Tuesday Aug 9 - Thursday Aug 11 - We drove 3 hours on Tuesday from Stewart to Tyhee Lake. We didn't really realize that we had left Alaska for the last time when we left Hyder yesterday! I guess we're headed home, but we've still got a lot left to see. We will probably spend another week or two in Canada before our last border crossing. We left Stewart BC early, and drove about 4 hours to Tyhee Lake, which is another wonderful provincial park. It was one of the largest provincial parks we've seen with 60 campsites. It was quite full and there were lots of people swimming in the lake, as it was in the 80s (the first sign of summer we've seen since we were in Fairbanks over a month ago). Luckily at night it cooled down (and we still needed to sleep with the heat on). Wednesday was a 3 hour drive to Prince George through some beautiful farm land. Kev got a quick poker fix in, at the Treasure Cove Casino in Prince George and finished at midnight, so we headed to the Walmart for the night (G&G stayed at a campground outside of Prince George). Thursday was a 3 hour drive to Mt Robson, which will get us a short drive to Jasper tomorrow morning. We need to head to Jasper early, so we can find a campsite for the weekend. Jasper is a popular spot, and when we looked online all the campgrounds that are available for booking are full for the weekend. We'll try to get there early and see what we can find.
Bear Glacier visible from the road out of Stewart
We stopped in Gitanyow, (a few miles off the Yellowhead Highway) for lunch. They have the largest collection of totem poles in BC
We had lunch at a picnic table in the field with a view of the totem poles
beautiful farmland, with mountains in the background, outside of Prince George
We saw fields and fields of hay, rolled up
We stopped at Homestead Brewhouse in Vanderhoof, BC for lunch. We have to get our fill of poutine, before we leave Canada!
We stopped for the night at the provincial park, Mt Robson Meadows
Kev headed to Gene & Gerry's site across the street, with salad in hand
Our site at Mt Robson
Dinner in the dining tent, since the mosquitoes were biting
Friday, Aug 12, 2022 - Friday was an hour and a half drive to Jasper. We got there around 11:00 and drove through the provincial park that didn't take reservations and NOTHING was open. Luckily Jasper has an overflow campground, which has several hundred campsites and is open only when all the campgrounds in the area are full. It was perfect...great views, close to the town of Jasper and only $14/night. We got set up at the campground and headed into Jasper. We went to the visitor center to get recommendations for hikes in the park and then walked around the cute town of Jasper. We had lunch at the Jasper Brewing Company with more poutine and great beer.
Mt Robson
Our campsites at the Jasper overflow lot
Beers at the Jasper Brewing Company
a totem pole in downtown Jasper
The visitors center in the background and a pretty righteous bench for my collection
Mountains everywhere you look
A rooftop beer at Earls
Sunset at the campground
Tiny looks like she has sunglasses on (reflective panels to keep the van cool)
A walk around the campground after dinner
the campsite has lots of views
good night
Saturday, Aug 13, 2022 - We drove to Maligne Lake, which was about a 45 minute drive. There is a boat ride on the lake but we came for the hikes. We did a 2 mile hike (the Mary Schaffer trail) as soon as we got there and we had the trail to ourselves. After the hike we found a picnic table to eat lunch at, and we watched people...it was now very crowded. After lunch we did the 1.5 mile hike to Moose Lake and we found it is named Moose Lake for a reason. We enjoyed watching the moose swim in the lake, and go under for a bit to eat grass off the bottom. It was quite the show. On the way back, and not very far from the busy part of the lake we saw a good sized grizzly on the hillside eating berries. We continued quickly down the path and it wasn't too long until he came down the same path. One of the rangers pulled up and tried to discourage the bear from heading toward all the people, but people came out of the woodwork as seems to happen when a bear is spotted. They eventually convinced the bear to head the other way, and as we were leaving we got to see him heading up another path (and leaving people/cars all over the road watching him go)
Maligne Lake
The Canadian National Parks have the icon of a red chair at various places on their maps. We've been wondering what it means. It means there are two red chairs there.
a walk in the woods
the walk had lots of views of the lake
the roots make a pretty pattern in the trail (and a tripping hazard)
a bench with a view of the Lake Maligne Boathouse
there were boats, like the one behind the bench, leaving every half hour for tours of the lake
We watched a girl pose in front of the lake, while a friend took pictures, so we decided to give some of her poses a try
the hike to Moose Lake
the moose of Moose Lake
She would put her head under the water to eat the grass then come up and shake off all the water
it was a lot of fun to watch
video of the moose
the grizzly up the hill from the path we were on
this was with my telephoto lens, but we were too close...
clearing the path for the bear that was coming down the path
here he comes...
After we got in the car, we saw the bear moseying up the hill on another path
everyone in the street to see the bear on the path above them, but no one looking at the bear.
the drive back to the campsite. Maribelle likes to have her head held up while she takes a nap
Medicine Lake on the drive home
Gino grilled hot dogs and we decided to eat in their RV
evening view from our RV
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