The mighty Canadian road trip that’s more affordable than you’d think – The Times
It’s 6pm on a warm spring evening in Jasper, an alpine town tucked into the Canadian Rockies, and a 99-year-old woman in a cobalt blue faux-fur coat is striding purposefully home via the backstreets. She keeps her head down the whole way: should she be spotted she’ll be mobbed. Her cottage, all white and covered in squirrel ornaments, is famous here, as is she. There’s even a huge mural of her downtown. This is Della Senz and she has lived in this house for 77 years, with no plans to pack her bags. So coveted is real estate in this town that coffee shops, cocktail bars and hundreds of businesses have offered her millions of dollars to move yet she bats each away like a fly trying to land in her lemonade on a hot summer’s day.It doesn’t take me long to understand why Senz isn’t budging. Jasper is the last stop, and my favourite part, of a ten-day road trip across the western province of Alberta with my partner, Tom, which we start in Calgary before heading to the Rockies to explore a small but mighty section of the mountain range that runs from western Canada to the southwest US. It’s May, months before last summer’s wildfires burnt a third of Jasper’s houses to the ground (a small solace being that it missed the main street, so shops and restaurants are untouched and tourism can carry on as usual).We fall hard and fast for Jasper after floating over Pyramid Lake in a cedar canoe (£77 for two; wildcurrentoutfitters.ca). It’s one of those perfectly crisp mornings: chilly enough to wear gloves, not quite cold enough to turn your cheeks pink. We breathe in greedy lungfuls of air scented with the woodland that surrounds the lake: black spruce and canary yellow aspen trees. As we carve through the water Mike, our canoe guide, points out freshly trodden moose tracks and piles of wood from willows where beavers have been busy creating new dams.Jasper is a birdwatcher’s paradise and every year 300 species migrate through it, with May, June and September the optimal months for sightings. Steaming mugs of hot chocolate are poured from a flask and we sit back to watch the show unfold overhead. Tree swallows skim the water on the hunt for mosquitoes while black and white loons in spotty overcoats dive for rainbow trout. Tennessee warblers, impossible to miss in their fluorescent yellow jackets, trill from the top of aspens, the favourite tree of bears who want an easy snack. We scan the base of each one but no luck. Right now they have bigger meals on their mind: it’s elk calving season and a few days before our visit a grizzly had been spotted tracing the water’s edge on the hunt for supper.• 10 of the most beautiful places in Canada (and how to see them)Later that evening we go on a bear hunt. With a constant backdrop of mountains and milky blue lakes spilling out on either side of every road, there’s no such thing as a bad drive in Canada. Apart from when I’m behind the wheel, that is. Grappling with driving an automatic for the first time, on a different side of the road, I seize up when someone overtakes and almost plough our rental car into a ditch. We argue, swap seats then drift along, both silently fuming, and I wonder: is this the most beautiful place in the world for a break-up? Then we see a flash of black fur and the tension dissipates faster than you can say bear spray. We watch transfixed from inside the car, less than two metres away, as it stops to munch on dandelions, stands on its hind legs and scratches its black furry back against a post before taking a quick toilet break. I’m half-inclined to look away and give it some privacy — we are, after all, strangers in its back yard. This is one of the most incredible animal encounters you could wish for. And what makes it extra special is that there’s nobody else in sight, just me, Tom and a giant bear.The tourists we encounter on the rest of the trip are mostly split into two distinct camps. Half of them are American retirees ticking off their bucket list, the rest are Canadian fitness fanatics who want to hike in a new corner of their country. We struggle to spot other Brits under the age of 40 and when we chat to friends about the trip they all say the same: they’ve wanted to come for years but assumed it would be out of their price bracket. But once you’ve stumped up for the long-haul flight and car hire, there are plenty of ways to cut costs. Fuel is half the price of what you’d pay in Europe — it costs £40 to fill our SUV and that lasts for 500 miles — while accommodation can be charming low-key mountain lodges that cost as little as £80 a night. Best of all, there’s no cost for the things you’ll want to fill your days with here: incredible hikes and wildlife spotting. Meals can be expensive — tipping at a minimum of 15 per cent is the norm — and while some days we treated ourselves to local specialities such as elk ribs and juicy bison steaks, we mostly stocked up on supplies at the local supermarket, making use of the picnic benches scattered around the national parks to eat alfresco and have lunch with a view.As it’s May and outside the peak season, which runs from June to August, there are never any crowds and we get to see some of Canada’s biggest draws in a different light. Lake Louise, in Banff National Park, is lauded as one of the bluest lakes in the world but when