Banff and the Icefields Parkway: O, Canada!

For an early 10th Wedding Anniversary trip we spent one week in Western Alberta.  Partly to avoid the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, but also because we knew that, as hikers, Banff was a must-do destination.  The unexpected bonus was the majesty of everything we experienced north of Banff: Lake Louise, The Valley of the Ten Peaks, and the Icefields Parkway.

We flew directly from Atlanta to Calgary.  Landing in that Southern part of Alberta reminded us of the 2 years we spent living in Oklahoma City -- everything is mighty flat.  We immediately got into the rental vehicle and headed towards Banff, Canada's first national park, which is 80 miles (129 km) west of Calgary.  The horizon did not stay flat for very long.

Our destination was a bed and breakfast in the city of Banff.  The best thing about this type of lodging is the breakfast part.  It allows one to stick to the "eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper" motto and we always snagged a couple of fruits on the way out for our princely lunches.  If you are going to spend most of your time hiking in the Canadian Rockies then there is little point in spending money for luxury accommodations.  If you are flat-lander then exhaustion ensures most of your time in your room will be spent with your eyes closed.

The first hike was to Stanley Glacier, which is in Kootenay National Park, British Columbia.  Great first hike to let us know that (a) we are out-of-shape, (b) we are going to need moleskin for our blisters, and (c) everyone from all over the planet says "Hello" on the trail, not "Hi" like Americans would exclaim.  Actually, it was more like "Hullo!", with a warm friendly smile and often with a toddler on their shoulders.

BTW, this trip was before affordable digital cameras.  All pictures in this post have been scanned from our photo album.  For millennials: albums are an obsolete artifact where people would take physical prints of 35mm film and store them under plastic covers, in binders you would buy at Walgreens or Kmart.  Yes, the same noun "album" as LP's.  Boomers weren't always imaginative.

Scanning old photos sometimes leads to "interesting" results.  Take this shot from Lake Louise:  it looks like we are photoshopped in front of a 2-D background.  An incredible background.  Even if you are not a hiker, it is worth a trip to Western Alberta just to see Lake Louise.  Check it out on the Internet.  One Website that list "Best Things To Do in Banff" only has Hiking as #7.

So this hiking mecca has an abundance of other things to see and do.  Imagine boating in The Valley of the Ten Peaks with this backdrop:

The day after admiring that scenery we went on the longest hike of our vacation.  We returned to Lake Louise and started our hike through Larch Valley, with constant views of the Valley of Ten Peaks, and Eiffel Lake as our final destination.  Only two photos below and one recommendation: just do it.  Preferably when you're young and strong.

The following day we headed north on the Icefields Parkway towards the town of Jasper.  The drive was one constant "Wow!" The Icefields Parkway is one of the most scenic highways on our planet and we cannot praise it enough to anyone who loves glaciers. Below are a couple of pictures from the many stops off the Parkway: Crow's Foot Glacier and Peyto Lake.  We are left with only 2 of 3 talons on Crow's Foot, the 3rd one broke off a long time ago.  The photo of Peyto Lake did not capture the deep blue color of the water, but it is a strong light blue like the sky in the photos above (caused by the glacial runoff known as moraine).

Not the longest hike we attempted, but the highest elevation change, was our trek up to Parkers Ridge.  This allowed us to gawk at the Columbia Icefield, the largest in the Rocky Mountains, behind us. 

However, you don't need to huff-and-puff and climb to get close to a glacier in these parts.  Here is a shot of Mary with our car only a short distance away in a parking lot off the Parkway.

The Icefields Parkway ends at Jasper, but shortly before that town is a fabulous hike in the Edith Cavell Meadows in Jasper National Park that afford this view of Angel Glacier: 

I know these are 1996 photos, scanned from behind the plastic in an old photo album, but by now you have to appreciate the beauty and splendor that is the Canadian Rockies.  We leave you with the most amazing hike of our trip, Wilcox Pass.  Off the Icefields Parkway.  360 degree views of North American splendor.  O, Canada!

