Tag: travel

Maple Ridge (Vancouver) to Cranbrook, British Columbia

I got my first loooong driving day in Canada out of the way early in the trip. I had only been in Canada a little over a week and I needed to drive the majority of the way across southern British Columbia to the town of Cranbrook. Mapquest indicated point-to-point between my two Airbnb’s was about 500 miles and would take a little over 9 hours. I would drive east a short distance on the Trans Canada Highway (which hasn’t given me a reason yet to call it “the dreaded TCH”), before turning right on BC Highway 3, the “Crowsnest Highway” to continue east. I would be on it the rest of the way, and it continues all the way to Alberta province.

I recently posted a few photos in the “tease” post of the small wildfire I saw as soon as I exited the TCH near the town of Hope. I had stopped at a gas station (previously planned), and the fire was burning on a steep hillside behind the gas station and on the opposite side of the exit I had just taken. I stayed there a little while to watch a helicopter come and go, about every 4 minutes, to drop a large “bucket” of water on specific spots. I have no idea how much water was dropped on each trip but given the size of the helicopter I’m guessing it may only be about a third the size of my car.

The folks inside the gas station said the fire had been burning about a month and hadn’t gotten better or worse during that time. It was still classified as “out of control” the day I was there, and is STILL smoldering as I write this about another month later, but is now classified as “being held”. British Columbia as a whole is still bone dry and the fire danger is extreme. Parks Canada just implemented fire restrictions in Jasper and Banff National Parks, in the Canadian Rockies, which had been low risk but are now on the extreme list along with all of BC.

Here are some of the things I saw as I drove east towards Cranbrook:

There was a fairly substantial overcast to start the day but it would clear up and be a rather pleasant drive.

Route 3 kind of weaved between lots of large mountains but I only experienced a significant elevation change a handful of times. I also started seeing warning signs about various animals I would rather not hit with my car – bears, deer and elk, moose and even these guys:

Canada frequently covers several bases with a LARGE sign showing images of three or four animals, something I have not seen done in the US.

There was a small river which ran alongside the highway various places and at one point I saw this unusual watercraft on a pedestal just off the roadway:

Further up the road there were several cars pulled over and people were milling about with their cameras. I stopped, grabbed my cameras, and joined them – thinking it was an animal sighting. I was mistaken. It was an unusual lake which has significance to the indigenous people of the area.

I’m guessing the largest circles are probably 10-12 feet across.

I have other photos of the signage explaining the significance of the lake but have not had time to read them or research the issue further. I was near the Okanagan (pronounced oak-uh-NOGGIN) Valley, known for large farms and fruit groves, among other things, and will be spending more time there later in the trip when I stop in Kamloops. I did drive past some farm stands after taking these photos.

There is a pronounced indigenous presence in various places throughout the western US but nothing like it is up here. Indigenous tribes are EVERYWHERE in western Canada, and make their presence known. They sometimes pool their resources with other local tribes to help protect the greater good and provide resources for their people. Many large commercial Canadian ventures (like WhistlerBlackcomb ski resort, northeast of Vancouver) sit on indigenous land.

At one point when the highway did climb to a fairly high elevation we had to stop for a one-lane section of the roadway due to construction. I was stopped behind this truck, a support vehicle for the Snowbirds, Canada’s precision flying team, which has been putting on airshows throughout the country during the summer.

I recently posted a photo in the “tease” post of one of their jets atop a pedestal outside the Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Visitor Information Center. The Snowbirds are based at a military base just south of Moose Jaw.

I soon came to the town of Osoyoos (pronounced oh-SUE-yuss, NOT oh-SOY-yoos as it appears). I became interested in Osoyoos because of a billboard I saw advertising a business there and decided I would stop in town for lunch.

Another climb to elevation and there was a scenic overlook (they call them Viewpoints up here) which showed a rather expansive town with two large lakes.

I would have guessed this was the west side of town, because of my direction of travel, but looking at the map I realize this is the north side – significant for a reason I will explain shortly.

While I was in town I stopped at the business I saw advertised as I approached town. It is a Paintball facility, and I really like their logo. I found the place but it didn’t seem to be open. The owner pulled up just as I was about to leave. Unfortunately he didn’t have any t-shirts in my size, so I left empty-handed. Here is their logo, on their sign next to the highway.

