Alberta Road Trip. Canada. Day 1. Vancouver to Calgary.

Prologue
Canada is a huge country. In fact its the second largest country in terms of total area. Its 3 times the size of India. The province I live in, which is British Columbia, is almost a third of India’s size. All of this to is put into context a road trip which we undertook some months back. We embarked on an ambitious 6 day 3000 Km (1800 miles) long trip and we barely covered two provinces. But we managed to visit one of the most famous places in all of Canada which is the the region between Jasper and Banff. Its also one of the most scenic routes in the world.

But its been months now since the trip and immersed as I was in my studies I couldn’t complete the trip report. I am already running behind schedule for my posts so I will be taking a different route with the posts about this trip. I will by posting more pictures and less text.

Our total trip was as follows
Day 1 – Vancouver to Calgary
Day 2 – Calgary
Day 3 – Edmonton
Day 4 – Whitecourt
Day 5 – Jasper to Banff
Day 6 – Banff to Vancouver

Day 1

We started off from my friend Namendra’s home near UBC Campus at around 0630 Hrs. He was our designated ‘pilot’ and the Captain of our trip. My Readers may remember him from our last road trip to North BC. For this trip too his family was joining us. That included his wife Sonali, and their two cute kids Kittu and Bubbles. From here we went to Surrey where we picked up 2 more people the lovely couple Shashank and Harsohena. After a quick breakfast at a nearby Tim Hortons we were well on our way by 0830 Hrs. We reached Hope at 0930 Hrs, Merrit at 1110 Hrs and and reached Kamloops around 1300 Hrs. The landscape around here was barren, grassy, studded with bushes here and there. The sky was clear and sunny with clouds touching the mountain tops near the horizon.

From here we crossed Tappen, Salmon Arm and reached Revelstoke by 1540 Hrs. The first views of snow capped mountains start from here. I could spot a mountain range running across the horizon. I checked a topographical map I had with me which told me this was the Purcell Range of mountains. We took a break here in Revelstoke and had our lunch. We resumed our drive at 1640 Hrs. We crossed Golden at 1900 Hrs. Somewhere around here Mountain Standard Time started and our smartphone clocks jumped an hour forward. The day long driving was getting to us and we were getting tired. Namendra is a resilient man though.He drove on as if it was nothing. We crossed lake Louise at 2030 Hrs, the town of Banff at 2100 Hrs and finally at 2230 Hrs, tired and badly in need of a comfortable bed to sleep we reached our Hotel in Calgary. We hit the bed soon and Day 1 ended.

Revelstoke Dam

A Hotel near Revelstoke

(Link to Day 2)