We drove from Whistler to Banff with an overnight stop in Sicamous so that we could spend time stopping along this spectacular route.

It’s around 800kms in distance and 9-11hr to drive. It is a wonderful route, the highways are fairly quiet and the views are absolutely stunning.

Above, we caught a rainbow ahead on the road.

We stopped off in Golden to take the chair lift to visit the bear refuge at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.

The views of the mountains across the valley from the top of the chairlift were superb.

Boo, the grizzly bear, lives in a 20 acre outdoor area, but can be seen occasionally.

A very impressive, powerful looking animal and fascinating to see close up.

In the mountains bears are quite common and there is lots of information provided about how to deal with meeting an aggressive bear, including carrying bear spray and standing your ground when being charged!

As we drove further we encountered so many more stunning vista’s.

Above is a view from Sicamous, where we stopped over, it is apparently Canada’s ‘home of the houseboat’, who knew?!

It is a long but easy drive, made somewhat harder having to stop so often for another ‘wow’ moment, but it was so worth it.

The drive to Banff is just magical taking us back to driving around New Zealand’s South island.

Above is Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, the colour of the water, fed by glaciers, is stunning.

Driving closer to Banff, we see more and more snow capped mountains rise before us.

This was a fabulous drive and to arrive into Banff and be surrounded by such beauty makes it so worth while.

Next post is on Banff and its major attractions, think stunning mountains, glacier fed lakes, more trees than you thought possible and more!