Canada: Trip Takeaways

Hey everyone,

In honor of #CanadaDay, here is a quick blog post on my thoughts about Canada, Banff, etc. from my trip to the Canadian Rockies a few weeks ago. Hope you enjoy!

I also posted a photoblog of my experience in Canada here.

-JTF

Why did I go to Canada?

One of my closest friends used to live in Montana, one of America’s better-looking states. He claimed that “Canada is where Montanans go on vacation” so I knew the Canadian Rockies had to be good. So I had wanted to go for a few years.

A main reason I went to Canada at this time was that despite being an international destination of sorts, given its close proximity to the U.S., flights are comparable to flying to the West Coast—tickets were only about $300 round trip. A great option if you want to leave the U.S. but don’t want to spend a ton of money.

The scheduling worked out wonderfully as well. My high school bud and compatible travel companion Andrew and I both graduated recently and both got our first full time job offers. We both happened to have an 8-day period free in June, before I moved back to Atlanta and Andrew moved to India. (And I happened to be homeless and thus not paying rent). The trip was a celebration of our transitions into adulthood of sorts.

Additionally, it happened to be the perfect time to visit Canada—the days were very close to the summer solstice (meaning extremely long days, we’re talking like 5am sunrise, 1030pm(!) sunset), the value of the Canadian dollar was only $0.74 (compared to around a dollar five years ago), and this year just happened to be Canada’s 150^th anniversary, so all of the National Parks in Canada were free. The puzzle pieces felt into place perfectly.

Some Thoughts about Canada at large:

People in Canada are nicer than people in the U.S.

People at large were friendlier than I was used to. The friendliness and trust between Canadians is best illustrated with these three anecdotes:

On our first day at our first the campground, after a nice hard rain, we had trouble starting a fire. Minutes after we began our struggle, our camping neighbor Fernando offered to help, gave us some pointers, and even gave us some of his fire-starting wood to get us going. It was no big deal to him.

Additionally, one day in Jasper, we went to a grocery store. People were simply biking to the store, leaving their bike unlocked and unattended, and that was that. They had no fear that someone would take their bikes. It was pretty incredible.

Last is a story about how to pay gas. My credit card got hacked so I didn't have a credit card, and I wanted to fill up our tank of gas with cash. I sent Andrew, who in case you were wondering is from Jersey so he doesn't really know how to fill up a tank, in with $50 and to tell the clerk that we were at station #2... which is how you pay for gas with cash in America. 

Andrew came back confused. He explained to me that the clerk looked at him like an idiot, completely confused as to why we would prepay our gas, and was just like "yeah pick up the pump and fill your tank, and then pay afterwards."

So in Canada, they actually trust that customers will pay AFTER filling up their tank, which obviously doesn't fly in the U.S. But why can't we be like Canadians and trust each other and be good people.?

Canada is a more advanced nation than the United States.

The Calgary Airport is way nicer than the vast majority of U.S. Airports… maybe Trump was onto something when he criticized the quality of U.S. Airports. I mean, the airport in Calgary had escalators that slowed down / stopped moving when no one was using them… and apparently Korea and other nations do this as well. Why hasn’t the U.S. done that yet? Calgary as a city was much cleaner and had more bike lanes and bike racks than any city I’ve been to in the States… and there were extremely low levels of crime there.  At large, Calgary was nicer, cleaner, and better organized than any U.S. city I have been to.

Canadian Sportscenter

Canada had some weird/interesting quirks, most of which were positive.

-          There were a couple of negatives, the most notable being that Canada has $1 and $2 coins, and its lowest bill was the $5, which is a real pain in the ass. But Canadian money is way more colorful and interesting (apparently the $20 bill even smells like Maple Syrup).

-          TSN, Canada’s version of ESPN, is very similar to ESPN, even using the same SportsCenter font. The best part about TSN was that they spelt Sportscenter “Sportscentre” which I found utterly hilarious.

-          Speaking of language differences, Canadians use the word “washroom” for bathroom, and pronounced the word “creek” like “crick”, among other subtle differences.

-          The Canadian accent is REAL. You don’t believe me, ey? Ask me to use the accent next time you see me.
-    The craft beer scene in Calgary was lit. "The Village" had a number of beers that were among my favorite I've ever had. Highly recommend.

Asians everywhere.

Canada (at least Calgary the Canadian Rockies) was much more diverse than I anticipated.

Even after filtering out the inevitable hordes of picture-taking Asian tourists at Banff, there was a lot more diversity in Alberta than I expected. I thought the area was going to be like Denver, or Idaho, or Montana—lots of white people and that’s it. But it was definitely more diverse, more like a Seattle—whites, Asians, Indians, Hispanics... I often gauge diversity by seeing who does the blue-collar jobs (i.e. those who work at the airport) in a city –Asians in San Francisco, Blacks in Atlanta, Hispanics in Miami. But in Calgary, there was a bit of everyone. Calgary even had a sizeable Chinatown, which greatly confused me on our arrival the first day I arrived. Strangely not a lot of black people, however.

