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 Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 5:11 pm
Went away for a week, just out to BC. But instead of just doing the usual hot springs and home thing, we decided to stop at a couple places I've never been and mum hasn't been to for ages.
Took the dogs with us, had to leave Saphi-cat at home, though, of course. Travelling with the dogs is always a bit stressful, because they stress and it's just not home so they're off kilter and everything. Not to mention all the excess crap we have to take for them, the tripping hazard that is tie-out ropes, the fact that they're hard to live with in tiny spaces, and they're damn bed hogs. Bella also has a thing about riding up front, so she can see where we're going and all (though then she just curls up to sleep), which means she wants to be on my lap. One of such times, I braided a small bit of her hair on her side - it stayed in for the whole trip, took it out today because it was starting to get a matt above it.
Mostly it was pretty good, though.
Injuries, so to speak, were limited to sun burn, killer headaches, a bit of aches and pains from travelling and crappy beds, and a couple bumps/stepped on paws for the dogs. And a close call with getting a black eye (or at least there's no bruising yet... could be a different story in a couple days, hard to say... it happened last night) for me when the pole to hold up the door on the storage box fell and smoked me on the nose/beside the eye.
Animal sightings included a few deer, a bunch of squirrels, some weird black-and-blue birds, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, and a baby (black) bear
First out-of-the-norm/tourist stop we made was to the Columbia Icefields Centre where we took a couple busses out onto the Athabasca Glacier. There was something while there, getting the passes, about some kind of skywalk thing. We couldn't see anything that looked like what they were talking about while there. However later, on our way past and further, towards Jasper, we passed something that makes me think it's still just in the works/being built; regardless, it's definitely something I want to check out someday.
Second tourist stop we made was to the Jasper Tramway, where we rode in a tramcar up almost to the peak of Whistlers Mountain. Mum didn't overly enjoy it (bit of height fear) but wanted me to have a chance to try it out so sucked it up and went. Personally, I loved it and convinced her to wait an extra car for the way back down so we could be amongst the first on so I could stand at the front and get lots of pictures/truly see where we were going. Only (panic-attack-ish) issue I had with it was being crammed into such tight quarters with so many people (around 25)
Photodump - all images are thumbs on account of space
Abraham Lake - picture doesn't show it so well, but this lake is actually a really nice colour... it's been getting lower and lower in the past five years, though..
Mountains
  
The road up to the glacier
 
Glacier
  
  
  
  
  
  
Ice bus
 
The Skywalk thing
From the Tramway
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
  
  
Animals
At the glacier
  
Baby Bear
Along the highway
  
  
Squirrel at the hot springs campground
Bella
 
And, as a bonus, I came home to confirmation that the fern-things infront of my house are, indeed, lilies - last year we just mowed over them same as the grass, because they're on the edge of the dirt-space; this year I was letting them grow out because they look kind of nice and then last week they suddenly had these massive sprouted-up bits and by Friday there were little buds on them. Had no idea what they were at that point, but saw some lilies elsewhere Friday night and it just hit me. Got home today and one has blossomed.
 
 
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 2:38 am
Thank you so much for letting us vicariously enjoy your holiday! It sounds like you had an awesome time! (Apart from the sunburn and the almost black eye... those don't sound quite as enjoyable!)
So, time for me to ask what are probably stupid questions... those four animals standing around in the middle of the highway... what are those guys? And do they always walk highways in the middle of the day? Normally we're not bothered by wildlife on roads until dusk!
Also, the little furry thing standing next to... I don't know what they are, but man made boxes of some kind, in the photo right at the front of the slideshow on Photobucket - is that a squirrel? He doesn't seem to have much of a tail... but then it might be all angles... and he doesn't look like the squirrel climbing the tree! (Which, by the way, was awesome! The lack of squirrels is my major lament about this country).
And I never realised before just how much Bella looks like Blossom! Different colour, and Bella's fluff is curlier, but a very similar facial expression there. smile
Also, all the landscape photos are fantastic. It's just so incredibly different from anything that happens in this country - and the glacier looked very different from what I was expecting! (I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, mind you, but that wasn't it! xd )
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 9:13 am
Glad you enjoyed. For me, it was a nice mix of old and new - I've never been to the glaciers, nor even on the same altitude as them, so that was pretty cool, as was being so close to the top of a mountain when we went on the tramway.
The guys in the road are big horn sheep (obviously lacking in older males, which are the ones that get the big, curved horns); same goes for all the dark ones on rocky areas/at the glacier.
The white ones in the grass are Mountain Goats. On past trips, these are the ones we usually see the most and there's one area (really curvy, can't see around the corner kind of curves, rock wall on one side, cliff down to the valley on the other) that we almost always see some, right outside a city.
In the mountains, wildlife on the road is a big risk. The speed is, in a lot of areas, 50-70km/h on account of wildlife-encounter-risk moreso than just the curves and hills (lots of "caution, ____" signs), and most of the mountain animals you're likely to run across around the road are big and could do a lot of damage to a vehicle. Usually they're just crossing, but that group obviously got stuck amidst the traffic and was looking rather confused.
The little guy by the boxes is a gopher. He was actually in town when we got home, so not really a part of the trip, but part of the running around/getting settled back in thing and I couldn't resist snapping a photo of him.
We have so many squirrels and gophers around here that they're really nothing special for me. The campground where I took the picture of the squirrel, there were tons running around, they're quite used to people but still skittish enough to not get too close.
I love the scenery of the mountains when we're in them and can often just sit and watch it all. The glaciers are totally different up close and personal than from a distance (I can put up more pictures if you're interested). From afar, they seriously just look like patches of (pure white) snow on the mountains. Up close, you can see that they're more like ice (like a slushy or a snow cone, but obviously a million times larger, obviously) than snow and quite a bit dirtier (granted that may mostly just be because of people and vehicles, but even the untouched parts, because of slides and recession and whatnot, are quite full of dirt and debris)
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 9:36 pm
Such wonderful pictures!!! Im glad you had fun. :3 Lets swamp Freddus with more animal pictures!!! From my holiday in Montana:  Mountian Goat   Soda Butte Rock  More Mountain Goats  Buffaluffs. (Buffalo)    Bird contemplating life...  One of the thousands of waterfalls in Yellowstone    ELK  Our view from our motel I wish I could go back. D: Yellowstones all open now and I really wanted to see the gysers. And I totally want to see glaciers. Never been to Canada, despite the fact its a 3 to 4 hour drive...
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