The drive from Whistler to Sun Peaks was a long but gorgeous one.

Our Contiki bus hit the road, and immediately I knew that day’s activity would be watching the scenery. We lost phone signal as soon as we drove into the Rocky Mountains, forcing everyone to talk to one another.

At one point, our Contiki tour manager for the West Coast, Alex, played TV theme tune trivia with us, which was a lot of fun.

And they broke up the drive by stopping at beautiful viewpoints along the drive, letting all of us out to stretch our legs and take photos.

There is no shortage of impressive landscapes in the Rocky Mountains, my friends.

This day really hit me hard, as a Canadian. There’s something very Canadian about a road trip, for sure. But a road trip through the Rockies, constantly marvelling at the incredible sights, made me very proud to be Canadian.

Sun Peaks would be a one night stop for our Contiki tour. We’d eat dinner, spend the night at a hotel, and continue on our drive to Jasper first thing in the morning.

But that didn’t mean we wouldn’t be taking advantage of being in a brand new little town!

My friends and I decided to wander around the very small town of Sun Peaks after our included dinner as a whole Contiki family. But the only thing was that it was pretty late, and everything in the town’s main strip had closed.

Then we saw a donut shop. And it only took a week of knowing these people for them to know I was a huge sweet tooth. So we had to stop in.

Bad news: the donut shop was about to close. The shop owner was literally cleaning the fryer that had just been turned off.

Good news: he said we could take the rest of the donuts that were still in his display case!

So we got sufficiently filled with sugar and then crashed after a long day of driving.

And then our alarms went off and it was back on the road for… you guessed it, another long day of driving.

Personally, I loved all of the driving days through the Rockies. But I think this one was my favourite. We stopped for lunch at Mt. Robson – the highest peak in the Rockies.

*A friend marvelling at Mt. Robson over lunch (July 2022)*

There’s just something magical about eating poutine at a picnic table with the most stunning mountain views in Canada.

Sophie, Line and I obviously had to take as many photos as possible before we were back on the bus headed toward our next scenic spot.

*Sophie and me at Mt. Robson (July 2022)*

And it never got boring. It never became usual.

When our driver pulled over at Moose Lake for another foot-stretch, I was feeling so overwhelmingly free and happy that I took off my shoes and socks and ran into the lake.

I love stepping into the ocean wherever I travel, but this lake felt no different. More uncharted territory that I needed to explore.

Before we knew it, a lot of other folks on the trip joined me in the water. Even if we only had a few minutes before getting our now-freezing feet back into our shoes and onto the bus.

By the time our bus rolled into Jasper, I think everyone was exhausted. And this is about when I started to feel like I was getting a nasty cold.

So when our tour manager told me that there was an extra room booked, and that I was welcome to take it, that made me so happy.

I loved my roommate, but I was starting to crave some privacy. Especially now that I was feeling sick. Rest would be the best way to fight this.

A couple of us grabbed some dinner on the main Jasper stretch, and I wasn’t feeling any better. So I stopped at a pharmacy for some cold medicine, cough drops, Gatorade and Vitamin-C tablets, and buckled in for a night of hardcore self care to make this feeling go away.