earlier talked about going up in a gondola nearby, but while we had been out hiking, Tor and Kirsten had checked out these gondolas out and found them to be not very interesting. Instead we started driving back towards Golden, stopping to look at a train spiral tunnel which however was not too interesting either.

Back in Golden we located a dry cleaner. It cost only 1.25$ for each load and we let the machines do our washing while we did some shopping. On returning, our clothes only needed to be dried before we could get back to the motel.

There was a gondola in Golden as well, and according to the motel owner it was not to be missed. Before going out to dinner, around 2030, we therefore drove up to the gondola, hoping it would still be operating this late. Fortunately it was open, and it only cost 12$ so late in the evening (for two 15 minute rides), which was very good value for money compared with the 11$ Hell's Gate gondola ride which only lasted slightly more than one minute.

The ride was wonderful, seeming to go on forever and when we reached the top there was a stunning view over the entire mountain range. It reminded me of Switzerland. So late in the evening, as the sun was about to set, the lighting was perfect, too. Unfortunately, this also meant that we couldn't stay up there for too long since it was quite cool.

On coming down to the town, we were all really hungry so we decided to eat at Apostoles just like yesterday. I even ordered the same food! Back at the motel we relaxed and watched TV.