So ours was a group of 12 friends. All tired and bored of the daily mundane life and dying to have a few days off, have some adventure, get refreshed, explore the much talked about beauty of Canada and basically get a break!! The unanimous choice of destination was the Canadian Rockies. And so all set, all packed, lying ahead of us were 4 days filled with excitement, awe, adventure and admiration.
Let me tell you about my friends though. So, there's Palak a.k.a. Maddy, the fun guy, the food guy, the reliable guy. Arpit the strong and the silly pranks guy, Hardik a.k.a. Harry the organiser the smart guy, Vishal a.k.a. Bhide the planner, the witty guy, Nirav the speedster, the funny guy though extremely irritable when asked to pose for a photo, Dainik a.k.a Dk the papadtod guy (meaning very lean guy ) though a complete foodie, ( god only knows where does all that food go !! ), Gautam a.k.a gato whose song collection is different n nice and when he sings .. wow, Hiren a.k.a. party who has swallowed a microphone and is so much on the phone, Alpesh a.k.a. bacon the silent guy, Nirav (yeah another nirav) a.k.a. doctor who is always busy posing for a pic, and Saumya the quiet guy, enjoying the nature by himself.
We started for Calgary (Alberta) in the evening from our little town Prince Albert in Saskatchewan. After a long drive we reached there at 3 in the morning. After chatting a bit, all fell asleep. The next morning we all started for our journey to begin, the much awaited Banff National Park.
Day 1) Just after driving for a few miles, the great canadian rocky mountains came into view. From far off we could see the lofty peaks, alluring us to drive up closer to them. We booked up for 3 days at the Banff National Park entrance office and drove off into the wilderness. The huge mountains were now running besides us. The sight was breathtaking, we could not peel off our eyes from the beauty and the magnificience. We all stopped at a few "points" where the beauty was exceeding and had to be captured in our cameras.
In the afternoon we reached the Sulphur mountains, decided to take the gondola ride. As we sat in the gondolas and started climbing up, the gigantic mountains became fully visible, the sight mesmerizing but we didnt know there was more in store for us. After getting out of the gondola, we climbed up the steps to reach to the peak. The sight from there was so out of the world. The river looking like a little silver snake, the other mountains little hills, the castle building like a doll's playhouse. We couldnt have enough of the view. Then it was icecream time. After we came down we stopped at a lake point and the beauty and the quiet reflected the peace that our soul yearns for. We also did a short trail hiking at Bow Falls, and it was really nice. We drove off into the beautiful dainty little town of Banff, looked for a hotel, changed and then headed off to the sulphur hot springs to relax in its pool. It was awesome. We were getting rejuvenated in the hot spring pool. The day had been so much fun and I slept off dreaming about the sulphur mountains and its magnificience.
Day 2) The next morning, much to our dismay we found out that we had been a little late to reach at the river rafting point. We decided to use Plan B instead and headed off ahead. The drive towards Lake Louis was beautiful.
A little later we found ourselves at the Johnston Canyon trail. The trail had two points. One was the trail to the Lower Falls and the other one to the Upper Falls. The water gushing out was intensely fast, icy cold, powerful and was cutting and carving the rocks. We felt chilly initially but climbing up the trail was a good excercise to warm us up. We saw many birds and immensely enjoyed hiking the trail. Enroute we came across an extremely amiable squirrel!! She posed for photographs, took little bits of food from our hands and was not at all scared!! How beautiful the squirrel's life was, happy, free and wilful.
After the trail we went to another beautiful fall, its name a bit weird - Takkakaw Falls. It means " It is Magnificient " in Cree, the natives' language. It is about 1,260 ft high and our adventurous group decided to climb upto its peak. So without any gear or any aid some of us climbed up till the highest point possible. The water gushing from the top on the sturdy rocks inspired a feeling of awe. Its so difficult to describe the feeling.
However climbing down was difficult, the pebbles and rocks all rolling down from under the feet, and just looking down was scary. Fortunately everyone climbed down safely. After the adventurous trip to the Takakkaw Falls, we reached the alluring Lake Louis.