Hiking in Western North Carolina, featuring Chimney Rock

Hiking in the Southern part of the Appalachians has always been one of my favorite pastimes.  We will trek up and down the wooded hills of North Georgia and Western North Carolina until our knees give out.  These hikes do not feature the majesty found in the Western National Parks.  No glaciers, volcanoes, hot springs, slot canyons, or crater lakes.  No mega-fauna either, but it's nice to know the most you have to fear in these Eastern woods is a black bear or a wild pig.

The Southern Appalachians just feel more ... peaceful.  There's something about this picture, which could be anywhere within 250 miles of the Smokies, that says tranquility.

That's all it takes: a barely audible creek or an interesting rock formation is enough to get us to lace up our boots, grab the backpack and water bottles, and head out into the forest.

Mind you, there are plenty of interesting sights in the North Carolina mountains.  Check out these two shots from Craggy Gardens, which is 5,500 feet up, off the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The  haunting wind-blown vegetation looks straight out of the old Magic Kingdom's "Snow White Adventures" ride (and underrated C-ticket, but I digress).

Our hiking pastime is even better when you know you are one of the first people to enjoy a new trail.  While driving to Asheville, NC from Lake Lure in 2014 we noticed the opening of a new hiking option, the Upper Hickory Nut Gorge Trailhead.  If you want a little bit of everything (cabin ruins, rock formations, views of the gorge, small waterfalls) with some moderate elevation, then we recommend this trail off Alt-74 near Gerton, NC.  Avoid a similarly-named trail near Black Mountain, NC that has *no* parking.

Also opening in 2014 was the Buffalo Creek Park trail, next to the Rumbling Bald resort in Lake Lure (I know, I know, it should be Bison Creek).  Good moderate-to-strenuous hike without many views if the trees have leaves.  We have done this 3 mile hike in August with only one small bottle of water and arrived at the car drenched and grumpy.  You know those Snickers commercials about not being oneself when hungry (hangry?).  Well, you're also not yourself when you're dehydrated.  Don't be that hiker.  We recently did the trail again in mid-October, with plenty of water, and it was much more enjoyable.  Word of warning: the trail is shared between hikers and mountain-bikers, FSM bless them.  Make sure you go the proper way on your day.  Oh, and some of parts of the "trail" look more like a motorbike track, as shown:

Our favorite place to hike in Western North Carolina has become Chimney Rock State Park.  Yes, it's a busy and popular destination.  Yes, it costs money to get in (which is why we have an Annual Pass).  But you can't beat Chimney Rock for spectacular views of the Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure.  Here's the view of the rock from street-level (actually from the Hickory Nut Brewery).

You have to drive up the hillside to get into the Park, and with only one or two rangers handling admissions you could be stuck waiting in your car for a while if you arrive significantly after 9 AM.  There are two parking areas and the small upper area fills up quickly.  Get the hint you should visit early in the day?  From the upper parking area you can take a fairly level 25 minute hike to their 400 foot waterfall.

However, the star of the park is the namesake rock, and in order to fully experience it you must climb nearly 500 stairs to the top.  If you don't feel up to that "Stairmaster from Hades" experience, you can go only a third of the way to Vista Rock, which still has impressive views.  There are more than 500 stairs since you can go up to Chimney Rock one of two ways: go by Vista Rock (recommended) or decide you want to go by the Grotto and the Subway, for a more "natural" experience for a small part of the journey.  Very small.  Very dusty.  Very cramped.  This cramped:

Both routes eventually connect and offer you a chance to take a small side quest to Pulpit Rock.  This photo is taken from there:  

If you keep climbing you will eventually reach your goal (but still nowhere near the top of the valley).  Don't let the desolate photo fool you, usually there are dozens of folks enjoying the view from Chimney Rock.

We're going to keep climbing higher.  Another 350+ more steps to Exclamation point so we can look down on Chimney Rock.

