Driving through the Rocky Mountains in winter

[Ryan]

Week before last Tanya and I went on a road trip through the mountains to get to the Okanagan in BC, a place we're looking to move to. The weather was unseasonably warm so the trip was pretty easy, just long, and I thought you guys might get a kick out of some big mountain pictures.

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I didn't take a starting pic to show you what it looks like here but we're in the prairies of Alberta, it's very flat here and pretty much all you see is urban sprawl and farm fields. You can't see any mountains on the horizon here.

This is what it looks like about 3 hours south on our trip, around Calgary, the mountains are on the horizon:

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Another hour or so gets you in the Canmore/Banff area which is much more in the mountains:

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Here's a big concrete plant right in the mountains, maybe half hour drive to Banff or Canmore. Crazy place to work in the world hey!

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Continuing on, still heading towards the actual Banff provincial park entrance:

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Here's where you enter the provincial park of Banff, you have to pay 10 or 15 bucks a day if you're staying overnight, free to drive through:

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More mountains!

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These overpasses are for wildlife.. they fence the forest the whole way on both sides of the road and then every few miles they have overpasses like this that are open to the forest on each side for the animals to cross.

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So who's the ice road trucker taking us on this cool road trip? It's Tanya! (safety glasses for sunglasses... so hot right now)

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More mountains!

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A few hours into the mountains you get to this crazy little town called Field. It's tiny, just a few hundred people, tucked right underneath all these big mountains.. really cool place. Saturday night is pizza night at their little cafe, so life there is good!

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Ok, back on the road, still have several hours to get through the mountains! We're going into places on the highway that frequently get closed down for weather but we're lucky right now, it's all clear and dry.

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It gets dark really fast in the mountains and the rest of our drive was pretty much pitch black so this is the next day, in the Okanagan, south of Kelowna.. the whole drive is a big beautiful lake and hills.

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And here's our last morning in Summerland, right by our hotel, and then we drove the 12 hours back home!

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I think Tanya and I are gonna be Okanagan people one day.. any of you guys know this area or live down there?

[goosekevin]

Guh, Canada is so beautiful
Definitely considering moving there in 5/10 years haha

[Ryan]

Come on up, Tom, lots of room for you! *smile* There's always lots of Aussies in Banff/Canmore, they're cool places for young people to go live and party for a few years...

[Chankgeez]

Lake Okanagan?

So, you saw Ogopogo, eh?

[01010111]

That's one awesome drive! I think Murder the Mountains should've been playing some time during that trip! Seeing those mountains makes me miss having mountains all the time...

[space6oy]

ugh, i wanna make love to snow covered mountains so bad... will move near them someday...
used to say i wish i could live within a short drive to either snow covered mountains or the beach. california, not sure i'd wanna... western canada though, hmm...

[Hyphen Nation]

ugh, i wanna make love to snow covered mountains so bad... will move near them someday...
used to say i wish i could live within a short drive to either snow covered mountains or the beach. california, not sure i'd wanna... western canada though, hmm...

Portland: an hour from the beach, an hour from Mt Hood [volcano, so not a range]. Half a day's drive to the Coeur D'Alene, or a day to the Montana Rockies. Or you can rock some Bay Area and have nicer weather all around and be near-ish to the Tahoe. Canada/BC isn't too bad either. On the water and a wall of mountains at Whistler.

[oldangelmidnight]

Out on the east coast, we like to think we have mountains but this stuff puts us to shame.
It's crazy that people live way up there.

[skullservant]

Man that is cool Ryan. Would love to visit some snowy mountains sometime. Beautiful stuff!

On a side note it slightly terrifies me that there are no guard rails next to the lake hahah

[Achtane]

Awesome pics, dude. Looks like Norway. Or Skyrim. Same thing.

On a side note it slightly terrifies me that there are no guard rails next to the lake hahah

Yeah, stuff like that freaks me out...I don't know whether it's worse to be the driver or the passenger there.

[Ryan]

I get terrified on these roads too haha! Next time I'll document it better but there's lots of places that have 1000 ft drops off the side with just a tiny guard rail or just a few metal bars spaced out.. freaks me out! Same for the water, you could drive straight into all kinds of lakes and rivers through the mountains and Okanagan. It's also pitch black in the mountains starting at about 4pm with no lights anywhere, barely any passing lanes, tons of blind 90 degree corners, and the whole 12 hour drive is mostly filled with big rigs.. still an awesome drive though... as a passenger. *smile*

[skullservant]

Jah Bless Tanya for driving! Beast mode initiated!

[t-rey]

The mountains are so pretty. I keep telling my wife we need to visit Canada just because it's pretty and the people are friendly and Tim Hortons and Dr. Scientist. I've yet to win her over

[Chankgeez]

... you could drive straight into all kinds of lakes and rivers through the mountains and Okanagan...

... and directly into the gaping maw of Ogopogo, eh?

[sylnau]

So beautifull!