Rockies Road Trip

Just starting off.

Last week, my husband and I took a road trip through the beautiful Canadian Rockies all the way to Vancouver on the west coast.  After three and a half years of marriage, this was actually the first road trip we’ve ever taken on our own.  We’re talking about some serious quality time after being apart for the last 10 days. For the sake of my marriage, I have learned to suppress my inner backseat driver. My sisters claim it’s done wonders for humanity as well.  But something I cannot and will not even try to suppress is my inner roadside diva. That’s right, I am an absolute belter. I cannot describe how happy it makes me to sing in the car. I am literally content with singing along to all sorts of music for hours.

Shout out to my free-spirited grandmother for introducing me to Mariah Carey at such a young age and encouraging us (all four sisters) to sing along in the car. In tandem. As loud as we could. Moving on.

The trip from Calgary to Vancouver is approximately a 12 hour drive (you could say I was a little parched by the end of it.)  Since we didn’t want to drive in the dark and waste precious opportunities to enjoy the absolutely wondrous scenery, we stopped for the night about half way through in the small ski-resort town of Revelstoke in British Columbia.

Approaching the small, rainy, resort town of Revelstoke, BC.

In the midst of literally belting out Taylor Swift and Beyonce for hours (yes, my husband is an angel), the constant changing weather conditions kept us at the edge of our seats in amazement and made us more than a little nervous sometimes too. We literally drove through snow storms, pouring rain, and bright sunshine all in the span of a couple of hours. Our temperamental mountains were at times either snow-covered, vibrant green, or spattered with warm autumn colors of the most unusual reds, yellows and oranges. We knew it would be amazing, but we clearly underestimated our journey from the number of times our jaws dropped, and stayed dropped, for quite a while.

The start of a snowstorm.

Sunshine just a few kilometers away.

Choosing just a few images for this post was no simple task.  I hope these photos speak more than a thousand words, as I won’t bore my dear readers with the endless details. Suffice it to say, this was the road trip of a lifetime.

Cloudy autumn skies in British Columbia, Canada.

Anyone else get excited by trains?

I know I’ve really been on a Rocky Mountains kick in my last few posts. Thanks for bearing with me on my last ode to this phenomenal part of the world.

On our way back to Calgary through Glacier National Park.

“On the road again. I can’t wait to get on the road again”

Homestretch.

Last, but not least.

For anyone interested, Highway 1 was our main route between Calgary and Vancouver, with a few detours here and there. Part of the way, we were fortunate enough to drive along a short segment of the Bow Valley Parkway/Icefields Parkway (HWY 93N), which was actually included in National Geographic Traveler’s list of twenty “drives of a lifetime.”