Rocky Mountain High

Now he walks in quiet solitude the forests and the streams,
Seeking grace in every step he takes,
His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand,
The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake.

I think I know what Mr. Denver meant when he wrote this. I'm not a religious person but I couldn't help myself from thinking about the whole creation thing, and just how beautiful our world really is when we were in the peace and tranquility of the stunning Rocky Mountains.

Every corner turned was a new feast for all of our senses and every road we took provided us with another unique adventure. This really was our very own Rocky Mountain High.

As far as I'm concerned you can never tire of looking at lakes and mountains. They are so awe inspiring. When you start to consider how long they've been there, how big they are, the effect they have on the weather, the science behind how they came to be there and how they've changed over millions of years. But most of all for me at least, how beautiful they are!

So looking at mountains from ground level and from a distance is wonderful enough but we couldn't resist the temptation to get a closer look and to see the world from the mountains' point of view.

This is the Jasper Tramway. The longest and highest guided aerial tramway in Canada. From up at the top we could see the town of Jasper way below, six mountain ranges, glacial fed lakes with that beautiful blue colour, the one in the centre of the picture below is Lake Beauvert at the Jasper Park Lodge, the railways and the huge long freight trains and the Athabasca River.

The ride up was around 15 minutes and all the way up to 2277 meters (7472 ft) we had a guide explaining what we could see, the weather, and the history and mechanics of the cable car system. We had a wait of around 2 hours at the base station so we took that time to return Sarah back to the log cabin as the sight of the gondola swaying had unfortunately turned her stomach over.
Katie however is a more rugged explorer and couldn't wait to get up high and see 'stuff'.

At the corner of the Athabasca river in the picture below I've painted on a blue dot. This is to show you where our log cabin is situated. Bear in mind that I'd zoomed in considerably to get this picture and you can imagine how high up we were. Sarah by this time was in there, reading Peter Kay and eating chicken soup :-)

Linda had taken along a packet of short bread biscuits. Not just because she's a nutter, but because she wanted to enter a competition about eating these biscuits in exotic places. After this photo shoot and a very big lung-full of the freshest air you can imagine, we had a mountain top lunch. Chili Dogs and Chocolate milk! Very nice....

While we were in Banff we booked a treat for Katie. An afternoon riding session from the Warner Stables.

It was such a beautiful afternoon and Katie along with several other people was taken into the paddock to be assigned her horse for the ride.

No helmets or boots, or chaps, or body armour required, just sign the waiver and choose your horse. Fantastic really, it was nice and exciting just to watch them set it all up and in the backdrop of the mountains it was real wild west stuff with chuck wagons, dawgs, checked shirts and big hats!

The instructor asked Katie if she'd ridden before and then told her forget everything she knew. "We do things differently out here, you'll be ridin' western style, both reins in your left hand".

As you can see from above, Katie was completely stressed out by this...

The steed is named Millet and they very quickly became great Friends. The horses we so incredibly well trained, you can't imagine how calm they all were in the coral with all these strangers around them and clicking cameras etc.

So they set off for what would be 2 hours of strolling and trotting up the mountains, through shallow streams and pine forests.

Apparently is was "the best ride EVER!!!"


The town of Banff is very pretty. Set amongst the mountains and we stayed here for 3 nights. Lots of shops for skiing, walking, climbing and lots of superb restaurants.

While Katie was off being a cowgirl we had a walk around Banff....

Looked at the Banff Springs Hotel and it's fabulous golf course; how much would I like to play here!

Later that evening we did more of the getting up high thing with a trip up Mount Norquay. The view from even half way up was amazing, this was looking out over the town of Banff towards what I think is Cascade Mountain?

Norquay is a busy ski resort for a lot of the year and we could see the runs and lifts among the trees at the top. We also spent a good hour or so watching these little chaps go about their business.

These are Columbian Ground Squirrels, also known as Prairie Dogs, or to give them their proper Canadian name, "Grounn skwurrlls"

They are magical. They appear from their holes in the ground and seem to take it in turn to watch out for things... such as bears and birds of prey of which there are many around here... They forage for a living and eat a varied diet including seeds, fruit, insects, bulbs, roots and stems, they eat as much and as often as possible as they are hibernating creatures too. Very entertaining and very cute!


The Rocky Mountains are a truly wonderful and special place on Earth. Very beautiful, very peaceful, and very rewarding for those who dare to adventure. And Katie did!