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Fishing shack on the edge of Lake Quinalt
We’re just back from the spectacular Olympic Peninsula. Rain forest, huge trees, glorious beaches with seastacks and tide pools. More photos and commentary to follow, pending the departure of our house guests/travel companions.
On June 21st, the first day of summer, we loaded the car with camping gear, a ukulele, and Lumpy the Sock Monkey. We pointed the car north and went to look at parts of Canada.
The weather was bad, the campground neighbors were loud, and the Rockies were awash in busloads of tourists. Did we have a great time? You betcha.
Here are some pictures.
K. told us to go to Drumheller and because it would Not Stop Raining, we did. It turns out that Drumheller, just the week before, had suffered from terrible flooding, the kind where all the news is about the flooding. We know this not because anyone told us, but because we were sick and tired of the rain, which is why we went to Drumheller where we got a hotel room and found ourselves watching the local news. It turns out we’d been traveling in perfect synchronization with a massive weather front that was blanketing the Rockies and parts of Alberta with rainfall the likes of which had not been recorded. Ever.
But no matter, it was worth the trip to Drumheller anyway because, like K. said, the museum is freakin’ amazing. Drumheller is dinosaur central - it’s a boneyard out there. At the museum you get to see some of those bones, including the named for Alberta “Albertasaurus” and a whopping great T-Rex. At the musuem they don’t just put the bones on display. They’ve provided context for everything so in addition to this traveling back in time thing that you do as you walk through, they’ve recreated the environment in which the dinosaurs live. The coolest of these is where they’ve made this 3-d underwater fish tank kind of thing where you see the tiny creatures of the Burgess Shale (a fossil boneyard in Yoho) recreated a jillion times bigger than they were in reality. Cable news, a private shower, an amazing museum, and a good night’s sleep in a real bed. What a deluxe diversion.
After another stopover in Banff and a quick flyby for lunch at Lake Louise, we drove through Yoho where we saw the second bear of the trip. This one, a handsome youngster, was grazing right along the road out from the lodge on that little island in the lake - you know the one, right? His coat was so full and attractive, his demeanor so passive and appealling, it’s easy to see why people get lulled in to tangling with them. I thought I’d be terrified, but I’m pretty sure we could outrun him as we were in the car with the motor running. I was excited but not too worked up. J. snapped a few photos of him before we continued on our way, leaving his shagginess to his berry picking.
Today we’ve left the Rockies behind but it wasn’t easy to do. In spite of the bad weather, loud chewing, and dangerous animals, it’s gorgeous up there. Our last day in the mountains was spent dawdling in the giant pool at Radium Hot Springs. It was Canada Day yesterday and the pool was packed, but it’s a testament to the size of the place that we didn’t feel crowded out. To celebrate the holiday, we ate pizza on a balcony overlooking the town of Radium and the Purcell Range.
Right now, we’re in the Kimberly - a silly little faux Bavarian town - for a coffee and email fix, we’re heading south in search of sunshine and the next hot spring spot.
Okay, two brief stories:
1. At Lake Louise, we met the charming and garrulous Neil Cox. Neil plays the Alpenhorn, you know, that big long thing you see the guys in lederhosen wearing in videos of, oh, say, Austria. We had a nice long chat with Neil about where he got his horn (the first one, from Switzerland) about being married to a German-language speaker (his wife is German), about music, about Lake Louise, etc. etc. ad infinitum. This was the evening we’d arrived at Lake Louise. The next day before we headed out on our hike to the Six Glaciers Tea House, we stopped by again to say hello to our new friend Neil. “I’ll give you two about half an hour. You should be at the top of the lake by then. I’ll play Amazing Grace for you. It’s Sunday morning and you’re here in the world’s biggest cathedral.” Off we went and indeed, as we came towards where the trail leaves the edge of the lake, the sound of Amazing Grace on the Alpenhorn came to us across the still turquoise waters of Lake Louise.
Addendum:
Lake Louise is exactly as gorgeous as you think it is from the photos you’ve seen, but you hardly ever hear about how great the log cabin tea houses are. We hiked about 11k and I was pretty whupped by the time we got back to the car, but it was SO worth it.
