Sue and Dave Slaght

Stretching  between the mountain paradise towns of Jasper and Banff in the Canadian Rockies the road trip is one of the most beautiful in the world. Flowing from the glacial Peyto Lake, the typical blue color dances it’s way though a portion of the Icefields Parkway. A short walk from the cozy Sunwapta Mountain Lodge the river carves through walls of rock in the heart of Jasper National Park. Hence we spent four days cycling with Mountain Madness Tours 288km (179 mi) through the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site.

Should you be about to launch into the ‘Oh-but-autumn-is-the-most-beautiful-season-of-all’ talk, I should warn you that one more photo of a pumpkin We shall chat about your pretty autumn as the icicles form on your eyelashes. Call it a holiday, call it a getaway, call it wanting to step outside and not have one’s face flash frozen like a bag of shivering mixed vegetables. Above are some previous winter escapes should your autumn be showing it’s true colors with a chilly north wind blowing it

No matter how many buttons I push my navigation system insists this trip would be spoken aloud in miles not it’s metric cousin kilometers. During my mad poking and prodding of Ms Navigation’s various buttons so as to have her speak the same language as Mr. Odometer, I do manage to put my hazard lights on and wash my windshield front and back repeatedly. The fields go on for hundreds of kilometers, or miles according to my uncooperative navigation girl plotting my straight arrow course. At some points along the flat journey Ms Navigation perhaps becoming as ultimately bored as I;  begins playing a game of trying to get me lost by insisting I turn right onto various gravel roads.