I climbed another big hill as I was leaving town and had a great view of the south lake.

This is significant because the majority of the south lake is in the United States! The town of Osoyoos, between the two lakes, is only a very short distance from the border.

Further east on the Crowsnest Highway, at the town of Almond Gardens, I turned right at one of the many signs I had seen during my drive indicating “turn right to US Border.” I forget the exact distance but it was probably less than a mile:

I turned right around and headed back to Highway 3 and my journey east. Not feeling homesick yet – by any stretch of the imagination!

I stopped in the little town of Castlegar, which had been highly recommended by one of the folks in the Campbell River Visitor Center. I spoke with a young man at the Visitor Center there, picked up maps and brochures, but was already “on the clock” to make it to Cranbrook before dark so I told him I would probably return there someday. Someday is today. I am sitting in my Airbnb in Castlegar as I make this post, and the area has exceeded my expectations. I will save the photos I took yesterday when I arrived and today while I was out and about. They will have to wait their turn and be posted in sequence, but they will be worth waiting for.

The remainder of my drive to Cranbrook went without incident. I posted photos in the “tease” post of the amazing sight of a portion of the southern Canadian Rockies which I took just as the sun was setting. I was hoping for a repeat performance the next night, but low clouds spoiled it. It doesn’t look like I will get another bite at that apple this trip.

It ended up being just over 12 hours in the car because of all the stops I made, but it was a very enjoyable day.

WhistlerBlackcomb Ski Resort

After I visited the 2010 Olympic Park northeast of Vancouver I drove further up the mountain road to get to Whistler. The town itself was renamed to Whistler after marmots found here, which have the unfortunate nickname “whistle pig” because of the warning sound they emit to warn others of predators, and because they can grow to be rather chubby. A marmot is the largest member of the squirrel family (squirrels, groundhogs, marmots, chipmunks, etc) and I will be sharing photos of some in other posts later. I posted photos of some marmots when I was in northeast Colorado a few years ago.

WhistlerBlackcomb is comprised of two large ski areas, one on Whistler Mountain and the other on Blackcomb Mountain. Almost all of the trails end up in Whistler Village. Together they form the largest ski resort in North America:

(Photo credit: SkiTDS.com)

The Village is a very busy place! Lots of big hotels, restaurants and bars, shopping, and various activities in both winter and summer.

This is one of the chairlifts to the top of Blackcomb Mountain.

It was overcast with low clouds in the area the day I was here, which occasionally obscured the various mountain peaks. I hope to come back to Whistler later in my trip, hopefully on a nice, sunny day, and to visit a particular facility which was closed the day I was here.

In addition to the chairlifts, there are enclosed gondolas which go up the mountain from the Village. I also saw a gondola package advertised which brings people up TO the Village from the highway at the base of the mountain near Squamish, at the coast, many miles away!! It is a very expensive, multi hour affair which promises spectacular views (so long as you are not claustrophobic and/or afraid of heights).

There are large electronic signs which, in the winter, indicate the status of various lifts (e.g. you don’t need to ski all the way down and ride all the way back up).

Only two operate in the summer.

The day I was here, people were engaging in various activities other than skiing, and the village was quite busy. There is a large bike (bicycle, not motorbike) trail at the base of the ski lift, which seemed to be the most popular.

There weren’t riders on it as I took that photo but there were lots of young people with bikes queuing up to be released together.

There many more, not shown in the photos.

Canadians are very big on recycling everything. There was a place to put used, blown out tires and innertubes, and there were tools (tied down) to enable folks to work on their bikes.

People in another area were getting outfitted to ride the chairlift part way up the mountain and then zipline down.

There was also a place to rent a 4-wheeler or other ATV.

You see a small child, maybe 4 or 5 years old, riding his tiny bike towards the vehicles on the right side of the photo above. He dismounted, carefully leaned his bike against the rock wall and immediately climbed up on the 4-wheeler in the foreground. I told his mother “I guess you know what he wants for Christmas!” In a few years, maybe… I told the young man I really liked his helmet (which he still had on) and told him he was really smart to wear one. I always try to tell kids that when I see then wearing safety equipment.

As I mentioned, there are lots of big, fancy hotels in the Village, and in other areas nearby.

