Village at Lake Louise Banff National Park, Alberta Canada

After spending four beautiful days at Glacier National Park, we leave the morning of July 31st for what is about a two hour drive to Lake Louise in Banff National Park. To get there, we go thru four notable "things": 1) Quite a bit of smoke in the valley between Glacier and Banff, 2) Yoho National Park, 3) the border between British Columbia and Alberta, and 4) a time zone. Unbeknownst to us, at least at the time, (-see what I did there... at the time) we crossed into Mountain Daylight Time.

In this area of Canada, there are four contiguous national parks: Yoho on the west, Jasper on the north, Banff on the east, and Kootenay on the southwest. You can't go wrong with any of the four.

CAUTION anecdote alert just ahead. If you want real content, just keep moving, nothing to see here.

After we get to Lake Louise and settle into our campsite, it is now early evening. We head over to the visitor center to get some information and whatever handouts they might have that should be helpful during our visit. We are greeted at the door by a nice lady who informs us the visitor center will be closing at 7 pm. ODD! These Canadians are a pretty polite and easy going people but to start telling people an hour and ten minutes before closing is just a little off... OHHHH or maybe OWWW, I should say, as the obvious smacks me hard on the head and penetrates that hard matter just inside my skull... better change my watch.

Sooo, after we were rudely kicked out of the visitor center (an hour before closing time no less), we decide to head up from the village to Lake Louise proper.

The Chateau at Lake Louise

On the way back to camp, we saw this guy or gal. 

In retrospect, it was a good thing that we did, because we got some nice views of the lake, which, as it turns out, we weren't going to get a better chance at... but more on that later.

In the biz we call that dramatic foreshadowing...

We get up the next morning with the intent to drive up to Moraine Lake. By the time we get to the road that leads to it (around 9 am), the road was closed due to high traffic and a small parking lot at the Lake. HARUMPH! So plan B is to go back up to Lake Louise, which we did.

We get to Lake Louise and do a nice easy hike around the lake. Unfortunately, as the morning fog is clearing, smoke from the B.C. wildfires is settling into the area, and the sky just becomes an ugly haze.


I know I'm being a bit petulant here because lives and property is in danger, and we are lucky enough to be out of harms way and otherwise unaffected.

Still, I am depressed that things look so hazy and can't bring myself to take any more pictures of Lake Louise. We will just have to go back again.

Once we get back to the campground, a young buck is waiting for us, which lightens my mood.

Wendy decides to use some of the afternoon to do some souvenir shopping while Tank and I go for a walk along the Bow river.

Glacier National Park (NP), Canada - Illecillewaet Campground

Illecillewaet Glacier from Abbott Ridge

Illecillewaet campground (after its namesake glacier).
(purportedly meaning swift river)

Say that three times fast I dare you... on second thought just try to say it correctly ONCE... c'mon go ahead try it... 

We get up early in the morning (for us) to make the two hour drive from Lake Shuswap to Glacier NP, Canada! Our goal to is find a spot at Illecillewaet Campground, which, like all of the campgrounds in Glacier NP, is a first come, first served campground. We get there early, before normal check-out time, and find several empty sites, but Tom has his eye on one that is on the river. We confirm that the people in the site are leaving, so we pay the registration and hangout to wait for them to leave.

I have to admit, Tom does find us beautiful spots. We sit by the river the first day and enjoy the view. 

The next day, Tom takes a short hike and comes back excited for me to see the meeting of the two waters.

Now, with all the advertisements I’ve seen about being bear aware, I don’t want to go anywhere without bear spray, but he talks me into it. It’s a short hike with lots of people on the trail, so the likelihood of seeing a bear is pretty slim.

The Meeting of the Waters Trail is a beautiful hike, a good introduction to Canadian NPs.

The next day, Tom and Tank take off and do a “moderate” (meaning much too hard for me) hike. When they get back, I mention to Tom that a young woman has setup camp next to us. It’s pretty unusual to see a lone woman camping on her own, so Tom, being Tom, goes over to introduce us both and invite her over for dinner. She is delightful. Her name is Colleen. She has just quit her job in Vancouver and is on a three week vacation before starting graduate school in Victoria.

For our last full day, Tom and Tank are planning another “moderate” hike towards Marion lake. Colleen has planned a longer hike but is still around when Tom and Tank leave, so the three head off together, as their two hikes start on the same trail. Several hours later, I get a text from Tom saying that he opted to continue on with Colleen and is doing several “extra” kilometers up to Abbott Ridge, so will be later than expected. 

We invite Colleen over for dinner again, and I get to hear the tales of the day. We really do appreciate her company, both on the hike and at dinner. 


