Brandon's Blog

On September 22, 2024 my wife, our two dogs, and I embarked on a multi-week road trip to camp at some of BC and Alberta’s National and Provincial Parks. Our planned stops were in Revelstoke, Banff, Yoho National Parks, and Mount Robson Provincial Park with our travel trailer. Along the way we planned to visit some family and friends near 100 Mile House, BC.

Since I haven’t posted much on my blog in the last few years, and have been slowly waning myself off posting my content on social media sites that are not owned by me, it was decided that I should leverage my own site to catalog our road trip journey. What follows is something of a daily journal of our trip; my wife also wants us to commemorate our trip with a smash book that she picked up almost a decade ago and finally has a use for it.

This is an image-heavy post, you have been warned.

September 21 #

The lead up to any trip is a gut-wrenching rollercoaster of emotions for me. No matter how many trips I’ve been on over the years, I still get anxious. From the seemingly endless fear that I’ll forget something, to the worry that we’re going to sustain damage to the truck or trailer on the trip, the gamut is very wide on what could go wrong or what I might forget. On the opposite end of the spectrum, absolutely nothing can go wrong and we’ll have a fantastic trip full of smiles, laughing, and joy.

The longest trip my wife, Brit, and I have ever done together was our honeymoon in Oahu, Hawaii for just shy of two weeks. We took the whole day before our departure and went over our lists of items to pack several times so that we didn’t forget anything. The following morning we would leave for the ferry with the trailer in tow at 9am sharp!

September 22 #

After finalizing that everything we wanted to bring was in the trailer and we were all hooked up to the truck, we nervously pulled out of the driveway and headed to the Duke Point ferry terminal for our 10:15am sailing. Boarding the ferry was a bit nerve wracking as we had never towed the trailer off the island before, so this was one of many firsts on the trip. After parking as close as comfortable between the semi-trucks on the lowest deck of the ferry, we headed up to the cafeteria for some breakfast. I’ll spare you the details, but it was just ok; BC ferries is not known for spectacular food options. After a grueling two hours, we had docked and drove off the ferry for the first time.

Our first day on the road was spent driving from the lower mainland of BC to the Coquihalla Campground in Hope, BC. It is a private campground and we stayed here because it’s a reasonable stopping point to chop the trip into smaller sections before heading to Revelstoke in the morning. We had hotdogs for dinner once we arrived, then watched a movie in the trailer before going to bed. It rained all night and sounded nice on the trailer roof at first, but was heavy and loud at times. I woke up many times during the night because of it, meanwhile Brit said she slept like a log; lucky her.

September 23 #

The next morning’s drive to Revelstoke was pretty uneventful. The Coquihalla highway, connecting Hope to Kamloops, was not as busy as we had thought it might be and the truck didn’t struggle much pulling the trailer up the big hills with the new YotaTune OTT tune I had flashed a few weeks prior, though they were long and winding roads up into the mountains so we burned nearly a full tank of gas getting to Revelstoke. In Salmon Arm we got stuck behind a motor vehicle incident backlog of traffic on the main road through town, but I was able to back us out off the road into a gas station parking lot and we navigated around the traffic using some side roads back out to the highway past the incident.

After arriving in Revelstoke, it was a short drive from town up to the Snowforest campground in Mount Revelstoke National Park. Most of the sites in the area we booked are pull through which makes it easy to drive the trailer out when leaving. All of the sites provide 30amp power, and water is available at one of the spigots located around the campground. The facilities are very new and clean, and showers are free.

In the evening, we barely caught the tail end of the sun setting and the clouds began glowing red.

September 24 #

Two-thirds of the campground was vacant when we awoke which made for a very quiet and pleasant start to our day. I had some time to kill while Brit was getting ready for the day so I set up my HF antenna and mast to make some contacts with people around the world by activating the Mount Revelstoke National Park POTA reference on the 20m band. It took me awhile, approximately two hours because the band was not performing very well, but I ended up with the necessary ten contacts in order to activate the park.

We spent most of the afternoon hanging out in downtown Revelstoke. Our first stop was eating lunch at Twilight Bite, a japanese street food truck we ate at the last time we were in Revelstoke and have dreamt about it ever since, then we explored some of the local shops. We purchased an adorable Xmas tree ornament to commemorate our time in Revelstoke and a few National Park stickers to add to our book.

The evening was spent hanging out at camp and relaxing, enjoying our last night in the campground. In hindsight, we wished we stayed here longer than two nights, but the original plan when booking everything in February was to have Revelstoke be a stopover to Banff and then on to Jasper. We’ll definitely be back in the future to spend more time here and to do some hiking in the area.

September 25 #

The next leg of our trip was to head towards Banff, AB, so we packed up and got on the road. On the drive we stopped in a few places for pictures including Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park, and then at Beaver Valley park for a quick lunch break.

