With Sarah needing to be in Vancouver on the 10th & 11th of June we decided to take a long weekend break out there. Because of time constraints Sarah would fly out there on Thursday night, but I set off  by truck on Wednesday to take in some of the sights across the rockies on the 11 hour journey. 


I made a stop over in a small town called Hope where I hiked a couple of trails, one to overlook the town and the other along a beautiful canyon of tunnels and trestle bridges. I found out during my stay that this was the town in which the first Rambo movie was filmed.....seems I had better weather than them though. Click the small images below for larger ones and see all of my wanderings around Hope, BC by clicking here.   

After my two hikes I returned to the motel and showered and changed before continuing on to Vancouver Airport to collect Sarah as she arrived at 7pm. We headed directly to our hotel and dined in the hotel restaurant. 

The next morning we were up and around in good time to head out to Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver where we walked in the treetops for a few hours and dangled over a ravine (or so Sarah would say) It is a great park within the city boundary and well worth the visit. Click the small images below for larger ones and see all of our Capilano adventure by clicking here.   

After Capilano we drove the 'Sea to the Sky' highway  north for a few hours stopping off at places along the way to see small towns, waterfalls, inlets, ferries and for Sarah to climb a tiny rock and call it a mountain. Click the small images below for larger ones and see the whole journey by clicking here.  

We had dinner in a pub in a small town along the coast before returning to the hotel for the evening.  On Saturday morning we visited a stunning classical chinese garden just walking distance from the hotel and followed this with a visit to the tower to look out over the city. From here a small peek at Stanley Park was sufficient to convince us that we would need to spend a day there tomorrow.  In the evening we had a lovely dinner at a restaurant downtown and then went to the movies to see the new Star Trek film. Click the small images below for larger ones and see the entire garden by clicking here.  

On Sunday morning there was no low cloud so the sun was out early without us waiting for it to burn off the clouds. We decided to head to the beach and where better than 'English Bay Beach' which is on the Southern end of the sea wall that surrounds Stanley Park. We walked from the hotel and picked up a few picnic supplies at Safeways en route. After the beach we made the long walk around Stanley Park via the sea wall (12km without a peep from Sarah about distance) Click the small images below for larger ones and see all of the Beach, Harbour & Stanley Park by clicking here. 

The remaining shots from Vancouver don't really fit into a category, they show the area around the Devonian Harbour Park and the North Shore waterfront. Click any of the smaller images for a photo gallery of the harbour shots.  

After Vancouver I took a long northern detour on the route home travelling via the Sea to the Sky highway again up to Whistler then inland to Port George where I spent the night. The next day I revisited Mt Robson where at last I got to see the summit without cloud on it before driving the Icefields Parkway to the Athabasca Glacier with beautiful blue skies overhead. I took the Kootney Plains highway to Abrahams Lake and then highway 22 South to return home, a fantastic 4000km road trip through the stunning Rocky Mountains. The slideshow below shows some of the sights along the way. 

We have had Mark,Hayley and Ethan over for two weeks and though it has flown by we have squeezed in some fantastic times once more. To see what we got up to, click here for the full description. 

After taking a couple of weeks to ensure Sarah was OK with her massive Sequoia (try getting her out of it)  We returned to the same dealership and traded in my little truck for this monster....well, you know what they say "when in Rome"

A few weeks ago Sarah and I walked Johnson Canyon but not the extended section to the 'Ink Pots' today I returned to complete the whole hike as a nice spring warm up. Click here for full story and pics.

Our first visit to this stunning part of Alberta, 3 hours south on the border with the US is an incredibly picturesque  park, famed for it's windy days but breathtaking if you catch it when its calm...which we did. Click here for full story and pics

Anyone who knows me would know that seeing those bald eagles yesterday when I only had a short lens with me would drive me to distraction, and it did. So today I returned to Glenbow Ranch with the telephoto lens and captured some better shots of these magnificent creatures.....if you want to see LOTS of Bald Eagles click here.     

I went out to visit a recent 'find' close to home, how I wish I had found this area sooner....I feel I've wasted a year. A fantastic prairie park and a wonderful encounter with a bald eagle protecting its nest. Click here for full story and pics.  

With many long road trips planned, and family visits to facilitate, we decided it was time to find a bigger vehicle to enjoy. After much consideration we settled for a Toyota Sequoia, it is a truly cavernous monster with room for all the family and more. It is smooth, quiet and ridiculously large ....exactly what we were looking for and with the added bonus of being one of those things that we would never do at home.  Many more road trips coming soon.  

I have finally got around to adding a gallery to the site, many of the photos are already on the site in one form or another but there are some new ones too. Use the tab above to go to the gallery or click here.

The weather was due to turn cloudy and cold this  afternoon but the morning was so nice I couldn't resist a quick hike up Wasootch Ridge in Kananaskis. Though the cloud moved in soon after I reached the ridge top it was a great workout with knee deep snow along the majority of the route.  You can click the smaller images for a larger version.