By the way, Wikipedia has the pronunciation as: Illecillewaet  /ˌɪləˈsɪləwət/

It was a wonderful place to spend some time. If you ever get a chance to visit that area, don't miss Glacier.

Salmon Arm BC - Hidden Valley Campground & RV Park

Our next stop is Hidden Valley RV Park in the VERY little town of Canoe just east of Salmon Arm, BC.
We are now on the south end of Lake Shuswap as you proceed east on the Trans-Canada highway but just another measly 22 miles closer to Lake Louise and Banff. It does however put us an easy two hour drive from Glacier National park, where we plan to spend four days.

Hidden Valley is right off of the Trans-Canada Highway. Pretty nondescript upon entering, but our site was in the back, down a steep hill, around a corner and in a... wait for it... HIDDEN VALLEY! It was surprisingly green, shady, and quiet. Complete with its own salmon and trout stream that ran just behind our site. Tank enjoyed lapping up the clear water (the water we put in his bowl in the RV, just doesn't hold the same allure) and happily cooled his paws in the stream.

It was a nice couple of days to do laundry, recharge the batteries, get some groceries and generally regroup before heading into a stretch of camping without amenities. 

Tom did get away on the second day there, went over to Club Shuswap golf and pickelball resort (more of a mom and pop kind of place). Sadly, although there were pickelball courts, there was no one around to challenge. So he went to the driving range and took out his frustration on a bucket of balls. It didn't take long at all to realize (from the horses mouth) he could misjudge and miss hit in metric with almost exactly the same frequency as with the imperial system. "Who says the metric system is superior? It didn't help my golf game any!"

Sunnybrae BC - Herald Provincial Park

118 miles east of Merritt on the Trans Canadian Hwy, we arrive at  Herald Provincial Park on the north shore of Lake Shuswap. Lake Shuswap is a relatively large lake composed of two lonnnng fingers in south central B.C., a little more than half way between Vancouver and Banff. The Shuswap tourism folks tout seven different districts, each with there own things to do: wine tasting, horseback riding, golf, boating, art museums, white water rafting etc., so one could easily spend months - maybe years there!

We’re finding that many of Canada’s Provincial Parks are not well advertised but are wonderful places to stay. Herald is just another great example of this. Herald is a little ways off the Trans-Canada Highway near the tiny, almost town of Sunnybrae.

We called at the last minute and got one of the last, if not the last, campsite. It was a lush, green, private site with a long pad and ample room to park the RV and car. When we got there, we could hear all the children’s voices. This is definitely a family park with good reason. Walking down to the beach, we saw boats, kayaks, paddle boards, and lots of kids in the water.

We braved the water ourselves and rented a kayak while we were there. The water was surprisingly warm! It was so warm in fact that both of us went for a swim (Wendy went for more of a quick dip than a swim). It was beautiful and peaceful out on the water in the kayak.

Too bad we have to move on so quickly. I think we could have spent many more days playing in the water, but we still have many miles to go to reach Lake Louise and Banff.  

Bannock!

In an effort to make up some mileage, we travel 147 miles northeast to our next stop, Claybanks RV Park in Merritt, BC. Merritt is a small industrial/logging town. The town's size puts restaurants and groceries walking distance from the park (just a few blocks away).

The one thing that caught my attention in Merritt was Kekuli Cafe, a little bakery/café that served bannock. Bannock is First Nations or Indigenous survival bread, sometimes called fry bread. It was a novelty we had to try. I had their Saskatoon berry bannock, which had a yummy topping. Tom had something akin to eggs bannockdick.

Langley BC - Edgewater Bar Campground

After a short drive from Vancouver, we arrive at Edgewater Bar Campground in Derby Reach Regional Park in Langley, British Columbia. When we arrive, there is no one at the check-in station and no one home at the camp host site. The very first campsite is empty, so we park there while Tom takes a look around. Finding orange cones in three other empty sites, we go ahead and stay where we are. Tom eventually found out the orange cones meant the campsite had already assigned to people who had been in-line earlier in the day--as early as 6:00 AM, so we were lucky to find an available site when we sauntered in at 10 AM. 

Edgewater Bar is a lovely campground. All of the campsites are riverfront along the Frazer River. Across the river, there are beautiful homes on the bluff and trains that run on the far bank. Note, there are no intersections, so the trains don’t blow their whistles when they go by, so go almost unnoticed. The Trans- Canada Trail passes through Derby Reach and is a wonderful trail to walk or bike on. We took a bike ride along the trail and end up in a nice part of town with restaurants and boat (kayak and canoe) docks. 

