It’s mid-July and so Scott and I are preparing for our next road trip.  Several times a year we load the BBQ, coolers, picnic basket and backpacks into the car and drive into the mountains.  I really enjoy living beside the ocean but every few months I get the itch to visit our great Canadian Rockies.

CLICK A MARKER ON THE MAP TO SEE MORE View Lost Lagoon to Lake Louise in a larger map

From our home beside Lost Lagoon in Vancouver we head east through the Lower Mainland and the Coastal Mountains, parallel to the southern border of BC through the Okanagan and Thompson Valleys to the Kootenay Rockies.  We usually make it as far as Nelson on our first day.  Nelson’s a fine little artist town on the northwest shore of Lake Kootenay.

Day two finds us waiting for the sun and the ferry to take us across the lake.  A slow easy drive takes us through the Kootenays to Radium Hot Springs, a great little village which I consider to be the gateway to the Rockies.  At the Springs we have a soak, then it’s just a short trip through Kootenay National Park to bright glacial Lake Louise.

Berry season is in full swing in the Lower Mainland and our freezer is already full of delicious organic BC strawberries, blueberries and tayberries.  I am interested in learning more about the locavore movement and eating locally grown food so during our trip I’ll be paying especially close attention to the farms and ranches that we pass.  Here is an interesting video that Hellman’s (yes, the mayonnaise people!) have posted.  Ignore that it’s from a food corporation–it’s attention getting.