Day 26 and 27: Jasper NP, AB - Prince George, BC - Lillooet, BC

On Day 26 after spending eight consecutive days in six Canadian national parks, we return to civilization by taking the Yellowhead Highway to Prince George, BC. Leaving Jasper NP and Alberta, we enter Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia and change our clocks to Pacific time. Mount Robson is the most impressive peak we have seen so far. It is the tallest in the Canadian Rockies at 12,972 feet. The summit topped with fresh snow is majestic in the morning light, surrounded by forests.

 

We keep driving west and stop at Beaver Falls hoping to see some migrating salmon. The only one we see is on the camera screen of a fellow hiker. We console ourselves with our delicious sushi lunch. We continue driving through forests and mountains rarely interrupted by towns until we reach Prince George, BC. We are surprised at how empty this part of British Columbia is. On the contrary, Prince George, is claimed as BC's capital of the north. It's a pretty large town at the crossroads of important railroads, highways, and rivers. We take advantage of being in a city to do some grocery shopping at the Real Canadian Superstore. Then head to our hosts' place. We take BC 97 north, then turn left on a smaller road, then turn right on an even smaller dirt road, and follow that road even when it takes us into an unmarked territory on our GPS. After finding the house number, we drive into a very dense and young forest before arriving to our destination. We see an unfinished house surrounded by a large garden, a green house, and some livestock. We are greeted by our hosts and a big bearlike dog. We spend the rest of the evening talking with the family over some mint tea and cookies. We find out their oldest son is also traveling around the continent but with only his bike and a tarp, mostly stopping in forests to sleep.

The next day we wake up with the roosters, and we leave pretty early after being sent off with some fresh tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and green beans. We take BC 97 south through the Gold Rush Trail. This trail is closely related to the history of British Columbia. In fact, in 1858 word leaked out that gold was found in the Fraser River, and pretty quickly thousands of people showed up to the area. Because of this British Columbia was proclaimed a crown colony that same year. We pass Quesnel, “The Gold Pan City.” Not so far from here there is the town of Barkerville, which was a leading destination for gold prospectors that made it into the largest city west of Chicago and north of San Francisco in 1862. The drive is very pleasant filled with rolling hills, marshy lands, and old log houses and barns along the way. These logs structures are so common that we aren't surprised when we pass through 100 Mile House that claims to be the “Handcrafted Log Home Capital of North America.”

 

We turn onto BC 99 south and the rolling hills turn into rolling mountains and the marshy lands turn into much drier lands. This highway crosses many First Nation territories before reaching Vancouver. The houses are sparse, and Clinton is one of the rare towns on the road. We almost stop at an all-you-can-eat BBQ place there, but we save that all-you-can-eat experience for Vancouver.

 

 

 

 As the sun goes down, we enter an arid land that is almost desolate. The road is steep and windy, playing hide-and-go-seek with the railroad. This very rugged landscape falls down into the deep gorge of the Fraser River. We are enchanted. And even more so when we arrive to Fraser Cove Campground in Lillooet, BC on the shore of the river. We are welcomed by a warm breeze that makes us feel like we have arrived to the southwest of the US. We enjoy this new temperature and sleep with the windows open.

Day 24 and 25: Jasper National Park

We wake up to the cold morning, eat breakfast, and get back on the Icefield Parkway heading towards the town of Jasper, AB. We stop at both Sunwapta Falls and Athabasca Falls. Both falls are gorged with melted glacier water that is compressed into a small passage creating pretty powerful surges of water.

