Coast to Coast Trans-Canada Road Trip, Days 5 & 6: Glacier National Park, British Columbia

Balu Pass Trail

I LOVE Glacier National Park. I believe I could easily spend a week, perhaps two, exploring it's many fine hiking trails. Who knew? Certainly not I, having obviously been unfairly distracted by the lure of it's more iconic neighbours to the east, Banff, Jasper, Yoho and Kootenay.

We had planned on staying one night in Glacier and decided to pony up for two. This gave us enough time to hike two of the park's most scenic trails, as recommended by the helpful Parks Canada staff, Balu Pass and the Asulkan Valley.

Balu Pass Trail
Estimated time (return): 4 hours
Distance (return): 12.8km
Elevation gain: 788m
Difficulty: Moderate
Hike details for both hikes taken from the Glacier National Parks trail brochure.

The trailhead for Balu Pass is conveniently located behind the visitors centre at Rogers Pass. It starts with a steep climb through a fairly unremarkable (sorry, but I must call a spade a spade) stand of hemlocks. Not to worry though! In a reasonably short amount of time the trail opens up into alpine meadows with gorgeous views stretching across the valley to Balu Pass. I know all valleys and alpine meadows make for pretty pictures, but these are particularly scenic AND the layout of the trail coupled with uncharacteristically well-aligned valley walls allow for unobstructed views for the remaining length of the hike. Charge your camera batteries before you go and pack a big lunch! This trail requires some degree of endurance but you'll be well rewarded for your efforts.

Asulkan Valley Trail
Estimated time (return): 6 hours
Distance (return): 13.8km
Elevation gain: 869m
Difficulty: Moderate

Here is the Canadian alpine hiking experience of your picture-postcard-perfect dreams. I mean it! Close your eyes and imagine the required elements of the quintessential west coast alpine hike and this trail has them in spades. Valley views, a rushing icy creek, glaciers, wildlife, even an alpine hut and, oh yes, a steep grind or two (or three or four) to get the blood pumping. As an added bonus, the hike begins with a walk through the ruins of the old Glacier House Hotel, complete with plaques detailing the establishment's colourful history. What more could one ask for in a trail?

Note: Snow cover made the last sections of both these hikes difficult and slow-going. What's more, though we saw no bears on either of these trails, we have heard that bear activity can be of heightened concern some years. Check trail conditions with Parks Canada staff at Rogers Pass before heading out. Happy hiking!

Coast to Coast Trans-Canada Road Trip, Day 3: Vancouver to Sicamous, BC

Aside from brunch at  Havana and a quick stop at the Super Saver to pick up groceries, today was mainly a day for highway travel. Having spent the first 3 days of our journey lollygagging in the vicinity of the coast the time was more than ripe for getting a sizable chunk of road between us and the Pacific Ocean. We drove over 500km east of Vancouver past many scenic vistas along the Trans-Canada and Coquihalla Highways to Yard Creek - a fittingly pedestrian name for a park who's most winning attribute, as noted in it's own brochure, is the reliable availability of campsites.

Now, before you get the urge to scold me for slagging a provincial park (I didn't write that brochure, you know) I should add the park has suited our purposes very well. We've found our lovely wooded campsite to be amply sized and offering an adequate degree of privacy. It's also reasonably-priced (campsites are $20/night with a maximum occupancy of 4 persons, bundles of campfire wood are $5). It may not have much to offer in the way of hiking trails, but that's easily overlooked with the promise of Revelstoke and Glacier National Park located just down the highway. We hope to arrive at Revelstoke tomorrow morning. If you've been to these parks and have any suggestions for things we should do or hikes we should check out, we'd love to hear them!

And speaking of tomorrow morning, it's time for this sleepy traveller to hit the proverbial hay (unroll my Thermarest and crawl into my sleeping bag). G'night!