Icefields Parkway to Jasper

The drive through the Canadian Rockies passes from Banff to Jasper along the Icefields Parkway has got to be one of the most scenic routes in all of North America. Unfortunately, we are a bit early in the season, and the weather was dreary & overcast, so I apologize for the pix, they really don't do it justice. http://www.icefieldsparkway.ca/

The spectacular mountain range was dotted with glacier after glacier (like the two, left & right, shown here) driving the desire to stop at every pullout along the route.

These glaciers over time have formed many crystal, turquoise-blue lakes that are the "jewels" of this Canadian drive. We stopped at Lac Peyto, and were greeted by an interesting hike of about a mile through snow & ice to sample it's beauty. It reminded Kim of those days growing up in Minnesota, and the many fun times they had as kids romping in the fluffy stuff!

The lake itself was set in a huge valley, at the bottom of a very far away glacier. If you look closely to the left, you will see how much the glacier has receded (melted) in the past few years.



The most spectacular glacier along the Parkway is the Columbia Icefield Athabasca Glacier, which is the only glacier in the world that you can actually take a ride across in these huge "IceCat" tour buses. The day was still cloudy, but I manged to get this shot from the visitor center across the highway. If you can see the two small "dots" out there on the surface of the glacier, that's one of the IceCats!



The ride started with a 35% grade descent down the mountainside, which I couldn't get a shot of because we were all hanging on (and a few screaming!), then we leveled off onto the glacier and it was mch smoother. They groom & check the ice (for cracks & crevases) each morning, and haven't lost a bus in a crater yet!



We were allowed about 20 minutes on the glacier, which gave us time to absorb the immensity of this huge chunk of ice! What a treat today was!

On to Banff!

Our stay in Wenatchee was uneventful, basically getting some shopping & errands done before crossing the border. Ironically, we loaded up on fresh veggies & fruits (which was ok last year & also listed as ok on the Canadian website), only to learn at the border a new law had just passed (within days) requiring us to throw it all away! Funny, I was worried about getting my rifle through (which was no big deal) yet the big fuss was about bring all those "deadly" bananas, apples, brochelli & onions in!

Our first stop in BC (British Columbia) was the prestigious "Holiday Park Resort", a totally planned RV community, complete with swimming pools, hot tubs, gyms, library (with wi-fi) , coffee shop, etc. We've never seen anything like it! For anyone looking for a permanent summer "home" for an RV, this would certainly be a place to consider....



Our "slot" for the night was a "permanent" lot on rental, which included full hookups & cable. We had lots of privacy and our own patio, complete with a famly of local quail running around...



We took advantage of the pool & hot tub area and enjoyed walking around the facility.



We left the "life of luxury" the next day and headed straight for Banff, where we hoped to meet up with Bob & Joy Loudon (our good friends fr St Francisville, who joined us last fall for a few weeks). We lost contact with them after we both left the "lower 48", with only a couple of email hotspots, our last conversation we agreed to meet in Jasper, but now we were chaning plans???

The major highway leading into Banff started to show evidence of the "Canadian Rockies" about 20 miles, oops excuse me 35km, out, and in spite of a dreary, cloudy day, we managed to stop several times and enjoy the "line of mountains" as they crept in & out of the clouds...


AT Banff, we were assigned a spot "in the back, where it's quiet" and as we drove to "the back" to our right was a Classic Cruiser just like Bob's! could it be? could they have changed their plans unknowingly to match ours? I couldn't stand it, walking around back, yes, yes!!! Bob & Joy are hear, right across from our spot!

The weather next morning was still overcast, but we decided on a nice 9 mile hike across & along the river, and up to Lake Louise, the stunning jewel set before a glacier and nestled with the Rockies... Leaving the campground, the quiet quickly turned into a nice roar, with swollen waters gushing past, due to the heavy snowmelt.