 

 

Then we try to get a campsite at the Whistler's campground, but it's booked for the whole weekend.  Fortunately we can get an electric site in their overflow RV parking. It's not the best, but it has a nice view and electricity. One little problem, our electric cord is tangled and can't reach the site's plug-in. We now become determined to solve this issue. Red gets some tools and fixes it. The opening for the cord is a bit messed up, but at least it's long enough now. It's another cloudy and chilly day, so we eat lunch and do some trip planning. In the afternoon we get some motivation and drive to Maligne Lake. The area is filled with bears, moose, and caribou. We are especially eager to see a moose, as neither of us has seen one. We drive pretty slowly but see no wildlife. We arrive to the cute lake and hike the Mary Schaeffer Loop, hiking along the lake shore before crossing into the forest and hilly lands. The grounds is covered with mosses of different shapes and colors and has variety of mushrooms too. At the end of the loop, we head back to the parking. While approaching the parking lot, Red notices something moving out of the corner of her eye, probably a tourist. The next second we are face to face with a black bear. We are startled. We turn around as quickly as possible and try to walk rapidly in the other direction without running.

 

The bear nonchalantly moves the other direction. We circle back around the parking lot and keep a safe distance from him, but observe him eating berries. We go to our RV and drive back to where we were and find the bear still eating berries but now next to the road. He doesn't even seem to notice the group of tourists snapping pictures of him from the other side of the road. Whew, that was a close one.

 

 We drive slowly back to the town of Jasper looking for moose or caribou and also being careful about our very low gas tank. We treat ourselves to dinner at Jasper Brewing Company. We order two bison burgers along with some of their house beers. Later we learn that the brewery was started by some local young people after winning the lottery. Great thinking there.

 

The next day we spend some time cooking clam chowder and making some sushi rolls for the next days. The sun comes out in the afternoon, so we decide to go hiking. Unfortunately the trail we had planned to explore around the beautiful Mount Edith is closed due to a fallen glacier.

 

 

We decide to continue on AB Highway 93A, a narrow and windy road, that is surrounded by beautiful mountains and rivers. We chat with some locals at Leech Lake who have lived in Jasper for the last 35 years. The husband is a train engineer, which captivated Yellow's attention, and the wife is a nurse at the local hospital. We stopped at Horseshoe Lake and found that the trail the flooded, but knew there must be another way because of all the cars in the parking lot. We made our to the center of the horseshoe through unofficial trails and found some brave (or crazy) people swimming and cliff jumping. The lake's deep blue color matched its profound depth. Later we drove to Pyramid Lake and Lake Patricia before heading back to camp.

Day 23: The Icefields Parkway

We leave pretty early in the morning and take Alberta Highway 93 north, which is better known as the Icefields Parkway. This road begins in Banff NP and continues into Jasper NP and is strictly used by national park pass holders. It's 142 miles long with only one gas station along the way. The day is very cloudy and drizzly, so we won't get to see it at its best. It still remains quite impressive.

 

We stop at every lookout. There is a succession of lakes colored from glacier blue to emerald green, glaciers hanging to the sides of mountains, and snow sprinkled peaks. After pulling into a parking spot at Peyto Lake, we are in the car getting ready when we feel a big smack! The RV that was backing out of its parking spot just hit us. Yellow honks, but several seconds pass before it to moves forward and releases Bertha from her tipping position. We get out to see the damage and greet the elderly German man and his wife that just hit us. Their back bumper hit our left side close to the generator, which left some scratches on its door frame and a dent close to the driver's door. It's not too bad. It's not like the RV is new... The German couple offers us $50, and we accept. Deal. After feeling a little shook up, we finally walk towards Peyto Lake. It starts to rain, so Red runs back to the car but Yellow waits in the rain for the perfect moment when the sun will illuminate the lake.

And we're back on the road. As we go up to Sunwapta Pass, the view gets more and more spectacular. We can see the edges of the Columbia Icefield. This icefield is a gigantic layer ice that is held up between eleven different peaks and feeds many glaciers. It's like a water tower for North America, as it feeds major rivers (like the Columbia River) going to the Pacific, Arctic, Hudson Bay, and Atlantic. Some areas are thicker than the height of the Eiffel Tower. And it's a big tourist hotspot, especially the Athabasca Glacier which is one of the most accessible glaciers in the world. We can see it from the car. We can touch it after hiking for 1.5 km. One hundred and fifty years ago, we wouldn't have been able to use this road. However, two-thirds of the glacier have melted since then.

