Day 11: Charlie Lake, British Columbia to Liard River Hotsprings, British Columbia

On the drive towards Liard, we spotted quite a bit of wildlife. We saw a couple black bears and a grizzly cub amidst some bison. Dad figured the mama grizzly was just out of sight, hoping to snag a bison calf snack. So, obviously, we saw more bison and a lot of stone sheep on the side of a rocky mountain. I was excited to see the stone sheep; they would remind someone of bighorn sheep. 

Stone sheep

Quite a distance from Charlie Lake, we stopped at Trapper’s Den Wildlife Emporium, a small log building filled with authentic fur trapper and First Nation (native people) handiworks, such as moccasins, fur gauntlets, and birch baskets. I bought Desi a couple books, one about a boy and his moose and another about a dogsled team. He loves books and relating his experiences to books seems to help him appreciate what we are doing. I picked up a “pocket dream catcher” (a dream catcher with no feathers hanging down) for Desmond, since he’d been admiring dream catchers (they look clock-like) since Crazy Horse in South Dakota. We also stopped on the way in Fort Nelson at the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum. 

We made some sandwiches and wandered around the museum and museum yard. (or was it a junkyard?) They had many taxidermed animals from the area (Dad and I marveled over the frighteningly large size of the timberwolf) and Desmond tried to find as many things with dials as he could (clocks, watches, sewing machines, rotary phones, thermometers and many more in their large antique vehicle collection). I went to the RV to nurse Trudy while everyone else toured the museum’s yard. The guide said she’d given many children tours of the museum, but had never seen one get as excited as he did. Mom explained that technical stuff is right up his alley.

Junkyard or museum?

Farm machinery (I think)

I think I typed a sixth grade report on one of those...

This junk is awesome!

Beautiful Muncho Lake

After passing through the beautiful Muncho Lake region, we arrived at Liard River Hot Springs in the evening and I walked Desi to the playground at the Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park. The playground was very nice. However, I was a little concerned about the “bear conditioning project” taking place, which consisted of noises (high pitched and smacking) to deter bears from hanging out in the park. We had some lasagna for dinner and Mom, Dad, and I took Desmond down to the hot springs. Tommy stayed back with Trudy because the mosquitoes were pretty fierce in Liard. 

The walk to the hot springs went across a boardwalk over a bog; it was no wonder the place was full of mosquitoes! The pool at the hot springs was very nice. There were two pools, actually; one was hot and the other was warm. They were connected by some man-made waterfalls and nice decks with wide steps into the pools. Several people were swimming, even though it was after 9 p.m. We regretted not having bathing suits (Dad was the only person who packed one in his suitcase). However, the provincial park we were staying in had no running water (so, no shower houses and no flush toilets; at least the pit toilets were clean and not too smelly). If I’d gone swimming in the sulfer-scented pools, I probably would’ve wanted a shower. As it was, without suits and being forced to conserve our water in the RV without a water hook-up, we just waded in the water. It was still enjoyable. Mom and I noticed an improvement in our beat-up feet after our soak in the springs. Desmond was begging to play in the waterfalls and he almost tempted Grammy to jump in with her clothes on. I know better; he would’ve chickened out at the last minute. I was not walking back half a mile in wet clothes. I think Dad and Desi were the most disappointed not to be swimming in there. Oh well… next time.

Playing in the Liard River Hotsprings

Day 10: Jasper, Alberta to Charlie Lake, British Columbia

Our goal for our tenth day was to reach Liard River Hotsprings. We passed through Dawson Creek on the way and Tommy had to make a reference to the old TV show, Dawson’s Creek. If I’d ever seen it, maybe I could make one. Instead, I just continued to look for a can of Schwartz in our Winnebago’s dashboard to make the drive go faster. (Spaceballs reference) Dawson Creek marks the point where the Great Alaskan Highway begins; only 1187 miles to Alaska!

This guy is showing us the way to Alaska

Yay! Alaska, here we come!

All kids love LOG! It's better than bad, it's good!

We stayed the night in Charlie Lake, at an RV park with laundry facilities. I was able to do a couple loads while Dad made dinner and Desmond played at the very buggy playground on the lake. Once again, Mom and I enjoyed a fire (a neighboring site had some firewood to share) until dusk at nearly 11 p.m.

