All The Way to Dawson Creek

We have the next three nights at a Canadian Provincial Park, much like our State Parks. However, no fire pits and no place to “gather”. Great pull through spots tho.

Sunday, Father's Day, June 19, 2016 was a tour day. The bus picked us up on a rainy morning in the park after the all night downpour! Everyone had multiple layers on, hats, umbrella's, etc. Surprise ! ! The weather is similar to Oregon where as the day goes on, the weather gets better. It ended beautifully with hardly any rain at all and everyone was carrying a lot of stuff. LOL

OMG, I never understood why anyone cared about the Canadian Rockies since we had the Cascade Range in Oregon. HOWEVER, you have to see them to understand the absolute beauty of these mountains. The Tour Guide talked in terms of the main and front range mountains. Hopefully, you can see the layers of mountains in Ken's pictures. It is amazing how different they are and how close they seem. 

All along the Trans-Canada, Highway 1, you see very well built fences for animal control. They do everything they can to protect the wildlife. There are many overpasses that appear to be tunnels to the driver, but, they are well planted to looks like forests so that the animals will pass over the roads safely. Our guide told us that Canada spent millions of dollars on them and that it took 8-10 months for the animals to get used to them. They had tried the under-the-road tunnels but didn't find them successful because the predators, like wolves and coyotes, found that they could wait at the other end and capture dinner really easily. With the overhead passes being so open and like the regular forest, they have to work harder for dinner.  

The Trans-Canada Highway is one of the longest, continuous roads in the world. It goes 4500 miles across Canada.

Lots of vertical lines in all the shale rock. It was formed from the glaciers millions of years ago and lots of rock slides because of the shale and the glaciers continuous movement.

Again, lots of water, lakes, rivers and streams/creeks. A lot of them really have a beautiful turquoise colored water rather than blue or muddy. Found out that that is caused by what is called rock flour. It is a process created by glaciers millions of years ago because of the glaciers grinding on the rocks. Lots of rock flour equals gray water, less is this incredible turquoise.

Of course, all the mountains have names and I am not listing many here but there was an interesting story about Castle Mountain. It was originally called Eisenhower Mountain after “our” Ike. It was later changed back to Castle.

We are happy to be seeing all the wildlife. One of the best was finding a black wolf followed by three gray ones alongside the protective fence. A ranger later told us that they, along with a pup, are the Bow River Pack. How exciting was that ! ! !

Also learned that water atop the Continental Divide goes two ways, one is toward the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean and the other is by way of Hudson Bay to the Atlantic Ocean.

Braided water is when you see out in a valley that the water is divided into more than one channel separated by land. Very pretty, we saw it a lot and it was all turquoise too ! Can have many braids.

Kicking Horse River and Pass were named after an incident where a horse kicked a man in the chest so hard that he was unconscious and they really thought he had died. The Natives were about to bury him when he came to. They named the local river after the incident. The power of the Kicking Horse River is creating a Natural Bridge. Ken has some great pictures of it. Another beautiful area.

We noticed a few cars slowing down and realized that there was a grizzly right above the fence line. So close... We didn't get really good pictures but was amazing to see that huge hump on his back that let us know grizzly not black bear.

We saw the Ten Peaks on the way to visit Moraine Lake. We are talking craggy, beautiful peaks.

Lake Louise was incredible.  I know, I keep saying that, but it is amazing to see all these mountains around a lake. Ken has more pics! Lots of Asian visitors all over Canada and quite a few took canoes out on the lake this day.

Lunch was at the Lake Louise Lodge. Big ski area. See the runs up the mountain??

We were told that Canada doesn't allow ownership of land in their National Parks and it seems that the government owns a lot of the land which includes well known cities. You can do a 99 year lease only and that includes in cities like Banff and Jasper because they are in the parks. These are major skiing areas.

Fort McMurray had a horrible fire recently and destroyed 8-10,000 homes. This area is the gas and oil hub of Canada. Since the price of oil has been going down lots of Canadian's have been layed off. Our tour driver was very knowledgeable and is only doing this job since his lay-off. Apparently he spent a year looking for work before landing this job. He had to drive an hour and a half home to Calgary after dropping us off at 6:00pm. Nice that it is not dark here til after 10:00pm. He was very good with non-stop talking while driving us around for ten hours.

So stunning... Today 6/20/16 was the most beautiful day with 80 degrees and clear, blue skies. Sure a fast changes from yesterdays clouds and drizzle. More pictures of the incredible peaks.. Leaving Banff tomorrow.