And lots of fancy restaurants:

There is also a Squamish Cultural Centre in town (the indigenous tribe on whose land all of this sits!):

As I was heading out of the Village to drive back down the mountain to Squamish and then on to my Airbnb in Maple Ridge, I noticed this sign on the traffic light at a big intersection. Space in the Village is really at a premium and there was no place to land a helicopter in an emergency – so they just stop traffic and it land on the street!!

I have never seen that done anywhere!

Finally, as I drove down the mountain I stopped to photograph this unusual vehicle I had seen as I arrived in the morning. It is used to catch your attention to promote a local business.

Mission accomplished.

Po-TAY-to, Po-TA-to

Real-time post, photo at the end.

Today I arrived in Regina, Saskatchewan, the capital of the province.

I have confirmed that the locals pronounce it re-JYE-na (sounds like a sensitive part of the female anatomy). I worked with someone in Pennsylvania who pronounced it re-GEE-na. Today I was even presented with a conflict between Google Maps and my “sometimes trusty” GPS 4.0. The GPS unit correctly pronounced it as the people who live here do, whereas Google Maps used the other pronunciation. I didn’t even bother to put in my two cents since neither device pays any attention to what I tell them.

This is as far east as I will be going in Canada on this trip. Regina is just west of the Montana/North Dakota border vertically, and is due north of Cheyenne, Wyoming and Denver, Colorado. When I entered the province two days ago on my way to Moose Jaw (which I can confirm IS two words) I crossed into the Central Time Zone. Almost all of British Columbia is in the Pacific Time Zone, save for Golden and Cranbrook, two towns I stayed in, and a strip of land west of the southernmost Canadian Rockies, which slant from NW to SE. Alberta province is in the Mountain Time Zone, and Saskatchewan is in Central. I also learned today that Sask (as the locals call it) does not play the Daylight Savings Time game. I was confused the two days I was in Moose Jaw because the time on my phone never changed, which it normally does automatically when I am in the US. Lo and behold, I should have just left Mountain time alone and not told my car that I was in CDT. MDT = CST.

I will be in Regina two nights, then head northwest to Saskatoon for two nights. I almost eliminated Saskatchewan from my itinerary altogether due to air quality issues from the wildfires in the northern part of the province. I checked the numbers every day before committing to reserving my Airbnb’s past Banff. About two weeks ago the numbers dropped to safe levels in all of the towns I was planning to stay in except one, presumably because they received a fair amount of rain which washed the smoke particles out of the air. I haven’t noticed any of the smoke “haze” the three days I have been in the province.

The only casualty from my original schedule is Prince Albert National Park, which is pretty far north from Regina, and which was very close to the fires and had very bad air quality numbers. So I am adjusting my itinerary, eliminating multiple nights from many small towns, which will free up time to reallocate elsewhere.

I will end this post with a photo I took from my bedroom window early this morning in Moose Jaw, SK. This was taken at 506 local time, about an hour before sunrise. The 3 bright spots in the photo are, the Moon (lower center), Venus (above it and to the right) and Saturn (further above and to the right). I darkened the photo a bit so it would look exactly like what I was seeing. The Moon appears as a thin crescent. It was really an amazing sight.

Final images from Olympic Park

Here are a few photos I took of other things before I left the Olympic Park to head further up the mountain to Whistler Blackcomb ski resort.

These are two, relatively short (in my opinion), ski jumps. I am not a skier. My three brothers all skied but I never had any interest in it. My opinion of these ski jumps is based on others I have seen firsthand. Maybe my depth perception is skewed, but this is a training facility and perhaps they scaled things down for maximum “repeat time”.

You see – very compact.

There were ski areas in eastern Pennsylvania, where my family lived for many years. They were small by Rocky Mountain standards, but we were two hours from both New York City and Philadelphia so they were very popular with city folk. My older brother and his wife built a house after they got married, in a small resort town about 45 minutes away from where our families lived. They could see the slopes of Big Boulder ski area from their deck.

My youngest brother, who was born after we moved to Pennsylvania, lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for many years and when I would go out to visit, he and his wife would take me up to Park City, which has also hosted Winter Olympic games and has training facilities similar to these. The ski jumps we saw there seemed much bigger than these.

