2010 Canadian Parks Tour - Day #2-3 continuing through the Icefields Parkway

Here's shots taken from the Icefields Parkway. The beauty is really quite breathtaking:


The Crowfoot Glacier:


Continuing along...



With a lot of these geological formations, you can really get a feel for how dynamic, if slow, their forces causing their creation was:






Finally reached the Columbia Icefield!

2010 Canadian Parks Tour - Day #2 continuing through Yoho

Here's a time capsule from the Rogers Pass information site and the information site itself:

Continuing on towards Yoho Park, some local wildlife, bighorn sheep, turned out to observe:


Yoho is the park I was most looking forward to visiting last year and it was deeply cool to finally reach the park this year.

Here's are some shots approaching and by Emerald lake:


Pressing on towards Field, a town in the heart of Yoho:


I stopped at the visitors centre near Field, look forward to returning when time allows. Next, I pressed on towards Takakkaw Falls. The first shot below is near a viewpoint for the Spiral Tunnels, which made sending railroads through Kicking Horse Pass less, well, lethal.


Here is one of the switchbacks, which make driving up the hill a task vehicles hauling trailers shouldn't attempt. Note how the road's surface has been battered by falling rocks. Not a place to be during bad weather!






Takakkaw Falls. 1260 ft/384 meters high, vs. Niagara Falls' 167 feet / 52 meters. The treat that hikers get and vehicle tourers don't is a look at the icefield on top whose melt water feeds that waterfall. The word Takakkaw comes from the Cree word for magnificent. I can only think that the Cree are a people given to understatement!

Day 2 was a big day, as I spent a little time in Lake Louise later in the day before pressing on into the Icefields Parkway. More will be posted later...

2010 Canadian Parks Tour - Day #2 Revelstoke and Glacier parks

Revelstoke by day. I simply can't overemphasize how cool a town Revelstoke seems to be...it reminds me a lot of the bit I saw of Nelson last year. Everyone I spoke with, at the town's Information Centre and the Parks Office was friendly and enthusiastic about helping me find the cool stuff to see, in the area. And on this second day, I was really wishing that my plan for the trip allowed me to stay here an extra day or two and explore the Revelstoke and Glacier parks.



Arriving at Revelstoke National Park, proper.



And then Glacier National Park. Avalanches are VERY serious business here, with massive protected shelters covering large portions of the highway.



Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park

A shot from the information Centre that's being rebuilt now.



And what appears to be a painting from almost the same perspective in "At the Rogers Pass", a painting by John A. Fraser (1886).



By this time I was thinking, if these smaller parks are this gorgeous and impressive, what are Yoho, Banff and Jasper going to be like?

2010 Canadian Parks Tour - Day #1

Day #1 On the way to the border at Sumas/Abbotsford

A little reminder that we have some tasty scenery on this side of the border, too. LOVE the Pacific Northwest!



The right side of the J.Ballam Furniture store below is the exterior location for the Cafe Diem in the TV show Eureka. Location is Wellington Ave in Chilliwack, BC. I'd kind of absurdly hoped that it would be signed as Cafe Diem when I stopped by.



At Hope, I switched over to the Coquihalla Highway. Stopped for food/rest in Merritt, BC, little suspecting that it's the Country Music Capital of Canada.



Later, I stopped for gas in Kamloops.



The Merritt/Kamloops stretch of the Coquihalla seemed pretty dry and desolate. Not sure why it seems that way and yet the Cariboo region around Cache Creek appeals to me.

The day so far had started out foggy and then turned sunny by the time I reached Hope. At Kamloops, a little rain started to fall but it ended pretty quickly. Good for me in terms of riding comfort, bad for an area experiencing wild fires right now.

By the time I reached Salmon Arm, however, the scenery was back to a green forest-like aspect. Just after Salmon Arm, I stopped by the side of the road to stretch my legs a bit and heard a striking bird cry close by. It turned out that an osprey had brought a fish to the top of this utility pole and was enjoying a bit of sashimi.



Here's a view further along Shuswap Lake, which is really quite gorgeous.



As this sign explains, the lake takes its name from the Shuswap tribe.



Unfortunately, there was a very serious accident just before Sicamous and getting from the rest stop where the two photos above were taken to Sicamous, which should have taken around 10-20 minutes, took the better part of 1.5 to 2 hours. Godspeed to the souls who lost their lives there.



The bridge to Revelstoke, at last! (Craigellachie?)



It had been a long first day. I'd planned for about 400 miles in 10 hours of riding but it ended up being about 440 miles/710 km, due to a detour, in 12 hours of riding.

2010 Canadian Parks Tour - The Plan

Last year's trip to British Columbia, which ended abruptly less than half way through when falling rocks totaled my beloved Speed Triple motorcycle, left me hungry for more visits to this fantastic place. After finding a good deal on a 2009 Speed Triple (what can I say, that particular bike speaks to me) and almost a year of planning, I recently traveled the following route:



Approximate total distance: 1500 miles / 2420 kilometers
Daily goals indicated on map with red tick marks

Itinerary:
Day 1
Ride from home to Revelstoke, BC.

Day 2
Acquire Canadian National Parks pass in Revelstoke
Ride through(*) the smaller parks (Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks)
Explore Yoho National Park as much as time allows
Ride through Lake Louise in Banff National Park
Enter the Icefields Parkway and ride as far as a motel at the Saskatchewan crossing

Day 3
Visit the nearby Icefields Centre and get as close to the Athabasca Glacier as possible
Continue riding up to Jasper National Park, stopping for photos at every opportunity
Ride to Hinton, Alberta and stay there for the night (less $$ than park accommodations)

Day 4
Explore Jasper National Park as much as time allows
Ride through Mt. Robson Provincial Park
Ride through Wells Gray Provincial Park
Ride on through the Cariboo and stay in either 100 Mile House or cache Creek

Day 5
Continue riding South and return to the Seattle area

(*) Note that this plan speaks a lot about 'riding through' some fantastic parks with utterly magnificent scenery, which seems like a shame or even foolhardy. And in practice, this was very hard to do, as I constantly found myself having to rush from or through places where I would have enjoyed spending a day or two exploring. However, the intent of this trip was to scout out interesting places where I will return later with more time to linger and savor the experience.