Waiting for the Fire to be Put Out!

Monday, Sept 4 - Yosemite National Park

Kind of a slow day today. The road to Yosemite Valley is still closed, so I decided to drive out the Tioga Pass road to Tuolomne Meadows and see the north end of the park. In the picture to the left, you can see Half Dome off in the distance in the middle of the frame. Climbing that is the main objective for Yosemite.

Tenaya Lake (right and below) is a really pretty lake along the Tioga Pass road.

Tuolomne Meadows (below) is along the road near the end. Its a popular destination for hikers as there are a number of day hikes that originate from there to other area lakes and destinations. I ate breakfast instead of hiking.

Didn't do much the rest of the day. Still a bit frustrated to not be able to get into Yosemite Valley, I relaxed in camp most of the day reading a book.

The Road to Yosemite

Sunday, Sept 6, Washington, Oregon, and California

Long drive today from Mount Rainier toward Yosemite. I planned to stop around Shasta Lake in northern California, but couldn't find any campgrounds other than RV parks. Mount Shasta (left) was about the only decent view along the way. I'd already been to most of the stops in Oregon (e.g., Bend, Klamath Falls) so I didn't bother to do much on my way through Oregon.

Since I couldn't find a campsite along the way, decided to press on all the way to Yosemite. Started driving at 6:30 that morning and didn't get into Yosemite until after midnight with one short stop for breakfast about thirty minutes into the trip.

Upon arrival in Yosemite, I learned that a fire was burning and that the road to Yosemite Valley was closed, so I started driving into the north end of the park to find a campsite. About 10-20 miles into the park, I had run across two campsites, both closed (presumably due to the fires) and was beginning to get a little tired when I finally found a campsite. Later learned that the fire had been intentionally set by the National Park Service and it had gotten out of their control, been burning for three weeks and consumed like one hundred thousand acres - your tax dollars at work!

(Can't) Sea to Sky Highway, Car Repairs and Mount Rainier (or is that Rain-ier?)

Saturday, Sept 5, Washington State

The Sea to Sky Highway between Whistler and Vancouver is supposed to be one of the most beautiful drives anywhere. Unfortunately, it was raining this morning and foggy, so it was a bit like my Icefields Parkway drive of a couple of days ago, but with even worse brakes.

So I get into Vancouver about ten in the morning and start googling for car repair places, but none the chains I know were in operation in Canada and the few auto repair places I found weren't open on Saturday, so I decided to head to the border.

The border crossing took at least an hour, all the time my brakes and wheels are seizing up everytime I move forward the twenty feet as another car gets through. I just know its going to completely lock up right there in the middle of a sea of a thousand cars -but it didn't.

The border agent was nice and asked to inspect my car, which was stuffed to the gills with camping stuff. I warned him that if he opened a door, stuff might fall out, but he did anyway and sure enough a big bag of dirty clothes spilled out right there on the international demarcation line. At that point, he decided he'd done enough inspection and he let me pass on through back to the home of the free, the brave, and reasonably priced nachos -thank goodness.

A short trip to Bellingham, Washington and a stop to a Sears (fine American brand) Auto Service, several hundred dollars and several hours, and my brakes are back in working order.

Due to the automotive delays, I didn't make it into Portland as planned and instead spent the night camping near Mount Rainier, which lived up to its name, since it rained nearly the entire time I was there. Can't you see it (left) through all those clouds? I'm sure its beautiful.

Anyway, the campsite said that someone would come around to collect the fee, but they must not like the rain (strange that they work there) and never came around, so I got another free night's sleep - money that will go to pay for the new brakes.

Golf and Car Sleeping in Whistler, BC

Friday, Sept 4, British Columbia, Canada

Drove with my bad brakes several hundred miles through the mountains toward Whistler, BC.

The pictures below were taken along the way. During the entire day I never really left the mountains and was always driving along some river or by some lake, so it was a really beautiful drive the entire day and took my mind off the fact that my car sounded so bad.

After arriving safely in Whistler, I headed straight to the auto repair shop - oops I mean golf course for a round of sunset golf at Whistler Golf Club (below). Still expensive, but not outrageous after 5pm. Got in 14 holes before it was too dark to even find my ball in the fairway, at which time I quit.

After golf, headed to a cool Irish pub in Whistler for a couple of beers and some fish and chips.