 

 

We park the RV and decide to bike around despite the cold, which doesn't turn out to be a good idea. In fact, after a couple minutes it starts to rain ice. We still make it up to the finger of the glacier and wait for the clouds to pass. They don't. We go back to the RV and wait around a bit more to see if it will clear up at all. It does just a little bit, but we don't want to spend the night here, so we keep driving north and find camping at Honeymoon Lake. We eat dinner and get into our sleeping bags pretty early due to the dropping temperature.

 

Day 22: Banff National Park, AB Continued

The next morning is cold, but the mostly sunny sky tells us it's going to be a nicer day. We drive to Moraine Lake that is in the vicinity of Lake Louise. The lake is beautiful, as it is completely surrounded by mountains topped with glaciers. The sunny weather helps too. We head up to the trailhead of the Consolation Lakes Trail, which requires four people for safety reasons: the bears are everywhere. 

 

 

As we approach the trailhead, there is a French couple asking another couple who happen to be French if they are heading to Consolation Lakes. They said no, we said yes. That is how we meet Lucas and his girlfriend, originally from Gap in France, but currently living in Montreal. We hike 6 km roundtrip to the lakes, while being very loud because of the bears. We have some scares, hearing some strange noises here and there, but we don't see any bears...yet. That doesn't mean that the bears didn't see us. We go back to the RV after having some lunch and decide to drive to the town of Banff, AB.

 

We drive there by highway 1A and the scenery is beautiful. We see mountain range after mountain range, each with its own unique shape and style. That makes for lots of stops for Yellow to take pictures. Then we arrive in Banff and its brutal snap back into civilization. 

 

 

The streets are filled with cars, stores, and people people people. Finding parking spot is a nightmare, but we find one. We get a coffee and a bacon cheeseburger and McDonald’s in order to use their wifi for an hour or two. Then we go to Canada's favorite ice cream shop, Cow's, and order a half liter of Moo Henry ice cream. After the ice cream is gone, we head back to Lake Louise and relax for the rest of the evening. 

Day 21: Banff National Park, AB

We wake up and leave the pretty early and for good reason. We are going to Banff NP and trying to get a good campsite. We arrive at Lake Louise, AB around 9:15am and drive directly to the camping. We get campsite G2, a non-electric site, for two nights. We stop at the visitor's center to the check the weather. It's pretty cloudy, but we don't know if tomorrow will be any better. So we decide to do a big hike around Lake Louise. We hike first up to Mirror Lake (2.7 km) and then to Lake Agnes (0.8 km). 

 

 

The trail is pretty busy with tourists, as there is a tea house of Lake Agnes. In fact, the trail is much calmer once we hike up to the Big Beehive Lookout (2.3 km). Most of the hikers we meet at this point are French speaking. One couple even has family in Belfort, close to Yellow's home. The French speaking world is small. The view from the Beehive is extensive, but unfortunately it's very hazy and cloudy. However, we can definitely see Lake Louise and it's intense Robin's egg color. 

 

We have lunch in a gazebo, feeling a bit chilly. We go down the Big Beehive and go up to the Plain of Six Glaciers (4.7 km). Again, another tea house located on that trail made it pretty busy.  This trail brings us to the front and center of a circle of six glaciers. Underneath the glaciers it is very rocky and sandy, as they have have diminished a lot in size in the past century. Up in the cliffs, we saw a mountain goat chilling out above the valley. We hike back down to Lake Louise (6.8 km) with some difficulties after our big hike two days ago in Glacier NP. The last 2 km are fortunately flat beside the lake shore of Lake Louise and absolutely filled with tourists: a lot of Germans, a bunch of Japanese and Chinese, some Spanish, and a right amount of French. We get back to the RV in the afternoon. On the way to the campsite, we buy a gallon of milk for $6.80 in order to enjoy some hot chocolate after our long hike.

