On our very first Canadian holiday in 1994 we spent a couple of nights in Glacier Park Lodge at the top of Rogers Pass, BC. What fun to stay there again, we thought! Sadly, a cursory search of the internet showed that time has not been kind to the Lodge. The adjacent gas station closed in 2009 and the Lodge in 2012. A series of lawsuits has left them both derelict and unloved and, although the Parks Canada Visitor Centre in between is still open, it’s a depressing place to visit, especially as the Trans Canada to either side is undergoing massive road-works at the moment.

So where did we stay? Well, on the eastern edge of the park we found Heather Mountain Lodge – the best accommodation of our entire trip. A beautiful setting with fluffy neighbours:

By night

Fellow guest!

Chopper

Heather Mountain Lodge

– and fabulous food:

Dinner on the deck

Dinner on the deck

Breakfast

And yet – you might have noticed a certain haziness in some of these pictures and in the one of Glacier Park Lodge in 2017. The mountains in 1994 were much clearer. Look at these two, taken a couple of days apart this year, of roughly the same view at Heather Mountain Lodge:

Smoky view

Clear view

This was the effect of fires further west, the smoke from which, depending on wind direction, obscured our views most days and contributed to poor air quality. Now I know that’s trivial compared to the lot of the poor people who were being evacuated from their homes, so I’m not complaining (really). It just added to the melancholy feeling of seeing the old lodge so run down. Add to that the helicopter in one of the galleries above which landed and took off several times from our hotel’s grounds. We thought it was taking water to the fires, but it turned out to be searching for a young Irish tourist who had drowned in a nearby lake.

This was also where I found that my body had developed far more aches and pains than it had in 1994, or even 2007 when we last visited the Rockies. The trails in Glacier weren’t long but some of them were very steep. My knees hurt on the way up and my ankles on the way down. Did I moan? Ask John! On second thoughts – don’t. You might be shocked if he repeats my language.

Marion Lake

A steep, forested hike to a mediocre lake and a viewpoint which would have been lovely without the smoke!

Viewpoint near Marion Lake

Marion Lake

Marion Lake

Meeting of the Waters

An easy walk past the confluence of Asulkan Brook and the Illecillewaet River. This was pretty, and took in the ruins of the first hotel in the area, Glacier House.

Info plaque

Glacier House ruins

Old bath

Meeting of the Waters

Rock Garden, Loop Brook Trail and Bear Creek Falls

Three short trails: Rock Garden over lots of, surprisingly, rocks; Loop Brook along the route of an old railway line; and Bear Creek Falls – the name says it all.

Rock Garden

Loop Brook Trail

Loop Brook Trail

Bear Creek Falls

Asulkan Valley Trail

When I was looking for the old pictures of Glacier Park Lodge, I also found photos of the hike we did up to the Asulkan Glacier in 1994: clear blue skies and the mountains in all their glory. This was three times as long and twice as high as the Marion Lake trail we did this year, yet I’m smiling (and rocking a fabulous pair of leggings it has to be said).

Asulkan Valley 1994

Asulkan Valley 1994

Asulkan Valley 1994

Asulkan Valley 1994

Asulkan Valley 1994

So, a slightly negative post – is the moral never to go back? It can be sad to return somewhere you’ve had a really happy time only to find that it doesn’t live up to expectations. Having said that, I did enjoy our stay: just maybe not as much as some of the other places we visited.

From Glacier, we headed back into Alberta and north to Jasper.