Here is something I noticed as I walked back to my car after having taken the photos above:

Once again, the electric bear fence.

Within walking distance of the ski jumps I found a large Inukshuk statue, perched high on a boulder:

This symbol has meaning the indigenous Inuit language, and was adopted as the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympic games.

As you can see of you look closely at the photo on the sandwich board above, the large Inukshuk has inspired many “Mini-Me’s,” constructed by visitors.

Some better than others…

I have a small, wooden Inukshuk keychain which I bought in Toronto when I was there in 2019.

My next posts will be of what I saw when I visited Whistler Blackcomb ski resort, just up the road from the Olympic Park. For now – a JohnBoy Travel Update. As I write this post I am in Canmore, Alberta, just south of Banff, in the Canadian Rockies. I drove down here yesterday from where I had been staying in Golden, British Columbia. From Golden, I drove through parts of six National Parks. I will be based here in Canmore for four nights before moving on to Calgary and points east.

I’ve been lots of places and seen lots of things between Whistler and Canmore, and I will be getting to those posts soon. Thank you for your continued patience. My days are filled with seeing new, amazing things and I am accumulating LOTS of photos and stories.

I’m peddling as fast as I can….

2010 Winter Olympic Park

Before getting to the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in Whistler I took a turnoff to drive back to the Olympic Park, built for the 2010 Winter Olympics which were held here in British Columbia. It isn’t just a dormant facility sitting here rotting. Many of the facilities are actively being used, even in the summer.

First a map of the general layout:

Next, a map of the campgrounds on site, and other details.

After I took that second photo I noticed something written off to the side (not in the photo)

Whoa! – that middle item really got my attention. Let’s have another look at that map but we’ll zoom in a bit:

Perimeter around the remote campground – check.

Perimeter around the primary RV sites and kid’s playground – double check.

Here is a door I found behind the Day Lodge (which contains a cafeteria, gift shop, washrooms and showers for the campers, and various support facilities for running the Park).

PLEASE remember to close & lock the door behind you!!

And here is a look at the Day Lodge itself:

The left side is the front entrance, the right side is the cafeteria and off camera to the left is the gift shop.

Also around back was this item promoting a nearby business. In the US we would call this a bobsled, but here in Canada it is a bobsleigh. And no, I didn’t get in it (after my experience in New Mexico where I got in a life size replica of an IndyCar outside a racing museum and for a few tense moments, couldn’t get out).

This is here to promote the Whistler Sliding Centre. That facility is located high on the mountain above the ski area, further up the road, but unfortunately the Sliding Centre wasn’t open the day I was here.

When my youngest brother and his family lived in Salt Lake City they took me to a similar Olympic Center up in Park City, where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held. We watched sleds some roaring down the track (outfitted for summer use). When they launched one from the top a voice on the loudspeakers would announce “Bob on track !” so those of us down below could get our cameras ready.

People can pay to ride with an experienced “driver” but we didn’t do that in Utah and I wouldn’t have here even if the facility had been open on Mondays.

Next I’ll show you what was happening at the Biathlon facility elsewhere on the property.

Please don’t pet the bears

Monday I had scheduled a daytrip up to Whistler ski resort, northeast of Vancouver. I left Maple Ridge early in the morning so I could bypass the city westward on the Trans Canada Highway before morning rush hour.

Before I got to the road going up the mountain to Whistler I went through the coastal town of Squamish. It is the English name of an indigenous tribe on whose land Whistler resort, and many other towns, sits (their land consists of 2,600 square miles (NOT kilometers)). Most signs carry both the English and Indigenous spellings.

Those numbers are kilometers, not miles, by the way. Things up here are almost always expressed in metric measurements but when I discuss them on my blog I generally use the US system since that is what many of my followers can relate to.

As I approached the town I could see a huge rock formation right by the highway in the distance:

Here is a photo of the rockface looking in right next to the formation (but from the other side of the highway):

And here is another photo which includes the parking lot below the formation. As you might guess, it is VERY popular with rock climbers, and there is a special parking area right below it for their vehicles, which are loaded with their climbing gear.

I didn’t see any climbers on the face either going by in the morning or later in the day as I was heading back to Maple Ridge, but I could see people resting in the afternoon from having climbed earlier in the day when it was cooler and without the sun beating on the face of the formation.

