In June 2008 I flew to Calgary, Alberta for 2 weeks in Alberta and British Columbia (BC). I was going to spend a week around the Banff, Alberta area then drive a loop around southern and central British Columbia before heading north to Jasper, Alberta.
It was 30 years ago since the first time I had gone to Canada, specifically out west to The Canadian Rockies. Back then it was a long drive across the plains to get there with my 2 brothers in a sub-compact car. In the end it was well worth it and definitely memorable, well at least as memorable as 30 years ago can be. After that I had returned a number of times, but only once anytime recently back in 1996. It wasn’t for lack of interest, just check out the other trips on the website to see why.
The Banff town site is nice, but crowded and you can usually do it in a day (pick a rainy day if you have one). But, the area around Banff has a lot of scenic things to see. You can drive off down any road and make any number of stops for a day hike trail and that’s easily a days worth of activities. It does help if you have a map and know where you are going, whether it is a loop, and what the ultimate final destination looks like so you know when you’ve arrived.
After Banff, I drove into BC and headed south toward Cranbrook. Near Cranbrook is Kimberley, a very nice ‘European’ type town that has a downtown made up like a Bavarian Village. There are only a couple ways west into BC from Alberta and the most scenic is along the Canada and U.S. border on the Crowsnest Highway (Hwy 3). There are many small towns along here, but it really is the scenery that makes it worth it. The town of Hope has a number of sites, since this is where the movie Rambo was filmed. The town of Osoyoos has the
Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre (pronounced in-ka-meep) because of the desert climate there. To head to Jasper, I drove north on the Coquihalla Highway and the Southern Yellowhead Highway (Route 5) through central BC which was also scenic all the way.
The town of Jasper and Jasper National Park is my preferred choice over Banff; less crowded, less touristy, and scenery as good or better. In my opinion even driving there on the Icefields Parkway is half the fun. If you take your time to enjoy Jasper, you find spots that rival anything in Banff and without the crowds. Besides, L&W Pizza is in Jasper. I ate there 30 years ago and thought it was the best pizza anywhere, and that opinion hasn’t changed.
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