Day Zero: Rocky Mountain Road Trip

Travel Journal #8

The wait is finally over! This morning we are preparing for the first day of our epic Rocky Mountain Adventure! Norma and I spent the last 4.5 months apart – I had to move home to Vancouver for work and Norma stayed behind on Cozumel. We reunited on Thursday evening in Vancouver and spent the last 2 days visiting with friends and family.

Today is Sunday, and we will be officially hitting the road this morning heading east. Our ultimate goal is to make it to Revelstoke by next Sunday, which is when my cousin is getting married, and everything else we will see in between is just a huge bonus. In total, we will be undertaking a 9-day road trip into the Mountains before heading back to Vancouver again.

We pick up our rental car downtown this afternoon and will head directly towards the Trans Canada Highway heading towards the Fraser Valley and into the mountains. We have been planning this for a few months now, and we are so excited to explore Western Canada! The weather might not be the best for some of the hikes that we had originally planned, but we will be doing as much exploring of the outdoors as possible. Our main points of interests we will be exploring are Helmecken Falls in Wells Grey Provincial Park, Jasper, Banff, Yoho and Revelstoke National Parks, and anything and everything in-between.

Much has changed since we first started planning our Road Trip through the Canadian Rockies, but we have also come up with some amazing ideas with help from friends and our fellow travel bloggers.

Our journey into the Rocky Mountains begins in Vancouver, on the Pacific Ocean and we will follow the route of the Fraser River along Highway 1 towards hope Hope. We plan on stopping for a late lunch in Chilliwack to visit Stacey, a good friend of Norma’s before continuing into the mountains along Highway 5, traveling up to the Cochahala Pass and eventually into the highlands in Kamloops.

We would like to spend the night in Clearwater, most likely camping in the back of our rented SUV so that we can wake up early tomorrow morning and explore a few waterfalls in Wells Grey Provincial Park (primarily Helmecken Falls) before heading towards Jasper where we will spend the next few days exploring from Jasper to Banff.

I’m sure things will change along the way, but for now, we’re just excited to get out on the road again!

 

Itinerary:

 

Day 1 – Vancouver – Chilliwack – Clearwater

Day 2 – Clearwater – Helmecken Falls (Wells Grey Park) – Mount Robson – Jasper

Day 3 – Exploring Jasper National Park

Day 4 – Jasper – Athabasca Glacier – Icefields Parkway – Banff

Day 5 – Exploring Banff National Park

Day 6 – Banff – Lake Louise – Yoho National Park – Rogers Pass – Golden – Revelstoke

Day 7 – Exploring Revelstoke National Park

Day 8 – Wedding Day in Revelstoke

Day 9 – Revelstoke – Vancouver