In case you missed it, I’m sharing my adventures around the Rockies of Canada – you can find the first instalment about Vancouver here.

Picking up our car in busy downtown Vancouver and then having to immediately drive on a different side of the road wasn’t stressful at all (I’m lying). After a few narrow scrapes and near misses, I adjusted to being on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road, and we were finally on our way into the mountains! Our first stop was Squamish: a small town north of Vancouver where we stayed in the loveliest Airbnb apartment for two nights and experienced our first big hike of the holiday.

The views from the second and third peaks of the Stawamus Chief mountain were so amazing I almost forgave the horrifically hard uphill slog to get there. We were also attacked by chipmunks at the top which was fun for about two seconds and then it got all too real when the beasts tried to take my well-deserved sandwich. The whole experience was amazing; hard and hot and sweaty, but amazing.

From Squamish we drove through ski resort Whistler, stopping later at Nairn Falls and Joffre Lake to find the first snow at our feet (not to be the last by any account), and onwards to the city of Kamloops where we stayed for a night.

From there we drove through Wells Gray National Park, traversing along a really overgrown and wild path, under and over fallen trees to view the awesome Spahats Falls. Driving later into Jasper was like a dream – a mountain and waterfall at every corner, including the might Mount Robson – and I think that’s the thing I miss most about the trip overall. There’s really no comparison to driving through the mountains, a Tim Hortons coffee in the cupholder, and my amazing roadtrip playlist blasting from the speakers.