After taking photos here in the morning I continued on up the mountain towards Whistler.

Followed immediately by:

Many of you have perhaps seen a sign like this in your travels (even in the mountains and near the coast in North Carolina) and I think most people assume it only applies to black bears. Well, in places like Yellowstone National Park in the US and most places here in Canada, it also applies to another type of bear.

I was first warned about grizzly bears when I was at the north end of Vancouver Island earlier in my trip. Evidently young males from the mainland swim over to VI in search of new turf and perhaps a place to raise a family. They must have convinced some female grizzlies to tag along, as the grizzly bear population on the island is growing. I didn’t see any, but there were plenty of signs warning about them.

And my nephew, Sam, will be pleased to know that every day that I am near the woods and out of my car I am packing bear spray:

When I visited my brother and sister-in-law, and their son Sam, in Wyoming back in 2021, Sam invited me to the place where he worked, just outside of town. In the hills above the complex where he worked there are petroglyphs on the rock walls. When I got there he asked “where’s your bear spray?” I replied “in my backpack”. He told me “No, when you need bear spray you need it RIGHT NOW”. It comes with a carrying case which you can strap onto your belt. It should be worn at all times when you are in a place which may also be inhabited by bears.

I never needed the can I bought in Wyoming and while it may still work, the expiration date has passed. I still have it but I bought two new cans for this trip and wear one of them at all times when I am out of my car.

My stay in the Vancouver area

I had reserved four nights near Vancouver, hoping to explore the city and the many beautiful sites I’ve heard so much about. My visit got off on the wrong foot, as I documented in a previous post, with an Airbnb venue problem. That plus the fact that I hadn’t budgeted nearly enough time, plus the fact that the public transportation into the city wasn’t to my liking, plus the fact that I’ve read Vancouver is being overrun with tourists (and is already a very busy city), plus other factors, led me to ignore the city on this visit altogether!! I will come back better prepared at the end of this trip, especially since I now know I will be cutting back in other areas of the country due to air quality issues, etc. I would rather take the time to do better planning and give Vancouver the attention it deserves.

I already explained my disagreement with the Surrey Visitor Centre. Here is proof of the exorbitant parking fee I had to pay just to go in the building and find that they weren’t even there any more. I became even more upset this morning when I saw this photo as I was reviewing photos to post and saw that the city even added TAX to the parking fee!!

Fortunately I was easily distracted by something I had seen on my way there. My mind is always distracted by new “shiny objects,” and this one was indeed shiny.

THAT is a spiffy new Ford F-650 Crew Cab pickup truck, outfitted with a removeable camper called Bigfoot. I saw it parked in front of a house as I was driving on a city street, and after I passed it I turned around to go back and get a photo. I was alarmed when I saw it pulling out of where it had been parked and was prepared to pursue it (within reason). Fortunately the driver was only moving it across the street so he could get another vehicle out of his driveway.

My comparatively tiny Toyota Camry parked in front of it:

I spent a few minutes speaking with the owner, who proudly proclaimed the truck is one of only two in the area (camper sold separately). There was a sign in the back window indicating the owner is evidently in the septic system cleaning business, and clearly business is very good! Ironically (and I mean that in the very literal sense of the word) he was wearing a UNC Tarheels t-shirt! I pointed to it and asked if he had gone to school there (he was probably in his late 20’s). He replied no, he had bought it at local thrift shop for just a few bucks.

Those of you who know me are keenly aware of my obsession with buying unusual new t-shirts for only a few bucks at one of my favorite chain stores in the Mid-Atlantic states, so between the cool truck and the t-shirt story it helped make my day and get my mind off the goofy parking fee.

Another thing that impressed me during my brief stay near Vancouver were it’s many bridges. I will show you three of the ones I used personally. Most of these photos I found on the internet. Believe me I tried to find places where I could take my own photos but that quickly became a huge waste of time.

The first one I crossed was the Pattullo Bridge. As I crossed the old bridge I could see the ongoing construction of a much larger new bridge right next to it. For this one I have to resort to internet photos:

The old bridge, on the left, still in use:

(Photo credit: readsitenews.com)

You can see them beginning to build the concrete superstructure supports in the center of the photo above. They are much further along now than when that photo was taken.

