Day 18 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

Woke up this morning, loaded the car and headed South to Abbotsford BC where we will cross the Canada/US border into the State of Washington. There was about a 20 minute wait at the border.

We are going to drive to the summit of Mt. Baker driving along the Mt. Baker Scenic Byway. As of yesterday’s report, the last stretch of the Byway is closed beyond the Visitor Center because of winter snow remaining on the roadway. Also the Visitor Center has been closed since last fall and is scheduled to open today. Good timing for us that we are here now and not several days earlier.

Near the summit is Heather Meadows and Picture Lake.

We arrived at the Visitor Center and the online reports that we read yesterday are true… the road is closed, the Visitor Center is Open.

Although we can’t get to the summit, the scenery here is well worth the drive.

The temperature is 70 degrees, but despite that, there is still a lot of snow. We don’t get this much snow at home in Lafontaine Ontario.

Some more photos of Picture Lake.

We ate our picnic lunch and then headed for Mount Vernon Washington where we are staying the night.

To see all of our photos from today, please visit my FLICKR site.

Day 17 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

A dreary, rainy day today, but that is ok, we don’t have any sight seeing that we have to get out to do, we are just driving from Sicamous BC to Chilliwack BC, through the Okanagan Valley. Our sightseeing is limited to what we can see from the car as we drive South.

We did stop at a fruit stand to buy some fresh cherries, and saw some neat old farm tractors.

Some very threatening storm clouds.

Then we encountered heavy fog, and when we came out of the fog we saw this sign. I think we are high enough in altitude that we may have driven through a cloud rather than fog.

Another snowshed, this one with an interesting carving on the upper wall.

And that was our day, we are in Chilliwack BC tonight and in the morning we will cross the border and enter Washington.

To see all of our photos from today you can view them on my FLICKR site.

Day 16 Summer 2010 Park to Park Road Trip

This morning we left Golden BC and headed for Glacier National Park in British Columbia. It is slightly confusing because just a few days ago we visited Glacier National Park in Montana, these are not the same parks.

The scenery is always breathtaking in the high mountains, of course the camera cannot capture fully the views and vistas that we see, but it gives a good approximation.

I have heard of snowsheds before, but I have never seen one. These snowsheds protect the road and the vehicles on the road from snow slides or avalanches. We drove through 6 of these as we drove along the Trans Canada Highway through GNP.

We stopped at the Rogers Pass Visitor Centre, I thought the grass roof on the building was very unique.

We watched as the Columbia Ground Squirrels played.

There is a monument to commemorate the achievements and accomplishments of the men who pushed through and cleared the way over Rogers Pass so that the Railway could connect Canada from West to East.

While we were taking photos of the monument, a couple on their bicycle built for two also pulled in. We see a lot of people riding their bikes as we travel and often wonder how they manage with all of the traffic and hills, but we had seen this couple several times in the last few days, their bike is very unique so you know it is the same bikers.

I told them that we had seen them along the road at various locations and I was curious where they had come from and where they were going. I was surprised to learn that they started in Anchorage Alaska and are biking to the Southern tip of South America. Karen and I would not be able to pedal around the block, and never in our wildest imaginations would we consider this as our mode of transportation. Some day, maybe we could drive from Anchorage to the tip of South America, in a nice comfortable motor home.

They posed for a photo and then they were off again, coasting all the way to the bottom of Rogers Pass.

We passed them part way down the pass and snapped these photos, although they turned out blurry.

We drove through some more snowsheds, these ones were painted yellow, Karen’s favourite colour.

After leaving Glacier National Park, we drove a short distance along the Trans Canada Highway and then entered Mount Revelstoke National Park.

We turned off the highway and drove along the Meadows in the Sky Parkway. This is a 28 KM winding, twisting road to the top of Mount Revelstoke.

At the peak is Balsam Lake and a parking area.

From there you can take a Parks Canada Shuttle Van to the Meadows in the Sky Trail.

We walked around the trail and enjoyed the views and the flowers that were blooming.

Even found a little bit of snow tucked in a shaded spot among the rocks.

We are spending the evening in Sicamous BC and will be on the road in the morning heading Southward through BC and the Okanagan Valley.

To see all of our photos from today, please visit my FLICKR site.