Entry 12. – Oct 7th – Oct 16th for our Canada adventure 2017

Entry 12 – Oct 7th^th – Oct 16^th leaving the Rocky Mountains, continuing with beautiful scenery. 

The rain was setting in and with a forecast for miserable weather we decided to leave the Rocky Mountains and continued to Yoho National Park driving through the impressive setting of Kicking Horse Pass.

We drove along the Yoho Valley Road which was restricted to vehicles no longer than 21 foot. We were at 19 foot and had to do a 3-point turn at one of the bends travelling up and down. It was a tight road with wonderful scenic views finishing at the spectacular Takakkaw Falls, 254 metres high, one of the highest waterfalls in Canada. As per usual we saw a couple of 26 foot plus motor homes in the car park, wondering how they managed the tight bends of the switch back up the side of the steep mountain road.

We camped at Kicking Horse campground which was closing in 4 days along with the Yoho Valley Road. The overnight temperature was predicted to be 0 degrees with a maximum of 1 the following day.

Steve did the right thing in the evening by paying the camping fee in the allocated money slot and placed the registration slip of paper on our site post. However, we still managed to get a slip on our windscreen to “please do the right thing and pay your fee”. What the??

We slept in for once in the morning, the new motorhome is definitely warmer than the other one, a lot more cosy inside, yet everything appears the same, just some different colouring.

Lots of driving was planned for the day, with a fair amount of rain about. We called into the Field information centre to get any more local information and some further information for our destination. Unfortunately, they were a National Park Centre and had nothing extra for us. The lady recommended Goldens information centre. So, OK we went there, but they were closed for the season, due to reopen 2018. Lucky, we had picked up some brochures for this region earlier when we were travelling around the Whistler area a few weeks back. A consolation was the Tim Horton’s right next door, a nice little pick me up of hot chocolate. We really are going to miss Tim Horton’s when we leave Canada.

A few more places to visit while driving over the day. First place was Emerald Lake. It was a bit dull and dreary so the lake wasn’t as bright as I am sure it gets. Still very pretty though and there was a constant flurry falling from the sky during our time there, (light snow). There were lots of buses and loads of people, I think due to the easy access. We decided to do the 5.2km walk around the lake, while the weather held. It was a lovely walk, very easy on one side and a bit slippery and boggy due to constant shadow from the mountains on the other side. About two thirds of the way around we chatted to a young German couple as we walked. The conversation continued all the way back to the car park. You certainly meet some lovely people as you travel.

Natural Bridge was next, it was just a photo stop. Quite spectacular with lovely blue water. There were many tourists scampering over the rocks for that special photo. I told Steve NO, you are not going there.

It was becoming a long day in the van, all we wanted was a quiet spot to stop for the night. We ended up at the ferry crossing at Shelter Bay. Steve asked the lady directing the vehicles about a camp spot, she said go down the road 3 lamp posts and turn into the camp ground there. It is closed but you can still camp and it will be quiet. Great stuff! We drove in and yes it may be closed but it was by no means empty. I think we had a choice of three campsites, all the rest were taken. Obviously other people know about this situation.

In the morning naturally after a chat with a few of the fellow campers we took the ferry from Shelter Bay across Arrow Lake to Galena Bay continuing driving through picturesque mountainous country with views of the lake to our right, high peaks to our left with a paved road through dense tree covered land.

We stopped at several small towns along our route to find many of the attractions closed for the season. In two of the towns we were stumped to find the main public toilet doors locked with displayed notices “closed for the season.”

Most of the RV parks were closed for the season along with the provincial parks. We were looking for a road side location to spend the night when Mary spotted an RV park sign without a closed for the season sign displayed. We ventured down a narrow windy road to find a caravan park full of campers. It was a long weekend and as it turned out this was the only RV park open in this part of the country. Talking with some other Canadian campers showed they were also frustrated by the lack of open RV Parks.

Our next destination about 170 kilometres away was at a suburb called Keremeos near Osoyoos which is between the Rocky Mountains and Vancouver close to the USA border. This was where Taylor and Ernie lived in an over 55 years of age community whom we met about 3 weeks prior on our Alaska cruise ship adventure. We had been invited to experience a Canadian “Thanks Giving” which involved the cooking of a turkey roast served with a variety of locally grown vegetables.

There were 9 present, for this evening meal and what a glorious flavoursome meal Taylor presented. We were all very appreciative of the splendid meal.

Taylor had prepared with lots of love. Then there were sweets a pumpkin cheese cake. Another fabulous experience much appreciated by our taste buds.

We so enjoyed our thanks giving experience setting up a happy jovial atmosphere well into the night.

The thought of a two-day visit transpired into a four day stay with Ernie and Taylor and even then, it was hard to get away.

Each day they drove us around different locations for us to view the highlights for their patch of Canada. This also involved visiting some of their favourite eateries. Ernie took Steve fly fishing “trolling” on one of the nearby lakes whilst Taylor and Mary spent quiet time together helping one another with some of those technological issues when the boys politely provided them with space.

Within our first initial 15 minutes of meeting one another on the cruise ship we felt a sparkle in the company of Taylor and Ernie. As time progressed during our stay at their home there was an ongoing increase of cheerfulness. As it turned out we were very likeminded with similar likes and dislikes which ironically included personality idiosyncrasies. Fancy meeting the most like-minded people you have ever met whilst holidaying on the other side of the world!

It was time to move and with plenty of input from Ernie and Taylor for some picturesque locations to view we were on our way. Whilst driving about 60 kilometres down the road we were provided with an accompaniment of light falling snow. It started to get heavy and soon the roads were covered by snow. Thankfully the falling snow subsided leaving a thick coating across the countryside.

All the side road locations recommended by Ernie and Taylor were no longer visible and we found all our energy was directed to watching the road for hazards, driving substantially below the recommended speed limit. We were passed by ambulance, rescue vehicles and police with lights and sirens blaring. We came across a semi trailer that had partially slid off the road blocking one lane with its rear wheels down a deep trench but no emergency service vehicles. About 10 kilometres along we came across the emergency service vehicles attending to a vehicle that hadn’t made it around a bend, crashing off the road down a gully out of sight.

We were focused on getting within close proximity of Vancouver, minimising any chance of weather preventing us from making our departure flight. We drove for almost 3 hours through snow affected country side with the road at times covered in dirty ice disturbed by other vehicles.

We did manage to stop for a walk through the old Othello train tunnels, recommended by Taylor and Ernie.

Tired and exhausted we started looking for somewhere to stay only to discover most of the parks that had been open closed October 11^th for the season. We ended up at Sasquatch Provincial Park in a campground with open ended water pipes missing the taps as part of their winterisation program, preparing for the onset of freezing conditions. It was a nice location for our last Canadian countryside fix, though very cold and we were looking forward to some Australian warm weather.

Mary making friends with the Sasquatch

Farwell to our snow peaked mountains 

The motorhome was due to be returned by 11 am and we decided to minimise the required travelling distance for our final day. Fort Langley sounded nice as recommended by Ernie and we made our way there only to be turned away as they were only admitting their winter customers and were not allocating any overnight stays. We did walk around viewing the Fort Langley complex before searching for another location to stay the night.

We were off to our RV park for the night where we packed our suitcases, cleaned the motor home and prepared ourselves for another long day. In the morning we returned the motorhome, took a taxi to the airport where we had an 8 hour wait for our flight.