We took the absolutely stunning Icefields Parkway up to Jasper. Stopping on route at the Columbia Icefields for a jaunt on the Athabasca Glacier. We kicked off with a hair raising ice vehicle journey which descended a 30% gradient hill – eek! Once we got off the monster ice trucks we had a chance to play on the glacier, drink melt water direct from a stream and have a snowball fight. Big surprise of the trip was just how cold it was on the glacier…it was easy to spot the ill prepared family on the glacier in shorts 🥶. Of course the glacier is receding with our guide telling us it had lost half its volume in the last 125 years.

Our wildlife spotting luck picked up as we got close to Jasper. One giant elk on the side of the road greeted us and made us excited for what was to follow.

Our main activity in Jasper was white-water rafting. James’s first chance to give it a go and he was excited to put on his wetsuit and sit right at the front of the raft on chief rapid spotting duty. One set of rapids later we had a howling, saturated, grumpy and cold James. And we remembered that the front seat was the wettest. It was awesome…but perhaps we could have prepared him better…or sat at the back which is where we retreated to…oops!

Some of you might know that John spent a year safari guiding in Namibia and he is also a brilliant wildlife spotter in general. We were therefore supportive when he suggested another early rise, this time to drive to Moose lake on a route often frequented by bears. We knew our luck had been out partly because we were travelling in the middle of the day and we’re keen to change our luck. It didn’t work.

No fear on the lack of wildlife. We were heading west. Out of Alberta and into British Columbia. Our destination was Clearwater and on route a bear spotting power boat safari along the Blue river.

Power boating was exhilarating and a hit with everyone, especially James, who got to drive us at around 40mph along a section of the river 🙈 Still no bears though which was starting to leave us feeling that we were jinxed.

Next stop Alpine Meadows Resort, Clearwater, our home for the next few nights. Literally miles from anywhere and accessed via a dirt road. The ‘resort’ is a bunch of cabins overlooking lake Hallimore, a jetty with an assortment of boats for the guests to use, and apparently it’s grounds are frequented by bears.

We did venture into the nearby Wells Gray provincial park to take in its waterfalls and rivers but most of our time was spent swimming and boating in our very own private lake. John even braved a swim of the length of the lake (about 1.2km), followed by his trusty support crew in a clanky old aluminium rowing boat.

Guess what though, still no bears.

Animal spotting total – Bear = 0, Moose = 0, Elk = 6, Coyote = 1, chipmunk/squirrel = hundreds