Good evening- this finds us in the heart of the Rockies, well and truly surrounded by mountains! We’re in Golden, about 70km from the entrance to Banff National Park and a bit less to Yoho National Park. Tonight is pizza night, so we’re picking up a take-out from Canadian 2 for 1 Pizza just down the street from our motel (which, strangely enough, is called Mary’s Motel – were we somehow destined to stop here, I wonder?!)
Yesterday we drove from Cache Creek to Sicamous, a little town east of Kamloops and stayed in the Monashee Motel just on the outskirts of town. From the French windows of our room we could see up into the peaks that ring the nearby Mount Revelstoke National Park. No high-speed internet, hence the double entry tonight. The drive to Sicamous was a hot one – the weather had warmed up again and we made sure we took plenty of water with us. On the way we stopped at a couple of park areas; at the first (Juniper Beach Provincial Park) we walked down to the water’s edge and spent quite a while watching the sockeye salmon migrating upstream. The river was pretty clear so it wasn’t too hard to see the fish (which were mostly definitely bright red!) and occasionally one jumped in the water as well. Very cool, very interesting. We also stopped at Steelhead Provincial Park and took pictures of Kamloops Lake. Kamloops itself is not much to write home about – it’s a resort city with casinos and other touristy stuff, but not far from it is the BC Wildlife Park, where reside a range of animals and birds, including two very elderly grizzlies, Shardik and Sheeba; Hamilton, a black bear cub who was rescued earlier this year, lots of noisy goats, a pair of burrowing owls and a young female badger kit who was most obliging when it came to taking pictures of her! Dinner was at Moose Mulligan’s, one of the local pubs in Sicamous, before we turned in for the night.
Today we headed for our first encounters with National Parks, with the fall colours coming in on the trees (all the larches were turning yellow). First stop was the Crazy Creek suspension bridge and waterfalls, a tourist attraction set up by the local Christian community on the site of a former logging town. Worth a visit – the boardwalk runs through the forest and the suspension bridge is suitably wobbly!
After purchasing a Parks pass we drove almost all the way up to the summit of the park’s main area, and caught the shuttle that goes up the last kilometre or so. Fantastic views all around the top across to the Mount itself and its numerous named and unnamed neighbouring peaks (including one called Mt Begbie – did Irvine Welsh take his inspiration for Trainspotting from that? Probably not!) Lots of grey jays flying around from tree top to tree top and the odd chipmunk and squirrel darting about. We did a couple of the shorter trail walks and then came back down again, but not before a rather large male moose rushed us from the bush at the side of the road. We kept pace with him for about a minute, or should I say that we kept slightly behind him just in case he took a dislike to us. He did turn his head towards us several times but obviously thought that we weren’t worth the hassle. Needless to say, thanks to Mary, we have a minute of video of the moose (from a safe distance) until he disappeared into the bushes again. Our next stop was the Giant Cedars Boardwalk, which basically does what it says on the tin – a walk up and around some of Mt Revelstoke National Park’s oldest trees. We then took a break in Canyon Hot Springs for soup and a sarnie before heading back onto Hwy #1. The weather was a little changeable as we got into Glacier National Park so we didn’t stop until we got to Golden, but the views were spectacular nonetheless, with a dusting of snow on many of the tops.
Tomorrow? Off to Banff National Park, hopefully as far as Lake Louise, for more walking, photos and fresh air. The Icefields Parkway awaits…
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