We left Tofino in the morning wet tent packed in the back of the car. The route across the island is slower than usual these days as a result of a major landslide last year at Kennedy Lake. The massive project to rebuild the road to its former self means one lane traffic and scheduled passage through the construction site. We were delayed only about a half hour and continued on to Nanaimo where we caught the ferry to Horseshoe Bay. We met some of my partner’s family there, had a delightful dinner at the local fish and chips restaurant and continued on to Squamish for the night.
The drive up the Sea to Sky Highway is a mesmerizing drive. The road hugs the mountainside and undulates around Howe Bay, giving gorgeous views of the surrounding snow caps and sea. We have no pictures of the drive as we were too busy driving and we we didn’t have time to stop. We arrived in Squamish and checked in to the Adventure Inn a hostel and hotel complex on the edge of town. A warm bed meant we didn’t have to depend on our wet tent. We hung up our wet items around the property to the amusement of the other guests.
The next morning we had coffee with my partner’s cousin and headed up the rest of the Sea to Sky toward Whistler. We stopped at the site if a 1956 train crash and browsed the graffitied boxcars. Cool spot to check out.
We bypassed the Whistler tourist trap as quickly as possible and instead had lunch in Pemberton, a picturesque hipster town a short hop from Whistler. We continued on to Lilooet, a village of some interest to my family from decades ago (when we stayed at the Benedictine monks’ cottage) on hwy 99 and then to Kamloops to catch hwy 5 up the long Thompson River valley to Clearwater.
We spent the night deep in Wells Gray Provincial Park – a full 67 km off the highway. The campsite was nice but probably not worth the long drive into the wilderness. That said we got to see a black bear.
The next morning on our way out of the park, we visited the impressive Helmcken Falls which warranted a few photos and rejoined hwy 5 for a dazzling drive through the Thompson River valley. The highway brought us through gorgeous countryside where the most significant traffic was on the adjacent CN rail line. Along here there is no cell service, just the wild wilderness of approaching Rockies. The most notable peaks were Terry Fox mountain and Mount Robson, an imposing monster of a peak.
We reached the gorgeous village of Jasper, one of our favourite towns in Canada, where we bought provisions before settling down at Wapiti campsite. The region has been decimated by pine beetles meaning our campsite, which would have been a wooded paradise 10 years ago, was now a moonscape. Still, the surrounding mountains and the Athabasca River were an unbelievable tapestry.
We spent the next day exploring the area, first taking the gondola up Whistlers Peak and the hiking the final kilometre in the clouds to the summit. We sat patiently in the obscurity and sure enough there would be brief breaks in the clouds to see the neighbouring mountains. It was surreal. We had a pleasant meal back at the gondola station of bison chili and poutine before taking the gondola down.
We spent a brief time at Jasper Lodge, Jasper’s answer to the opulent Banff Springs Hotel but with a better landscape. We were a bit disappointed in the hike around the lake so we abandoned that for a better plan.
We regrouped and took a stunning hike to Old Fort Point Summit which had breathtaking views of the surrounding peaks. We were also treated to a visit by some horned sheep who seemed to have no shyness around humans. The most remarkable thing was they were so comfortable with us they lay down in the grass while we took pictures. Tomorrow we leave Jasper and travel through Canada’s cathedral, the Icefields Parkway.
sedativegunk 