Thursday 28th June - To Banff

Today was a glorious sunny day and we left Jasper in all its splendour for Banff. The drive along Highway 93 is 180mls/288kms miles and it is very important to get "tanked up" as there are no petrol stations, shops, restaurants, cafes or motels along this route. The only place to stop is the Columbia Icefield Centre. I read that it is one of the "National Geographical" top ten drives in the world. It certainly did not disappoint.We stopped first at The Athabasca Falls, the Athabasca River's blue waters funnel into a chasm and break into a rapid of white water, with Mount Kerkeslin as a backdrop.
Today we saw numerous bears foraging at the roadside, as appealing as they look you have to remember that they are quite dangerous.
Following the Sunwapta River, we  climbed the height of the Sunwapta Pass, 2035mtrs.(This is the southern end of Jasper National Park.) There was a trickle of water on the valley floor and he snow was thick on the mountains - the air was noticeably colder.  In a few short miles the landscape seemed so diverse from Jasper. The Columbia Icefield and The Athabasca Glacier left us in awe. The ice has receded 100metres since 1985. I was not dressed appropriately and so stayed in the car at the edge of the glacier.Neil walked up to it and the guide had declared the glacier to be as deep as the Eiffel Tower is tall. Staggering statistics. We lunched at The Icefields Centre, where tours can be booked for helicopter rides and the all-terrain vehicle which will take you on the glacier.

 

Check out the car park

After lunch we made our descent, the pass was full of hairpin bends that could be seen from the great 

height and the cars looked like they were on a Scalextric. A bear walked right in front of our car to cross the road and then we came across a herd of Bighorn Sheep. We stopped to watch the sheep for a while. One of the smaller ones was not as sure footed and as it tried to climb the shale it kept slipping downwards. Eventually, one of the older and wiser ones helped it by supporting it on its back. Quite a sight to see. A real family effort!

Our next point of interest on this magnificent day was Bow Glacier, which is around 23miles from Lake Louise.Bow Glacier is an outflow glacier from the Wapta Icefield which rests along the Continental Divide. Run off from the glacier supplies water to Bow Lake and the Bow River.

 

 We arrived at our next stop, Charlton's Cedar Court, at 6p.m. and we would stay here for the next two nights. We booked the hotel by phone from Jasper by opening a magazine and picking it at random. This proved to have been a good choice. After emailing family and freshening up we headed into Banff by bus to eat at Tommy's neighbourhood pub. The evening was bright and sunny and we ate outside. 

We returned to the hotel  by bus and once we got off we waited for the driver to move on before we pressed for the Pelican crossing. Well, the driver got off the bus, pressed the button and lights came on in the road surface which marked out a safe passageway! Almost like airport landing lights. The driver then stood in the middle of the road, stopping  any potential drivers and waved us across! Such service.

A fabulous day, with such diverse scenery all in some 180miles.

 

Wednesday 27th June - Jasper Tramway

Jasper National Park's Jasper Tramway is the longest and highest guided aerial tramway in Canada & the only guided ropeway in the Rockies. Once at the summit you can see 6 mountain ranges, glacial lakes, the Athabasca River and Jasper town. The summit is 1304mts/4279ft above sea level and there are hiking trails, off the boardwalks, to the summit.

Jasper from the summit

Our alarm went off as usual at 7.30, but after a leisurely shower and breakfast in the "comfort of our own home" we set off for the Jasper Tramway Station.
The view from the summit was stunning: an overall aerial view of Jasper including the train line, the Athabasca River and Edith & Annette Lakes.
We walked on the boardwalk for all round views, choosing not to walk to the summit.

The wildlife continued to enthral us and once we had returned to the Lower Station this little fellow was waiting to greet us!

Brrr, plenty of snow

Wapiti

We motored on to Maligne Canyon where we had lunch. The owners of the cafe told us that they had been there for 47 years and the water level was the highest that they had seen.

Chipmunk

Wapiti, just outside Jasper town

Lake Edith/Annette?

