VICTORIA
The third leg of our North America tour was the Canadian Rockies, which began in the beautiful city of Victoria ...| ... which huddles around a very attractive harbour ... |  |
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| ... and is the capital, and seat of government, of British Columbia ... |  |
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Link to Victoria pictures
BURCHART GARDENS
The other famous feature of Vancouver Island is Burchart Gardens.
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Link to our photos of Burchart Gardens.
CHEMAINUS
While travelling to Whistler, we visited the town of Chemainus, which features its own currency and has many murals displayed around the town.
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Link to our Chemainus photos.
WHISTLER
Whistler hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, and there were plenty of reminders of that event in the Village and on the mountain.
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Link to our Whistler pictures.
SUN PEAKS
The drive from Whistler to Jasper is a very long one, so we stayed a night at the ski resort town of Sun Peaks ...
| ... where we saw our first bear close up |  |
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Link to our Sun Peaks photos.
BLUE RIVER SAFARI
On our way to Jasper we stopped in to the boat safari at Blue River. The main objective was bear watching - it was a very cold day.
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Link to Blue River Safari photos
JASPER
Jasper, lakes and mountains.
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We enjoyed some gentle rafting on the Athabasca River.
Link to our Jasper photos.
ATHABASCA FALLS
Although the water fall on the Athabasca river is not as spectacular as Niagara, it still provided some interesting photo opportunities.
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Link to my Athabasca Falls photos
ICEFIELDS PARKWAY
The drive between Jasper and Lake Louise is along the Icefields Parkway, with spectacular scenery all the way.
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ATHABASCA GLACIER
The highlight of the Icefields Parkway is the Athabasca Glacier.
| Like most of the world's glaciers, the Athabasca is in rapid retreat. When it was first discovered (by Europeans) 125 years ago, the snout of the glacier was at the hillocks (terminal moraine) at the bottom of the photo at right. It has retreated 1.5 kms in that time and lost half of its volume. Anyone interested in the reasons for its retreat can read the article at this link. |  |
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LAKE LOUISE
I will let the photos of Lake Louise speak for themselves.
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MORAINE LAKE
Near Lake Louise is another beautiful location, Moraine Lake. You might have noticed the turquoise colour of the lakes. It is caused by rock flour.
| Bear country! Click on the link to read the sign. |  |
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BANFF
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Link to Banff photos
ROCKY MOUNTAINEER - BANFF TO KAMLOOPS
The first day on the train travelled through some spectacular Rockies scenery.
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ROCKY MOUNTAINEER - KAMLOOPS TO VANCOUVER
The scenery changed significantly on the second day of the trip.
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VANCOUVER
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| After a day exploring Vancouver we cruised out of Vancouver harbour on the last leg of our tour, the Alaska Curise. |  |
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