In southern BC we saw countless fruitstands, one on top of another. Since it was only May, none were open yet, but there certainly would be no shortage in the summer!
We decided to have lunch in Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park that day, and we did hike up to the falls even though the weather was grey, and rainy. It was only a short walk, and well worth it - the falls were beautiful even in the rain, and really did look like a bride's veil.
This park was not too far from Vancouver, and presumably gets a lot of rain, and is often wet. There certainly was moss everywhere, covering trunks and branches of many trees.
This is the falls again, from outside the park. This is only the top, we actually couldn't see this part when at the base of the water fall.
When I went out west with my family 8 years ago, the Sea to Sky highway was a very nice drive. However, Rob and I didn't enjoy it much, as we were hampered by rain, construction, and our RV started acting up more severely. Rob had been fighting the transmission really since we had picked it up - it rarely decided correctly whether it wanted to be in drive or overdrive. Now it started stalling - we stopped to have a look at the scenery, and while idling it would just stall.
The Sea to Sky highway - clouds + rain + construction
It was a bit clearer for a while, so we did get to see the Sea - this is the Pacific Ocean, between the mainland, and Vancouver Island, although that is not the Island that you see.
We arrived in Whistler, and located the one and only campground there. There are countless resorts, hotels, chalets and the like, but only one campground. As such, they charged an exorbitant fee to park for the night. However, we did want to spend Wednesday in Whistler, and with the RV misbehaving, we decided it was best to just stay there anyways. We both spent quite some time on the phone - first me, since our mastercard was refused. We had sort of been expecting this, since we were using it so far from home. However, that wasn't the problem, apparently they had some serious issues where all cards were being refused. That was easily enough resolved. Then Rob spent some time calling the RV place, to determine how and where we could get our RV fixed. Not much progress was made on this (since it was about 7:00pm local time). So, we simply had to wait until the morning to see what would happen.
We did sleep well that night - and we better have - for the money we paid for that campsite :). Wednesday morning we were up early again (our bodies were a little confused about what time it was, haing switched time zones twice already). Rob went back to the phone booth, and arrangements were made with a local mechanic to look at the RV. We were thankful that there was a local mechanic with time to look at it, although it still did cause us to change our plans. Our only consolation was that the weather was still quite lousy. Anyways, we took it to the mechanic at about 10 am and were informed it would be at least an hour before he could begin to look at it. He advised us of a cafe up the street. We headed towards that when we noticed a bus stop and had the idea of taking the bus into Whistler Village - then we could go through with our original plans of spending the day in Whistler. So, we did that.
We had planned to take the gondola up Whistler mountain, since the view from up there was spectacular 8 years ago. However, this is what we saw from the base of the gondola - we could hardly see up the mountain at all.
We thought the view would likely not be that great, and decided to wait until we got to Jasper, and go up the tramway there, hopeful that the weather would be better. We wandered around Whistler Village for awhile, and ate lunch. Thankfully the RV was repaired by the time we finished lunch, so we took the bus back to pick it up, and left Whistler.
We didn't drive very far that day - if we had driven non-stop it would have only been about 2 hours. As it was, we stopped a lot, so it took a long time, but we saw some beautiful sights.
One of those sights was a black bear! We saw about 5 or 6 black bears during our trip, but this was our best opportunity for pictures. This bear was just eating grass at the side of the road, and he didn't really seem to notice us. He would sit down and eat, get up and move, lay down. We watched him for quite a while.
We also stopped at some waterfalls, lakes (including a frozen one) along the way. The weather cleared up too, and it was a lovely afternoon.
That night we stayed in a town called Lilloet. It was in a rather desert-like area - everything looked rather drab.
On Thursday, we continued our northwesterly journey towards the Alberta border and Edmonton. Our goal for Thursday was to get to Blue River. This was about 5 or 6 hours of driving time, but we stopped frequently, so it took quite a bit longer than that.
We had lunch in Green Lake Provincial Park. The lake was very calm, and as you can see in the second picture, it really was green.
As we were driving along, we noticed that a large number of the coniferous trees were brownish-red in colour, and wondered if that was the type of tree or if the tree was sick or dying.
It turns out the trees are sick and dying. Over the last number of years, British Columbia has had a major infestation of mountain pine beetles, and they are wreaking havoc on the forests. In 2005, over 7 million hectares of forest had been affected - that is an area the size of New Brunswick. About 2/3 of BC is covered in forest, and 25% of that is 'lodgepole pine forest', which is vulernable to attacks from these beetles. These beetles infect the tree, and the first year, everything looks fine, but the beetles have laid their eggs under the bark. The second year, the beetles cut off the supply of water and nutrients, causing the tree to die, and the needles to turn red. A year later, the needles fall off, and those are the trees that look grey, and even pink/purple.
There are a number of reasons why there is such a severe infestation of the beetles. Beetles are a natural part of the forest life cycle, but not in such numbers. However, there are currently a higher percentage of older trees, due to better forest fire control. The beetles like trees that are at least 80 years old. Secondly, for the last 10 -12 years, winters have not had severe cold spell lasting at least 2 weeks, and that's what is required to kill the beetle larvae. Thirdly, several years of hot, dry summers have left the trees weaker than they might otherwise be, and thus more susceptible to the beetle.
For small infestations, a battle can be fought, to spray the trees, and the like. For an infestation this large, there isn't much the forestry industry can do except wait it out, and try to forest the dead trees as soon as possible, as the timber will still be valuable, less fuel for forest fires, and speeds the regeneration process. (The above information was obtained from a plaque on a turnout we stopped in.)
The weather on Thursday was very nice too - sunny, and quite warm. We arrived in Blue River late in the afternoon, and secured a campsite. We were getting close to the Rockies again, and the snow-covered mountains were beautiful!
This mountain was used for heli-skiing - Blue River's claim to fame. Blue River actually receives a lot of snow - more than the surrounding areas, so it is popular for skiing.
The town itself was not very noteworthy. Since Rob and I had arrived at our campsite earlier in the day, we had time to walk into the village of Blue River. It was 4 streets by 4 streets, and included a Post Office, school, general store, etc. Some houses were respectable, but many were complete disasters. In this picture, the yellow house is boarded up, but the white house would have to be considered one of the more respectable looking buildings.
We also noticed that many houses were for sale - but who would buy them? There can't be much to do to earn a living in Blue River, unless you work for the heli-skiing operation.
The general store there was in the same building as the original store built in 1922, right across from the railway tracks.
We enjoyed at ice cream from the General Store, and then walked back to our campsite for the night.
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