Nice view, eh?  From here we could continue for another mile on the newly-opened Skyline trail, which takes one to the top of the waterfall shown earlier.  But I was getting tired so I'll leave the Skyline trail for another day.  Maybe when they fix the elevator in the park that allows folks to skip the stairs.  Since I don't want the park rangers to carry me out in one of these:

2017-10-14 update:  Yikes!  We jinxed Chimney Rock!  On their site they are now stating 

Park Closed Until Further Notice Due to Collapsed Retaining Wall

2018-07-01 update:  The Parking lot had been fixed and you could drive up as late as May 2018.  But heavy rains ruined the lot again and now, even though the Park *is* open, everyone must take the shuttle bus up to where you can begin hiking.  The good news is THE elevator to Chimney Rock is working again.  That can you save you about 500 steps.  We cheated and used it so we could then hike the 1.5 mile Skyline Trail.  Here is the payoff at the end -- the top of the Chimney Rock waterfall:
 

Staying in Barcelona's Avenue of Luxury

This is going to sound dumb, coming from someone who lived 14 months in Madrid in the sixties, but I was not fascinated by Barcelona until I heard The Alan Parsons Project's Gaudi in 1987.  Ever since then I have been trying to convince Mary to spend some time in Catalonia and we finally did so in late 2014.  In luxury.  When we travel we are usually a thrifty couple, staying in guesthouses or affordable hotels.  For this trip we splurged on a very nice hotel, Casa Fuster, on the Paseo de Gracia.  Here we are on the rooftop bar, with Barcelona's Avenue of Luxury stretching behind Mary all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.

From the top of the Passeig de Gràcia (that's in Catalan) you can hike, or use the excellent public transportation, to all of these Gaudi masterpieces:  Casa Milà (a.k.a. La Pedrera), Casa Batlló, and La Sagrada Familia. 

Those magnificent structures are impressive. Pro Tip: get tickets online in order to skip the lengthy lines if you want to go inside.  But you can enjoy Barcelona by simply walking around, joining the mass of humanity strolling La Rambla, getting lost in the "Old Town" and finding other Cathedrals.  Or going to parks outside of the central city and running into a Dragon Gate or a monastery almost a century old.

We did not rent a car in Barcelona.  The subway and the "Hop-On/Hop-Off" buses more than sufficed.  We did take two trips outside of Barcelona.  One was to a small castle for a very personalized wine tour -- since there were only six of us in the minivan -- arranged by our hotel's concierge.  The other trip is highly recommended: go to one of the many travel agencies and take a modern bus 45km north of the city to Montserrat.  Just do it.  Many thanks to my cousin Teri Mari for that suggestion.

The last set of photos are from Park Güell, a fantasy land of a park, designed by Gaudi, that looks down upon the city.  Warning: the climb to the park is very steep.  One of the alleys leading to it has several escalators (and not all of them were working).  The buses and the subway stop at the very bottom of the hill -- you must be prepared to hike.  The hike is well worth it.  Once you are inside you will feel like you are in a Theodor Geisel book with all of the bright colors and odd shapes.

With all of the hiking we did every day it was nice to get back to a luxury hotel to rest.  Then we would go out again to find a restaurant (or bring some food back to our room) and then stroll  the Paseo de Gracia at night.  Barcelonians dine very late in evening.  One time we were the only diners enjoying a paella on the sidewalk as everyone else was still getting home from work, sometimes with their children in tow, after 7 PM.  If you don't want to eat alone in a restaurant in Barcelona plan on getting there after 9 PM.

We only spent 8 days in Barcelona.  We would have liked to stay longer.  We only visited one museum in a metropolis full of them: The Picasso Museum in the older part of town.  It was superb.  We thought we might do more indoor attractions, but as you can see from the photos, the November weather in Spain had no rain falling on the plain.  The locals were very friendly and we felt welcome everywhere we went (it helped that I know español).  So it was a tad alarming to see this graffiti as we climbed down the hill from Park Güell after another fantastic day in Barcelona:

If you have a week to spend in Iceland...

Iceland is a magnificent country.  An other-worldly island.  We put almost 2,000 km on a rental car in September 2017 and we highly recommend visiting this majestic place.

