Heading North 2021

 It was surreal to drive the Coquihalla with the wildfires going on. We got a few pictures but they do not show the extent of the destruction. In places the animal fence and the hydro poles were all gone. There were still small fires burning all over the place, at least it was cooler and we hit rain in some places on our way down the hill. We stayed at Spectrum for a couple of nights before heading home. That gave us a chance to do a Costco run and a few other thing that we can't do here. Took Lam out for her birthday dinner to the Cactus Club, it was very good. Caught the 2:25 ferry home on Tue. Good thing we made reservations, they left a lot behind. We decided it was a good thing that they don't get a second boat, as then too many people would be coming here.  Final stats,  Kilometers, 12382.8 Camping fees, $1963.39 Fuel cost, $3286.60  Animal sightings, Bears 11, Deer  8, Moose 5, Caribou 7, Fox 3, Bison 6, Sheep 28.   Elk, if you count the farmed ...

 From the East, there are two ways to get to Paul Lake. You can cut off at Prichard or go all the way to Kamloops, then back up the valley to the lake. I decided I wanted to take the short cut, it should save twenty or so minutes. As the exit has changed with the new highway, I missed the turn off. I did manage to turn around not to far down the road. Got back to a train blocking the crossing, had to wait at least 15 minutes, so much for saving time. The first part of this road is all gravel and some washboard. It was a little jarring to say the least. Nether Pat nor Jack were impressed. At Pinantan the road becomes paved, it's not to bad after that. We get to the campsite and I go to get a drink of water and notice that the frig door is not working properly. The lower hinge is broken. The door is just a plastic surround with a little bump out for the hinges. The inner shelves and the outer panels just slide in tracks, with some insulation in between. Luckily it did not try to fall...

 I'm back and we are home. As you can tell, we had no cell service at the last two campgrounds.  Blanket Creek PP campground is very nice, we stayed two days. The first day we drove up Mt. Revelstoke, big mistake. It was so smoky that there was no views what so ever, none. It is a nice drive with a walk to a view of some kind but it was so smoky we decided to pass on it. We were back at the campsite around four and it started to get dark, then darker, finally at about five PM. it was so dark you could barely see the trees around the campsite. It is not supposed to get dark till nine PM. So dark clouds along with the smoke was the cause. There was a slight orange glow like an eclipse. That night there was a big thunder and lightning storm, it did clear up the air. The next day we drove up passed the Revelstoke Dam. We went a ways passed Martha Creek PP to look at a couple of forestry campgrounds. We saw a few spots that we could get into, also one with no turn around with the t...

I have been truly spoiled the last couple of months, with very little traffic. That all changed once I hit the Ice Field Parkway and then the number 1. We are in a campground just west of Golden. We tried to get into Waitabit forestry campsite but it was full,  it was the weekend, so not unexpected.  This sums up the scenery on this drive. Heading for Blanket Creek

 Today we head for Sunwapta Falls, they are 56km south of Jasper. We drove around the parking lot and no spots, try one more time. Second time lucky, a nice big spot. These are some more amazing waterfalls.  Pat wanted to check out the Sky Walk, it is a little farther down the road. As we got there we could see large line ups, so we kept on going. There was also a lot of construction there, are they making it bigger and better, or didn't they do it right the first time. It's a long way down. Our campsite and the smoke this morning Aug. 14

 The one animal that we have not seen on this trip is Elk . We did see a huge heard (hundreds) outside of Beaverlodge on the way to Grande Prairie but they were farmed, so we decided that they didn't get included in our animal count. We are heading for Jasper and we have seen lots of Elk there. There was one lone Elk on the side of the road on our way here but none in Jasper. If we wanted to see Elk, all we had to do is look at our security camera, they were chowing down on my garden. Not the best picture it was not real light yet. We got setup and spent the rest of the day lounging around the campsite. We did take a walk to the river that is about 100 meters from our site. The next day we drove to Meligne Lake. When we got there the place was packed, no parking. With all the people, we were not sure we wanted to be there in any case. We headed on down to Medicine Lake. This is an interesting lake, it fills from Meligne Lake but has no outlet. There is no visible northern outlet fr...

 A little more traffic on this drive, after so little for the past while, when I saw four or five cars, I thought OMG a traffic jam. Naw, just more vehicles than we were used too. It was not a long drive and I didn't stop to take any pictures. We decided to try the municipal campground, we found a nice site and settled in. The next day we went to the visitor centre and got some good info. This guy was outside. We then drove to Pierre Grey's Lakes PP.  83 campsites, most with power. There are four separate loops on three different  lakes, very nice. They also stock these lakes with Rainbow Trout but I don't have a Alta fishing license. They apparently stock most of the lakes around here. This is a historical site, very interesting history. The next day we went to Sulphur Gates, a real cool area where two rivers meet. In the photo you can see the Sulphur River, in the centre, meeting the Smoky River, light coloured. This shows the upper viewing platform, a bit of a hike but...

 We woke up to wind and rain, so we decided to stay in Dawson Creek one more day. The RV Park here is not bad, not crowded at all and fairly quiet. So, we did our Costco run sans trailer. It is about an hour and a half each way to Grande Prairie. I took both propane tanks and had them topped off, one was empty.  Went to Boston Pizza for lunch and headed back, good pizza. Grande Prairie has a population of over 70,000, a fairly large town. A little rain and wind on our way home but nothing serious. We took a look at Swan Lake PP, no thanks, small sites and little privacy.  It is sunny and getting warm today. We are headed toward Grande Cache for a couple of days. I don't think there will be any internet, so see you in a few days.  

Other than the smoke, it was another nice drive. Nothing extra special but nice. We got to our next stop and when Pat came out from paying, she had a card for a traveling hair cutter. She gave the lady a call and arranged a time for that afternoon, when she arrived, she said she would give me one as well. Yeah, two birds with one stone, or hair cuts. We did take a short trip around town to scope things out. This is a little bigger town, has a Walmart, still very nice.  We were sitting outside enjoying the nice weather when it all changed. The wind came up and the sky got dark, I put stuff away and the awning decided to come in, good thing. Then it started, rain, wind, hail, thunder and lightning. It was so loud Pat and I could not hear each other yell. It was deafening, poor Jack was even scared, not like him, went to hide in the closet. I tried to get some pictures but if I opened the door, I was instantly soaked and it was almost impossible to hold it open. Here is a little repre...