The new bridge. The photo below is pretty much how it looked the day I drove over the old bridge:

(Photo credit: TI Corp)

And to prove my point about it being a waste of time trying to take my own photos, I went out of my way to go to a place called Bridgeview Park. This was all I got for that effort:

I tried.

Another bridge I crossed several times while I was in the area is the Port Mann bridge. Perseverance paid off as I was finally able to find a nearby city street where I could get a good photo of it:

And finally, the Golden Ears Bridge, which I probably crossed at least a dozen time while I was staying in Maple Ridge.

(Photo credit: hgcacoustics.com)

I’ve tried to enlarge that photo but don’t seem to be able to. I don’t know why it was so difficult to find a photo of this beautiful bridge. I want to get this post finished but will try to find a better photo later and replace the one above.

First day on the mainland

Let’s see, where was I ? Oh yes, the ferry had just taken me to the north side of Vancouver. It was late morning and I wanted to get around the city before traffic increased so I just got on the Trans Canada Highway and headed east towards the suburb on the east side where my Airbnb for 4 nights was reserved.

The suburb is called Surrey and on the maps it looked like a nice area and close to public transportation. When I mentioned to my Airbnb hosts in Campbell River that I was lucky to be able to snag a spot on an early morning ferry at the last minute because I needed to get to Surrey to find my Airbnb, my hostess exclaimed “Oh no, you don’t want to stay in Surrey!!” Evidently Surrey has a very bad reputation for gang violence, among other unsavory things. Before I went to bed I reread the listing and reviews that the family had. The photo looked very nice – a new house on a nice residential street. The reviews were all favorable about how charming the family that lived there was and how the mother often included the Airbnb guests in family meals. No mention of gangs or cars being vandalized or broken into. I decided to wait and have a look for myself before jumping to conclusions.

I first stopped at the Visitor Centre in Surrey. Well, I went to where Google Maps said it was. A business complex in which I had to pay to park. I have never had to pay to park at a visitor center!!

I went in the lobby and didn’t see the Visitor Centre listed in Suite 100. I called the number in the Google listing and a man answered, saying simply “hello?”. I asked if this was the Visitor Centre and he replied, “yes, that is the number you called”. I asked “Where are you? I am standing in the lobby of the building you are supposed to be in”. He said “Oh, we closed that location and now everything is virtual”. I asked “How am I supposed to get maps of the area?” He paused, like I was speaking Martian, and said “Maps?” I said “Yes, maps! I am a VISITOR that JUST ARRIVED IN TOWN and I need MAPS to show me where the various things I want to do are so I can organize my days here”. He hung up on me.

So I went back to my car and drove to where my Airbnb was, after having wasted at least 45 minutes going out of my way.

I found the house in a rather scruffy neighborhood and it looked NOTHING LIKE the photos in the listing. Oh, it was the same house, but it was clearly much older than when the photo was taken and the yard and shrubs in the front yard were WAY overgrown and untrimmed. The neighborhood looked sketchy and I was uncomfortable being there. So I left, drove to a safe location, cancelled the reservation and sent a message to the host explaining why I had done so.

I got on Airbnb and after some searching, and being turned down by the first host I sent a request to, found a very nice place in a suburb even further east, called Maple Ridge. I was much happier there and don’t regret my choice one iota.

I rely very heavily on guest reviews, and maybe I’m too uppity, but I can’t believe so many people stayed there and never mentioned the condition of the house or the neighborhood. The family may have been very nice, but….

It was almost 6 by the time I got settled in the new place and I just stayed put and went to bed early. And my host there also knew of the reputation Surrey has.

So how’s it goin’, eh?

Two weeks in Canada and I have already seen so many amazing places. And I still have 6 weeks to go! I am going to wait a few more days to decide for sure but I believe I will be shortening some planned stops in Saskatchewan, and taking others off the to-do list completely, due to air quality from wildfire smoke in that province. I check the numbers every day, and they do fluctuate, but if they are anything other than low risk to my health I will probably pass.

The good news is that it will give me more time to revisit southwest British Columbia to do more things and revisit some of the places I’ve already been to. I didn’t budget enough time initially so now I’ll get another bite at the apple.

