The next morning, at that nice little RV park outside of McBride, BC named Beaverview RV Park, I took a couple pictures of where I parked. The evening before, dark came so suddenly, I didn’t get any.
The highway is a couple hundred yards from our site. Nice and quiet here.
Here's where I parked. The park was about 1/3 full. Or 2/3 empty, however you want to think about it.
Off in the east, storm clouds. Heading for Jasper NP in Alberta.
Miles later, still a nice quiet drive with little traffic.
Another of the thousands of lakes up here in Canada. We're still in British Columbia at this point.
Oh, there's some other fellow travelers. I thought the mountaintop in the clouds was pretty cool and picture worthy.
And here we finally enter Alberta. A new place for me to be.
Some more spectacular scenery.
Walking along the trail to the featured falls at this roadside stop...
Ancient potholes dug by large rocks and 10,000 years of water flow.
The main falls along the trail. Apparently, fools try to climb over to that set of rocks on the left several times a year. Occasionally, someone falls in and drowns because of the swift, cold water. The undertows keep them down under the water for to long. Few survive.
This canyon is the old path of the river back in the ice ages.
This place is quite well appointed by the Canadian forest service. Nice steps and such for the weary traveler. We saw perhaps 100 people while we were there. Crowded but not the bumping elbows kind of crowded that you’d find here in the middle of summer.
An ancient eddy, dry now.
After a short spill or two downhill, the river widens.
And a look downstream.
Here on the beach, a drunken, naked man. Sad.
Then I head back upstream and get a few pictures of the rivers raging course through the canyons.
Another view of the canyon.
Getting closer to the main falls.
And over to the other channel. Here's another place someone slipped and fell. Climbed over that railing on the right to get closer to the falls. The last young man to die here 3-4 years ago was pulled into the water by the river when he slipped on moss.
Quite beautiful, falling water. But you know that I'm sure.
And another section further upstream.
I walked a couple hundred yards upstream.
And back to the canyons but on the other side of the river this time.
And one last look at the cascade.
After a couple hours at the falls, and 1/2 hour on the road, we find these mountain goats feeding alongside the roadway with lots of tourists clicking away at them. They didn't even look up.
I backed up the rig and got a better picture of the goats from my entry steps.
While I was taking the picture, I noticed the RV started rolling downhill so I had to jump back into the drivers seat and slam on the brakes to prevent rolling into that ravine. Scary, if I’d walked up the road to take the pictures from where I’d initially stopped the RV and it had started rolling downhill. Would have been a disaster. Usually my parking brake holds on steeper hills then this one but this day it decided to let go. I know enough to chock the tires usually but I didn’t plan on chocking, so that’s why I only went to the doorway to get this shot. I’m pretty sure that they didn’t hold because I shut off the engine before they could completely engage.
Off we go again.
Along a glacier fed river channel.
Off in the distance, a glacier.
A short stop to check fluids and have lunch. All fluid levels looked fine.
The higher we went the more it felt like winter. Way off in the distance, another glacier. We saw hundreds of them.
And another, larger glacier, way off in the distance. That's the Columbia Glacier.
And finally, our destination for this part of the trip...Columbia Glacier. We are at the visitors center about 4 miles away.
This glacier is the head waters (or head ices) of the Columbia River. It is retreating very quickly. In another 20-30 years, there won’t be a glacier here.
After hanging around the visitor center looking at stuff for awhile, we drove over to the parking lot at the base of the glacier. This is the lake that formed a little downhill from it.
There was still a nice hike to do to actually get within about 50 yards of the face, and there is a small lake at the foot of the glacier so you can’t actually touch the ice face from this area but they do have tour buses that take you uphill a few miles so you can walk out on the glacier. When we were there in Sept. of ’09, there were bunches of Japanese tourists all lining up for 5 or 6 buses. We passed on that sort of crowded excursion. Preferring instead to hike up as close as we could to the face of the glacier. We grew up within spitting distance of the Columbia River so this was very interesting to us.
Within 20-30 feet of the trail head, this ancient rock showing the scars of hundreds of tons of glacier bearing down on it for 12,000 years at least. The scratches are from rocks carried by the ice as they scraped over this base rock.
Where the glacier use to be just a few years ago. The face of the glacier is that dirty brown hill on the top right third of this picture.
After a cold but invigorating hike, the face of the glacier. Hail Columbia!
And over to the right a bit.
The whole time we were in this area, from the parking lot up to the face, there was this stiff and very cold breeze coming off the glacier. Coat, hat, & gloves were necessary. Standard hiking shoes were OK though.
A look at the little lake that forms at the base during summer.
Here I am looking cool. Or is that looking cold?