we arrive it’s completely covered in sheets of ice. Initially my heart sinks but as we wander around its shores it starts to thaw and all we can hear is crinkling and crackling, like ice cubes being dropped into a gin and tonic, but louder and even more soothing. Soon patches of turquoise appear and tiny flakes begin to fall, creating a private snow globe.Looking beyond Alberta’s main stays is another way to make prices shrink. We loved Canmore, which has a high street full of independent shops, art galleries and national parks with easy but glorious hikes. Despite being just half an hour in the car from Banff, and just as beautiful, it also has plenty of Airbnbs, often at a third of the price. We take the half-hour hike from town to the top of Grassi Lakes, where luminescent green pools of water reflect the army of firs that surround them. It’s so tropical that I half-expect to see Tarzan swinging across the middle of it.Another untapped favourite is Waterton, which residents tell us is like Banff before it took off. An hour’s hike takes us to the top of Bear’s Hump, where twin milky-blue lakes are severed on either side by snowcapped mountains. The difference is that we sit here completely alone for an hour feeling like we’re on top of the world, until a bald eagle screeching overhead reminds us just how tiny we are. When someone finally appears we ask if he’d like his photo taken but he laughs and tells us: “I live here — this is my morning walk.”At £6 a day the fees to visit each national park are tiny compared with those in the US, where you’ll typically pay about £25. What you can’t put a price on is access. Nothing can beat the sheer exhilaration of driving the 180-mile route of the Icefields Parkway from Jasper to Banff. Our windscreen transforms into a cinema, playing out scenes of jagged shark-tooth mountains, seas of pine trees and a rotating cast of wildlife: white-bottomed elks, curly-horned mountain sheep and striped squirrels who play chicken by the roadside and squeak as they spring up trees dusted with snow. What should be a three-hour drive quickly rolls into six as we stop to gorge on views of Athabasca Glacier, hike up roadside rushing canyons with rainbow-coloured rocks and pull in to gawp at Tangle Creek, a frozen waterfall that clings to the cliff face.• Best Canada itinerariesWhen it’s time to head home we take the Cowboy Trail, named after the route Alberta’s cowboys took during their cattle drives north from the US state of Montana, and wind our way back to Calgary, playing hide and seek with the Rockies as they disappear and reappear just when we think we’ve said goodbye to them. Along the way we pass rushing streams and ranches, witnessing caramel calves taking their first steps along fields lined with wild strawberries and tiny towns that pop up in pockets of the prairies that roll out for miles and miles. When we reach the city we demolish plates of barbecue food, shop at bookshops that stay open until way past sunset and cycle along the Bow River, stopping at pop-up markets along the way.Calgary is a city of surprises, good and bad: incredible street art hits us when we least expect it, as does the pungent whiff of cannabis (it was legalised here in 2019 and most streets have shops selling it). We’re told to swerve Calgary Tower, now much smaller than most of the skyscrapers that have sprung up around it, and have a cocktail at the city’s tallest spot instead: Major Tom’s. It affords us our last glimpse of the Rockies, which now look Lego-sized, small enough to pick up and slip in our pockets if nobody was watching. I’m sad to go home but also a tiny bit relieved because my eyes are weary from the constant scanning. “For bears?” Tom asks. “No,” I tell him. “A little old lady in a blue fur coat.”This article contains affiliate links that can earn us revenueLucy Perrin was a guest of Travel Alberta (travelalberta.com). Travelbag has nine nights’ room only from £1,979pp, including flights, accommodation and car hireYou come to the Rockies for thrills not frills and lots of the accommodation comes in the form of basic, chalet-style lodges. A good option is Waterton Lakes Lodge, a mix of rooms and apartments with full-size kitchens which puts you within a ten-minute walk of the base of Bear’s Hump and within driving distance of the magical forest trails at Red Rock Canyon. Details Room-only doubles from £76 (watertonlakeslodge.com)Tell any of Jasper’s residents that you’re staying in one of these cosy log cabins high in Jasper and they’ll get excited. This is prime stomping ground for grizzlies and black bears — as I discovered when I woke one morning to find our cabin surrounded by fresh droppings. During the day, you can make use of the communal picnic benches and barbecues or take the 20-minute walk into town. Details Room-only doubles from £170 (bearhilllodge.com)The Three Sisters are some of the most recognisable peaks in the Rockies and The Malcolm is the perfect vantage point to pore over them. You can ogle them from the firepit, through the floor-to-ceiling windows in the bedrooms or, most relaxing of all, from one of the two hot tubs; perfect if you want to appreciate the snow and splendour as you soak.Details Room-only doubles from £245 (malcolmhotel.ca)Have you taken a Rockies road trip before? What were your highlights? 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