Saturday July 27, Jasper and Mount Robson
A cold rainy morning, we had to dig out the coats and long pants for the first time today! One of my goals on this trip was to go up Mount Robson, and we were as close as we were going to get here in Jasper. Left the trailer behind and drove the 100 kms into BC to see the mountain. It was a rainy cloudy day, so when we pulled up into the Visitor's Centre and walked in, I was shocked to hear that the best view of the mountain was right in front of me. All we could see were clouds! Turned out you could only go up the mountain on foot and then by rock climbing to the summit. Oh well, more research would have helped! We did the best we could taking pictures.
Sunday July 28, Jasper to Cochrane AB
This morning we left Jasper behind to explore south on Highway 93, the Icefields parkway. Rob and I had our honeymoon here in 2000, and it was wonderful to see it again. We went to the Athabasca Glacier parking area as we had in 2000, and walked to get onto the glacier just like we did in 2000. Unfortunately, and I guess not surprisingly, we couldn't get there. The glacier had receeded probably half a km from where it was only 19 years earlier, and people were not allowed to walk on the surface, presumably as it was so far back and had shrunken so much it was not safe. What a reality check for climate change. It was still a very impressive sight to see, but I was disappointed that Devon could not walk on it as we had. I think if you went to the discovery centre and paid a large fee you could take a bus to the glacier and walk on it at that point, but with the trailer and the dog things like this became difficult to do.
We carried on south through stunning scenery to Canmore, where the staff at the Visitor's Centre helped us find a campground in Cochrane that was available for two nights. A grocery store visit and then off to the RV park by a busy road, right behind a gas station, full of gravel, no privacy and very little space. Oh well. What a contrast from the beautiful overflow campground last night! 430 kms of beautiful travel today, with a big adventure to come tomorrow. Here's a bunch of pictures because it was so pretty there.
Monday July 29, Devon's 16th Birthday and a day at Drumheller AB
We left the trailer behind and drove to Drumheller to go and see the Royal Tyrell Museum. We were not sure what to do about the dog as the museum did not allow animals, and the weather was super hot, way too much to leave her in the car for even a few minutes. We stopped at the Visitor's Centre in town, and they suggested Lily go to a local groomers, either for a full groom, or a bath, or to just be boarded for the day. What a great idea! We dropped her off, she spent half the day at the doggie spaw, we didn't have to worry about her, and we got her back all sweet and clean and pretty. The museum was amazing. After lunch and picking her up we toured the hoodoos, and then back to the trailer for dinner and birthday cake, followed by a Star Trek movie on the computer. 340 kms today.
Tuesday July 30, Cochrane AB to Shuswap Falls PP BC
We did a good clean up of the trailer before leaving as we were not sure what was in store once we got into BC. Large campgrounds looked few and far between, and with it being high season we had low expectations of getting a campsite really anywhere for awhile. We headed back into the mountains towards Banff. We did not go through Banff, and I don't know why, and I wish now that we had taken the detour. The crowds and the busy roads were definitely affecting my willingness to drive around with the trailer through very touristy places, and Banff I guess just got missed. We chose to go through Lake Louise to see the Fairmont Hotel as we had on our honeymoon in 2000, but the town was so full of tourists that there was a traffic jam every inch of the drive around town, and nowhere to park. We did a quick loop and then left after a quick glimpse of the hotel out the window. Disappointing. Back onto the TC1 and carried on into BC.
Our next stop was Roger's pass, a quick visit to the Visitor's Centre and some pictures. A really nice stretch of the trip through here, beautiful scenery, gorgeous mountains. We wanted to try a large campground first, so headed for Shuswap Lake PP, quite a side trip off the TC, but it had more than 200 campsites so seemed like a good choice. Unfortunately they were fully booked, but found space for us in the boat parking area once the boaters left for the day (at 8 pm!) We were far from the only people camping in the parking lot, there was about 10 trailers there in all. So busy! 580 kms today, a very tiring drive.
Wednesday July 31, Shuswap Lake PP to somewhere near Whistler BC
Back on the road again, into Kamloops. This city seemed huge after all the small towns we had been through, and was the first freeway we had seen in ages. The main road from here headed south to Hope and Vancouver, the Coquihalla highway, famous on the TV show Highway Thru Hell. We took the western route on TC1 and then 99/97 to see the more scenic route. Well, it did not disappoint. This for me is one part of the trip that I think about most of all, the scenery there was like nothing I had ever expected in Canada. The roads were terrifying. The grade of the hills was like nothing I had ever driven before, and was not trailer friendly at all!! We first went through Cache Creek, a beautiful little town that looks like it is sitting in the middle of Texas or Nevada, not BC. I felt like we were in a southern desert. After a stop at a local farmer's market, off we went into the mountains. All I can say is I will never forget that drive. The brakes were smoking so we had to stop and cool them down, and adjusted the trailer brakes to take more of the work, on top of gearing the truck down to second gear for the hills. The pictures don't show it, but it was incredibly steep.
Thursday August 1, Lillooet to Squamish BC
More crazy driving today, but eventually it settled into something calmer as we approached Squamish. We had asked along the way at a visitor's centre about nearby campgrounds, and were told that everything was booked up in Vancouver due to the Pride parade and a huge fireworks festival both on the same weekend. We were told about some campgrounds farther north, so ended up getting a lucky site at Alice Lake PP for the night north of Squamish. We were thrilled. We set up the trailer and then drove into Squamish and went down by the Pacific ocean for the first time. Once again the trailer needed a good cleaning after driving through all the dusty mountain roads, and we enjoyed a lovely hot shower. 300 kms. of hard work!
Friday August 2nd, Squamish BC
We knew if we went to Vancouver today we would be homeless, so we stuck around town until 1 pm and then drove back to Alice Lake PP and they gave us their emergency site for the night. Thank you to the staff person who suggested it, it saved us for the day! We set up on the new site and left Lily behind in the trailer to allow us to go on the Sea to Sky gondola ride in Squamish. I am not a big fan of heights so was kind of nervous, but it was amazing. The cars disappear up the mountain, and it is not until you are in one of them that you see the ride travels so much farther than what you can see from the ground. Your ears pop like crazy and the wind howls through the small windows at the top of the car. At the top there was a beautiful building with a restaurant, gift shop and a lovely patio with an amazing view. From there a suspension bridge takes you farther up the mountain to another viewpoint and some trails. For the very fit, you can hike all the way up the mountain for free (it takes hours using pull ropes in some areas to scale the rock face, you climb about 3000 feet of elevation) and you can ride down for only $15. When we were there, a local band was setting up for one of the Friday night concerts they run throughout the summer.It was such a shock to hear that just a week later someone had cut the cable, effectively destroying the entire ride for the rest of the year and beyond.
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