Woke up on Tuesday, June 21^st after pouring rain all night. Worried that our tour day would be ruined. However, right on time, the rain stops. BUT, not after everyone has layers and layers of clothing on. We stopped, on our way to our next campground, at the Columbia Ice Fields. We had a 2:30 tour time. The place was packed with people. They had a film, lots of pictures and, of course, the view to take in while waiting. Also a restaurant where you could get a $25.00 hamburger!! The huge parking lot accommodated all 20 of our RV rigs towing cars behind. We got on a bus that took us on a four minute ride out to the glacier. There we boarded the six wheeled Glacier Crawlers. They held the entire bus of people. The driver told us that the tires alone were $4-5,000 and that the vehicle, built in Calgary, cost 1.3 million each. Up on the glacier there were eight crawlers at a time. I figured that Brewster's was making about $32,000 per two hours. The Crawler took us out onto the glacier at about 2mph and that was top speed. Fun... The glacier where they took us was so crowded and the area so small, that it was a bit disappointing since we had previously helio'd onto one in Alaska and hiked around with a guide for an hour. It was great to see the Athabasca Glacier up close and be reminded about the turquoise blue water. The driver told us that the forests around us, as well as throughout the Rockies, were 350-700 years old. They looked like 30-50 year old Oregon trees. Also, growth was mainly on one side of the tree. This is all because the growing season is only 3-4 months and in winter the winds are really high. They are beautifully formed but very small diameter.  

The guide also pointed out the Endless Chain of the Atlas Mountains behind the glacier. It is a chain of 56 peaks and is the second longest in the world behind the Andes in Peru. This range apparently runs into the American Rockies.

After the tour we went drove on another hour to our National Park campground in Jasper. On the way we saw a herd of mountain goats, mommies, daddies and babies. Sooooooo cute. Came across them to fast to get a picture. Someone recommended a phone app to us called Gypsy Guide. You have to buy it for each area you want but it narrates along the roads. She had warning that the goats liked this area for the natural salt there. She got great pictures.

Today is Wednesday, June 22^nd and a very important day. It is our granddaughter's birthday. Sure wish we were with Alyssa today. However, I was able to text her and tell her that her birthday present is third row tickets to see Hunter Hayes at the Oregon State Fair in August. She is excited.

Today is a Fantasy free day so we went back about 18 miles to the Athabasca Falls. What an amazing area. I thought we had falls in Oregon. These are spectacular. So much water pressure. Ken got some great pics there too ! ! We then went into Jasper and had a wonderful lunch at Earl's. It is an upstairs restaurant so we had great views of all the surrounding mountains. Life is good ! ! Campfire tonight and Traveler's Meeting. Tomorrow is on to Dawson Creek. Glad to have laundry in the park there... about time to get it done again.

So interesting in this area.  Water is sooooo powerful !

Thursday, June 23, 2016 was a looooonnnngggg travel day, about nine hours. OMG, the Rockies are just amazing but we were out of them by Grand Prairie and then, as the name suggests, everything turned to prairie. We saw the first farm land and hint of agriculture in the prairie.

After realizing that no big rig truck traffic is allowed on the Trans-Canada 1 Highway, there is some truck traffic on Highway 40. Nothing like the US but some. It was very interesting to see an elk with massive velvet munching away on the grass right next to the construction truck along the road with the workers just on the other side. Don't think they were scared. Saw quite a few deer also but didn't get pictures of them. The rarest sight was either a black weasel or ferret jumping through the grass at the side of the road. We later learned that it was probably a mink.

So much road construction here, as at home, because of the harsh weather. However, that is where the sameness ends.  They do not have our safety laws at all.  Rarely did we even see flaggers.  Mostly just a very few workers, no one standing around and no one really watching the traffic.  The equipment might just swing out into your lane and you better be prepared to stop.  Very little space between workers and traffic.  Wonder what their workers comp rates are like??   LOL

The other interesting thing about today was the discovery of ATV tracks in the grass alongside the entire highway. Wonder why?? We saw one Government pick-up truck with two ATV's on the back so appears that they bring them out to a site and then run the side road.. huuummm...  
This area out of the Rockies is huge for gas production. Pipes sticking out of the ground and flames in the air... Everywhere.

Finally to Dawson Creek where it had really flooded just a week ago. They had the road fixed and our campground is up a hill, so all is well.

Today is Friday, surprised I know what day it is!!  LOL  This morning, Joyce from the Visitor's Bureau came and talked for over an hour about the history of the original road to Alaska and how it was started in 1942. It was a nine month project that was because the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  It was built to protect the west coast as a joint effort between Canada and the US militarizes and private contractors. Turns out that Joyce's mother had emigrated to Canada from Europe because of Hitler.  She then met Joyce's father as he was Canadian contractor. It was really neat that Joyce had pictures with her father in them and stories that he had told her as a child.  Mile Post 0 of the Alaskan Highway is in the middle of Dawson Creek. 

The next few stops will be one nighters so not thinking that we will have any kind of internet service.  Talk again in a few days..

Random mountains...  forgot exactly where ! !   LOL