People—er, women—were more attractive in Canada.

Yeah, I get that I sort of self-selected here by traveling to a city that is super diverse and super active, similar to the Denver of the U.S. (I’m sure people in Denver are more attractive too), and I guess it’s possible that we always think people are more attractive where we aren’t, but there was something about Calgary/Banff that took it to a new level.

Everyone was super active, for one. We went into an MEC—the Canadian Equivalent of REI, but much more popular—and the place was absolutely packed with fit people. And just about nobody was fat at all and everyone was in shape—definitely unlike the U.S., specifically the South. And the accents – whether it was the Canadian accents, or French Accents, or something else – definitely were plusses for those who had them. And I’ve learned that I’m into the hiker/ourdoorsy look for women – some hiking boots and leggings go a long way. I wouldn’t say I saw the most beautiful people in the world in Canada, but the average person was way more attractive for sure, which was a nice compliment to the beautiful scenery.

Tim Horton’s is the shit.

Okay, so Timmy’s is very similar to Dunkin Donuts, actually. But even being a guy from Boston, where there are literally DD’s everywhere, I’m definitely a Timmy’s guy. They seem to have more options, friendlier service (although that might just be a byproduct of being Canadian), a Canadian Maple Doughnut (basically a Maple Glazed Donut with Boston Crème Filling), and Timbits (which are basically munchkins).

Some Takeaways from my trip…

We were super fortunate from a scheduling and weather perspective.

Like the trip at large, our daily itinerary fell into place quite well. For example, one of my favorite hikes, the Lake O’Hara Hike, which required a 10-kilometer bus ride to access and limited each of two daily buses to 30 people per day, began bus operations on the last day that we were in the area. In a similar stroke of coincidence, Johnston Canyon, one of Banff’s most famous landmarks, was out of commission due to the aftermath of a storm, but it reopened on our last available day in that area too. From a weather perspective, the two days that we were in Jasper, three hours north of Banff, it rained in Banff.

The skies cleared up for our hike on Parker Ridge Trail.

Perhaps the most convincing evidence that nature was on our side was on the day we were driving back South on the Icefields Parkway. It was a bit rainy that day, and we stopped at the Columbia Icefield Glacier, ready to partake in a short hour-long hike. It was still raining, and we were tired, so we decided to take a quick cat nap. 15 minutes later, it stopped raining, so we woke up. We went on the hike under partly cloudy skies. Upon our arrival to the car, almost immediately, it started raining again.

Our next stop was the Parker’s Ridge Trail, perhaps another half hour or so down the parkway. This time, as we arrived, it stopped raining all together, even giving us some blue sky for solid photos. And throughout our entire 3-hour hike, not a drop of rain again. It’s like the heavens wanted us to have good weather.

Pictures can often be misleading and often does not tell the full experience.

I took a lot of pictures while in Canada. The best of which can be found on my Instagrampage and my photo blog post of this trip.

You can't see the hordes of tourists standing next to me though.

While those shots and views were undeniably the most picturesque of my trip, they didn’t necessarily depict the most enjoyable experience. What isn’t seen in those pictures are the hordes of people also taking pictures, making noise, and dirtying the beauty before them. The pictures didn’t show waiting in line for a parking spot for 30 minutes, or the absurd $100/hr fee it costs to rent a kayak for an hour. 

When traveling in nature, hordes of people are the last thing you want to see, because the mere presence of people makes nature less natural, which leads to my next point…

The best parts are often not the most well-renowned ones.

We were the only ones on the trail.

Prior to actually going on this trip, I was looking forward to touristy hotspots like Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, the Town of Banff, Johnston Canyon, and the Columbia Icefields. It turned out that while some of these hotspots were great (i.e. Moraine Lake), and while some of them weren’t (Lake Louise, Johnston Canyon), none of the spots I was particularly excited about prior to my trip ended up being my favorite experiences.

My favorite experiences ended up being much lesser known hikes such as Parker Ridge Trail and the Valley of the Five Lakes, hikes I didn’t even know existed until we got there. What made them so awesome? For one, the scenery was similarly stunning. But the main reason I loved them was because there weren’t hordes of people everywhere, as there were only a few people hiking these trails. The lack of people, specifically tourists, made it really feel like we were in the wilderness and by ourselves in the incredible scenery and nature, which allowed to take in all in much more powerfully.

Similarly, we actually enjoyed the town / campsite at Jasper much more than the town and campsite at Banff, because although I took more pics and the scenery was objectively better in Banff, the atmosphere was much more touristy in Banff (like a South Lake Tahoe) and didn’t feel quite as authentic as it did in Jasper.

