So unlike our usual trips, which take us down south and to somewhere tropical, my family and I headed out west. We are originally from Edmonton, Alberta and have lived in Ottawa, Ontario now for just over 8 years and it was a good time for us to head back out west for a vacation and to visit with friends and family.
So our trip started as we flew to Edmonton, not a bad flight in that it was only 5 hours in length and direct, but knowing that we would be arriving in Edmonton late and leaving early the following day was already tiring and we had yet to start. So anyways we officially start our ‘road trip’ good and early. Knowing that our first stop would be in Jasper. One of my favourite places. But just before i talk about Jasper there is one thing I must say. For any of you that ride motorcycles, the ride from Edmonton to Jasper is not overly exciting (at least not until you actually get to Jasper National Park). But from that point on the ride would be fantastic. I kept thinking how great it would have been to actually be riding my bike instead of in our car. One day.
So anyways we roll into Jasper, which again is one of my favourite places, but only stay there long enough to refuel and carry on. For any of you that have never been to the Canadian Rockies, please visit Jasper. It has continued to retain its small town feel and kept a lot of the commercialization to a minimum, which in my opinion is very nice and one of the main reasons that I like it so much.
So we left the Jasper and continued on our way to Vernon, which was our final destination. This leg of the trip was going to be about 5-6 hours (Edmonton to Jasper was about 4 hours). Now we were traveling with family and myself being the only photographer I was sure that the rest of the car did not want to stop every 30 minutes for me to take pictures. Even though I did get a few opportunities to leave the car for some pics, the majority of my photos were taken from within the car traveling at 100km/hr.
For any of you that want to do the trip from Edmonton to Vernon/Kelowna I highly recommend it. But maybe not with small children. Or if you do have kids make sure to bring a lot of things to entertain them or split the driving into a couple of day. Without talking to much about the actual driving we made it to Vernon, BC and I must say it is an absolutely gorgeous part of the world. We spent our time in Vernon visiting family and just relaxing. We stayed at a resort/golf club called Predator Ridge. And it gets my highest recommendation. Even though I don’t play golf it was a lovely place to just sit and relax.
Now after our awesome relaxing time in Vernon we started our trek back to Edmonton. This time though we headed to Banff. This time though we would actually spend a day there to do some sight seeing… So we did a few of the big ones that most should do while in Banff. We went of course to Lake Louis which is one of the most beautiful places you will ever see and probably one of the most photographed. Then we head to the Banff Gondola which give you an amazing view of Banff and the mountains that surround it. Lastly we headed over to Bow Falls. This was a fantastic but short trip to Banff that we all enjoyed.
So again we began our drive, this time to the location that we began at, Edmonton. We were going to again visit family and go for a little outing. We wanted somewhere that the kids would like so we chose Fort Edmonton Park. Its a tad on the pricey side but a great way to spend the day. We were a little worried about the weather but we lucked out and the weather for the most part stayed pretty nice for us.
Well there you go. That was our summer 2013 trip. We had a great time and I hope to be able to head out that way again.