Three Week Itinerary, British Columbia and Alberta, 2002

2002 – Digital map of a recommended three week itinerary through British Columbia and Alberta. Scan: Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com

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The story behind the image

It’s time for a bonus post for you – a digital map I created showing the itinerary of our trip through British Columbia and Alberta back in August 2002.

It was a dream vacation coming true: 22 days in West Canada, from Vancouver to Vancouver Island and the Pacific Rim National Park, up to Port Hardy at the northern tip of the island. Then taking the ferry of the Discovery Passage to Bella Coola. From there, we headed to the Rocky Mountains, to Jasper National Park and Banff National Park, and then slowly back to Vancouver.

Three weeks full of new impressions, interesting people and stunning places. Time spent in the nature, often with just the sounds of nature surrounding us. I captured 30 rolls of slide film – about 1,100 images. This was a large amount back in 2002. (These days I easily return with 2,000 images from a full-day wedding assignment.)

At the time of writing, I have so far selected 123 images for you and tagged British Columbia (103) and Alberta (20). I sincerly hope you like them as much as we do.

For your convenience, here is our exact itinerary. The ‘days’ refer to the place where we spent the night(s).

Days 1 and 2	Vancouver
Day 3	Victoria
Day 4	Parksville
Days 5 to 7	Ucluelet
Day 8	Campbell River
Day 9	Port Hardy
Day 10	Bella Coola
Day 11	Kleena Kleene
Day 12	Williams Lake
Days 13 and 14	Clearwater
Days 15 and 16	Jasper
Day 17	Lake Louise
Day 18	Golden
Day 19	Salmon Arm
Day 20	Clinton
Day 21	Squamish
Day 22	Vancouver

This worked extremely well for us. With hindsight, I’d skip the overnight stay in Kleena Kleene though and get from Bella Coola to Williams Lake in a single day (about 420 kilometers) and spend an additional night later in Lake Louise which offers a lot more compared to Kleena Kleene.

In total, we drove 4,559 kilometers (2,833 miles) during the three weeks.

Maybe this helps with your trip planning.

In conclusion I can safely say that Canada is the country of my dreams, and I hope to return some day.