The Wandering Koi

After turning in the rental car, we boarded a bus leaving Seattle for Vancouver. The Canadian border guards decided we were not too sketchy and let us through. Mrs. Koi did a great job maximizing point spendage, easing the budget for us to stay in a hotel. As the campground didn’t have a shower, there were some spirited rounds of rock, paper, scissors to determine who got the first shower after several days.

Due to some more fancy points magic from Mrs. Koi, got an upgrade on our room. Not a bad view.

The next day we were back on the train, but this time on VIA on our way to Jasper, AB.

VIA has nice viewing cars. We enjoyed watching the scenery change and were fortunate that our route was not impacted by wild fire. We did get a little closer view than we had planned to some of the fires on the way to Jasper, however.

But the skies brightened and soon we were awed by the color of the glacial melt rivers.

Fair warning, if you don’t like improbably-hued water and mountain vistas that make you a little melancholy that concrete was invented, you may want to skip the next 10 posts or so.

We arrived in Jasper, AB after an another overnight coach train adventure. As nice as VIA cars are, they share many of the issues for us that Amtrak coach was prone to. And even more, they never turn out the lights. A few small adjustments, such as actually talking advantage of the complementary eye masks and ear plugs, keeping a warm coat or blanket (because car temperature is set by the Canadian government in Ottawa), and using a folded jacket or camping pillow to sit on for extra padding all improved the experience on the return journey. (But a lot happened before we were ready for that!)

We were a little nervous about our accommodation as it was our first stay in a hostel, but we thought this was probably a good sign when we arrived.

It may not be typical of hostels (and we chipped in a little more for a private bedroom), but we all agreed the hostel in Jasper was clean and comfortable. Wasn’t quite the same as the Hyatt, but after camping it was nice having the kitchen to prepare hot meals! (Not to mention showers)

We planned to return to Jasper to catch the train back to Vancouver, so after a hike to Pyramid Lake and restocking on food for camping (with another unanticipated burn ban in effect), we picked up a rental and started on the Icefield Parkway toward Banff.