We woke up bright and early and left Clearwater to make our way to Jasper AB. Although the road was a fine one, our progress was slow because we were stopping every chance we could get in order to take pictures. Thankfully we had a windshield, because our dropping jaws, in awe of the scenery, left us with mouths wide opened most of the way, and judging by the amount of flies and bugs corpses on the window, there would have been no need for supper, our recommended daily intake of proteins having been met for the day.

We followed the North Thompson River going up on Hwy 5  and then the Frazier on Hwy 16, that’s where we found a pull-out right next to the river, with a wonderful view of Mount Robson, the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies at 12, 972 ft,   and decided that would be a good place for a light lunch.

We arrived in Jasper early afternoon. I was a little apprehensive at the thought of camping with no “hook-ups” for 4 nights. Although the motorhome is self-contained and we can camp without being connected to services, I am not particularly found of it. My idea of “roughing it” is camping with full services, being able to use my washer-dryer and of course, satellite TV and having a Wi-Fi connection make things even sweeter. Turns out, we were fine. Totally disconnected from the world, off the grid, we explored the area all day, and returned, tired but happy. We read a book and then watched a pre-recorded movie before turning in early so we would be in shape for another day of exploration. Jasper turned out to be our favorite part of the Canadian Rockies. Every curve of every road brought a new amazing vista. Turquoise lakes surrounded by snowy peaks, meadows of wild flowers rushing milky-water rivers leading to waterfalls were plentiful.

The first day we took the Icefield Parkway, which offers a stunning view of over 100 glaciers on the way to the Columbia Icefield

When snow falls year after year on high mountain peaks and plateaus, there is very little summer melt so it accumulates. When the snow is about 100 ft deep, the bottom layer is so pressurized it turns into ice. When more snow falls on top, the ice becomes thicker and thicker, eventually it overflows into the surroundings, flowing downhill. That is how a glacier is born. The intense pressure at the bottom of a glacier causes the ice to become “plastic”. It conforms to the bedrock irregularities without breaking or cracking, but the upper layers are brittle, they crack open into giant crevasses when subjected to stress.

The Columbia Icefield is 130 square miles, which makes it the largest body of ice in the Rocky Mountains. Its average elevation is 10, 000 ft and it is estimated that its greatest depth is about 1, 200 feet. It drains into 3 oceans, the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Artic. In order to view it, one would have to take a helicopter tour.

So, we settled on visiting the Athabasca glacier which is easily accessible.

One of the many glaciers fed by the Columbia Icefield it is he only one where you can take an excursion on the surface in a massive Ice Explorer.

Only 23 of these beasts were ever built, and Brewster, our tour company, owns 22, the other one belongs to  US government  and is used in Antarctica to transport scientists. Cool huh? Bear was really impressed when he learned that each tire of this monster-machine costs $5, 000 and there are 6 per vehicle… you do the math.

Marianne, our Ice-Explorer driver just completed a Pedagogy Degree at the University of Sherbrooke in Québec. She went on a trip with her girlfriend and fell in love with the area. She also thought it would be really cool to drive the big monster-buses, so she applied and she is now happily teaching everything about the Athabasca glacier to tourists while she drives some of the biggest vehicles in existence today.

After going down a moraine with a 32° slope and driving up the glacier, she let us out. There we were, walking on about a thousand feet deep of ice, some people were drinking the melting waters, we just concentrated on walking without falling on our butt or into a crevasse, but it was one of the coolest things we ever did!

The first Ice-Explorers were giant snowmobiles, without any suspension or opening windows, thus the nickname; “Shake & Bake”.

Chicken got in trouble again!  This time with a Bear/Mountie who thought he looked delicious!

The road follows the Athabasca River, its waters milky from all the silt or “rock flour” coming from the melting glacier. It flows north and eventually, the water from the Athabaska finds its way to the Arctic Ocean

The rushing water carved its way into very pretty falls along the way.

The second day we took Maligne rd, which took us all the way to Maligne Lake, where one of the most famous pictures of the Rockies was taken.

On the way, we passed by Medecine Lake.