The delightful lake is craddled in the arms of huge glacial rockies. It is so angelic. It is as if the gigantic rockies are protecting the angel in its arms. We all got our life jackets on and enjoyed one full hour of canoeing, one full hour of bliss and it was indeed an experience of its own kind. Wherever we laid our eyes there was just bewitching and exquisite natural beauty. It was as if God had specially created this lake as His own place. It was really silly as if some of us could not row the canoes.
Astonished that such beauty exists, and yet the heart asking for more, we set out towards jasper. Cruising through the national park our mobiles failed with no signal and one of the car got apart. We lost touch with one car much to our dismay. Nevertheless we continued and reached the Mount Edith Cavell. The board said we had to drive up but the road was extremely narrow and curvaceous, dangerous and dusk had already set in. Looking for more adventure we drove up. The road was scary but our friends who were driving were confident and excellent.
Upon reaching there, we were just stupefied by the grand, the majestic, the opulent mountains, the view from up and close to such grandiose. I swear to god whenever I tried to look at the rocks I felt dizzy. Such sheer ravishing sight !! Touching our feet was the glacial lake. The mountains looked regal and stately, the lake looked charming and pleasing. The perfect combination for resplendent charm.
My head was spinning with wonder and awe. I felt very bad for my few friends who missed it. After reaching Jasper, we looked for a hotel, ate pizzas and dozed off. I dreamt nothing, I was so dead asleep. We had done a lot of climbing and I dont know about the guys but I was really tired. The next morning we hurriedly got ready to indulge in the major attraction of the trip, - white water river rafting !!
Day 3) We all reached the bus which was to take us to a place about 45 minutes from the town. After reaching there we all geared up for the adventure. Wearing the suit, helmet and the life jacket we all were ready and excitied. We all got
into our boats and practiced for a bit. Finally we were ready to plunge into the rough waters of the Athabasca River. Ours was a 13km long ride on the river. It was much fun, when big waves bumped into our boats and it rocked us. We all rowed well. The fun was much and after it was over we still wanted more.
After the rafting, we all got hungry. A lunch at subway's and off we were on the road again. We halted off at many delightful points. The beauty was as usual undefined and I am out of words again.
Arriving at Maligne Canyon we hiked another trail. We were at a height or the canyon was very deep, that I am still not able to decide, yet the hike was very enjoyable. There were many tourists and all were enjoying, or capturing the wilderness in their cameras. It was very leisurely. After that we stopped at one of the lakes. It was quite hot with little winds and this called for some icecream and relaxing.
We all stopped at one of the lakes. The water was crystal clear and icy cold. We could see the innumerable pebbles and rocks lying at the bottom of the lake. The trip so far had been fun, a very cherishable one. We were in the middle of beautiful mountains, lakes, amidst wild animals and birds and surrounded by divine beauty. Sadly our trip was coming to an end. We just had one more day.
Day 4) We all got up, packed our belongings, had a good breakfast and bid a final goodbye to our rockies. We though we had seen it all, regal mountains, lakes, birds, animals, bears, grizzly ones too but no!! Just on the outskirts we saw beautiful carribous!! Our plate was full now. The carribous are such graceful animals.
We drove with heavy hearts to the elegant city of Edmonton. The drive was long and quiet because everyone was lost in the memories of the rockies and all the fun that we had. Edmonton has North America's biggest mall and so for me, a shopaholic it was a dream come true. It was a sunday and the mall was about to close early so I rushed everywhere and shopped a lot. The mall is big and has all the big brands' showroom here. It has some attractions for kids and sailors too !!
Shopping was great and with our wallets lighter (wink wink) we, the hungry lot, reached The New Asian Village restaurant. It was very beautifully designed from the interior and the ethnic look about the whole place showed the owners' love and pride for India. The food was fantastic and everyone had a great dinner.
Our trip would have been incomplete had we not visited any temple in Edmonton. We drove to the Maha Ganpati Temple and sought the blessings of our divine gods. In this beautiful way we ended our cherishable trip.
This trip is memorable beyond words, our lively group of friends, the places we visited, the adventures that we all undertook, the anticipation of seeing new delightful places, the awe, the grandeur of the rockies and the beauty, the charm, these memories will be etched in our minds for a lifetime. I want to thank all my friends for letting me in (it was afterall a guys' group) and making this trip so wonderful and cherishable.