We saw lots of interesting plants and critters along the way, all pretty small, but .......
as we approached the tent camping area, and had to cross through this fence, something told us that they take "big critters" pretty seriously aournd here!

Half frozen, but still showing it's tourquoise-blue-green hue, Lake Louise was truly "stunning"...you know, compared to the chocolate-brown waters I grew up with in south Louisiana.

We treated ourselves to a hearty chilli & soup lunch before the return. Then decided to move on and drive the "Icefields Parkway" up to Jasper....

BUT, that's another story and bandwidth is slow here in Teslin, so I'm being told "let's go" so I'll finish this story & continue to catch up in Whitehorse....see you there!

Hood & St. Helens - Magnificant!

No trip to Oregon could be complete without a drive up to Mt. Hood, well, as least as far up as snow permits! Our first great view came from the valley below where apple trees drenched in warm sunlight make us wonder if the photo, with snow-capped Hood in the background, is a fake?


By the way the little lane that this orchard was on had a very artistic streetsign. We love it! So much so, we're considering changing our official mail forwarding address to it....now do you think you could remember the street name? (oh, and I guess there's a logical reason for the name...I wonder if that's why we needed 4WD?)

A few more miles of winding, turning & climbing brings us about as high as open roads allow, so it's time for playing in the snow with the giant still far off in the distance.


As we start down, the water is already well ahead of us...record snows have caused quiet streams to swell beyond their banks and become raging torrents.

I guess the most interesting aspect of the day's journey is that we were comfortable in shorts & teeshirts, even with all the winter sports still in full swing!

Thanks to a suggestion from our good friend Ronnie White, we spent an extra day while moving further north diverting to see Mt. St Helens, arriving there for the 28 year anniversary of it's eruption on May 18th, 1980. We spent a couple of hours at the educational Visitor's Center, which has excellent photos & videos of the catastrophic event.

http://gonorthwest.com/Washington/cascades/mt_st_helens/mountsthelensvisitorcenter.htm

The 58 mile road to Johnson's Ridge, the best vantage point for viewing the crater was open, as of only a couple of days ago. About midway up, you get the first nice view of the Mt with the huge valley below that was inundated with the giant lahar pushed from the base of the crater.

We arrived at Johnson's to find that massive amounts of snow were still present, the truck being dwarfed by the icey stuff, not to mention how small the walk up to the Ridge made us feel.



The view from the Ridge was dramatic, giving us a feel for how huge the mountain is, and the enormous chunk of it that was blown out of this side, producing the tremendous flow of debis down this side and into the upper Toutle River Valley.

Looking closer into the crater area, you can easily see the bulge of new growth that has formed over the years. The volcano threatened again in 2004, but has remained dormant since. The seismic equipment located deep within the crater was actually showing some activity while we were there, but no one can predict when a major eruption will take place again.

Another interesting aspect of the eruptionis how far the "blast zone" traveled. The pyroclastic flow of molten rock, superheated gases & steam reached out as far as 17 miles. After 28 years, we could still see evidence of it's destruction at the perimeter!

On the way down, we decided to take a look at Coldwater Lake, the gates having just been opened. It's situated several miles northwest of the Mt, and is somewhat shielded by a ridgeline (on the right) from direct path to St Helens.

It was just so stunningly slick & beautiful, I just had to go out for a paddle. Since Kim opted out, I took the big SEDA Impulse with plenty of hull speed to circum-paddle the Lake before dark.

As I paddled along it's banks, numerous waterfalls were formed by the melting snow and runoff, delightful to both the eyes & ears!

Evidence of the massive blowdown from Helen's blast was abundant, from one end of the Lake to the other. The colors of some of the old waterlogged trunks reminded me of the deep red cypress we sometimes found in Louisiana.

This image of the rear mountains shows that the entire face was subjected to the brutal blast, the huge trees still lay strewn across it's surface like matchsticks dropped on the floor.

Although I found the water quite cold, Kim managed to find at least one "cold blooded" creature out for a leisurely swim!