Part VI: The Home Stretch

Having accomplished all of the things that I wanted to accomplish on this trip, I found myself limping into Nelson utterly exhausted. Fortunately, the North Shore Inn had a room available and so I had a relaxing last night in Canada.

The next morning, I made a point of looking up the old firehouse used in the Steve Martin movie Roxanne. These were the last pictures that I took during this, my best trip into western Canada yet. The next day was a LONG riding day and it was great to be back home.

Part V: Starting Back Home

All good things must come to an end and so, on the 4th day of my trip, I had to leave the Banff area and start heading home. Ironically, this was the point where I experienced the first real (if mild) rain of this trip.

The rainy weather drastically changed the light in the park, including the addition of this rainbow, albeit not a double rainbow.

I stopped in Yoho National Park again on the way back. As I said, this park has attracted me tremendously for years.

Heading back, I stopped in Emerald Lake for some pictures. They don't do the lake justice, it really is the most amazing shade of green!

I Also stopped at the Natural Bridge, an attraction I hadn't visited previously.

It really is quite impressive how the Kicking Horse River has carved its way through these rocks!

Pressing onward, the rain continued to fall and I decided to stop for a break at Rogers Pass
Rogers Pass. After having an energy bar and some caffeine to boost my energy level, I noticed a couple other motorcyclists waiting out the weather. Going up to say hello,I discovered that they were a married couple from Saskatoon who were riding through the Rockies on a pair of Triumphs.

Eventually, I reached Revelstoke and from there my path again took me in a new direction, albeit one I had hoped to travel a few years earlier. Upon reaching Revelstoke, rather than simply continuing West on  Trans-Canada Highway 1, I headed south on 23 towards Nakusp.

The juvenile part of me wants to call this photo "The Grand Tetons of Revelstoke"

23 has a gap near Upper Arrow Lake, where you need to take a ferry from Shelter Bay Provincial Park to Galena Bay. It's not a long crossing, maybe 30-45 minutes and it provided more different lake scenery. And my first ride on a ferry with a motorcycle!

Continuing South on Highway 6, you eventually reach Nakusp, site of the annual Western Canada meeting of Horizons Unlimited, an amazing motorcycle travel site. There are some excellent hit springs here that I hope to visit during a HU meeting, some day.

Past Nakusp, the next largish town is New Denver. There are several historical attractions in the area but one of the best known is a museum honoring Japanese immigrants who were interred in the area during World War 2. The Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre preserves the stories of these families, including exhibits showing what life was like in the camp.

The camp itself was a sobering reminder of the past (a past shared with the US and other allied countries). But I found these photos of a huge building full of cots and the confiscated boats and bicycles of internees to be especially effective reminded of the scale of this event.

Heading South from New Denver towards Slocan and Castlegar, there is some amazing coastline along Slocan Lake.

However...I've got some unfortunate history with some of this coastline. In 2009, I was making the reverse ride up from Nelson/Castlegar up towards New Denver my bike was totaled by falling rocks along this cliff pictured below. One of my goals on this trip was to to revisit the site of that incident and capture my own pictures of the cliff. I was glad to able to do that.