Saved by the raft
Freezing cold water awaited the next morning as I climbed aboard a floating raft with Jasper Raft Tours. Fortunately, the guides had the expertise to keep riders from getting wet. This was welcome news, since pieces of ice bobbed in the water next to the raft.
The guides normally start running tours when the snow finally melts in May, but they wanted to give our group a taste of a river raft tour. Icicles and snow banks are not normally part of rafting, but the snowy spin on the trip ended up being a fun twist.
“These trips are very calm,” said Scott Eady, general manager of Jasper Raft Tours. “The rafts can float two suburban trucks.”
After the raft trip, I started down the Icefield Parkway’s curving path through the heart of the Canadian Rockies. Each view seemed more impressive than the last, with massive mountains of untouched white snow and dark evergreens filling the skies.
“It’s not uncommon as you go from one valley to another to find a completely different weather pattern,” said Rose. “You can see the end of the tree line on each mountain where it becomes too cold to support vegetation. That marker is about 7,000 feet above sea level.”
Eventually, I arrived at a vista left over from the last ice age at the Columbia Icefield. The Columbia Icefield Glacier Adventure’s Brewster Ice Explorers allowed me to ride over the dangerously icy and steep terrain to the Athabasca Glacier.
The ice field is shaped like a basket with monstrous mountains shaping the sides. In the center, the unearthly blue Athabasca Glacier looks like water escaping through two mountains only to be frozen halfway through.
“You can see the blue color of the glaciers,” said Bob, my Ice Explorers driver. “That occurs because of the compression of ice. The colder it is, the bluer it is.”
Since it was 26 degrees Fahrenheit, the Athabasca Glacier and other surrounding glaciers up in the mountaintops looked bright blue. Outside, in front of the glacier, I stood above 1,000 feet of ice and marveled at the humbling landscape of ice and rock.
That night, I stayed at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Initially, the hotel catered to mountaineering tourists who saw the Canadian Rockies as a challenge to be conquered. The hotel decided to hire Swiss mountain guides to prevent these would-be mountain climbers from breaking their necks.
The resulting Swiss influence is evident throughout the 1911 hotel in its architecture, interior decor and fondue restaurant, which I enjoyed that evening.
“The Lake View Lounge has a full view of the famous scenery of Mount Victoria and Lake Louise,” said Blair Keating, regional tour sales manager for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. “You see that glacier on top of the mountain? It is 500 feet thick and is feeding the lake.”
More rare than diamonds
A giant snail creature that lived underwater 5 million years ago seems an unlikely candidate for modern jewelry. However, the ammonite fossils found in Canada turned shiny and vividly colored over the centuries, which make them an in-demand jewelry stone.
The Ammonite in the Rockies store in Banff houses exhibits explaining the history of ammonite fossils with newspaper clippings, unearthed fossils and a video with a slightly scary depiction of the original giant snails. I even nervously held a small piece of the ammonite worth $2,000.
“Everywhere else in the world, ammonite fossils are either black or brown,” said Margaret Higginbottom, owner of Ammonite in the Rockies. “The scientists believe that it is all the minerals in Canada’s soil that make them that color. These stones are rarer than diamonds.”
I browsed through the shop’s gorgeous selection of ammonite jewelry to admire all the swirling colors. The shop sits on Banff Avenue, which has numerous shops, restaurants and museums to occupy tourists when they are not out hiking the surrounding mountains.
The Cascade Mountain rose high above the town to keep me oriented as I enjoyed some retail therapy. I especially relished Mountain Chocolates’ goodies; I was drawn inside by the sight of people making fresh candy, chocolates and caramel-drenched popcorn.
That evening, I checked into a castlelike hotel straight out of a fairy tale. The Banff Springs Fairmont Hotel could not have been more picturesque, with evergreen-covered mountains rising all around a Scottish baronial-themed castle hotel.
“This is not a cookie-cutter hotel,” said Keating. “You could have two rooms side by side, and they would both be completely different.”
The hotel interior proved just as opulent, with decorations such as medieval-style hanging rugs, suits of armor and stained-glass details. It felt as if my childhood fantasy of staying inside a Disney castle had come true.
To see the untouched beauty of Banff from above, I rode up the nearby Sulfur Mountain Gondola. The Banff Springs hotel started to look like a child’s toy castle as the gondola climbed 2,292 feet into the air.
The entire Canadian Rockies seemed within eyesight from the top. The snow packed on the evergreen trees highlighted each with a glowing white.
I stood mesmerized by the dramatic scenery, with the tiny town of Banff on one side and complete wilderness on the other. A half-mile interpretive walkway allowed me some time to soak in the heavenly vista before returning to Banff for dinner at the Bison Restaurant.
The next morning, I watched the mountains disappear into the flat plains around Calgary. The town embraces its cowboy connections with local ranchers from the region.
“Ranching is the heritage of this area,” said Rose. “Calgary also mixes with modern finance, since it is the financial head of western Canada.”
Every July, the city celebrates its Western heritage at the Calgary Stampede. However, the Calgary Stampede Gift Shop stays open year-round in case someone wants to take home a piece of the Canadian Wild West.
That evening, I ate comfort food at the cowboy-themed Mavericks restaurant. To get the group’s appetite ready, the staff played games such as “Who can destroy the costume cowboy hat the fastest?”
Flying back home with less legroom and no bed, I remembered the comforts of train travel. My wonderful Canadian train ride spoiled me for future flights and caused me to reminisce about how I had once traveled in style through the snowy Canadian Rockies’ wilderness.
