Hello, Canada!
Vancouver · July 14 – 18
We started in Vancouver, a big city on Canada’s west coast. There are mountains behind it, the Pacific Ocean in front of it, and forests right inside the city. Kids in Canada spend lots of time outside in summer.
Lots of Canadian houses have a porch or deck for breakfast outside. In summer you eat your bagel while birds sing in the backyard.
Riley ParkBagels are a big deal in Canada. Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver all argue about whose are the best.
Riley ParkCanadian summers are short but warm. Backyard pools come out, and kids run barefoot on the grass until it’s time to come in.
New WestminsterMost backyards have a little vegetable garden. Tomatoes, kale, and zucchini love the long Canadian summer days — sun until almost 10 p.m.!
New WestminsterGranville Island is an island right inside Vancouver. People eat doughnuts and dumplings and watch boats float by.
VancouverMany of Canada’s dinosaur bones are found in Alberta. This T-rex lives in a Vancouver museum, but his cousins roamed the badlands 70 million years ago.
VancouverBritish Columbia grows more blueberries than anywhere else in Canada. In July, farms open the fields and you can pick (and eat!) as many as you want.
RichmondWildflowers and bees love B.C.’s long sunny days. The sun can stay up past 9 p.m. — way past bedtime.
RichmondVancouver has sandy beaches right in the city. You can swim, build sandcastles, and grab a snack — all without leaving downtown.
GreektownTim Hortons and tiny coffee shops are everywhere in Canada. Grown-ups line up for coffee, kids line up for muffins.
BurnabyThese wooden stairs lead into one of Canada’s most famous forests. The Douglas-fir trees here are older than your grandparents — some are over 300 years old!
Pemberton HeightsAfter the big bridge there are smaller treetop bridges that wind through the rainforest. The trees are so tall that the light feels green.
Pemberton HeightsTotem poles are tall carved cedar trees made by First Nations peoples of B.C. Each face tells part of a family or animal story. Some are over 100 years old.
North VancouverThis totem has a doorway carved right through the middle! Old-style B.C. longhouses sometimes had entrance poles you could walk through.
North VancouverCanada is full of forest animals — otters, raccoons, beavers, and black bears. Park signs help kids learn how to spot their tracks.
Pemberton HeightsTurquoise Lakes
Lake Louise & Moraine Lake · July 19
The Canadian Rockies are the big mountains that run up the western side of the country. The lakes hidden between them are bright turquoise — not because of paint or filters, but because of tiny ground-up rock floating in the water.
Moraine Lake’s water looks like blue paint, but it’s really powdered rock from a glacier. The dust is so fine it bounces blue light back to your eyes.
Lake LouiseThe peaks behind us are called the Valley of the Ten Peaks. They used to be printed on the back of the Canadian $20 bill.
Lake LouiseGlacier-fed lakes are FREEZING — only about 4°C even in July. Toes-in is more than enough. Canada has more lakes than every other country in the world combined — around two million of them.
Lake LouiseBanff National Park, where we are, was Canada’s very first national park. It opened in 1885 — older than the family cars in your driveway by a lot.
Lake Louise
Takakkaw means “it is wonderful” in Cree. The falls are 373 metres tall — one of Canada’s biggest. Every drop used to be ice; glaciers high on the mountain above melt all summer long.
Yoho NP, B.C.Banff Town
Banff, Alberta · July 20 – 21
The town of Banff sits inside a national park. Mountains tower over every street, and elk and deer sometimes wander right down the road. People come from all over the world just to look up.
Maple ice cream is a real flavour — made with real Canadian maple syrup. So is BeaverTail, a fried pastry shaped like a beaver’s tail.
Banff
The Bow River runs right through Banff. The water comes from glaciers high above and stays bright turquoise even in the middle of town.
BanffBanff is the highest town in Canada — 1,383 metres above sea level. The air is a little thinner, and at night it gets cold even in summer.
BanffBow Falls is small but powerful — fish use special ladders to swim past it on their way upriver to lay eggs.
BanffThe Banff Gondola climbs straight up Sulphur Mountain — 698 metres in just 8 minutes. Your ears pop on the way!