The river is placid, and we sit for hours and watch the geese and a seal, who seems to have found a home here, swim by.
Wendy takes the opportunity to "repurpose" some old bread.

We also see a boat, which had gone up river, come floating back. Then Tom notices there is a man fishing at the back of the boat, and his rod is almost bent in half! We watch fascinated as the boat floats past us then takes a turn towards the shore. As we rush down for a closer view, we see a gigantic tail come out of the water. By the time we get there, the men have already landed, measured, and released the sturgeon. The fisherman says it took about a hour to land it. What a bummer to have missed seeing it!

Then the fisherman points out another boat that’s headed towards shore with another sturgeon on! We run over, and this time are rewarded with getting to see the catch! Wow, what beautiful, primitive looking fish!

The next day, more excitement as Edgewater Bar also sees the return of civilian Tank, who has washed out of doggie boot camp due to his habit of playing reveille on his muzzle (aka barking - and Tank is VERY loud) at all hours of the night that is considered unbecoming of a good recruit. Welcome home, Tank.

West Vancouver BC Canada - Capilano RV Park

After leaving Whidbey Island, we finally make it across the border into Canada!!!

We ate or threw out all our fresh fruits and vegetables and made sure to eat all the eggs we had so we would be allowed to cross the border. We get there, and all they asked was if we had guns! Should have kept the fruits and veggies!

We timed our arrival in Vancouver with the start of rush hour, and to make sure we got the full effect of traffic, we booked our stay in West Vancouver at Capilano RV Park. Capilano is large - by that we mean they cram a LARGE number of RV's in a small space, sort of a microcosm of downtown Vancouver. The pads on each site are barely wide enough to get your RV on, and our particular site had a good 8’ tall sign board (with an overhanging piece) on the left side to make it particularly challenging to get in.

On the plus side, Capilano is walking distance to the Park Royal shopping center, so we head off to have our first dinner in Canada. We walk over to Park Royal and enter through one of the larger department stores. On our search for the food, we realize that all the stores are closed! Finally, we run into a nice security guard, who shows us how to get out, unlocks the doors to let us out, and recommends a couple of the restaurants up the street. We finally end up at the Village Taphouse and have a delicious celebratory dinner.

The next day, we picked up banh mi at DD MAU. I wanted to try DD MAU because they had been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives TV show. Tom was daring and had their classic banh mi, which contained a steamed pork loaf and head cheese. I just went with BBQ pork. We then took our sandwiches and went to sit at the waterfront by the Museum of Vancouver.  

After a couple of days of being on top of our neighbors and driving in Vancouver traffic, Tom and I are ready to move on. The plan is to start heading towards Banff National park with the first stop, a first come first served park in Langley, B.C. With these types of campgrounds, we will keep our fingers crossed and hope we get a site!

Whidbey Island WA - Deception Pass State Park

Early on Sunday morning, we set out to catch the Port Townsend ferry to Coupeville on Whidbey Island. This time, we are taking the Beast across.



It was a little bit surprising at the number of other RV's doing the same thing.

We have a short drive up to the northernmost point of Whidbey Island, which is Deception Pass state park. We are staying here just a single night before finally escaping across the border to Canada. At the north end of Whidbey island is the Deception Pass Bridge, which crosses the Deception Pass waterway. This in turn gets us back on the mainland of Washington, (and thankfully) north of the crazy Seattle traffic, just south of Bellingham. This also puts us almost within shouting distance of Canada.

Off in the distance to the left side is Victoria Island Canada

All in all, Deception Pass state park was a nice park with lots of areas to explore. The only downside was on the morning we left some navy jets starting flying exercises from the nearby Whidbey Island Naval Air station.

You might have to work hard to find the jet in the picture, but you couldn't have a conversation as they turned and headed back to base.

Has anybody else noticed the recurring themes of planes and trains in our blog... or is it just us??

Port Angeles/Sequim WA

After leaving Manchester State Park, we headed to the Strait of Juan de Fuca area to check out Port Angeles and Sequim (pronounced without the "e"- just 'Squim'). This blog entry about this area is a reminder for next time. Don't go in the summer without reservations, because this seems to be where ALL of the Washingtonians go in the summer also! The only camping spots we were able to find were in a not too level, somewhat weedy overflow lot at Elwah Dam RV park and the 7 Cedars Casino parking lot.

7 Cedars was great in a pinch because it was free and had some electric spots. The downside was that we got the last electric hookup, which was in the employee parking area. It was a bit noisy at 2 in the morning with the ending of the evening shift. back to the plus side, it was a short walk to the casino and we enjoyed a nice meal and show at their wine bar.

