Today we saw six bears, but who’s counting!

The day started like any other. Coffee, breakfast, drive. Our first stop was the Yoho national park where we went to see an Emerald lake. This is as the name suggests, emerald coloured water surrounded by mountains. It was very beautiful and also where we saw our first bear, on the other side of the lake. There were people on the other side looking up at it, while the bear was looking down on them.

We went for a walk, and I noticed a familiar accent, Kathmandu clothing, and the only guy in the park wearing shorts and jandals.

‘Kiwis?’ I said. They turned around and said yep. They asked where we were from. I said Hamilton. They said, ‘no way, us too!’

I went on to say we live in Glenview. So did they! They live in Bruce street, just around the corner! So funny!

We got to the other side of the lake, but the bear had gone.

After lunch we drove the icefields parkway, which is a stunning drive surrounded by snow capped mountains, glaciers and stunning lakes. Bow lake was frozen over and it was my first time seeing a frozen lake. It was so cool!

Then we went to see another frozen lake but this one we had to hike through snow to see. I accidentally on purpose tried walking into some deep snow and my legs disappeared. Then my arms disappeared as I tried to get out of it. It was very scary and very cold. Mike got it on the GoPro, screaming and all.

We saw five more black bears close up beside the road and it was so cool. they don’t care about the cars and just go about their business. Stupid people get out of their cars to photograph them though. Almost all of them are Indians for some reason. A tour bus driver kept telling them off. If a bear is within 100 meters you must stay in your car. Some of these bears are within metres!

Lots of beautiful things to see today. Waterfalls, canyons, frozen lakes, thawed lakes, colourful lakes, glaciers. It was all here. Another fantastic day in Canada.

We are staying the night near Jasper. We might spend a few days here.