 

Day 20: Glacier National Park, BC

Our destination for the day is Glacier NP, BC. We arrive pretty early to the trail head parking lot to be sure to get a spot. We decide to go for the Glacier Crest Trail. The description is not too scary for a 10 km hike with a 1005 meter elevation gain, and the reward seems worth it. The first 2 kilometers are pretty gentle going up and down along a creek, but suddenly the trail turns left and starts climbing the mountain. The trail is pretty steep in the forest with no real flat areas of relief. As the forest slowly disappears, we think we are getting close to the top. We aren't. We are actually barely half-way. The trail gets even steeper and very rocky. There are points on the trail where we find ourselves almost crawling and wondering how we can possibly go back down this same route. 

 

We finally arrive to the summit about 3 hours later totally exhausted, but the panorama is spectacular overlooking the beautiful Asulkan and Illecillewaet glaciers and mountains ranges in every direction. We hang around the summit, have lunch, and then start our descent. We don't go much faster than we did on the way up, at least until we reach forest. It's a great deliverance when we finally get back to the trail along the creek. We get back to the RV six and a half hours after leaving it, and drink some rootbeer in order to refill our electrolytes.

 

Back in Golden we relax. The only thing worth mentioning is the swarm of mosquitoes that attacked us while we were dumping our waste water. You should have seen the cloud of mosquitoes around Yellow's head. After suffering from such a high intake of mosquito saliva, we sleep like rocks.

Day 19: Mount Revelstoke National Park, BC

After having our normal oatmeal breakfast, we for Mount Revelstoke NP. The most accessible part of the park is the Mount Revelstoke summit. To get there, you must take the Meadows in the Sky Parkway. This road is very windy and goes up 1600 meters over 26 kilometers, crossing through the rainforest and going up to the flowery meadows.

We don't think this would be a good trip for Bertha, our motor home. So we park her at the bottom of the mountain, we hike a steep trail to hit the parkway, and we hitch hike. Yellow takes advantage of this break to dry his sweat, which might be a deal breaker for a driver picking us up. A car passes, two motorcycles pass, a bike passes (who we cheer on), and few other cars pass before a black car stops. A couple from the Netherlands brings us to the summit. 

 

Once we are there we walk for a few miles all around the summit trails. The panoramic view is stunning in every direction, and the meadows are colorful with a great variety of flowers. This is the perfect place for lunch, except for the bugs. The horse flies especially are making Red frantic. We finally find a good spot, and eat our lunch quickly while killing some mosquitoes here and there.

 

We start walking back down the mountain, trying to find a good spot to hitch hike, when our dutch couple pulls up beside us and offers us a ride. This is of course an offer that can't be refused, so we find ourselves back at the bottom of the mountain. We drive to the Revelstoke dam, which is suppose to be really tall. Yes, it is really tall. We stop at the BC Interior Forestry Museum, and then wonder why we made that stop. We drive through the town of Revelstoke that is said to have a “David Lynch atomosphere”. There is definitely something here.

On our way back home, we stop at two trails at the eastern end of the national park. The first is the Skunk Cabbage Trail, which brings us to the rare wetlands of the Columbia mountains. We are impressed by the largeness of the plants, which brings the feelings that we've walked into Jurassic Park. For the skunk part, we will say that it has something to do with the smell. The second trail is the Giant Cedars Trail, and the Jurassic Park feeling continues in the midst of this centennial towering forest of Cedar and Hemlock trees.

 

In the evening back at the campground, we park Bertha in front of the service area. Lame. We know. But that way we are right beside the showers ($1 for 6 minutes) and most importantly, we can stay inside the RV and access the internet. Mosquitoes – 1 Us – 1. We are surprised though to drive back to our campsite and find that someone has settled in there. Oops. The perpetrator is a man from Washington state (an American of course) who is trying to find a free site for the night, even if the campground is full. He politely leaves and settles into a spot across the way. The rest of the evening is surprisingly hot, almost suffocating in the RV and marked by eerie train noises that sing Yellow to sleep.