Cleaning the car windows

 Our intention was to visit Maligne Lake, but as we appeared to have low petrol & signs warning of no petrol station for miles, we opted to visit Medicine Lake, followed by Lakes Edith & Annette. On our way to Medicine Lake we came across a significant amount of parked cars by the roadside, this usually indicated a "wildlife alert". However, it was not to be on this occasion. Due to the high levels of rain the rivers were quite swollen and we soon found to our astonishment that people were kyaking down the rapids. Quite a sight and in our opinions quite mad to be doing it!

Medicine Lake

 On our return to Jasper the weather had become warm and sunny. After a coffee stop we sat opposite the train station and watched as the VIA Train loaded passengers and supplies. The passenger trains have many carriages, and the freight trains are just awesome.
On our return to the appartment we wrote our few postcards and headed out to Earls once again for our evening meal.
* Mount Edith Cavell and Lake Edith are both
 named after Edith Cavell the British nurse who worked in Begium in WW1. She was executed for assisting POW's to escape from German occupied Belgim.

Tuesday 26th June - Jasper National Park

Wild Lupins

The UNESCO Trail North is one of the most spectacular drives: It covers the largest body of parkland in the world, where the national parks of Jasper, Banff, Kootenay and Yoho together with provincial parks, make up the Rocky Mountain National Park World Heritage Site, that straddles the Continental Divide. Truly magnificent scenery.

Continental Divide

After breakfast, we checked out at 9.15 and headed to "downtown" Valemount in search of a drug store that could supply a little something to banish the mosquitos! We then continued along Highway 5 North, before joining Highway 16 and crossing into Alberta Province. Alberta is the home of the Wild Rose and the road signs were now in dual language.Oh! and the clocks go forward one hour.
The day proved to be one of sunshine with cloud over the mountains.We entered the park at Mount Robson which at 3954mtrs/12,000ft  is the highest point in The Rockies. Jasper Park Reserve was created in 1907 & there is a toll charge to enter the park. We arrived in Jasper at lunchtime and headed straight for the Tourist Information Centre to find accommodation. We picked at random from a list of available properties, phoned and met the owner and booked for two nights. Bliss! This was the first time since leaving Vancouver that we would styay in any one place for 2 nights. We had a self contained basement appartment in a private detatched house.  In the evening we walked into Jasper and found it to be a thriving, bustling place, one that we liked very much.

Totem Pole at Train Station

Apartment in Jasper

With Jasper Bear

We ate at Earls, sitting outside on the wrap around balcony. Our only disappointment was that we didn't have a camera as the sun raced over the mountains.




The atmosphere was really good and on our way back to teh apartment we visited the Jasper Art Group's exhibition in The Old Fire Station.
How nice it felt to go to bed, knowing that teh day after we would have the day there: no packing and moving on!

Monday 25th June - National Catfish Day

Helmcken Falls the 4th highest waterfall in Canada

                    

After the memorable stay in Kamloops it was time to head off towards Jasper. We checked out at 9.20a.m. after a massive breakfast with numerous choices, what you would expect from such a hotel, but we ate off paper plates and with plastic cutlery! Not what we expected at all.
On the map the distance didn't look too great, but with 3 stops to look at Falls, (one was a 40 mile detour), it took quite a time to arrive at our next overnight stop at Valemount.
The day was sunny and warm and the countryside was different again, leaving the desert like Kamloops behind we entered green and mountainous ranching area.We passed the Rocky Mountaineer train where it had rested overnight and the river that we travelled alongside was flooded and we saw a part submerged car. Also we had our first of many sightings of bears who were just foraging at the roadsides. As we drove along we would come across cars parked up with hazard lights flashing and this usually would signal some kind of wildlife alert.
Once we had reached Clearwater and had a stop for refreshments at a roadside cafe, we visited Wells Gray Provincial Park. The protection of Helmcken Falls was one of the reasons for the creation of Wells Grey Provincial Park in 1939. After spending some time at Helmcken and Clearwater we continued our journey on Highway 5 North towards Valemount, arriving around 6p.m.

Give in - the mosquito's win.