More scratches in the bed rock.
Dan looks like a real hiker. Dufus.
Here's another view of that glacial lake. The color is from the dirt that the glacier carries downhill with it. You can make out my RV there in the parking lot.
And off in the distance is the visitor center.
After that refreshing hike and visit to the Columbia River headwaters, we get back on the road and head off southeast. Time was only around 3:30 pm. Nice leisurely travel day with plenty of stops of interest.
Back on the road heading southeast this time.
I have no idea where we spent the night. Oh, wait, yes I do. We found a provincial RV park an hour later with over a hundred sites inside the Jasper NP and spent the night there. Had electric for the heaters so it was comfortable enough. Had plenty of water in the tank and food in the pantry so no shopping was needed.
The place was surprisingly crowded and the showers were packed in the morning. We had thought of spending two nights there but changed our minds and boogied out of there soon after breakfast heading for Banff. Town with a silly name. Just to visit. We must have seen a hundred glaciers along the way in the park. Dan promised himself that when he retired and got on the road in his Class C that he’d come back up here and spend a couple months traveling around the park and backpacking. I’m no longer drawn to backpacking like I use to be so I won’t be doing much of that. Day hikes are about all I can stand to do anymore. That damn 55 to 70 pounds on your back is just no fun anymore. I could do an overnight backpacking trip I suppose as long as the weather was OK, but to do 3-6 days like I use to? No. No more. Been there, done that, don’t want to do it again.
Love the nekkid rock man.
I KNOW! Right there nekkid as a baby.
banff and jasper national parks are tourist traps and ugly expensive places to stay. they are pretty though. some day i’d like to stay at banff springs hotel, one of the castles the canadian national railway built across canada.
another nice park in alberta is kananaskis just west of calgary (or east of banff) it’s pretty and doesn’t get really crowded even at the heights of summer. my dad and brother hiked there a lot and my mom’s ashes are scattered on the shores of upper kananaskis lake. i went cross country skiing there many moons ago as well. it was gorgeous!
Well, thx, Naomi for the insight. We had no idea. Interesting…
Wow. Looks like Canadian campgrounds, public or private, are still configured with the sites crammed together. That’s how they were 20 years ago, the last time we RV’d Alberta and BC. Don’t know why they think they have to do that, given the expanse of land they have. Dumb to have to eat a meal at your picnic table underneath the next guy’s slideout. Or sleep with your head (in your bedroom slide) 3 feet from your neighbor’s. Maybe it’s good you don’t have slideouts, Jim. At least in Canada.
Ya know what? I think you’re right about that. I didn’t realize it until you mentioned it. We were in this huge Provincial park in Jasper NP and though the dual sites were long, we were also very close to the other rig. Then there was a thick buffer of trees between us and the next set of sites. Each site was made for two rigs. We didn’t know the people next to us but it turned out they stayed quiet while we were there.
BTW- there was an article in Beaver Tales newsletter this month about one of the club’s venerable leaders trying to enter Canada this fall. They pulled his rig aside and went through it with a fine toothed comb, confiscating 2 bottles of pepper spray and fineing him $500 for each one! They wouldn’t let him turn around and leave Canada either, before paying up! The officers lied and claim they asked if he had “weapons”, including pepper spray, before the search; they didn’t ask about pepper spray, but fined him for alluding that he didn’t have any, even tho he couldn’t have denied having it if they never asked him in the first place. When he called them on the carpet about it to their supervisor, the customs officers lied to their supervisor, claiming they did ask beforehand.
Keep in mind this guy did everything to unload any potential “contraband” such as guns, fruit, and a speed trap scanner with friends on the USA side before crossing. He forgot about the pepper spray he bought for his wife to use when hiking alone. He figures they pulled him aside because he had Texas plates, and they assume all Texans carry guns. Well, he did have gun cases in his basement storage, but they were empty. The customs officers claim they ask everyone the same set of questions at the booth, but in fact the guy’s friends crossed the border in their rig immediately in front of them, unharrassed, but having been asked different questions. He’s appealing the fine, but good luck with that. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t afford a $1000 hit to my travelling expenses; all Canadian Customs accomplished was to diminish the income of tourist-oriented and other businesses in their country – over a couple bottles of pepper spray. Dumb. Especially if such shenanigans scare off other potential travelers like me, when the word gets out because they pulled the stunt on a major player.
Thanks for the info Joel (aka 1/2 Canadian), I carry a small pepper sprayer on a key hook right over the door. When I crossed into Canada at Vancouver and got searched they didn’t notice it, and I’d forgotten about it. Next May, when I cross over again, I’ll either leave it with a friend, or hide it.