7 Cedars Casino parking lot

The area is in a 'rain shadow' of the Olympia National Forest and therefore was drier and warmer than what we had seen in other parts of Washington so had potential to be similar to a California climate.

Our original plans was to go to Salt Creek  campground, which are first come first serve (no reservations accepted). I do want to remember the spectacular water views we saw there. Because of the slope there, I don't think there was a site that did not have a water view. Unfortunately, we missed out on the last open spot by minutes. Our fall back plan was a disbursed camping site along the Lyre river. When we got to the entrance road, there was a big sign that warned: tight turns going down a winding road to the campsite was for SMALL RV'S ONLY. Hmmm, what was plan C?? Oh yeah...We also tried the Crescent Beach & RV Park, which was a little dry and windy, but we could see Canada across the strait, but they were also full... and THAT, boys and girls is how you end up spending the night in a casino parking lot.

Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches.

One final note for future sorties into the area, we were told that the Dungeness County Park is also a great place to camp for easy access to the Dungeness Spit.

Port Orchard WA - Manchester State Park

Our next stop is Manchester State Park, which is 60 miles to the north of Tumwater and is almost directly west (across the Puget Sound) of Seattle. Manchester State Park is another cool, green, shady State Park.

The entrance to the Port Orchard waterway is a short walk from the campground. One of the beaches was in a well protected cove and is covered in seaweed so not as clean and pretty as other Washington beaches. However, it is a good spot if you want to launch a kayak or just watch the Seattle-Bremerton ferry go by.

However just a short walk up a little trail...

We came to this nice point of land that looked out onto the Sound and east towards Seattle

It was from this home base that we head to Bremerton (about 15 miles away) to catch the ferry into Seattle. Finding parking (when we don't know our way around) was a little challenging. We do manage to make it on to the ferry in time, and it's a beautiful day for a ride into Seattle.

Our day in Seattle starts with the roaring noise of the city! Wow, how loud can a freeway be? We walk to Pike's Market and wander through and gawk at the shops on our way to meet up with our friend, Craig, for lunch. It's been a lot of years, and it is wonderful to see him again. Unfortunately, we missed seeing Cynthia and the kids, as they were not returning from vacation until the next day. Well, hopefully, next time...

After Craig walked with us over to a GREAT little deli (gold stars for Craig's lunch choice! :-]) we grabbed some sandwiches, and head up to the 7th floor of Craig's office building for lunch with a spectacular view of Seattle.

We had a great lunch, enjoyed a little reminiscing and getting at least a little caught up to our present day lives. Craig had to get back to work and we DIDN'T, soooo we after saying our good byes, we head off to explore more of Seattle before catching the ferry back to Bremerton. It made for a long, but enjoyable day.

Mount Rainer "floating" in the background

Olympia WA

It's time to head inland to Olympia, 110 miles northeast of Cape Disappointment. Here, we make the long anticipated stop to visit our good friend and my ex-roommate, Nancy. She is ready to provide us with a driveway to park in, feed us, and show us the sights around Olympia and Tumwater. I'm very thankful for the haven to rest, restock, and (yea!) do laundry.

There's a lot to see and do in the Olympia area, and Nancy is on a mission to convince us that this is the ideal location for our retirement. She does present some pretty convincing arguments by showing us beautiful, clean locations and feeding us delicious, healthy food.

The Olympia city center/capital

and the Tumwater city center are beautiful.

Our good friend and gracious hostess - Nancy

We take in the Olympia farmers market, which is open Thursday through Sunday. It has lots of healthy, organic produce and interesting crafts.










We take a drive to see Boston Harbor and Steamboat, fingers that jut into the Puget Sound. We walk through Watershed Park, a forest in the middle of the city. Then Tom gets to break out his bike and ride to Boston Harbor to see what a bike friendly town Olympia is. To top it all off, Tom finds a place to play pickleball (and they even tell him about another place with more competitive play)!!!

However, it's not all fun and games. Tom does do some heavy lifting, moving lumber out of the garage and rock on the driveway to help Nancy with home renovation chores. All this while Wendy spends the day shopping to restock supplies (yup hard work).

Sadly, we do have to move on to make our Banff and Yellowstone reservations. However, we do so without our faithful companion, Tank. Tank has been conscripted into Nancy boot camp. We have warned Nancy that Tank can be quite a handful, but she is determined to have him stay for a longer visit and give us a chance to be wild and crazy without our dog in tow. We leave hoping these two crazy kids play nice together, and that they are both survive until we meet again in Montana...

Thank you, Nancy for being a wonderful hostess, for the place to stay, for feeding us, and for taking the time to show us all the wonderful sights Olympia has to offer. We'll surely come visit again!