Tumbleweed

We've had a fantastic few weeks since leaving Canada and returning to the US. On our way out of Canada, we visited Waterton National Park which is the sister national park to Glacier National Park in the US. It was spectacular and fortunately we avoided any grizzly encounters which is a constant concern in those parts.  We crossed the border into Montana and made our way to Helena to visit our friends Becca and Shaun for a couple days. We're planning to bike tour the length of New Zealand with them early next year so it was fun to connect with them in their home in Montana. They're REALLY into biking so Ginny and I have our work cut out for us if we hope to keep up with them on that trip.  After Helena, we drove south to Bozeman where I had plans to meet up with old friends for our annual summer backpacking trip. After striking out many times in trying to book backcountry permits for the Canadian Rockies, we decided to go to the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (Beartooths) wh...

We’ve been in Canada for over a month now and have thoroughly enjoyed our visit. The wildlife alone is worth the visit – we’ve seen mountain goats, moose, elk, bald eagles, red tailed hawk, caribou and both black and grizzly bears (the grizzlies viewed from inside our van thankfully!). A number of places we visited on Vancouver Island had recent cougar sightings, but we fortunately didn’t see any. We’ve also gotten good at talking to ourselves and generally making lots of noise when walking through grizzly country to let them know we’re coming and avoid any surprise encounters. And of course the scenery is incredible as you can see from some of the photos below. Ginny and me in Banff National Park Banff is crowded but the scenery is spectacular At first blush, it can be challenging to find many differences between Canada and the USA – even the Canadian accent is virtually identical to the American accent for crying out loud! And of course they love ice hockey more than any other spor...