Last year was going to be the year, but there were still too many restrictions on, so it was this year that my best friend came over for another of our crazy travel adventures. Ever since he caught a glimpse of BC in 2018, he’d been wanting more, and I’d been wanting to show him, so here we are!
Some of these pictures are from his camera; some are from my new phone (and a couple are from his phone). I really like having a panorama function now! Choosing pictures was really really hard though! (for the full unlabelled photo experience click here)
His plane flight over worked out really well time-wise – he left Amsterdam Schiphol at 3pm, and arrived in Vancouver at 3pm (9 hour flight across 9 time zones!). We were worried about personnel shortages causing delays, but there none and he arrived in Victoria at 6 as planned.
Flying over the Rocky Mountain Trench, a huge geological divide which contains the Columbia River and Golden among many other things.
But they fed him too well on the plane so he didn’t need dinner when he got here. The next day we didn’t have any plans, but we ended up walking downtown so I could pick up a few things like my new summer dress that was getting adjusted (we ended up both buying two First Nations-designed facemasks too! he has an eagle and a raven, and I have an orca and an octopus) and we got Superbaba (Middle Eastern food) for lunch and looked at Christ Church Cathedral, and then we walked in the other direction to the Dutch import store where the owner guessed from his shirt and his face that he was Dutch and they had a nice conversation.
The next day, Friday, we got up early because we were going on a guided hike at East Sooke Park. We walked by the Chinatown gate on our way (and had a brief encounter with an annoying seagull). There was one other lady on the hike with us. We took so many pictures of everything that we ended up doing the short (3km) hike instead of the long (6 km) option. We saw two little hermit crabs in a tidepool and speculated on the geology of the region from all the different rock colours and textures.
The path through the remains of the farm to the more natural park
A beautiful example of an arbutus tree, which sheds its bark twice a year to photosynthesize, once to reveal this red layer, and then later again to reveal a green layer
This is a very typical BC shoreline – very steep off the water with lots of firs and arbutus at the top.
These tiny succulents among the mosses were so cute!
Arbutus
This beach had many black volcanic stones, but the sand was a lot more pale. The next beach was only stones, and after that a beach with dark sand that matched the stones. There was a lot of variety in just a couple hundred metres.
This super-cool spongy structure comes from this driftwood log being nibbled by gribbles, little wood-eating seabugs, though we didn’t know what caused it until we went to the RBCMuseum later in the trip and they mentioned gribbles. I’m not sure why it’s terraced like that though.
This tidepool was so full of snails! It also had two hermit crabs running around under the seaweed, but I don’t think any of the pictures we managed to take of them were in focus sadly.
There was a marine layer (haze) that together with the clouds covered our view of the Olympic Mountains across the strait.
Finding lichens and fungi like these were really cool! They look spongy but they’re actually almost as hard as wood.
This beautiful flower is called Ocean Spray, and we were there at a perfect time to see it blooming. We also saw lots of other plants like salal and other things I don’t remember.
I don’t remember what this was called, but it’s very fun. There was a whole bed of them alongside the path. Bees were hanging out on them.
We went to my parents’ for dinner, and my brother and his fiancée came as well, and my mom made a salmon paté appetizer and my dad barbecued a beercan chicken. We had Nanaimo bars for dessert because that’s a Canadian thing and we gotta show off all the Canada that we can.
The next day, we got up early again so we could take a ferry to Vancouver! On the ferry we had brunch and it was the first time Tharash had Eggs Benedict. We were a bit concerned about doing too many things, because we had planned: drive to a specific Japanese store to see if they have obi and accessories for my kimono; go to the Bill Reid Gallery; go to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. But we did have the time and energy for all of these things! I bought a new green silk formal obi, and I think it will work better than the yukata obi I had previously. They didn’t have any accessories, though. Maybe I will have to buy those online.
