JOAN and TED JOHNSON'S WEB PAGES
JOURNEY THROUGH THE CANADIAN ROCKIES
We've had another wonderful Ramblers Holiday and met some super people. Unfortunately it wasn't wonderful for everyone as there were some accidents and illness and our leader, Cliff, had a lot to put up with. However he was brilliant and happily most of us thoroughly enjoyed the walking and the sightseeing.
We flew to Vancouver and then Victoria where we spent the first three nights at a splendid hotel - The Queen Victoria. Needless to say this soon became affectionately known as the Queen Vic. We loved Victoria. Everyone was very friendly and being the capital of British Columbia everything was very British! We walked around Thetis Park Lakes, visited the fascinating Royal British Columbia Museum and had an afternoon at the Butchart Gardens which were gorgeous.
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| Victoria, Thunderbird Park | Needless to say ramblers don't see the sights this way | |
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| First sight of Butchart Gardens | Ross Fountain, Butchart Gardens | |
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| More views of Butchart Gardens. We'd heard such a lot about these gardens and they certainly didn't disappoint | ||
We returned to Vancouver on the ferry. This was quite spectacular - going around the islands. We stayed here for three nights. We visited Chinatown, Gastown with its Steam Clock, Granville Island, walked round Stanley Park, went on the Skytrain and the Seabus and had a lovely walk in Lynn Canyon Park. Lynn Canyon and the suspension bridge were quite dramatic.
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| Vancouver Skyline from Stanley Park | Steamclock in Gastown | |
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| Ray and Ted explored a tunnel !!! | Suspension Bridge, Lynn Canyon |
From Vancouver we went to Manning Park - a Provincial Park in the Cascade Mountains, quite close to the border with the USA. We didn't really see this area at its best as the weather was not great, but even so I'm spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding which photos to include here. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the Alpine Meadows as they were still under snow, but we did see some lovely flowers and have some excellent hikes.
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| Scarlet Indian paintbrush | Columbian Lily | Ground Squirrel | ||
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| Beaver work | Lightning Lakes Walk | Dry Ridge Walk |
The 500mile journey to Jasper was not as tedious as we'd expected as there were several stops. The most notable were the lunch break beside Dutch Lake, Clearwater, which was a really pretty spot, and then a halt in the afternoon at the Mount Robson Visitor Centre. Unfortunately our trying to will the cloud from the summit of Mount Robson was to no avail.
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| Clearwater | Mount Robson |
As this page didn't always download properly I have divided the account of this holiday in two so click here to continue the journey.