We arrived to a very windy Tunnel Mountain Village II Campground in Banff in the early evening golden light, parked the trailer, and made dinner. Clouds were rolling in and it looked like we were going to have a rainy evening. Overnight a thunderstorm passed through and the rain and thunder kept waking us up.

September 26 #

We went into the town of Banff to eat lunch at Ramen Arashi, to collect our National Park sticker, and walked around a bit.

Afterwards we meandered over to Vermillion Lakes, then did a tour of Two Jack, Minnewanka, and Johnson lakes, and one our way back to the site we stopped at Cascade Pools.

For dinner we went to Hankki Banff + Dessert. The wind overnight was relentless… it kept us awake for a better part of it and at one point it moved the trailer so much I actually thought it might push it off the blocks 🥲 Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep and it was probably the worst night’s sleep of the entire trip.

September 27 #

We watched the beautiful sunrise before gearing up and heading towards Calgary for the day.

The primary reason for the trek to Calgary was to pick up a group order of antennas from GPSCentral for some members of the Vancouver Island Amateur Radio Discord server, then we went to TNT Supermarket for some food options we don’t get at home. We also checked out IKEA for some things that were on our list and went to CF Chinook centre where Brit made a quick pit stop for some clothes but came out with nothing; not the least surprising though because she has difficulty finding clothes that she likes.

Afterwards we wanted to take the dogs for a walk in the sunshine and give them a stretch and we ended up at Weaselhead Flats Environmental Park. The trees were in full autumn colour swing in the area and absolutely beautiful. Afterwards we got some bubble tea, filled up the gas tank, and headed back to Banff for the evening. For the rest of the night, we hung out at the trailer around the fire and watched the stars in the inky black sky with minimal light pollution.

September 28 #

Saturday we had to move sites to our second booking because our Jasper part of the trip was cancelled due to the wildfire that destroyed a significant portion of the park and Jasper townsite, so instead we had booked two extra days in Banff but in the site across from us in B76, B77. After re-levelling the trailer we headed out to Canmore to go check out the town. We stopped at a filipino food truck called Marupork Kitchen and gorged ourselves on some delicious street food, then went in search of some more stickers for our smash book.

After walking the main streets of Canmore, we drove to the Three Sisters viewpoint trail and walked it out to the Bow River. Along the way we saw many elk tracks in the mud of the dried river bed that makes up part of the trail. In hindsight this small detail, noticing the hoof prints, would be tremendously serendipitous.

When we got back to our campsite in Banff we hung out for a bit at the trailer and relaxed, then I emptied our grey water into our new holding tank we got in Canmore and took it to the sani-dump. This is important because when I arrived, there were three elk cows grazing in the clearing next to the concrete pad where you dispose of your waste. I watched them as I emptied the holding tank; they were so calm and unbothered by the several people that had slowly gathered to watch them. Before I knew it about fifteen people had amassed in a group to see them.

I finished up at the sani-dump and left the elk to the rest of the people watching them, and went back to the site to tell Brit what I’d seen. She hopped into the truck and we drove back to the elk cows so that she could see them as well.

After a few minutes of photos we went back to the site again but this time there was a group of people in the road excitedly looking in the same direction: at a herd of elk that were between some of the sites, including ours!

We watched what seemed like the alpha bull elk of the harem ward off a few other males who were trying to join the herd. The Parks Canada staff had gotten wind of this event happening and severl members were out of their vehicles getting involved, trying to drive the group away from the grounds across the main road into the trees. They did so successfully and the crowd of people eventually dispersed. After this exciting series of events we drove into the town to have dinner and do some more shopping, then we came back to the site and relaxed for the night.

September 29 #

We woke up late the next morning and left the site around noon to grab some lunch in Banff before heading up the Icefields Parkway as far as we could go because Jasper National Park is closed. There is a certain point on the drive that makes it not worth driving beyond as you cannot stop so once we had gone as far north as we felt comfortable, we turned around and headed back. This was the first time either of us had traveled the Icefields Parkway and I have to say it is one of the most beautiful segments of roadway I’ve ever driven in my life and we didn’t even go more than a sixth the full length of the parkway! Along the way we stopped at Bow Lake and Peyto Lake, a bucket list stop of Brit’s.

When we exited the parkway, we navigated to Lake Louise in an attempt to park and see the lake. Fortunately it was late enough in the day that there was some parking available so we paid the astronomical $37 flat rate and walked to the lakeside. I’m going to be honest here and say that I’ve seen so many images of this lake on Instagram I stopped caring whether I saw it or not as it is one of the most photographed lakes on the internet, however that exposure does not prepare you for seeing it in person; the teal colour of the lake is so vibrant and bright that it does not look real. It took me a few minutes to stop shaking my head and enjoy the view because I simply could not believe what I was seeing with my own eyes.

Afterwards we headed back to Banff via the Bow Valley Parkway. On this drive we stopped at Morant’s Curve, a bucket list stop of mine though there was no train passing at the time, and Storm Mountain lookout then rejoined Highway 1 to save some time getting back to Banff for dinner.

