We woke this morning to the smell of fresh-brewed coffee at 7am and after a quick bowl of cereal, Darryl, Aunt Helen and I were off to ``the mountain”.
Aunt Helen really enjoys taking people up the mountain to show off the incredible view and the resident grizzly bear, Boo.
At 9am, we headed up the winding mountain road to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, which is a fairly new ski resort that also has a thriving summer clientele who come to see “Boo” at the Kicking Horse Bear Refuge or to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain for the views and the dining at the Eagle's Eye Restaurant.
Riding up to see the bear, you take an open chair lift, which Aunt Helen wasn’t feeling quite up to, so Darryl and I left her in the café at the bottom of the hill while we took the chair lift up the hill.
We had been told that the best time to see the bear is in the morning when he is most active, and he did not disappoint!
After the 1 hour guided info session about, and with, the bear, we took the chair lift back down the mountain and met up with Aunt Helen who joined us in the gondola ride to the very top of the mountain for breath-taking vistas and lunch at the Eagle's Eye restaurant.
Lunch was excellent and surpassed only by the view and the company. Although Aunt Helen claims to be getting a little forgetful, she certainly remembers a great deal and has a lot of really wonderful stories to share about the area and about our family. She is obviously very proud of her children and grand children – and the area in which they live.
She mentioned to us on the gondola ride up that she used to plant trees for the forestry 30 years ago and pointed out the mountains where she did that.
After lunch, we made our way back down the gondola, which is about a 20 minute ride, watching mountain bikers take to the hill (full body armour is a requirement!). It must be a thrill for them, but it sure looked terrifying to me!
We dropped Aunt Helen off at home and Darryl and I left for Yoho National Park for the afternoon where we searched in vain for a moose (Darryl wants to see one before the end of our trip and zoo’s don’t count!).
Our stops included a place called “Natural Bridge”, Emerald Lake & Takakkaw Falls (the highest falls in Canada, I think?) and then a quick stop in the cute village of Field in the park for a new park pass and finally back here for dinner, but before we arrived back, just outside of Golden, we were treated to a close encounter with a battle worn big horn sheep on the side of the transcanada who cared little of cars and people with big cameras while he made himself comfortable for a little late day sun bathing.
Dinner and a cold beer later and I’m nearly ready to call it a night. I had planned to go to bed early tonite as we have another big day on the road planned for tomorrow, but here it is 1:19am and I’m still typing away like an idiot (according to Darryl, at least), but I did take a break for a hour to flip through some old photo albums Aunt Helen dug out. I was delighted to see photos of my dad as a young boy – the youngest I have seen of him, I think!
Until tomorrow…- Paula
I hate to use such an overused word but....AWESOME!
ReplyDelete