So with our wedding day an amazing fresh memory we sadly left Banff.
Bannf was a beautiful place and the first place we both agreed that we could live aslong as we could avoid the tourist trade as much as possible ( Banff brings in 50 thousand visitors a day in high season).
We waved goodbye to the mountain that overlooked us in our sleep and set off towards the ‘lesser known’ National Parks, Yoho NP, Glacier NP and Kootenay NP. We were to spend the next week on the ‘scenic route’
to Vancouver.

We hit the paint pots in Kootenay NP, Emerald Lake in Yoho NP, walked the dead forest broadwalk in Glacier NP, visited the farmers market and tyre repair shop in Golden.

The scenery was stunning and well worth the ‘off the route’ drive. We saw deer in their tens and bears peeping from the side of the roads and watched the ‘bear jams’ along the highways. You dont have to be in the Rockies for long before you are caught in one. Despite park laws, let alone the rule of general common sense, people abandon their cars helter-skelter on the highway and jump out of windows and doors to stick their cameras in the faces of the hapless animals. We nearly rear ended a car that had pulled over to photograph a baby bear therefore forcing it to run out into the road!! We have potographed wild animals on our travels but only from a distance or when they have come close to us and have never endangered them! It is a true honour to be able to get a glimpse of them in their natural habitat and most of them are just comical. The ground squirrels and hoary marmotts are hilarious! They peep from their holes watching you with their lunch, almost daring you to get closer! The sit on road side barriers seemingly just watching the world go by…IN PAIRS! they are so cute! We have been truely privelaged to see most of these wild animals on our travels and from our van window is enough!

Our next stop was a spooky ghost town completely off the track and we were both excited about it. We headed South to New Devon and then on further to Sandon. All of these tiny villages were booming in the silver mining days and Sandon alone boasted 24 hotels, 23 saloons an Opera house and a thriving red light district! It was so ahead of its time that it had electric light before Vancouver!

We arrived as the sun set behind the mountains and the light cast an eerie glow on the ramshackle scrapyard that lay before us. It appears that the current villagers (pop. 12 from 5,000) are keen classic vehicle renovators ( I feel the wives and doughters pain…my Dad collects classics too..luckily not buses!) and they particularly like tram buses! They lined the gravel path between worn partly collapsed buildings, the occasional tractor and the odd train scattered inbetween it all. Unfortunatley (??) the museum had closed for the night so we wandered aimlessly enjoying the peace.

We suddenly noticed an increase in traffic from the back end of the ‘village’ (from zero to 3 cars!). We walked to see where all of these cars were coming from…this was apparently a dead end…and found an uneven road leading to Idaho Peak.

A sign recommended that the road was not for campers, large vehicles or anything that was over a meter wide (my take on the whole thing!! ‘fun police’ remember!). Yet Alex stood in front of one of the cars, pointed at Peggy ( a good 500 meters away and looking small) and asked the driver if she would make it!!!! How would they know???? Do they know she is 24 years old??? Do they know her axel is probably rustier than a Rover 200’s wheel arch?? Do they know she needs to be coaxed into starting in a morning and will not corner until after 10?? NO, they do not! They know nothing! BUT…Alex takes it as gospel, ‘she’ll make it’
he says confidently so off we go!

Holding on for grim death up a winding 12km…THAT IS 8 GOD FORSAKEN MILES to you and me…in Peggy…uphill…on a road that is NOT FOR LARGE VEHICLES! I will be completely honest when I tell you that this road was not made for ANY vehilcle! Maybe a bike or at a push, a pram (without a child in it) but certainly not a motorised vehicle. It was narrow and on a knife edge and gravel at the best of times, otherwise it was MUD and landslide stuff and very, very, VERY uphill! Like verticle!! Anyway, we went. It took us 2 hours to drive up and up and up! The video does not do it justice! It was scary…Anyway.

So we get to the top at 1900m (6223 feet) and park next to a brand spanking Mercedes top of the range G-wagon (approx £££££100,000) parked with note on it saying ‘DOA call Barry on some number’! Im already thinking about my Richard Laymon novels and every murder book I have ever read and wondering where the killer is! We shone the torch into the blacked out windows and saw all the bedding, the tent, the cooker etc etc and decided we would probably bump into the driver on the path to the summit another 1 mile up!

We changed from our shorts and t’s to our walking boots and everything else we had to wear and set off for the icy cold peak. We were hoping to get there in time to see the sun set behind the mountains as it had already gone from Sandon. The walk was steep, a 400m ascent in a mile! (that is half the ascent but in a quarter of the distance of the Sulphur skyline!) We got our back into it but the amazing alpine flora kept me sidetracked! It was absolutely stunning to see all around you the fabulous colours and shapes and to smell the sweet scent of the alpine lillies, wild lupins and monkshood. It made the hike an absolute pleasure and we soon made the windy peak.

The view as promised from the boards below was outstanding! We stood at 2280m, 7480 feet and admired the 360 degree vista! We had passed snow, rock, ice and blooms to arrive at this point and talked about spending the night! We read the log book of others that had visited and read one persons amazing story of scattering her fathers ashes and marrying the man of her dreams tomorrow and that she couldn’t go through with out without visiting her fathers ‘playground’ the very day before! I was too busy with tears in my eyes to notice the gathering storm and it wasn’t until Alex pointed out that we ought to leave that I realised how dark it had suddenly become! We listened to the thunder clap and watched the sheet lightening (but we had counted 15 before that so we were fine parents!!) and decided against staying! The adventure had been adventurous enough already!

We made our mark in the log book and started at a run back down the steep dusty slopes! We made it back to Peggy in half the time and the abandoned 4×4 was still there. We looked it over again and decided that no psychotic killer could afford a brand new G-wagon and that it was safe and settled in for the night! We edgily put the music on to drown out the animals cries (I failed to mention it was a full moon) and made dinner, We slept like logs and awoke early the next day….to SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See what happens next in our wedding travel adventure!