Day 9: Banff, Alberta to Jasper, Alberta

Another long day of driving took us up to Jasper, Alberta from Banff. I could have easily stayed in the adorable town of Banff a few more days; maybe next time! We drove through the mountains and spotted the wilderness bridges I’d read about; they are bridges built over the highways for use by the animals in the national parks, to prevent them from crossing the road. I suppose this in combination with the high fences alongside the highway help protect both animals and drivers. 

 

Wilderness Bridge encourages wildlife to safely cross highway

 

Our first stop was at Lake Louise, an alpine lake my dad had read about that is said to be very beautiful. It was. It was a lovely turquoise-blue and half covered in ice. Dad was disappointed; I think he expected it to be bigger than it was and have a better reflection of the snowy mountains. It was cute, but packed with tourists. Desi enjoyed walking over to the hotel on the lake and viewing its clock tower (of course) and jabbering near the waterfalls. It had become clear at this point that waterfalls had become his favorite natural feature.

Lake Louise

A stream flowing from the lake

Lake Louise resort's clock tower

On north we went, stopping to view the Columbian Icefields, a large glacier and its fingers extending through the Canadian Rockies. In the distance, you could see tour buses driving over the glacier. We drove a bit more to Tangle Creek Falls, a nice little waterfall right along the highway that ran off under the road. Desi enjoyed how close we could get to the falls and enjoyed showing the water off to his clock. Boy, that clock sure has been able to see a lot on this trip!

Dad modeling in front of our home away from home

Glacier at Columbian Icefields (can you see a bus?)

Parking lot with a view

Tangle Creek Waterfall

Big Clock gets a close look

Desi enjoys a waterfall up close

We finally ended up in Jasper, which we all agreed was not nearly as cute as Banff. Although the town of Jasper was a bit of a disappointment, we walked around and found two clock towers, one that we could walk up to (sort of) and bought some ice cream at Grandma’s Place. The owners were incredibly friendly and gave everyone an extra, free, half-scoop of ice cream. We spotted Kinder Eggs for sale, and Dad treated Desmond to one. He was thrilled, since he didn’t know I bought the eggs for him in Banff (I’ll save them for later). He was so excited that the cashier gave it to us for a discounted price and he loved the “gear” (a top with a marker in it) that was inside the egg. We walked around town a bit more to look at a totem pole and an old locomotive. Desmond taught me all about the engine (he was imagining the facts; he doesn’t know nearly as much about trains as he does clocks).

Desi and Tommy in a clock tower

Grandpa giving Desi a Kinder Surprise Egg

Shopping in Jasper

Totem pole in Jasper

View of downtown Jasper

Desi teaching me about trains

We headed over to Whistlers campground, which was my favorite campground of the trip. The campground was huge, but the sites were wooded with picnic tables and fire rings (finally!). They even had wood to burn, so Tommy and Dad (and Desi) picked up some wood to burn. Desmond was happy to find some wood balance beams and stumps to play on and I grabbed some glitter glue for him to play with at the table. He loved creating pictures with it. Then we got out the bubbles, which both kids had fun looking at and chasing. We really got Trudy laughing looking at the bubbles. We all enjoyed some s’mores after Dad grilled us some chicken thighs. Mom and I enjoyed the long northern daylight and sat around the fire until it started to get dusky, around 10:30 p.m.

Collecting wood for our fire

Drawing with glitter glue

Mmm... sticky marshmallowy goodness

Yes, this will make roasting marshmallows easier

Mom blows bubbles for the kiddos

Desi catching bubbles

Trudy is in love with bubbles

Day 8: Shelby, MT to Banff, Alberta

Another long day of driving took us into Canada. I was chastised by the border guard by calling the letter Z zee. He told me in Canada, I must call it zed. Haha. The crossing was fairly uneventful, and Dad was annoyed he followed the rules and threw out our leftover meat, since they didn’t even ask about it. We drove towards Calgary and Desi began to melt down as Trudy woke up and was crying, too. Tommy convinced Dad to stop because the kids just needed a break. We grabbed lunch at Subway and Desmond enjoyed picking dandelions and blowing the fuzz everywhere.