Trip Diary:

First day

We arrived into Keflavik International Aiport and get our a car by 8 AM, with very little sleep, and
immediately head south and drive along the bottom of the island.  Think Idaho's Craters of the Moon, except there's moss and lichen on the volcanic rocks.  No wildlife other than seabirds.  We blew off the famous Blue Lagoon that's nearby (instead we went to a much more scenic hot springs a few day later near Lake Myvatn).  Eventually we get to some civilization and we start to see small horses and/or sheep along the road.  Saw two excellent waterfalls in South Central Iceland: Skogafoss and Seljalandsfoss.  Make sure you continue hiking to the left of Seljalandsfoss until the hiking trail ends.  Ended the day by arriving late to our Guesthouse in Mosfellsbær (we wanted to avoid staying in the expensive capital of Reykjavík).

Second day

The second day was spent doing most of the "Golden Circle", beginning with Þingvellir, the National Park where the European and American tectonic plates are separating.  Then it was north to Geysir ... as in ... the geyser that ALL other geysers in the world are named after.  Poor Geysir is dormant, but the hot spring next to it, Strokkur, erupts every 4 minutes.  Then we drove further north to another tremendous waterfall, Gullfoss,  and back down south to a volcanic crater "lake", although it's really the water table rising up out of the ground.

Third day

One of the best hikes we've ever done to the tallest waterfall in Iceland: Glymur.  Walk through tundra, crawl through a "cave", cross a fast-moving stream, hike up to waterfall, all with a clear blue sky (got lucky that day).  Then we visited one quaint small village on the ocean, Akranes, and walked around the capital of Reykjavík at night.

Fourth day

On this day we spent most of the day in the car.  We did over 600 km of driving to the north of the island because we were staying two days in Akureyri.  Bathed in Natural Hot Springs, drove around their biggest lake (which still had some waterfowl in September), and saw the Waterfall of the Gods -- Godafoss.  We also purchased tickets for a whale watching trip.

Fifth day

One-word description of whale watching in a fjord: FANTASTIC!  Highly recommended! Our hostess said we got real lucky to get THREE Humpbacks together for 45 minutes, they're usually solitary when they feed.

Check out our video here:  All Three Have Gone Down For A Dive

It was also the best night for the Aurora Borealis according to everything online.  However, it was 95% cloud cover over Akureyri., so even though we went to the top of a hill from 11:30 PM to almost 1 AM, it was no Northern Lights for us.  Even folks at the airport that were under clear skies said that you could only, maybe, kinda sorta, see some color ... but nothing spectacular.  So visit Iceland after early September if you want a night show.

Sixth day

The sixth day was spent driving back to the capital since we decided to fly back one day early due to the approach of Hurricane Irma.

Random Thoughts:

Almost everyone spoke very good English.  We were glad we got the not-so-ripoff full car insurance when on the 3rd day a truck kicked up some gravel and CRACKED the windshield.  Yikes!  Twice I almost hit a black ram.  The first time they crossed the road and an evil black sheep stopped and gave me a dirty look before scampering off.  Flippin' mutton!

We didn't eat puffin or whale (wouldn't think of ever doing the latter).  Did have the best lamb sirloin I can recall and some of the best salmon we've ever eaten.  Cooked in the kitchen of our guesthouse, which was terrific.  Bought liquor and wine at the airport, otherwise we might have gone broke.  Alcohol is MIGHTY expensive in Iceland.

Now I fear we've done most of the island. Did not see the glacier where "Game of Thrones" filmed some scenes "North of The Wall" and we did not do any Ice Caves. And one the Top 5 waterfalls was simply too hard to reach in our humble rental car; Dettifoss.

Overall one of our favorite trips in our 30-year marriage!

If you go to Iceland, please, PLEASE be a good tourist.  Do NOT drive off-road since tundra-damage takes centuries to recover.  Do not try to pet the sheep or horses off the side of the highway.  Plan your bathroom breaks intelligently -- wash closets can be hard to find (pro tip: follow the tent signs and go to the campgrounds).  Lastly, don't even think about stopping on the roads to take a picture: find a place to properly pull over.  This way the locals will have a better view of us than what this humorous painting depicts:

Edit: I would be remiss if I did not give a shout-out to The Reykjavik Grapevine.  Excellent free newspaper that captures the vibe of the capital.  All in English.  Think Creative Loafing, but wittier.  Check it out here: The Reykjavik Grapevine