BanffFrom the top of Sulphur Mountain there’s a wooden boardwalk along the ridge. You can see six mountain ranges at once.
Banff
On a clear day from the summit you can see over 100 kilometres in every direction — almost halfway to Calgary.
Banff
The Vermilion Lakes outside Banff are home to moose, beavers, and bald eagles. At sunset the water turns pink and orange.
BanffThe Icefields Parkway
Banff → Jasper · July 21 – 22
The Icefields Parkway is a 232-kilometre road through the Rocky Mountains. People call it one of the most beautiful drives in the world. You pass turquoise lakes, then glaciers, then waterfalls — all in one day.
Bow Lake is fed by the Crowfoot Glacier high above. The water is so cold it makes your fingers numb in seconds, even on a hot summer afternoon.
Canada
Peyto Lake is shaped like a giant wolf’s head when you see it from above. Its blue comes from the same magic glacier dust as Moraine Lake — the colour shifts from milky blue to deep teal as the sun moves.
Peyto LakeBighorn sheep live in the Rocky Mountains and sometimes cross the road right in front of cars! Their curly horns grow their whole life — older sheep have the biggest ones.
Icefields Pkwy
Water from this icefield flows to THREE different oceans — Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic. Canada is the only place on Earth where this happens.
Canada
Glaciers are shrinking every year. This one has lost over 1.5 kilometres of length in the last 125 years. Scientists watch them carefully.
CanadaHot chocolate is the official Rocky Mountain drink. Even in July, the wind off the glacier is chilly enough that you need a warm cup.
CanadaMaple syrup is Canada’s most famous food. Three out of every four bottles in the world come from a single province: Québec.
Canada
Glacier rivers look milky white in summer — that’s rock dust carried down from the ice. The water is too cold and too fast for swimming.
Sunwapta RiverInto Jasper
Jasper National Park · July 22 – 24
Jasper is the biggest national park in the Rocky Mountains, and one of the largest “dark sky” places in the world — no city lights for hundreds of kilometres. By day, the rivers and canyons are louder than anything you’ve heard.
Athabasca Falls thunders so loud you have to shout to talk! The whole river squeezes into a narrow gorge and then explodes down a cliff.
Jasper Park LodgeAll the water from a huge glacier squeezes into this narrow canyon at once — that’s what makes it so loud and so much fun to watch.
JasperElk are big! A grown-up male can weigh as much as six kids stacked together. They live wild in Banff and Jasper, and might wander into a parking lot.
JasperJasper’s forest is mostly tall, skinny lodgepole pine. The trails are quiet enough to hear chipmunks chattering up in the branches.
JasperJasper is quieter than Banff: more bears, more elk, fewer people. The lake water is so clear you can see every stone on the bottom.
Jasper Park Lodge
This “Old Man Tree” at Lac Beauvert has been growing sideways for over 100 years. It’s a famous photo spot in Jasper.
Jasper Park LodgeSummer sunsets in the Rockies happen after 10 p.m. Kids stay up late chasing wildflowers and listening for elk in the meadow.
Jasper Park LodgeBack to the Rainforest
Clearwater & Harrison Hot Springs, B.C. · July 24 – 25
Heading west again, the dry mountains turn into thick green rainforest. B.C.’s coast is the only temperate rainforest in Canada — lots of rain, giant trees, and quiet lakes.
Clearwater is the gateway to Wells Gray Park, sometimes called “Canada’s waterfall park.” Over 40 waterfalls hide inside the forest.
ClearwaterB.C.’s rainforest grows the biggest cedar trees in Canada. Some are over 1,000 years old — older than every country on a modern map!
Harrison Hot SpringsA backyard fire pit with marshmallows is a classic Canadian summer night. Once it’s dark, the stars come out and so do the stories.
Harrison Hot SpringsGoodbye, Canada
Vancouver → home · July 26
One last morning in Vancouver before the long flight home. Canada is huge, friendly, and full of surprises — we only saw a tiny corner of it. Come back soon!
More than 1 in 5 people in Vancouver are Chinese-Canadian. The dim sum here is some of the best outside of Asia — just remember your chopsticks. 下次再見, Canada!
Victoria-Fraserview