 

Super 8 Motel, Valemount: very Twin Peaks

Valemount: Let the mountains move you

After showering and again sorting out our bags we ate at a local diner which closed at 9p.m. We wandered across the road to the local pub, a huge corrugated roofed building, only to find the place was empty and they were cashing up! We ordered a drink and got chatting to the staff who told us that it was really out of season, but they are very busy in the winter months with people who ski. There seemed to be quitet a variety of whiskies behind the bar and we were given a shot of "Fireball" Canadian cinnamon and whiskey liquer to taste.

Helmcken Falls

Another really wonderful day, tomorrow we head for Alberta and The Rockies

Sunday 24th June - the Kamloops Experience

The alarm awoke us at 7.30 this morning, looking outside we saw low mist over the mountains, grey skies, and although everything was saturated the rain had stopped. We breakfasted in the motel's lobby area - how busy it was. The place was full due to the bad weather and also a nearby Convention. We sat at a table with an elderly couple, the lady watched me intently as I grappled to take the lid off my butter pat and asked in a drawl, "is your hand wrecked dear?" Mmm, that's one question theat I've not been asked previously. The tv warned of flooods and that Highway 97 towards Revelstoke was still blocked.                        

Osprey sitting pretty!

Once on the road we called in to look at Sushwap Lake which is the most popular houseboating destination in BC. We chatted with locals who told us that due to the weather they had to cancel the scheduled Dragon Boat Race and that the water levels had risen 10feet, a 30 year high, and that the mud flats and beach were submerged. Joy of joys, we saw an Osprey on its nest.
We picked up Highway 1 and travelled West towards Kamloops, tonight's destination,stoping off at Blind Bay for morning coffee. The South Frazer River was very high, but amazingly the scenery and conditions changed as we neared Kamloops. On the approaches there were "pyramid" type of hills that were grassed over - maybe mining that had been grassed over - and Kamloops was more of a desert type place. There is a kind of time warp in this arid region and it is "Cowboy Country" with more than a thousand ranches.
We arrived on the outskirts of Kamloops at around 2pm and checked in to a motel. (Kamloops is a Secwepemc name meaning "where the rivers meet"). As it was a Sunday the whole of this city appeared to be closed meaning that we could not visit any galleries or museums, so we headed for the main park and Waterside Lake. Part of the park was under water and local people were coming to take photographs of the very high level of the Thompson River. There was lots of commemorative planting of trees in the park to celebrate the formal agrement of Kamloops and its sister city, Uji, Japan, on July 1st 1990. We watched fascinated as Marmots played in a series of tunnels. Leaving the park we saw The Rocky Mountineer Train crossing the Thompson River, quite a sight - and sound!
Once back at the motel we watched an Osprey or Eagle soaring and circling in the distance and a train with 2 engines and 113 containers. Both quite a sight.
After a meal at Earls, a chain company of "upscale" pizza and pasta restaurants, we headed back to the motel.This proved to be quite an interesting experience: we could not get the key in the door lock and called for the receptionist, who, when she tried had the same trouble. She knocked very loudly on the door and we were all amazed to see a couple sitting on our bed eating salad and sandwiches!! Nothing more to add here except that we checked out at 10.00pm and had to find anothr place to stay.
So at 10.15p.m. we were checking in to a Best Western Plus on the other side of the city - only to be checking out again in less than 12 hours.

Thompson River

            

Cheeky Marmot.

Water, water everywhere.

Saturday - It must be raining!

Today the National News & weather forecast was all about the rain! We thought that we would have got away from the doom and gloom of bad weather, but it apperared that British Columbia, or certain parts of it, were experiencing unprecedented amounts of rain. The Mighty Frazer river had several flood warnings along its course.
We left The Waterfront Inn at 8.45 and breakfasted at a nearby Tim Horton's, a kind of Macdonald's. The place was already very busy with visitors to The Beach Cruise as well as locals. Talk was of the weather and in the short time that we were there the mist was veiling the mountain tops. We filled up with petrol, visited a bank, bought fruit and off we set towards Kelowna on Highway 97 driving alongside Okanagan Lake. We skirted Summerland and Peachland which are communities that are the perfect setting for scenery and the outdoor life, not to mention the cottage wineries and the historic Kettle Valley Steam Railway.