September 30 #

I got up early to watch the sunrise one last time in Banff, then we headed out to do some grocery shopping before we packed up and made our way to Yoho National Park. We arrived in the evening and made some dinner, then I set up my HF antenna and mast to activate the Yoho National Park POTA reference on the 20m and 40m bands, and even made some contacts on 80m when I checked into the HF portion of the Island Trunk Net. In total I ended up with 36 contacts! It made for a great night.

October 1 #

In the morning it was wet, cold, and there was a layer of snow on the ground. It was a beautiful sight but very chilly. It was also a very interesting sight to see on our wedding anniversary! Two years married, twelve years together as a couple ❤️

We spent the first half of the day seeing the sites around Yoho like Takakkaw Falls, Emerald Lake, and Natural Bridge, but it was so rainy and cold that we ended up hanging out in the trailer for the rest of the day to stay warm.

I activated the Yoho National Park POTA reference again on the 20m band making 30 contacts. We also decided that we were done with Yoho and wanted to move on a day early, so next morning we would be traveling the Icefields Parkway to head to Jasper and eventually Mount Robson.

October 2 #

We packed up, hooked up the trailer, and headed towards Mount Robson up the Icefields Parkway toward Jasper. What made this leg of the trip great was the weather: we had partly cloudy weather and no rain or snow so the mountains were visible and capped with snow from the previous few days of cold and wet weather. We drove past the few stops we had made a few days prior and eventually got to the point where neither of us had been before. If you ever get a chance to drive this parkway, do it! Words and pictures cannot describe the stunning beauty of the valley you drive through.

We eventually stopped at the Columbia Icefields Athabasca Glacier. I had no idea that you could literally drive right up to it (well, kind of).

We made a few more stops before ending up in Jasper National Park. I was not prepared to see the sheer devastation the wildfire had caused only a few months prior, but was happy to see that there was regrowth and rebuilding already happening. Seeing the homes and buildings lost to the fire brought a tear to my eye as we drove into the townsite of Jasper and I felt the heaviness come over me when we stopped for fuel, like I shouldn’t be here while these people are mourning their losses and rebuilding their lives. Brit assured me that the best thing we could be doing was supporting the businesses in town in this time of need as the tourism they rely on all but disappeared. We moved on and headed for Mount Robson which was a short drive away.

When we arrived in the Mount Robson Provincial Park, we went to a campground that evidently turned out to be closed for the season. There is no cell coverage whatsoever in the area so we couldn’t tell if one of the other campgrounds was still open and stopped on the side of the road when a BC Parks worker on a tractor drove past and informed us that there was a campground across the highway that was still open. We headed there to find it was only open for another week and that it was cash only, but open nonetheless. I had almost the exact amount of cash left in my wallet for a two night stay; how serendipitous! We setup camp and ate some dinner by the fire and finally had our first “unplugged” night.

October 3 #

We wanted to check out some of the places to see in the park so we made breakfast and went to the information centre not far from the campground only to find that it too was closed for the season. Fortunately they had free wifi accessible from outside the building so while Brit looked up places to drive to, I downloaded Google Maps for offline of the area so we could at least see where we needed to go on the map.

We visited Rearguard Falls, Jackman Flats Provincial Park, and Overlander Falls. The falls were great to see but the walk through Jackman Flats was incredible: imagine walking through what feels like an alpine setting with pine trees and lichen growing everywhere, but also you’re walking across sand dunes deposited by a glacier and lake thousands of years ago. We ended up back at the information centre to check emails and sent messages to loved ones, then headed back to the campsite for dinner. While grilling our chicken for dinner I setup my antenna to play around on HF and activated the Mount Robson Provincial Park POTA reference on 40m making 14 contacts.

October 4-6 #

We packed up and headed towards 100 Mile House to visit with some family and spend a couple nights at their home with them.

After a solid day of relaxing with family, telling stories and reminiscing about when my sister and I were younger, we headed back toward the coast. Initially we wanted to stay the night at Skihist Provincial Campground however I apparently cannot read and didn’t realize they closed the campground for the season on September 29th, so we carried on to Hope once again to the Coquihalla campground for the night, making way for the ferry in the morning. The campground was even quieter than when we went through the first time as the season was winding down.

October 7 #

We made our way to the ferry and stopped for lunch at Pho Fresh in Delta, then afterward we got some bubble tea at the Tsawwassen Mills food court (a very large mall in the lower mainland near the ferry terminal where we were headed). The ferry ride over to the island was uneventful and I spent most of it editing the series of photos you see above.

After being on the road for 16 days, I cannot be thankful enough to be home! A wave of relief washed over me when we set foot on the island again in our own driveway. Nothing feels better than sleeping in your own bed, walking on your own floors, and being able to run water and do laundry. Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling and exploring but there is just something about coming home after a trip that feels refreshing.

I am incredibly thankful for Parks Canada and BC Parks for making our trip what it was and we would gladly go back to the places that we stayed at in the future.