Classée au second rang : Hope Ryckman, Banff National Park

Faites défiler la liste vers le bas pour voir le diaporama des images de notre gagnante et des finalistes en plus de celles de quelques participants au concours.

A divorced single mom, working many jobs, to have a place to live in and eat properly, vacations were foreign to me; there was hardly enough cash flow to make ends meet, never mind going on holidays.

But one summer, I financially stretched a road trip from Vancouver, B.C. to Calgary, Alberta, where family members lived. Having no one near us for so many years, it was time my then 10 year old son to meet his extended family. Off we headed into the blue horizon, in my 1969 Ford XL, an oldie but reliable goodie. This was when we drove through Banff National Park for the first time and were so awed by our time spent there.

What a blast we had, stopping along the way to photograph the wildlife we spotted on the side of the road from deer, to moose, cute racoons, even one black bear in the distance. The highway drive was most enjoyable with the blue-white noble and majestic mountains in our view, some dotted with the foliage of green trees, some peaks crowned with snow.

Now and then we would catch a glimpse of a waterfall cascading down a cavernous craggy peak and it was so exciting, we could almost feel the rushing coolness of the water on our faces. We made several stops to roll up our pant legs and plunge our feet into babbling creeks, look for interesting rocks and marvelled at the beautiful lakes along the way in their beauty and expanse. We sat at picnic tables in this gorgeous park and ate our homemade sandwiches revelling in the gorgeous views and sniffing in that fresh air.

The windows rolled down in my classic car, the wind blowing through our hair, the radio loudly playing rock and roll music, my son and I smiled at the free adventure of the open road through this amazing Canadian national park of Banff. We made a few hours stop in the town of Banff itself and strolled the avenue and met friendly people who were so helpful with telling us about their area and we learned so much history too.

To see Lake Louise and revel in its mirror like quiet beauty was so breathtaking that to this day that scenic memory sits in my heart and mind like a sentinel I will never forget. Our time through this beautiful park was a wonderful experience for us both.

Finally arriving at our destination and re-connecting with the family was a wonderful time for us. And on our drive back, again we marvelled at the beauty and expanse of Banff National Park and this time saw more of it as we became our own curious adventurers. We got to experience other sleepy towns, some rolling valleys of farmland and lovely vistas.

Fond memories for life were made on that road trip for us and my son’s enjoyment of that road trip showed itself when later as an adult, he became a truck driver!