As I write this I am in Golden, BC, sitting at 3,303.33 feet elevation in the kitchen/dining area of the travel camper I am staying in for 6 nights.

I am near the base of a mountain north of Golden but it only takes me a few minutes to get down to the highway. The property is at the end of a dead-end road so it is remote and extremely quiet. The only thing I would change about it would be to put a huge net over it to keep the mosquitoes out! Not much my Airbnb host can do about that…

My first impressions of western Canada are all positive, mosquitoes notwithstanding. This is my first encounter with the pesky little insects this trip, but while I am out and about they really haven’t been a problem until this particular location.

People drive pretty fast in Canada, except people in RV’s who insist on driving the exact speed limit (or slower on inclines) and invariably have long queues behind them until they get to a passing zone. Can’t fault them for obeying the speed limit, though. Cities and towns have speed limits of 30, 40 or 50 km/h and the highways are generally 60 (in places with lots of curves), 80, 90 or 100 km/h, and the wide open road is often 110km/h. In National Parks the speed limit is never higher than 90 km/h, and in areas where people stop for viewpoints or to cross the road, much slower.

30km/h equates to 18.6 mph, 40 = 24.8, 50 = 31.1, 60 = 37.3, 70 = 43.5, 80 = 49.7, 90 = 55.9, 100 = 62.1, and top speed of 110 = 68.4 mph

So slower overall than we are used to in the US. I generally set my cruise control to around 5 or 6 km/h over the current limit and that keeps me pretty much in the regular flow of traffic. I finally switched my speedometer to metric because the conversions were driving me crazy. I had a cheat-sheet in my other car when I went to eastern Canada in 2019.

The roads have been in excellent condition, save for one I drove on my first day in-country which made me almost seasick. Fortunately that was the exception, not the rule. They may get a little worse the further north I go but I’ll just have to wait and see.

Drivers are very polite and there doesn’t seem to be any road rage up here.

The weather has been fantastic. The days often require only a t-shirt and shorts but the mornings and evenings cool down quite a bit so I may start and end the day with long pants and a sweatshirt, or at least a long-sleeved t-shirt. Now that I’m in the Canadian Rockies I wear long pants all the time but have layers for my upper body. Yesterday I was up at 6,300 feet elevation but mid-day it was very pleasant.

Thus far I have only traveled through the southern part of British Columbia, and now in Golden. I will be spending a few days in Alberta province starting in three days when I go down to Banff for 4 nights, and Calgary for one or two. I will then head further east to western Saskatchewan province, though as I mentioned above, some of those stops will likely be shortened or eliminated.

British Columbia badly needs rain but the Canadian Rockies have had a good bit so far this summer. East of the Rockies has also been dry, which is why they are having so many wildfires.

The scenery has been stunning. I am going to run out of superlatives to describe it. While planning this trip I noticed that the Canadian Rockies “weren’t that tall”. The highest points in the British Columbia and Alberta provinces are “only” 12,972 and 12,294 feet respectively. Colorado alone has 58 mountains taller than 14,000 feet. Well, now that I am here and looking at them with my own two eyes, I can say that the mountains in the Canadian Rockies, and elsewhere in western Canada that I have been to so far, are VERY IMPRESSIVE and many of them are unlike mountains I have seen elsewhere. I’ve taken lots of photos in the 6 National Parks I have been to, all within 4 hours of where I am now staying. I am staying “home” today to do laundry, wash my car, and download and review the photos I have taken the last few days and prep them for making additional posts.

Here is a tease of a Park I drove through yesterday:

Lots more where that came from, I assure you.

I haven’t seen nearly as many critters in these first two weeks as I expected to. I am always vigilant, especially when I am driving, and try to always have my digital camera within easy reach. I’ve only seen one black bear, a cub which ran across the road well ahead of me while I was in northeast Vancouver Island. I neglected to mention that in the post for that day. I saw a white-tail deer here in Golden, as I was driving down to the highway yesterday morning. It ran alongside the road to my left for a short distance and then stopped. I saw a moose cow (adult female) grazing just off the small road I was taking to get to a popular resort near Jasper, BC two days ago. I saw a herd of elk (thank you to my brother Steve for correcting me when I called them moose). I hadn’t looked at the photos on my computer yet and as you will see when I post the photos from Jasper they were all laying down and resting in a burnt-out wooded area just off a major highway, and just outside of town, so it wasn’t obvious exactly what they were. I have photos of a few birds of prey I have seen in various places. I am going to a Wolf Center just outside of Golden later this afternoon but that won’t count since they are in captivity.

