Oh, Canada! A cross-Canada journey: from Toronto to Vancouver By Jennifer Harrison

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Driving across Canada has always been a dream of mine, and my recent decision to leave Toronto, Ontario, and move to Vancouver, British Columbia, has finally afforded me the chance to do just that.

Unfortunately, I had only five days to accomplish this goal before the beginning of the school year (I am a teacher). In almost any other country this would be more than enough to traverse the country several times. However, Canada is more than 7,000 km wide, of which I would travel nearly 5,000 km.

Every summer, thousands of Canadians and international travelers pack their bags and explore this vast country. Some travel in groups on luxury tour buses. Others pack minimum clothing and stop along the way to camp under the stars. Most, however, try to pack as many of their belongings as they can into their cars and stop at motels in tiny towns along the way. This is the method that my boyfriend and I decided to try.

We said our tearful goodbyes with our families and set off toward the west. Lying ahead of us were two days of driving to cross the mosquito-infested lakes of Northern Ontario, and two more days of driving across the great plains of central Canada.

On the fourth morning of our journey, we arrived in Calgary, Alberta. Host to the 1988 Winter Olympic Games, Calgary is a beautiful, bustling city nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Moments after leaving the city center, the immense Rocky Mountains began to take shape on the horizon, and only a short while later, we arrived excitedly at the gates of Banff National Park.

Banff is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 and spanning 6,641 sq. km. It is named after Banffshire in Scotland, the birthplace of two major financiers of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The park shares it's boundaries with Jasper, Yoho, Kootenay, Mount Revelstoke and Glacier national parks, making for a vast network of protected area for plant and animal life.

The town of Banff is located just inside the park gates. One can shop at Cartier in the morning, visit the hot springs in the afternoon and watch a grizzly bear forage for food in the evening (from a safe distance).

The mountain air was remarkably refreshing, and people from all over the world were wandering up and down the busy main street. Native birds were calling from the trees around us and the river ran crystal blue beneath the sun. We strolled along the river and took a few hours to explore the shops in the village. After walking in the fresh mountain air it was time to move on again. I was also getting anxious to wash my meager collection of traveling clothes, and take some pictures from outside the quickly moving car.

A few more twists in the road brought us to a complete stop as a small family of bighorn sheep grazed peacefully by the side of the road. One large female strolled over and nearly stuck her entire head into the passenger-side window as I watched in disbelief.

It is a strict rule at the park to leave the resident wildlife in peace. But many tourists make the unwise decision to get out of their cars to get a closer shot of a black bear or a bull moose. Contact with wild animals can result in making once-independent animals dependent on people for food, or on very rare occasions, injury for the person who thinks its safe to pet a grizzly bear.

We drove about 60 km further on the park highway and arrived in stunning Lake Louise: a mountain lake named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, daughter of Queen Victoria.

The lake itself is a surreal turquoise blue, and there are many hiking and horseback riding trails that twist and turn through the mountains around the lake.

After a delicious lunch at the famous Chateau Lake Louise, we were reluctant to climb back into the car. We passed through Roger's Pass, which is the highest point along the Trans-Canada Highway.

This pass was the last great obstacle facing the completion of the transcontinental railway. It is famous because of its treacherous susceptibility to avalanches, which actually forced its closing in 1916 with a tunnel route through the mountains. However, the construction of the highway necessitated the re-opening of the pass in 1962.

As we began our descent from the mountains toward the city of Vancouver, I was already planning our next trip. International travel is fabulous, but Canada has so much to offer, one could spend years on the road and still have much to see and do. My next trip? Perhaps white-water rafting in the Yukon, or whale watching in Newfoundland!

Shukan ST: Sept. 14, 2001

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