This year's big summer holiday took the Woolleys to Canada. We started our trip in Vancouver and then drove east to the Rockies and camped in Yoho, Banff and Jasper National Parks. En route, we stayed at Okanagan Lake and drove through Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks. After the Rockies, we returned to British Columbia via Mt Robson National Park and camped in Wells Gray Provincial Park. Martin and Jack had a particularly memorable time there, camping overnight on the shore of Clearwater Lake, having got there by the only means possible.... foot, carrying all of our gear... and then canoe. From Wells Gray, we relocated to Vancouver Island and spent 6 days there before heading home to "Chipland" again.
One of the great highlights of the trip was the wealth of wildlife that we saw. Some of the best pics are on display here in the wildlife photo gallery. Amongst other things we saw: black bears, elks, deer, eagles, sea lions, ospreys, mountain sheep, ground squirrels, chipmunks, toads, bats and a pika (never heard of them before!).
As always, iPods and games consoles were banned as being anti-social (and we're "evil parents" of course!) but as a compromise, we'd decided we could each make a couple of CDs containing favourite songs, plus a couple of CDs with songs chosen by the whole family. This turned out to be a great idea as it made the longer car journeys much more fun.
The map below shows the rough route we followed and the places we stayed at (as opposed to simply visited). From Vancouver, we followed a roughly anti-clockwise route east across British Columbia (4 times the size of Britain by the way!) into and then across the Rockies to Banff in Alberta, then up to Jasper, back west across the Rockies to Wells Gray Provincial Park in British Columbia and then south west back to Vancouver and across to Victoria in Vancouver Island. From there we drove North, camping at Qualicum Beach and then west to the Pacific coast, staying in a cabin at Ucelet.
The full itinerary was:
| Date | Details | |
| Wednesday 1st | Arrived in Vancouver. Granville Island. International fireworks competition over English Bay. | |
| Thursday 2nd | Vancouver : Granville Island and Stanley Park. | |
| Friday 3rd | Vancouver : Shopping and The Outrageously Dull Suspension Bridge! | |
| Saturday 4th | Hope, awesome blueberry pancakes, camping on Okanagan Lake, the great alfalfa field adventure. | |
| Sunday 5th | The Rockies! A bear! Yoho National Park, hailstones, Emerald Lake walk. | |
| Monday 6th | Yoho National Park, canoeing on Emerald Lake, Takakkaw Falls. | |
| Tuesday 7th | Banff National Park, Lake Minnewanka (no, really!), hoodoos. | |
| Wednesday 8th | Banff National Park, Jack's 13th birthday! Hot springs, Sulphur Mountain, Vermillion Lake, Bourne Ultimatum, Mexican food :-) | |
| Thursday 9th | Banff National Park, Elks, Morraine Lake, Consolation Lake trail, a Pika(!) | |
| Friday 10th | Jasper National Park, the Icefields Parkway, bear cubs! the Columbia Icefields, Jasper. | |
| Saturday 11th | Jasper National Park, the Icefields Parkway (this time in sunshine!), the Wilcox Pass trail, Athabasca Glacier, the Simpsons Movie, chinese food. | |
| Sunday 12th | Jasper National Park, Mount Edith Cavell, glaciers, Medicine Lake, Maligne Lake. | |
| Monday 13th | Mount Robson, Wells Gray Provincial Park, canoeing and camping on Clearwater Lake. | |
| Tuesday 14th | Return from camping on Clearwater Lake and the long drive to Vancouver Island. | |
| Wednesday 15th | Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island. | |
| Thursday 16th | Qualicum Beach and the Great Mini Golf Disaster. | |
| Friday 17th | Ucluelet on Vancouver Island. A proper roof over our heads! Eagle, bear, sea-lions! | |
| Saturday 18th | Ucluelet on Vancouver Island. Tofino, deer, eagle, sea-lion and bear sightings. | |
| Sunday 19th | Goldstream Provincial Park on Vancouver Island. A long boring drive! | |
| Monday 20th | Goldstream Provincial Park on Vancouver Island. Shopping in Victoria! | |
| Tuesday 21st | Vancouver and the long flight home |