Banff

The grey overcast skies of the day before had gone and we left Kamloops in sunshine on a cool morning. Today was the day we would ride through the Canadian Rockies - a day I had been looking forward to. The ride certainly delivered as the scenery was stunning - lakes, alpine forest and high mountain peaks. We rode through the town of Sorrento and stopped at Salmon Arm for coffee and fuel. Another hour up the road and we stopped at Revelstoke for an early lunch and chatted to a group of bikers we met. The journey from Revelstoke took us over Rogers Pass and was 150kms of inspiring mountain scenery on the way to the next town of Golden. The road was a little rough on the higher points of the journey (I guess ice and snow in the winter months is hard on them) and we got 'jarred' a bit hitting some holes at around 110 - 120km per hour!

We met Mike and Lynette at Golden. They were traveling on a Goldwing and gave us some tips on the best riding route through Alberta as we head south back to the USA border over the next day or so. Mike is an ex-Mountie and knows all the good roads in Alberta like the back of his hand.

After Golden we rode through Yoho National Park and then crossed the Continental Divide into the Canadian province of Alberta and in so doing lost an hour with the time zone change (Pacific time to Mountain time). It was then a relatively short ride through Banff National Forest to our stop for the day - the resort town of Banff. 

Located in the Rockies at 4800 feet above sea level, Banff is one of Canada's most popular tourist destinations and is known for its hot pools and outdoor recreation activities. Tracee and I walked into the main centre after dinner and it felt very much like a Swiss Alpine community and had a bit of a 'Queenstown feel' to it. It was a great finish to a magic day of riding - 518km's through the Rockies!