I see warning signs for lots of things – deer, elk, bear (black and grizzly), moose, bison, mountain goats, and bighorn sheep (I still think they’re extinct – I have never had a confirmed sighting in all my travels in the US and now Canada). And yesterday I saw signs warning of frogs and salamanders on the road in a National Park west of here! I hope they’re not big enough to damage my car!!

No lions or tigers but they may be in Saskatchewan. I’ve heard they’re a pretty tough bunch over there…

I’ve driven just under 2,800 miles from when I crossed into Canada back on July 27 to last night when I filled my tank here in Golden. Gas prices are relatively high in Washington State and here in British Columbia. I expect them to drop in Alberta (once I get past Banff) and Saskatchewan provinces.

One thing I really like about traveling up here is that there are warning signs when you are about to go a considerable distance with no gas stations along the way. And there is no cell phone service across vast areas. Some days I go almost the whole day with no cell service. Verizon does make satellite texting for emergencies available when there is no cell service. If I start the day using Google Maps guidance on my smartphone for a specific destination it will work for quite a while but eventually stops if I’ve had no cell service for an extended period. This is why, for years, I’ve had a stand-alone GPS unit in my car. Even my new-to-me car doesn’t have a navigation system or GPS built in. Google Maps doesn’t always work.

I haven’t experienced any really bad crowds yet, but then I didn’t go into Vancouver or to a popular Garden destination in Victoria which probably would have been packed with people. The National Parks are so big it is fairly easy to get around within them, though at some of the popular stopping points the parking lots fill up pretty quickly, same as they do in the US. I do expect the city of Banff to be crowded, and I don’t know yet how many of the areas within the Park itself I can drive to. Jasper and Banff National Parks are both enormous, though some portions of Jasper are still closed due to the devastating wildfire they had last summer. I will give more specifics when I start posting photos from with each Park.

I was delighted to hear upon my arrival at the first National Park, where I planned to buy my senior annual pass, like I had in eastern Canada, that admission to all Canadian National Parks is free until September 2. Yay!

I feel like I’m forgetting something but when I think of it I’ll add it to another post.

Port Alice

This port is located down another road near Port Hardy. It is a very narrow, winding road and there were lots of logging roads which went off to the sides with big trucks driving very fast and kicking up lots of dust.

I drove for quite a while and finally arrived at a beautiful spot with lots of pickup trucks and other vehicles which had hauled boats on trailers to the water. I went in the office to ask some questions of the harbourmaster and as I was leaving I said “Thank you, I’m going to go take some photos of your lake”. She immediately responded “It’s the ocean”. Silly JohnBoy, that’s why it’s called a Port.

This body of water is the Neroutsos Inlet, named after Captain Cyril Demetrius Neroutsos.

Port Alice is in the lower right quadrant of the map above.

After taking my photos, and forgoing a side trip which the young ladies at the Visitor Center in Port McNeill told me about (on a long gravel and dirt road, too far off the paved road to attempt with all the logging trucks running around, to find the “Devil’s Bath”) I reversed course and headed back to Campbell River.

I came across this sign, which I had seen in another location not conducive to stopping to take a photo of it.

It reminded me of the many humorous road signs I saw when I traveled to Canada’s Maritime Provinces in 2019 (see multiple posts). I haven’t seen too many so far this trip but maybe I will when I start getting out into the countryside.

Shortly after I got home I went back out to take a photo of a helicopter I saw at the hospital the day I arrived in town, and saw this ominous cloud in the sky as I drove towards the highway. I knew it looked very different from other clouds in the sky that day.

Turns out it was the initial smoke plume from what became the Wesley Ridge Fire, further southeast down the island near Nanaimo. It was discovered around midnight the night before I took this photo and has grown steadily since then. It is near a small lake and many people have been evacuated from their homes. There was no visible smoke when I left early the next morning to drive to Nanaimo to take a ferry over to Vancouver but I could see the smoke at ground level once I got down there and could definitely smell it. Fortunately, no one has been injured fighting it.