This lake was considered “magic” or “big medecine”  by the Indians because around October, it vanishes being replaced by a shallow stream and a few small pools. The depth of the lake can vary by 20m (65 feet). The lake does not appear to have any visible outlet, so the Indians feared it. The truth is,   this part of the Maligne Valley was severely fractured during the uplift. The water seeped into the cracks and slowly dissolved a network of underground passages. When the cool weather comes, there is less meltwater, the inflow is less than the drainage into the caves, and the lake disappears.

That’s where we were lucky enough to catch a picture of the elusive Pika.

This cute animal, the size of a hamster, not a rodent, he is herbivore. He is also called “Rock Rabbit”.  He is quick and blends very well with his surroundings, which makes him very hard to spot. Quickly disappearing, the Pika is being considered for protection under the “Endangered Species Act”.

And then we saw this bird in a tree, I had never seen one like it.

Then we had lunch at Maligne Lake, our destination for the day.

We took a cruise to Spirit Island, where in 1930, a photographer took a black and white picture of the lake and won the Kodak Picture contest that year.  He named the picture Spirit Island because he thought it captured the “spirit” of the Rockies.  He waited 3 days for the perfect conditions for his picture, unfortunately, we had a cloudy day and could not wait that long.

On our way back, we spotted Yogi Bear in his quest for lunch!

On  our last day in Jasper NP, we took small roads, had lunch at the Pocahontas Lodge which claims to serve the “best liver and onions dinner in Alberta”.  The Miette rd leads to a Hot Spring, but along the way, there is a lot of wildlife….

and amazing wild flowers!  The license plate of Alberta reads “Wild Rose Country”.  They grow all over the place.

Other gorgeous wild flowers seen along the way

Alas, we had to leave, but we were going to Banff National Park, which promised to be as beautiful and grand as Jasper.   It was a perfect day when we took the road, and we captured some of the best looking pictures so far.

Cultus Lake is approximately 90 minutes East of Vancouver.  It is a very popular recreational area that offers hiking trails, swimming, boating, fishing and of course, golfing.

We camped there for 8 days, and despite the fact that we had quite a few rainy days, we had a very good time.  We finally met  Sharry and Al, from Texas.  Bear had been corresponding with them online for a little while and we found out we were going to be in Cultus Lake at the same time!  We spent evenings chatting around a campfire, it was fun and we feel we have made friends for life.

A break in the weather meant going on an excursion and see what we can see.  The first day, we found Minter Gardens in Rosedale.  In 1977, on a family outing, Brian and Faye Minter discovered a unique and picturesque site and decided to create one of the most beautiful gardens in the world.  Their dream became a reality and we can now admire this 32 acres garden set against a magnificient mountain backdrop.

Chicken found a friend hiding in a little garden shed.  They had a good time together.

Alas, it was time for chicken to say goodbye to his new friend, and we left Rosedale and made our way to Hope BC.

Hope is the capital of chainsaw woodcarving in BC.  It is also where the movie Rambo “First Blood” with Sylvester Stallone was filmed.  Director Ted Kotcheff, a canadian, really liked the rain forest around Hope, the curious mixture of coniferous and almost southern savannah where everything is covered by moss because it rains all the time.  To him, it looked damp and uncomfortable, and that is what he wanted for the movie.  The misty weather of the small town and the imposing mountains and canyon scenery contributed to the success of the film.  The buildings that were blown up in town during the movie were actually built for the sole purpose of being destroyed, no real building were damaged 🙂

The Coquihalla Canyon near hope was also featured in the film.  The 150 foot fall from a helicopter in a narrow canyon was filmed there.  The stunt man received $14.000 to perform the stunt, he reportedly had agreed to do it for half that amount, but after seeing the helicopter repeatedly blew over the airbags he was set to land on, he doubled his price!  The scene took 6 hours to complete.

This is also the site of the Othello tunnel.  The 5 tunnels are amazingly perfectly aligned.    Long thought impossible, Andrew McCullough figured out the way to make a passage for the Kettle Valley Railway.  He and his men were lowered in woven baskets from the top with their tools and survey instruments, an from this precarious position, developed the plan for a series of tunnels and bridges.

The tunnels were accessible by an easy walking trail along the gorge.

On a cloudy but NOT rainy day, we went to Harrison Springs.

The Village of Harrison Hot Springs has been a small resort community since 1886.  The hot springs are a major atraction and people come to stay at the Spa-resort. The village is situated at the southern-end of Harrison lake.  We took a 2 hour cruise on the lake.

