After saying goodbye to the mountains this morning, I experienced a totally new side of Canada at Calgary. The growing city is in the midst of prairie country, so the region has long depended on ranching as one of its main economic staples.

To celebrate this, the city holds an annual Calgary Stampede rodeo every July. The famous event gives tours of the grounds and has a gift shop that stays open year round for those interested in everything from souvenirs to high end cowboy gear.

I had more retail therapy at downtown Calgary’s extensive Stephen Avenue mall before enjoying my final dinner at Mavericks. The Western-themed restaurant is on Calgary Stampede’s park grounds.

Now that I've just finished several helpings of the restaurant’s wonderful buffet, I’m sure I will sleep like a baby before departing back to the U.S. tomorrow morning.

Calgary Stampede gift shop

Calgary

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Stephen Avenue mall

On my fifth day of touring with Collette Vacations, I feel as though I saw the entire Canadian Rocky Mountain range from above. The vistas from the top of the Sulfur Mountain didn’t just make me feel as though heaven was close, but that I was in heaven itself.

The Sulfur Mountain Gondola is an eight-minute ride that takes sightseers 7,400 feet above sea level. As I went up and up and up in the gondola, the surrounding valley began to unfold below me, making the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel seem like a toy castle. At the top, I felt like I was on top of the world and could see forever.

After my trip to the top of the Rockies, I explored the charming town of Banff. This tourist town contains plenty of shopping opportunities for the most enthusiastic shoppers.

Inside the town, I learned about a gemstone even rarer than diamonds at the Ammolite in the Rockies. In the museum/shop, I heard a presentation about the ammolite that is found only in southern Alberta.

Originally fossilized shells of creatures that died at the bottom of the sea to be forgotten, the rainbow colored gemstones are now sold in Banff as colorful jewelry.

Banff also feeds hungry tourists up and down its main avenue with numerous restaurants and shops. May I recommend trying Mountain Chocolates’ treats if you are in the area. The shop offers handmade chocolates, caramel corn, caramel apples and other sugary concoctions that satisfy the sweet tooth.

Spectacular view on top of Sulfur Mountain

View of trail at top of Sulfur Mountain



One of the fossils used to make Ammolite jewelry

Handmade candy at Mountain Chocolates

This morning I awoke inside a 1920s hotel designed after a Swiss chalet and tonight I am about to go to sleep in a 1911 hotel built like a Scottish castle. The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise’s Swiss design originated from the influence of Swiss mountaineers the hotel hired to ensure their mountain climbing guests would return safely from their Canadian Rockies adventures.

But the best part of this hotel is not the elegance inside, but the fantastic views outside. This morning, I took a stroll beside Lake Louise, now completely frozen over with three feet of snow on top. Even in April, I could still walk on the lake without fear of the ice breaking.

My eyes mostly stayed upward on the towering mountains surrounding the lake, including a huge glacier, which feeds the lake with fresh water every year.

This evening, I arrived at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel for more jaw dropping views inside and out. I felt like a princess arriving at this picturesque stone hotel with its grand staircases, stain glass figures, stone details and medieval-themed lounges.

Outside its windows is yet another glorious view of the Rockies, which was the reason the hotel was built there. With the snowy mountain peaks still visible in the evening light, I unwound from my long day of touring with a dip in the hotel’s heated outdoor pool. Fresh cool mountain air mixes well with steamy hot pool temperatures.

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

View out the window of Banff Springs Hotel

Medieval room within the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

Today, I stood on an icefield composed of snow and layers of ice that have been in the Canadian Rockies since the last Ice Age. Weird, unearthly blue glaciers seemed to be slowly pushing their way through the enormous, sheer mountains all around me on the Columbia Icefield near Jasper.

The color white was all around me in the sky, the ground and the mammoth mountains reaching to the heavens. Between the two tallest peaks was the granddaddy of the nearby glaciers called the Athabasca Glacier. The largest glacier in the Columbia Icefield, the glacier looked like water had been released from a giant dam, came rushing upon the icefield’s expansive valley, and then froze in its tracks.

I stood for a long time staring at all sides of me and trying to memorize the unbelievably majestic scene. I half expected angels to descend from the clouds and start singing the Hallelujah Chorus.

For the first time in my life, I found myself thankful for snow in April. Though there is still an exceptional amount of snow during the peak summer months, there is not the covering of white as far as the eye can see.

All along the Icefields Parkway from Jasper to Lake Louise, this scenery was one silent vista blanked in beautiful snow after another. Bighorn sheep and elk sightings were the only proof that life other than dark green evergreens could exists in the white world.

A far away view of the Columbia Icefield and glaciers

Proof that I stood on an icefield

Bighorn sheep sighting

An older model of the coaches used to take visitors to the icefield

When I heard I was riding an overnight train from Vancouver to Jasper on my tour of the Canadian Rockies, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had ridden an overnight in economy class before when I was in college where you sleep on one of six tiny pull out beds with random other travelers in the same room. It was just as awkward as it sounds.

However, this trip wasn’t about getting someplace cheaply, but instead about the journey itself. First, everyone on the tour got their own private sleeping room on the train.

After spending the day learning about the beauty of Vancouver, I went to sleep that night in my comfortable private room. I awoke to find myself in a Narnia-like dreamland.

From my train window, I could watch the snowy mountainous world of the Rockies pass silently by. This remote land is more untamed than any mountainous region I have yet seen. Only a few lonely houses were ever visible out my window.

Evergreens covered the mountain vistas to create dark contrasts against the perfectly white snow. Even in April, it snowed for most of the day as we rode along. I watched the scenery change from the dome car to catch glimpses of turquoise lakes, waterfalls and one adorable moose.

This evening, I disembarked the train with the rest of my group with Collette Vacations to stay at the Jasper Park Lodge. After eating a delicious dinner at the lodge, I braved my fear of the cold by climbing into their heated outdoor pool.

Though snow lay all around me, I stayed warm inside the steamy pool. I just made sure to not let my head drift too high out of the 87 degree water.

My cozy bedroom inside the train where the beds pull down

One of my snowy views from the train

The beautiful city of Vancouver