2. Last night when after it had finally got dark (it stays light for-freakin-ever up here) something woke me up. There was this, well, chewing noise. Chew, tear, chew, tear, breathe, chew some more, tear some more… There’s a bear warning for this area and my heart was in my throat. Plus, the noise was coming from right about where my feet were. Chew. Tear. Chew. Tear. Breathe. I couldn’t see anything because the tent was zipped up and I was too scared to open it to look, plus, I didn’t want to scare the giant rascheltier (German for generic unidentified noisy animal) out there. I woke up J. “There’s a giant rascheltier out there,” I said. “It’s just an elk,” he said. “Go back to sleep.” “What if it’s a bear?!” “It’s not a bear, now go back to sleep.” I could not just go back to sleep, plus, by then the rascheltier was chewing and tearing and breathing right by my head. “I’m scared of rascheltiers,” I whispered. “Then you shouldn’t go camping,” he said.
I think I am not irrationally scared of giant critters chewing and tearing and breathing by my head. They - and I think there probably was more than one - finally wandered off and I could get out of the tent to look around. I didn’t see a thing. But on the way out of the campground, I talked to the guy at the ranger booth. “Oh, yeah, you’re out there by that big grassy area aren’t you? Yeah, it probably was an elk. They like to graze out there. I could see how it could be a little alarming having a giant ungulate (grass eating beast) right by your head.” “What about bears?” I asked. “Yeah, I saw two out there this morning, about 830. Just don’t have anything with any smell to it in your tent. A bear might not want to eat it, but it could get him interested.”
I wish I could post photos, but I don’t think we’ll get to that til we get home. Google some images for Lake Louise and Banff if you’re curious. They won’t do it justice, but you’ll get the idea.
Here’s hoping I get a better night’s sleep tonight.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity of driving, we’re up in the Rockies. We arrived in Jasper last night to yet another thundershower, but the weather is much better today and we had our first real day of adventuring. Man, is Canada big.
Yesterday, when we got to Valemount, I was working through a “big, beautiful, boring” thing in my head, but today, it’s all gorgeous, all the time. We’ve buzzed into town this evening from our campsite because, get this, it’s been invaded by elk. We’ve been lectured quite severely on not approaching the elk, but when they have decided to not only graze at your campsite but to sit down right over there, you think, hmmm, best we do something else for a bit, maybe when we get back, they’ll have moved on to not neccessarily greener, but other, pastures. Here’s hoping.
We spent the morning at Miette Hot Springs, soaking with the Brits and the Germans, and the afternoon hiking in Maligne Canyon, with different Brits and Germans. There are three types of people on vacation here, slackers like us, the hard core outdoorsy types, and retirees. It’s the retirees I envy because they have the best accomodation - those plush motor homes where they can open the windows and sit in their rolling living rooms eating dinner without slapping moose-quitos.
The bugs are huge and aggressive, the elk are huge and aggressive, the bears, well, I saw one and it was walking the other way, and it was huge, if not aggressive. It’s not exactly summer here, it’s late spring so all the critters are crazy active and the wildflowers are everywhere. What we put up with in thundershowers is more than compensated for by the color in the meadows and the afternoon rainbows.
Tomorrow we’re headed down the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise.
We’re off to BC to do our annual “living out of the car like deadhead hippies” trip. Wait. Are they Phishheads now? I don’t even now. Anyway, you should see us camp, we’re total pros. Gourmet meals on the two burner Coleman and a tent that’s pitched tight enough to bring up the rear in a Souza march. We’d compete if camping was a competition sport, we would, and we’d win!
We’re taking the TransCanada highway east to Kamloops then heading north to Jasper, then south through the national parks, then zig-zagging through the Kootenays till we get to the Okanagan before heading back in to Washington.
That’s our rough itinerary. Jury is still out on if we’re bringing the laptop for campfire blogging. Before we hit the road, I’m wondering if any of you well-traveled types have must see - or must avoid - recommendations for us. Let me know! And thanks, eh?
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