The Road Goes On…

2017 Northwestern Canada

  • French Creek Recreation Site, BC to Devil’s Creek, BC

    After a long sleep and long breakfast we continued our trek south and stopped at Jade City. There are several major Jade mines in the Cassiar region and together they produce approximately 1 million pounds of Jade a year, half of which is exported. The mines account for 92% of the world’s Nephrite Jade production. We spoke to a very knowledgable woman at the store who explained the differences in quality and how the jade is worked to show its beauty. Our van is a few pounds heavier now as a result of this visit.

    The weather changed by the hour. We drove through rain, dark clouds, wind, beautiful sunshine which make the change of scenery even more fascinating.

    Tonight we are camping in an unmarked rest area right by the Devil’s Creek bridge. As we were having dinner we noticed he had company. We peeked out of the side window to see what this older gentleman was up to. He had a pickup truck and kept hopping in and out of the bed of the truck. At one point flames appeared from the truck bed so we went out to investigate and found out he was just making coffee.

  • Devil’s Creek, BC to Prince George, BC

    Today was a driving day and we had relatively few stops. The first place we did stop was the Gitanyow Totem Pole Park which has one of the largest and oldest outdoor totem pole collections. The totem poles show the clan status and are carved from bottom up.

    Shortly after our visit to the totem poles we left beautiful Highway 37 and turned onto Highway 16 to begin our journey eastward. Our next stop for gas and a short break was Smithers. Since it was Sunday not many stores were open. The town was designed after an Alpine village and thus has a sculpture of a Swiss man with an Alpenhorn. Smithers also had the first traffic lights we’ve seen since Whitehorse.

    We continued on to Prince George and since it was already relatively late and dark we opted for a Walmart parking lot.

  • Prince George, BC to Jasper, AB

    The morning started out with a swim, whirlpool and sauna at the Prince George Aquatic Center. We were refreshed and felt fit for our drive to Jasper. Despite the rain we made it in good time and didn’t see any evidence of the forest fires burning in BC.

    On our way to Jasper we saw our first Elk feeding by the side of the road. It is close to mating season and the signs said to stay away from the animals as they may charge. Remember, these animals have big horns. Nonetheless, a number of tourists felt the need to take selfies with the Elk or otherwise get within 5 feet of them. Hopefully everyone made it back in the car safely.

    In Jasper we stayed at the Fairmount which has log cabins right beside the lake. Ruth had received a teaching award four years ago and one part of the gifts were certificates for a stay at a Fairmount hotel. Since we hadn’t used them we thought this was the time and place to be pampered a bit. Quite a difference from Walmart the night before.

  • Jasper, AB to Lake Louise, AB

    The night was not as calm as expected. Pepsi was also a paid guest of the Fairmount but she made it very clear that she preferred sleeping in the van over the five star Fairmount. After this battle was settled we had a great night sleep and Pepsi was happy to go for a walk in the morning.

    After breakfast we left for Lake Louise on the Icefields Parkway. We stopped several times to take in the amazing beauty and visited the Athabasca Falls.

    Later on in the afternoon we stopped at the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre and hiked a short distance to the glacier. There are a number of markers that show where the toe of the glacier had been in previous years and it became very obvious that global warming has taken a huge toll on this glacier.

    We arrived at the Fairmount Chateau Lake Louise and our van was too high to fit into the parking garage. Therefore it was ‘valet’ parked right out in front of the hotel along with four other RVs.

    When we had made the reservation we had also included Pepsi as one of the guests and when we arrived in our room we found a welcome gift for her.

    After the issues with her sleeping in Jasper we decided to have her sleep in the van again.

    We had a nice swim and trip to the steam room followed by a cheese fondue at the Wallser Stube restaurant.

    Lake Louise is an exceptionally beautiful location and we decided to try and stay for another night. This took a bit of work, but Jeff, our front desk agent, pulled out all the stops to make it happen. Yay!

     

  • Lake Louise, AB

    Ruth woke up not feeling well so we started the morning slowly. She spent most of the day lying down and resting and Martin went for a nice hike to the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House.

    Along the way he saw a number of people rock climbing, two grizzly bears from a distance, and tons of chipmunks.

    The hike is 5.3 km one way and had a 370 meter elevation gain.

    No map today as the van didn’t move.