Gobsmacked! Gargantuan Grandeur, The Canadian Rockies

Last updated on April 23rd, 2016 at 06:54 pm

As we were speeding through the Rocky Mountains between Calgary and Cranbrook I was gobsmacked by the wild beauty and gargantuan grandeur of The Canadian Rockies. Meandering rivers, jewel tone lakes and wild life, bears, bald eagles, big horn sheep, deer and long hair mountain goats. We enjoyed seeing all of these on our 4 hour journey back to Cranbrook last week, to show our property for sale.

I have driven different parts of this stretch of highway carved into the Mountain Range a hundred times and

looking up at her lonely peaks still takes my breath away.

Castle Mountain- True North Mountain Majesty.

Rob and I had seen a total of 3 bears combined for all previous trips on this highway . We saw a total of 5 on this weekend drive! All from the safety of our truck through a zoom lens on the camera of course.

His head is covered in dandelion seed as he munches the weeds along the highway. His eyes make him look so gentle, reminds me of Winnie the Pooh.

We stopped to stretch our legs and water the dog at the Marble Canyon rest stop. Even with the evidence of the forest fire that ripped through this area in 2003 nature still shines brilliantly. The once charred earth is now teaming with young lodge pole pine, aster, fire weed and scores of wild flowers and small shrubs.

View from the Marble Canyon rest stop

Marble Canyon is a smaller canyon in South central British Columbia. It is an outdoor playground, popular for climbing, both clean rock in the summer and ice in the winter. You can also camp, hike and snowshoe in the Canyon, independently or book a tour. Some of her lakes, Pavilion, Turquoise and Crown Lakes can be used to enjoy myriad of water sports like canoeing, kayaking, fishing and swimming.

A view from the trail near the rest stop

Business as usual for all of the wild life we saw along side the highway. They all seemed oblivious to on lookers and traffic zooming by.

Big horn females near Radium.

Moraine Lake. Awe inspiring beauty.

Moraine Lake, my favorite lake in Alberta, is glacially fed nestled in The Valley of The 10 Peaks. Some of those 10 peaks are reflected on the lake throughout the day. It crests in late June and when full reflects a seemingly exclusive shade of blue. This unique color occurs here because of the continual depositing of glacial flour. Light refracts off the flour in the lake and creates a jewel like turquoise color.

All of this monumental beauty, so close to Calgary.

I can’t wait to enjoy Alberta, all of her mountainous grandeur, this summer. More epic road trips and adventure camping promises a fitting Canadian send off before we head down south this October.