Oh Canada! What a sight for sore eyes you are. Not only your supernatural parks and wilderness, but also your immaculate city parks, vandalism-free campgrounds, trash-free highways, and clean bathrooms.

Oh Canada! What a sound for sore ears your conversations are, often including kind and considerate words like “please,” “thank you,” and “excuse me,” Manners and civility still exist in your country.

We visited our neighbors to the north for the second time this summer. Last time we were wowed by Churchill, Hudson Bay, the Polar Bears, and somewhat surprisingly, Winnipeg. This time it was Banff, Jasper and four surrounding parks after a 50-year hiatus since our last visits. Interestingly, a long waterway connects these two parts of the country.

Our first leg of this journey was from Seattle to Kamloops – a six-hour drive. In Kamloops, we enjoyed good food and beer outdoors on a balmy evening at a downtown Irish Pub, followed by a walk in Riverside Park to the confluence of the Main and North Fork of the Thompson River. The Rivers namesake, David Thompson, came to Canada in the late 1700s. He worked at Hudson Bay, then travelled west to map and explore its rivers, along with fellow river icons Simon Fraser and Alexander Mackenzie.

The following day, we continued north on the Yellowhead Highway to Mt. Robson National Park where our cabin for the next two nights awaited. The craggy peaks of Wells Gray National Park popped up as we approached the town of Valemount — gateway to Wells Gray, Bowron Lakes, Mt. Robson and Jasper National Parks. We stocked up there with gas and groceries for the next few days, and drove on to Mt. Robson National Park.

We kept thinking that we were seeing Mt. Robson, as there were plenty of sizeable peaks visible, but after rounding a bend, it soon became evident which of these peaks was the tallest in the Canadian Rockies. I immediately turned/swerved (safely, of course) off the road for an OMG photograph with Lori in the foreground – the first of many of this massive peak. Mount Robson is as tall as it is broad. Majestic is an understatement for this peak that changes its appearance with weather and lighting conditions.

A clear, visible Mt. Robson set the tone for the rest of our trip. In spite of forest fires, smoky skies, and two days of rain, we were still able to enjoy views of the Canadian Rockies. We often used superlatives to describe them, like:

Wow!
Awesome!
Stunning!
Spectacular!
Holy ____!

Prior to driving to Jasper, we heard about a forest fire just outside the park. It had caused a major power outage in the town of Jasper, closing businesses and gas stations. Thankfully, our cabin rental place still had power and the owners encouraged us to come.

On the 60-kilometer drive from Mt. Robson to Jasper NP, we stopped to take several short hikes. On one of them, we flushed four Ruffed Grouse. They scattered into the woods, then an adult perched on a mossy log to peer at us.

Our previous lodge owner said Big-horned Sheep gather near Jasper.

Although we did not find sheep, we saw five elk, including a majestic bull, on a gravel bar along the Athabasca River. The Athabasca flows 765 miles northeast to a lake by the same name, continuing northward to Great Slave Lake and then to the Mackenzie River which flows into the Arctic Ocean.

On the way back to our cabin, we walked on the rim of ominously-named, but dramatically-scenic Maligne Canyon. This narrow and deep slot canyon had been carved by water over the years and is striking in a unique way. A frustrated Frenchman trying to ride or jump his horse over the steep canyon gave it the unflattering name.

Meanwhile, back at our cabins just south of Jasper, the views of surrounding peaks and the Athabasca River were still stunning despite the gathering smoke from the nearby fire. The wildness, expansiveness and scale of the massive peaks combined with huge glaciers and ice fields and colorful glacial lakes and rivers make Banff and Jasper extraordinary parks. Having four other large national parks contiguous to them – Mt. Robson, Yoho, Glacier and Mt. Revelstoke – make them even better in terms of their wildness and expansiveness.

We are not put off by crowds in national parks. On the contrary, we view our fellow tourists as vital constituents. It is important for them to cherish these sacred landscapes as we do, so the parks will continue to have political support and funding. We were impressed by the diversity of people visiting them — many from major Canadian cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Vancouver. French, Spanish, Korean, Hindi and Russian were among the languages we heard.

Even in the most crowded places, like the city of Banff, first-rate nature experiences can still be had. One involved renting a canoe at a reasonable price just blocks from the city center and paddling on the Bow River. Mountain peaks loomed on both sides and an active Osprey nest hung over the turquoise waters of the river.

If you paddled down the Bow River — which is not advised due to a major waterfall — and kept going, you could eventually make it all the way east to Calgary, Saskatoon, Lake Winnipeg, the Nelson River and Hudson Bay!

Moraine Lake, a top tourist destination in Banff National Park, is well-worth braving the crowds to see. It is bluer than photos depict with mountains and glaciers rising vertically above. If there are more spectacular lakes, I’m not sure that I’ve seen them.

Two waterfalls along the extraordinary Ice Fields Highway between Banff and Jasper are definitely worth a short walk: Athabasca and Sunwapta Falls. Both falls can be reached via extensive walkways and trails. Each have upper and lower falls as well as side canyons. Another major waterfall along our journey, Rearguard Falls, marks the end of the Chinook Salmon’s incredible 800-mile annual spawning journey from the Pacific Ocean to this waterfall in Mt. Robson National Park.

One of Banff’s busiest hikes, to Johnston Canyon, is highly recommended. Try it early in the morning, or in the evening to avoid peak crowds. The canyon is really more of a gorge, with fast-flowing water, steep sculpted walls, and an impressive waterfall. At the end, you can walk across a bridge over the creek, enter a short tunnel that emerges on a ledge just a stone’s throw from the waterfall – a site of a major photo op of you and the falls behind. The trail itself is an engineering feat, somehow attached to the walls and extending over the gorge.

On our last morning in an otherwise peaceful log cabin between Banff and Jasper Parks, we were awoken by a 66-cone salute courtesy of a Douglas Squirrel who cut down this quantity of pine cones onto our metal roof over a ten-minute period starting at 6:30 AM. How do I know? While laying in bed I counted them. One of the cones hit our stove pipe with a loud clang. Lori stirred and said in a sleepy voice “Ten Points!”

Toward the end of our trip, we revised our plans. After hearing the James Taylor classic Fire and Rain, we realized that these two forces of nature were curtailing our adventure. Three forest fires were closing in from three directions and two days of rain were approaching from the west. Given our bleak options for seeing anything or hiking anywhere, we opted to head home a day early.

Driving west, we stopped in Yoho NP to hike in aptly-named Emerald Lake, followed by a short walk to a remarkable natural bridge of the also aptly named Kicking Horse River. Rafting or kayaking in this stretch of the river would be suicidal. Eventually, this wild river merges with the Columbia River in Golden, BC.

After Kamloops, it was a long rainy drive past another active forest fire near Hope, BC, to Chilliwack where we found a great lunch spot with a nice atmosphere. Just outside of town, we enjoyed our last hike in a nature preserve, before crossing the border and back home to Seattle.

In total, we spent nearly a month in Canada this summer on two trips. Both were fabulous from standpoints of scenery, wildlife, culture, food and especially – hospitality. And both were linked by a lengthy network of rivers, lakes and salt water bays. They figured prominently in the development and geography of Canada. We were grateful to explore the bookends of the explorer’s journeys, and even to paddle some of it.