The car is sounding really bad now and I am thinking that everyone must be hearing what I am hearing and wondering what is going on. After playing golf with two locals and them telling me how every tradesman in Whistler charges an arm and a leg (probably to pay for those pricey Canadien nachos), I decided to try and get to Vancouver to find a repair shop, so I headed to the one campsite in Whistler to spend the night.

I would heartily recommend Whistler, but not for camping. The one campsite was virtually full, but they claimed to have two open sites. I arrived after their office had closed, so I took their map and headed off to find them. With all the construction going on around Whistler (for the 2010 Winter Olympics), I drove around for probably 20-30 minutes looking for these stupid tent sites. I finally figured out that what I thought were roads on the map were really walking paths and you have to park your car in a central parking area and then walk in to find you site, then walk out to car and then schlep in all of your stuff. And a tent site was $40 - double what I had paid anywhere else. By this time, I was pretty frustrated with the whole operation and when I got back to my car, it started to rain, so I said to hell with it, climbed in my car, opened up my sleeping bag and went to sleep - didn't cost me a dime and I actually slept OK, probably thanks to those beers at the Irish pub.

Icefields Parkway in the Rain

Thursday, Sept 3, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Dropped Debbie back at the airport in Calgary and continued my journey west. The brakes were still sounding bad, but I decided to venture up the Icefields Parkway anyway - ever the optimist (yeah, right), I figured it was just some dirt and they would be fine.


Unfortunately, the entire first half of the trip was a washout with heavy rain and fog, so I didn't get to stop at one of my destinations, which was Peyto Lake.

When I got to the Columbia Icefield (left), the rain finally stopped and I could get out and take a picture of the Athabasca Glacier and a couple of others viewable from the Icefield Visitor's Center. There are a total of nice glaciers that flow out of that one icefield, which is 325 square miles in size. Think of a giant high mountain lake (just frozen) with nice rivers flowing out of it in all directions and you pretty much have the Columbia Icefield.


The melt from the Athabasca Glacier forms the Sunwapta River, which flows north toward the Arctic Ocean. To the right is the Sunwapta Falls.





In the flat areas, the river branches out into bunches of little rivlets that run every which way (below).


A little farther north and you get to the Athabasca Falls on the same Sunwapta River.

Next stop was Jasper, a quite little town at the far north end of Jasper National Park. Stopped into the Jasper Brewing Company for a couple of pints of IPA and chicken wings (since I can't afford those pricey Canadien nachos).

We can finally call it "The Springs"

Wednesday, Sept 2, Banff Springs Hotel


We decided to stay one extra day and move up to the Banff Springs Hotel. We got an inexpensive (comparatively) room with a nice view of the mountains as well as the roof wind turbines.

But, we're finally paying guests at "The Springs" instead of tourists!






Nice view from the pool. We were looking at some of the hotel's history and read about people that arrived on the train at the beginning of summer with letters of credit for $50K to spend three or four months at the hotel. $50K in the early 1900s was a pile of cash, but it must have been nice to laze around this place for the entire summer.





Here's Bob soaking up the rays!












About the only wildlife we saw while in Banff.

All in all, a beautiful, cool old hotel in a really picturesque setting. If you get to Banff, at least walk through the place and have a drink out on the terrace or get one of the nice (but not fancy) rooms with views of the wind turbines so you can call it The Springs too.

Tuesday, Sept 1, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Plan for today was to drive up the Icefields Parkway toward Jasper and the Columbia Ice Field. On the way out of town drove up a road that overlooked the Banff Springs.

Driving out to the Icefields Parkway, you have to stop to let them check to see if you have a valid pass to be in the park. Slowing down to this checkpoint, my brakes were making a horrible noise. So we decided it was best not to venture too far out onto the parkway with potentially bad brakes, so the Crowfoot Glacier (right) is about as far as we got before we turned back.

On the way back, we stopped at Moraine Lake (left and below), another beautiful lake not too far from Lake Louise. There are ten peaks that surround Moraine Lake (below) but I could only get about five of them in the picture.

After Moraine Lake, we headed back to Lake Louise to the Glacier Saloon to finish the beers we didn't get to a couple of days ago. The flowers below are from the Fairmount Chateau.

This menu (below) cracked us up. Everything in Banff is a bit overpriced, but their nachos were simply over the top. For $21.95 you don't even get chicken on your nachos! Its corn chips and cheese - how difficult can it be? Apparently in Canada its viewed as some exotic delicacy from abroad.