Canada, eh?

I just got back from a week long trip to Canada with my dad. It was a father / son bonding experience for one, and it was a great opportunity to visit Banff and Jasper National Parks.

Bears: I have always wanted to see a bear out in the wild, but not the way Timothy Treadwell encountered one. At three points on this trip, we saw people who had just seen a bear, but then when we tried to look for it, it was gone. Shucks. We did encounter a lot of other famous animals of the rockies. I'll have to display some pictures up here.


Traffic Accident: I saw the worst traffic accident of my life. This was on a mountain side road about half way up the mountain on a long turn. There was an RV with a trailer coming around the inside of the turn and going way too fast. I heard the tires skidding on the road and turned around to see the monster RV swerve into oncoming traffic. It hit the first car pretty hard as the first car swerved to its left, and then it completely nailed the passenger side of the second car. The engine was jolted out of the car completely. The RV continued to go through the side rail and tumble down the hillside about 50 feet. As we were running down there, we saw the wreckage and were in complete shock. There were two people in the RV that were injured, the passenger who was seriously injured, was laying face down on the rocks in front of the RV. There were two people in both other cars. The passenger of the second car was killed, but everyone else seemed to be not seriously injured. It was a tragedy to watch in first person.

Glaciers: I have never walked on a glacier before, and it was quite fun actually. These pieces of ice are absolutely massive and have incredible power, enough to carve away the whole hillside. On one hike, we went to a mountain top glacier that created a pleasantly charming pool at the bottom. As we walked, we could hear an occasional crack of the ice as piece of the glacier fell to the ground below.

Wildlife: Hiking and driving around at dusk is definitely the best way to see the wildlife. We got our fair share of viewing elk, moose, deer, and big horn sheep. Hmmm... why do rocky mountain animals not have a plural form that is different from the singular form.

People: The accent is very cool, eh? I am just now recognizing that some of the people whom I have met in America have a Canadian accent. I thought that they just talked funny before. I seem to have been able to pick up the accent a little bit which was fun. The people were generally friendly, rural, straightforward, and proud to be Canadian.