August 8th - Canada Part 3 » Free Wheel Drive

August 8th, 2017

Yoho National Park to the Border

British Columbia, Canada

After two very intense days of hiking, we decided to stay close to our campsite and see the Yoho side. We’re pretty sure Yoho has some epic mountain views, but because of the wildfires, you couldn’t see very far. So it was a good day to see water features like the Takakkaw Waterfall.

On our way out of the park, we had to fill up on water. So we drove through a pay campground and to our surprise we found showers that weren’t being manned by anyone and didn’t cost any money. As if these parks couldn’t get any better, we found free showers! We can’t tell you how happy this makes us. Of course, we have a solar shower and that works fine, but to have instant hot water and the privacy of a stall is amazing. We love Canada!!

Here are the pics from our day!

If you ever wonder how we find our campsites this is it. Sometimes GPS works, but mostly we have to follow the handwritten directions that someone before us has left.

Found this old bus in the woods. Kinda cool… kinda creepy.

So, Camrin likes to clean up the garbage that is often left by people before us. Well, today that cleanup paid off. She found an unopened can of beer chilling in the river.

Driving around our camp area. Had fun crossing a stream.

A typical road we drive on to find our campsites.

On our way to the waterfall!

We asked to do this kind of thing a lot!

The trees in front of the falls are windswept and tiny.

We found Wild Strawberries. They’re small, but taste so good!

Getting up to the falls requires a going through a few hairpin turns.

This was the best we could see the mountains on our way back to the campsite.

The next day we said goodbye to the Canadian Rockies and headed West to a city called Revelstoke. On our way, we passed through two more National Parks. One was Glacier and the other was Mt. Revelstoke National Parks. Unfortunately, the smoke was so bad from nearby fires that we weren’t able to see much. We were able to do two short boardwalk trails that took us through some cedar groves, but that was about all we could see.

The smoke makes for nice lighting in the forest.

Back into the haze. You can just barely see the sun.

We did take some time to see the city of Revelstoke. We had no idea how cool this town was. It was a mountain town, similar in style and size to Banff or even Jackson Hole, but way way more laid back. People look like they live and work here and there are humble working-class vibes. I don’t know how true that is, but we felt much more comfortable in this city. We got our laundry done, stopped by the library, and treated ourselves to Poutine dinner. What’s Poutine? It’s something apparently Canadians love. It’s a mountain of french fries, gravy, cheese curds, and a meat of some kind. Laura had the spicy sausage poutine and Camrin had the fancy duck Poutine. One might think those ingredients don’t go together, but you would be dead wrong! Poutine, was everything we hoped and imagined it would be.

Our campsite for the night was just outside of Revelstoke. The campsite was more of a parking lot for a trail head, but that trail lead to a beautiful waterfall. We even had a friendly French Canadian, named Remy, and his dog Ziva as our neighbors. It’s always nice when you can camp next to a friendly person who shares beers and travel stories. We missed getting a photo with Remy, but we got a few with his dog.

Our campsite. At the end of a long bumpy dirt road is an open patch of dirt.

And down a short trail is this awesome waterfall!

Beyond the waterfall is a lake with perfect skipping stones.

Down tree by the lake. Perfect for climbing on.

We woke up early the next morning and waved goodbye to Canada. We definitely did not spend enough time here, but we have a farm to get to and the North Cascades of Washington to explore. Someday, hopefully soon, we will go back. Hopefully, the forest fires won’t be as bad next time. Our drive down to the border we went through the Okanagan Valley, which is the Napa Valley of British Columbia, where we saw the oddest tourist trap we’ve seen yet. The Log Barn.

Here are some photos to sum up how odd the Log Barn is.

What magical place is this? It calls to us!

Here is a normal Fruit stand, where we actually bought fruit.

Our border crossing back into the U.S. was more difficult than going into Canada. I know this country is afraid and doesn’t trust people, but they sure do a good job of making us, U.S. Citizens, feel nervous and like we are criminals. We even had to fill out a lengthy questionnaire. Anyways, they let us back in after searching our Jeep and bringing out the drug-sniffing dogs. Off to our campsite in the middle of nowhere Eastern Washington.