We went on through Calgary, Alberta’s most populous city and stopped again to pick up groceries and some Canadian currency. Desmond immediately spotted the clock towers on our 20 dollar bills and a woman outside the bank told us it was the Peace Tower. Desmond continued to complain about his seat and we discussed switching Desmond’s carseat to a different position because he kept complaining that it was “too tight” and once he was located at the couch along the side of the RV, rather than at the dinette, he was much happier. He now faced the TV and I noticed he was at a better angle that did not put all his weight on his crotch. The rest of the day’s driving was better. I think he was a lot more comfortable.

Two pics of beautiful Banff, with the Rockies in the distance.

Our destination was Banff and we arrived around dinnertime. We stopped for gas in town and most of us realized we’d like to spend the evening in town looking at shops and eating dinner in a restaurant. We headed up to find a campsite in the Tunnel Mountains first and were pleased to find it was a really nice campground and we were located just next to the bathrooms. This was nice because we were really in bear, cougar, wolf, and coyote country. When you’re camping in places like this, you see lots of warnings not to leave out your food. In fact, you have to keep anything scented or anything that touched food inside a hard-sided camper and not in tents.

We walked over to the shuttle stop to catch the bus back into town and chatted up a nice British couple. Desmond was excited to meet some people from England, where his favorite cartoon character, Peppa Pig is from. They pointed out a female elk nearby and we walked over to snap some pictures of her resting in the shade. We were able to get very close; I think she would have let us walk right up to her (Dad assumed she was in labor) and Desi tried to, but I didn’t think that was the best idea.

Momma Elk

On the bus into town

We took the bus into Banff (free on the way down, $2 back up) and walked over to the clock tower we spotted when we drove into town. The clock tower was part of Clock Tower Village Mall, a Swiss Chalet-style building that also contained Banff Avenue Brewing Company, which was where we decided to eat dinner. We sampled the beers brought to us by our Australian waiter and I was thrilled to order a giant order of delicious, traditional poutine (French fries with beef gravy and cheese curds). If you’ve never had poutine, you are really missing out. It’s a French-Canadian thing, which I first fell in love with in Montreal, Canada a few years ago. I’ve found it at a few places in Cleveland since then, but was happy to see it on the menu. I ordered a black pilsner to go along with it. Tommy got a sampler and I tried each beer. Their beers were pleasant and it was nice not to have to cook dinner.

At Banff Ave Brewing Co.

POUTINE!!!!!

The town of Banff was bustling, mostly with Millennials, but also some families and other tourists. Tommy said it reminded him of an American ski town like Vale or Aspen. I’ve never been to either city, so I can’t say how accurate that is. The town has a lot of restaurants and some bars and a lot of tourist shops and some outdoors stores. It’s set in the Canadian Rockies and you can see snowy mountain peaks just beyond the town. We walked around a bit and popped into a candy shop, where I was excited to find Kinder Surprise Eggs. Desmond watches videos of people opening these Italian chocolate candy eggs that contain toys, but they are illegal in the US (choking hazard, I guess), so we planned to hunt them out in Canada. I bought two and will surprise him with them later.

Wildlife spotting in a tourist shop

The clock towers of Banff

OMG!!! Every silly clock imaginable!

A statue in town

Dad was about to crash after the long day of driving, so he and Mom took the bus back to our camp with Trudy. Desmond and I wanted to explore the town (so did Mom, I think, but she didn’t want to leave Dad alone), so we said we’d take the next bus back in another 40 minutes. We popped in and out of tourist shops and Desmond tried to find as many clocks as he could within them. When it was time to catch the bus, Tommy said he wanted to find a bathroom and I had a bit of a panic when I was at the bus stop with Desmond, the bus was there, and Tommy was nowhere in sight. Desmond cried about leaving without Daddy and just then I saw Tommy jogging towards us and the driver kindly said he would wait. It was ten o’clock in the evening when we caught the bus and there was still some sunlight, since we were now so much farther north. The extra daytime is great for allowing us some extra time to see the areas we will be exploring. We arrived back at the RV and Trudy was asleep. We hung out a bit and went to bed.