It is said that there is a Tsunami risk here, some geologist believe that an unstable rock face at Mount Breakenridge at the north end of the lake could collapse into the lake and generate a large wave that would destroy the town of Harrison Hot Springs.

Rainbow falls are 2300ft high, on a sunny day,   a rainbow appears in the mist at the bottom of the falls.

Canadians only enjoy a few months of summer, and they make the most of it.  Even though this lake is fed by glacier water, and the temperature was on the cold side the day we took the cruise, it did not keep them from enjoying the lake!

Only in Canada….

😉

We camped  in one of our membership campgrounds in Birch Bay WA,   to recuperate after our cruise (yeah, we actually recuperate from cruises… life is tough!) ;)  Actually, we needed some time there to plan our trip into British Columbia and Alberta, because we hadn’t made any plans for after the cruise.  We also thought it was a good idea to stay put and wait until the July 1st and July 4th madness was over.  (For those of you who don’t know, July 1st is Canada day and July 4th is Independance day in the US).  Both events were celebrated loudly, actually it sounded like we were in a war zone on July the 4th, fireworks and firecrackers are big business in this part of the country.

Birch Bay is a pretty “beach town”, the beaches are not extraordinary, no white sand here , just lots of pebbles but they say that it has the warmest sea waters North of San Diego.  The tide goes out about a mile and the sun heats the pebbles, which in turn warm the water as it comes back in.  We are not really “beach bunnies” but the beaches were popular and many people were swimming.

We did manage to go on two short excursion, one to Vancouver BC, which is  about 45 minutes from where we were camping.  Bear was so thrilled 😉 to go over the beautiful “Lions Gate Bridge”, between Vancouver and Vancouver North.

That was after the excitement of driving right through downtown Vancouver, with its high rise buildings, shops and traffic.  I thought it was so cool, Bear didn’t particularly agree, of course, I was not the one driving….   life is good with a chauffeur….  😉

We finally made it to our destination for the day, the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

The old-style suspension bridge hangs 230 feet above the canyon floor and spans 450 feet.

In 1889, George Grant Mackay, with the help of August Jack Khahtsahlano built the first suspension bridge across the Capilano River.  It was made of hemp rope and cedar planks.  The ropes were dragged down the canyon and a team of horses swam the ropes across the river.  Then the ropes were pulled up the other side and anchored to huge buried cedar logs.  August Jack was only 12 when he helped build the bridge.

Nowadays, the hemp ropes have been replaced by steel cables, but that did not improve the stability.  Crossing the bridge still remains a thrilling very shaky experience.

So, I crossed the bridge and Bear stayed back on firm land.

Once you cross the bridge, another adventure awaits you.  The treetop boardwalk takes you high above the forest floor and gives you a squirrel’s eye view of a Pacific rainforest.  The 650 foot long walk is made of a series of cable bridges suspended in between platforms, some as high as 10 stories.

The Douglas Fir trees found here were about 250 high but they can grow as high as 400 feet, and were there before Columbus discovered America.

Another day, we decided to got to a small place called Point Roberts. (Click on link to see a map).   What is so special about this place is that, it is part of the State of Washington, but the only way to get to it is by going through Canada.  This 4.9 square miles area was cut from the mainland in 1846 when the treaty of Washington drew the international boundary between Canada and the US at the 49th parallel.   From then on, Point Roberts was separated from the rest of Washington State by 23 miles of driving through British Columbia.

This obelisk was made in Scotland and placed on this spot in 1865 to mark the start of the longest undefended border in the world.

We really did get a kick out of taking this next picture.  The house you see in the picture is actually in Canada, and this Canadian construction worker was a good sport and accepted to pose for a picture with Bear, who was on the US side of the cedar tree edge separating the two countries.

Last but not least, I just have to post a picture of the cutest cow I have ever seen. She was minding her own business and happily grazing on some succulent Point Roberts’grass when I happened to see it.  The poor cow sensing my excitement, had to stop eating and pose for this picture.  Bear then, had to track down the farmer and ask what breed of cow she was… as you can see, I am easily amazed and very easy to entertain, because that was the highlight of my day at Point Roberts…  A Scottish Highland cow.  Enjoy!