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CANADA/US TRIP 2001(Click on any of the thumbnails to see a larger image in a new window - use the 'Close window' button at the bottom to get back to this page) INTRODUCTIONA three week tour round some of the highlights of Canada and the States saw us in planes, trains and automobiles, hurtling from one side of the continent to the other. By the end we had seen enough mountains, forests, lakes, glaciers, rivers and canyons to last a lifetime. And Mo was completely knackered. So, future holidays will be less ambitious - honest. The itinerary went roughly like this:
CANADA
First stop after flying into Toronto was a day trip to Niagara Falls. Mo had expected higher but it was still beautiful and impressive. Best thing was that the Falls are actually two sets of falls: one on the American and one on the Canadian side of the border. The Americans, who usually have the biggest and best of everything (or so they say), have the straight, slightly insignificant section on the left. It's the Canadians who have the thundering, spectacular horseshoe falls carrying 90% of the water.
We had to take the obligatory tourist ride in the 'Maid of the Mist' to the Canadian falls. Everyone is equipped with a disposable plastic mac (environmentally friendly and recycled, they claim) and, believe us, you need it!
Looking back towards the American falls the mist from the horseshoe falls produces a rainbow in the sun.
This is where you got a real sense of the huge volume of water cascading over, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, etc. And this is in Summer when there isn't so much water. AND there is a hydro-electric station taking a large percentage of the water before it gets here.
In Toronto we only had time to go up the CN Tower: the tallest free-standing structure in the world.
You could tell it was high when you were at the top looking down on all the skyscrapers.
And, if that wasn't enough, there is a glass floor so you can REALLY look down. Steve (those are his feet) doesn't like heights but this is SO high it somehow doesn't feel real and isn't so scary. After this we got on the train across Canada and into the Rockies and, believe me, there are HUNDREDS of photos of mountains, forests, lakes, waterfalls, glaciers, rivers and canyons. So, from here on in, only very selective highlights. If you want to see more, please ask.
This one picture has it all: mountain, forest, river, waterfall.
Standing on top of Athabasca glacier.
You just don't get the size of these things, even when you are standing underneath them. Our guide told us that the height of the ice wall you see here (marked with the black line) is the same as the length of a football pitch! Lake Louise up in the mountains near Banff. There's no camera or scanning trick making this water so green. It's something to do with the pulverised rock (rock flour) carried in by the glaciers and floating in it.
We were promised elk, wolves, bears, ... but, as usual, didn't actually see much wildlife. (apart from ground squirrels which were EVERYWHERE). We did get a fleeting glimpse of a black bear's bottom and saw one or two elk, this being the most magnificent specimen.
Another representative composition: the obligatory mountain, forest and river. But there is also an osprey and its young in the nest on the telegraph pole.
On the train through the Rockies and down into Vancouver. USA
Obligatory shot of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in San Francisco.
We were tourists in San Francisco for just one day so we wanted to take a cable car up to see Russian Hill, the most windy street in the world. The queues for the cable cars were horrendous though so Steve decided to push Mo up in her wheelchair. In the immortal words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, "Big, big mistake". San Franciscan hills are famously long and steep. Cars are warned to park with their wheels into the sidewalk lest they roll away. And unfit, rapidly-approaching-40, wheelchair-pushing men should be warned not to try climbing them. This isn't even halfway up but the view was worth it. Russian Hill wasn't.
On into Yosemite National Park and this is Mo sitting in the California Tunnel Tree, a hollowed out Giant Redwood. Never mind the size of the trunk, some of these trees have limbs six feet in diameter! And they only reach maturity after 1000 years.
Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. As with Canada, there are hundreds of pictures of stunning rock formations and waterfalls in Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks so just a few representative highlights from here on in.
Heading East through the Rockies and the Tioga Pass this is Dana Meadows.
The Grand Canyon - what more is there to say?
Red Canyon at the entrance to the Dixie National Forest.
Agua Canyon and one of many amazing lightning storms we were treated to in Bryce National Park.
The Amphitheatre (on the left) and looking out from Bryce Canyon.
The Checkerboard Mesa in Zion National Park.
A big rock in Zion near the entrance to the Narrows.
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