Like with most things in life, with travel planning and hiking, you gotta sacrifice something to get something.

Do you want to go on a great short hike at noon on a perfect day on a weekend in the summer, only a few miles from town? How convenient! But good luck having a good experience to yourself, because literally everyone is thinking the same thing!

You have to give up something to get something. If you want stunning views and truly be able to enjoy them without crowds of Asians or other people ruining your serenity, you have to sacrifice something—good weather, time of day, distance, etc. You have a lot of options. You could travel farther than people are willing to travel. You can go out on a poor weather day. You could go to a place during the off season. You could wake up at the break of dawn, before everyone else gets up. But you have to give up something.

Can't get a shot like these if people are around...

This concept is a large reason why our best hikes were the best hikes—we were willing to sacrifice what others weren’t for the reward. We did a lot of driving and battled risky weather and snowy paths to complete our Parker Ridge Hike, which was undoubtedly our favorite hike. For the Valley of the Five Lakes hike, another one of our favorites, we left at 8:30pm (which isn’t that late in Canada, but hey), when everyone else was back at camp or eating dinner. For the Lake O’Hara Hike, yet another one of our favorites, we not only booked our bus ticket months in advance the second tickets were released, but we also actually went up a hike that was covered knee deep in snow and advised against hiking on by the park ranger. Our favorite picture spot, Peyto Lake, we showed up to at 9:00pm one evening, and had the whole place to ourselves for a good 15 minutes.

In any case, if you want something like a good hike, it isn’t gonna come easy. Just be willing to give something up.

I memorized the lyrics to Kygo and Selena Gomez’s “It Ain’t Me.”

If you followed along my road trip across the country last ear, you’ll know that Andrew and I memorized learned to sing a handful of songs to pass the time in the car. Our comprehensive list is as follows:

-          It Ain’t Me, Kygo and Selena Gomez

-          Shape of You, Ed Sheeran ßAndrew Only

-          I took a Pill in Ibiza, Mike Posner

-          Live Like We’re Dying, Kris Allen

-          Price Tag, Jessie J ft. BoB.

-          I Want You to Know, Zedd ft. Selena Gomez.

We got spoiled… and once again, everything is all relative and we need to try to stop taking things for granted.

Just an average mountain in Banff.

In sort of an opposite twist to my main takeway from my journey on the Natchez Trace Parkwaya few weeks prior--in which I stripped myself of basic necessities and found myself so (momentarily) grateful of simple things such as a bed to sleep on, air conditioning, hot meals, etc.—the scenery and wildlife was actually SO GOOD in the Canadian Rockies that we actually got tired and took it for granted very quickly.

The first day we arrived, the weather was rainy and the clouds were very low. We couldn’t see anything as we drove into the Canadian Rockies in Banff. When the clouds finally cleared that evening, we marveled at how powerful and enormous the surrounding mountains were. Look at my first Instagram post to the right—it was really a beast of a landscape, albeit in poor (picture-taking) weather. We were truly amazed.

But as we spent the next several days looking at awesome scenery, we grew accustomed to the beauty.  It turns out that original Instagram post, wasn’t even a top 50 worthy image; it was simply an above average mountain up there. The 200^th best view would easily be the best anything east of the Mississippi. But we got spoiled, and it wasn’t that great anymore. “Oh look, there are some mountains, some snow, some trees, some cliffs,” we soon thought. “Oh it’s just a another waterfall.” “Oh, that river has normal water, not that incredible turquoise blue.”

It was somewhat sad how quickly we discarded and took the tremendous beauty for granted.

This mindset of taking things for granted spilled into wildlife. We were hoping to see some wild bears on our trip (preferably while in our car and not on while the trails). If there was wildlife near the road, cars would pull over and turn their flashers on, alerting other cars to stop and snap some cool pics.

Meh, it's just another black bear.

Driving up the Icefields Parkway, we luckily saw one grizzly bear and a black bear. A couple of days later, while driving back, we saw another black bear, and then a family of three black bears (but where was Goldilocks?” We took our pictures and loved them. Apparently, it was actually rather difficult to see bears.

On the second to last day, we saw a bunch of cars with their flashers on, which meant there was wildlife on the side of the road. We looked on, saw a black bear, and were like “Meh, it’s just another black bear.”

Just another black bear!! We see a wild bear on the side of the road, and it’s “just another black bear!!” Incredible.

How can we appreciate what we currently have consistently, whether it is something we will have for a long time (clean water, air conditioning, etc.) or something we only have momentarily (great scenery in the Rockies?) Still trying to figure it out.

Thanks for reading,

-JTF

All thoughts aside, Canadian Rockies were absolutely stunning and I highly recommend going if you’re into mountains, scenery, bears, and the like. If you do decide to go sometime, let me know and I’ve be happy to give some advice!