Kasugai Japanese Garden

Spirit of Kelowna

 We stopped at Kelowna, which sits on the 150km/94ml long Okanagan Lake,  for lunch and marvelled at the decorated supermarket trollies that were being "dashed" around to raise awareness of the homeless. Kelowna has its own "Nessie" a shy lake monster known as Ogopogo. Here we took time out to visit the serene Kasugai Japanese Garden, a genuine Oriental garden built as a project between Kelowna and its sister Japanese city. It was a very tranquil garden sitting behind City Hall. As we left Kelowna we were caught up in torrential rain which made driving conditions tricky to say the least: the wipers did not make any difference and it was rather difficult to negotiate ourselves out towards Vernon.

Vernon is the oldest city in B.C's interior and the home of the historic O'Keefe Ranch.Cornelius O'Keefe was a 19th century cattle entrpreneur who drove his herds north to provide beef for gold miners. The ranch was the largest in the region and had a church, general store and post office, today it is a museum and is tended by what we would term the National Trust. http://www.okeeferanch.ca/
Sadly, we arrived at 4p.m. just in time to have the last tour of the Mansion which was lived in until 1977. A folk group, The Kettle Valley Brakemen, were playing to a rather depleted audience in torrential rain. We were very sad to arrive rather too late to have a good look around. Once back on the main Highway we had to decide whether to go along Highway 97 to Kamloops or 97a to Salmon Arm, due to the weather conditions we motored on to Salmon Arm which would prove to have been a wise choice.
Once we had checked in to the Super 8 Motel, we did our first lot of washing and emailed the family. Then it was relaxation time at the Settlers Pub which was directly behind the motel. After a fantastic meal of ginger beef and salad with raspberry dressing we had a long chat to the waitress who told us of the adverse weather and driving conditions. There had been a mud slide on Highway 1at Sicamous on the way to Revelstoke and the road was closed. This news featured for a few days on the national bulletins, wooden houses and cars were floating away. We were lucky throughout our trip to be one step ahead of any  bad weather which we kept being told was unique.

Floral Clock, Vernon

The Floral Clock in Polson Park, Vernon, is a 10mtr powered clock and only one of a handful in Canada. Sadly, the planting was incomplete during our visit.

Friday 22nd June - Meeting friends

Going shopping

Waterfront Inn Motel, Penticton

Okanagen Lake

After breakfasting in the motel reception area at Princeton, we set off on Highway 3 and 3a to meet up with friends in Penticton. Little did we know that when we planned and booked the trip, some friends had done exactly the same, but were travelling in the opposite direction! Today was the pre-arranged day to meet up.

Leaving Princeton behind the scenery once again changed as we made our way through the Okanagan Valley. Princeton is nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in the heart of the Similkameen Valley - a place for outdoor activities. Penticton, like other places in the Okanagan, has fruit and wine in abundance and families can have fun in the sun on the beaches of the Okanagan and Skaha Lakes.
 On our journey we passed the Nk'mimp Aboriginie Winery & Indian Reserve. We stopped at one of the many farm shops to purchase fruit, so fresh it tasted wonderful. We met our friends at the RV Park where they were staying and after lunch there headed off to Penticton.What a day to arrive, by coincidence it was the Peach City Beach Cruise and Penticton Elvis Festival. The Beach Cruise Festival - a festival of classic cars and trucks. The city streets were lined with all manner of classic vehicles, around 800, and on Friday night there was a parade of show cars, some of which would be auctioned. We paid $2 for a badge that was the entrance fee to the park for the entire weekend and part of these proceeds go to B.C. Children's Hospital.
We sat in the park for part of the afternoon and listened to live music, how nice to relax and how friendly everyone was. Later we saw the cars and trucks get into "parade position" on a car park that was very close to our motel and what a sight it was - amazing. Inbetween all of this we managed to have a very quick visit into Penticton to visit the BC VQA Wine Information Centre, spying wildlife just snooping around the shops! Back to the lakeside motel for a quick shower and to re-arrange our bags, then out for a meal with Malcolm and Judy. How lucky we were to have planned this meeting at Penticton beforehand and to both be on schedule to actually achieve it. The day was lovely sunny and warm but as soon as we headed back after our evening meal there was a terrific thunder storm.