An equally beautiful resort to Sunshine Village. Great skiing, great scenery, awesome time.
- Jonathan
September 27, 2017
Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.
September 24, 2017
Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.
September 11 - 15, 2017
Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.
Sunshine Village and Lake Louise were on our Mountain Collective pass, so we decided to put together a trip ahead of time with my brother and his wife, Jason and Paula. We've never been out to Banff in the winter time, but I can now say that the Banff area is equally as beautiful in the winter as it is in the summer. This is an area that I would love to come back to with more time to explore.
Finally, a day off after nine straight days of skiing – perfectly timed for a short hike across the frozen Lake Louise (see it during the summer time here) and to go on a dog sled tour with Kingmik Dogsled Tours. The tour was a lot of fun and I think we will definitely try it again, maybe even try a multi-day expedition next time. We traveled 10 miles from Banff National Park to Yoho National Park through the Kicking Horse Pass at the Continental Divide.
Both of these parks are must see parks. We only did a couple short hikes, but I can only imagine what the backcountry is like in each of these parks. We chose to do a hike to the Hidden Lake Overlook at Glacier National Park and we were not prepared to hike the 1.5 miles (one way) through snow. (Allie: It seemed like it was going to be miserable and I was ready to turn around…but glad I sucked it up to enjoy the amazing views and few close encounters with a mountain goat and her baby!) Definitely made us wish we had skis for the way back!
Off to Yellowstone and Grand Teton tomorrow morning.
- Jonathan and Allie
Stopped for a quick overnight at Sasquatch and camped next to Hicks Lake. The next night we pushed all the way to Yoho National Park and surprised my dad on his birthday (July 4th) with a strawberry cheesecake from the local market. Over the next couple days we visited Yoho, Jasper, Lake Louise, and Banff. I remember coming here as a kid, but I definitely don’t remember how beautiful it is. Driving up to the Columbia Icefields was one of the most scenic drives I’ve ever been on. Canoeing on Moraine Lake was insane. The water is this crazy blue color that doesn’t even seem real. And the mountains are unbelievable. It almost feels like it’s just a cardboard backdrop.
- Jonathan