Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks, Canada

We were so keen to see this area in great weather that we stayed put in Revelstoke for three nights waiting out some rain that was passing through.

Two of those nights were down at the Lake Williamson Campground, where the kids and I watched the fisheries department stocking the lake. I'd often wondered how they did that and seeing all the fish tumbling out of the pipe sitting off the side of the truck answered that question.

While at the campground, Nath took a short run around the trail to the other side of the lake where there was a nice little waterfall.

A highlight was the entire afternoon we spent down at the aquatic centre which had a great waterslide (Indy wore out the surface he went down it so many times), a floaty river, a climbing wall over the pool, a springboard, a lap pool -- all super warm! We soaked for hours. It was the bath the kids never get!

We also celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a lunch at The Village Idiot in Revelstoke, where Indy practised his photography taking shots of us.

With the rain gone, we were on the road again. The Revelstoke National Park's Meadows in the Sky Parkway was mostly closed due to snow so it didn't offer us much juice as Nath likes to say (and which Indy now copies with an occasional "there's not much juice in that Dad").

On our way eastwards we strolled through the Skunk Cabbage and Giant Cedars boardwalk trails and on  entering Glacier National Park (the Canadian version of Glacier; not the American) we checked out the Hemlock Grove and Rock Garden trails.

These little interpretive-style trails are great for the kids. Cumulatively they walk a fair way, but the shortness of each walk and the info boards to check out ensure they rarely realise they've walked at all.

And then for the main event... We drove along the transcontinental right up through Rogers Pass which was the route first discovered for a train line to connect the east and west and which now also bears the road (the Highway 1 - 'transcontinental').

Truckies must have the best and worst of it over here. The '1' which most of them would need to drive along passes through some of the most spectacular scenery imaginable (from here it passes through even MORE national parks) but the number of high mountain passes and steep downgrades following each must make it pretty hair-raising. There are brake check pull-ins everywhere and lots of runaway lines, many of which look like they've been used (and more than once).

Glacier National Park is the home of the world's largest mobile avalanche defence program. The avalanche chutes running down the sides of every mountain make them look like some ski resort entrepreneur went mad and ordered runs be put everywhere. Spring ground cover is the only thing gracing these entire vertical swathes of mountain from top to bottom.

The road and the train line are both at risk and so there are multiple tunnels and snow covers (which are like sheds on the hillside).

In winter, the road regularly gets closed as the authorities work together to reduce the avalanche risk. We watched a video in the Rogers Pass Discovery Center and the kids' jaws dropped when they saw army personnel were shooting massive artillery at the mountainsides, sending the avalanches down while people were out of harm's way.

While the kids and I played with fake scat (at least I hope it wasn't real) and made animal tracks in the sandpit at the Discovery Centre, Nath took the trail up Balu Pass as far as the snow line (about eight kilometres return) to get a better sense of the mountains behind.

The video in the Discovery Centre reminded me about the different ways to act in a defensive Vs predatory grizzly attack. Defensive: Yes, yes, grip the back of the neck, lie on the stomach, wait until it stops attacking to get up (Get UP? - how exactly are you going to get up when you're torn to shreds?). Predatory: Yes, yes, I understand that if it's stalking me it DOES plan to eat me, okay and I should fight back straight away. Right.

At every shop, when I see the displays holding pepper spray and bells, I'm reminded of the joke about the grizzly (who goes ting-a-ling when he moves). Oh, sorry to ruin the punchline. Yes, it's hilarious.

Nath arrived back safely again and we continued along Highway 1 through to Golden where we camped at the Municipal Campground on the Kicking Horse River.

While dinner's on the stove, some bighorn sheep came grazing along the steep hillside on the other side of the river and we had the pleasure of watching the freight train trying to clear them off the tracks.

Golden has a beautiful pedestrian bridge and is surrounded in snow-capped mountains. A lovely place to stop.