The Bill Reid Gallery was very nice, even though only a small part of it was of Bill Reid’s art specifically. The rest was of other First Nations artists from across the country. We took a little time to walk around, had a snack at a chocolate cafe called Mink, had a look at Canada Place (featured in ME3, and at the time of our visit hosting a Dutch cruise ship by coincidence). The Museum of Anthropology we had to look at a bit more quickly and not read every single tag on every single item, since we only had about an hour and a half before it closed. It had more Bill Reid stuff.
The plaza with the chocolate shop. This became very busy after we left, by the time we came back through heading back to the car. I’m glad to see places like this in downtown Vancouver, because my impression of it is that it’s not a very friendly metropolis and this helps dispel that.
Massive potlatch serving dishes in the Museum of Anthropology. They didn’t really talk about what kind of food was served in them, which we were curious about.
Then we had to find our hotel, which was very difficult because of all the construction around UBC. We went in a loop about 5 times before we found a route to the building we were staying at. The room they gave us was very nice and had a full kitchen and everything, but only one bed. So they gave us a mattress (which Tharash insisted on sleeping on, despite my protests) because we’d been finding that having us both in the same bed, although it hadn’t caused problems on our previous trips, was not working out this time. At least in my case, I was worried about rolling around too much and keeping him awake, so my worry kept me awake. Anyway, we got Hawaiian food for dinner, and it had a strong resemblance to Japanese food actually.
The next day we did not get up so early; we had to go to a pharmacy really quick so Tharash could get a Covid test for arriving in the country (not really necessary, but he’d been selected for ‘random testing’ so whatever). This meant we didn’t have time to see the Vancouver Maritime Museum with the St. Roch in it, but we’ll see it next time. We got bagel sandwiches for lunch with Leslie and her fiancé, and we went to sit on the grass near Bard on the Beach but the geese had been through so we moved to a curb lol.
Bard was great as always; we went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream (because the only other big production was Romeo and Juliet and I don’t really like that one) and it was set in the 1920s but it was really excellent – the sets, the costumes, the choreography. Bottom was hysterically funny but everyone was great! Then we went and got Thai food with my aunt and sat on the grass at the beach (the Japanese restaurant wasn’t doing take-out that day for some reason).
The next day we got up really early and were on the road by 8:00am which was great because we got away from all the traffic! Which was mostly going into Vancouver and not out of it, but still. We took the scenic route (Hwy 1) up to Kamloops, doing what we did in 2018 backwards along the Fraser River. The Okanagan was very hot, especially when there was an accident in Salmon Arm that blocked the entire highway in both directions and took us like 30 minutes to move a couple km along a side road to get past it. We were very glad to start getting into the Rockies where it began to cool off again. We had smoothies in Revelstoke and that ended up being dinner because when we arrived in Golden, on first glance our campsite was really lovely, tucked in the trees by the river. BUT the entire place was entirely infested with mosquitoes and I went into a panic attack while setting up the tent because I did not drive all day just to get eaten alive by bugs. And then the freight train across the river ran at random times all night long, creating a massive wall of sound or at least really avant-garde music. I think I had about 70 mosquito bites when I got home. Fortunately they weren’t very itchy. Tharash had more because in general he preferred to sit outside where the air was a bit cooler and get bitten, and I preferred to be in the tent (since my body temperature is a bit cooler naturally, I didn’t mind it being a bit warm) and not get bitten. But by the time we got everything set up that night, I was too tired and upset to go out for dinner so we just went to bed.
Our lunch spot was just a pull-over on the side of the highway in the Interior.
Looking east along the Kicking Horse River, which ran right by the campground. It’s very fast and very pale with sediment. Across the river are the traintracks.
The next day we went to Glacier National Park to do the Great Glacier Trail, and it was pretty tough. A sign quoted some early tourist describing the area as “50 Switzerlands in one”. Just like the first hike, we stopped very frequently to take pictures of everything, but also I am out of shape and I don’t like hills either up or down. I think it was 8km, approximately, and the internet said it should take about 2.5 hours… it took me 5 hours. My feet were okay by the end of it, but my knees were pretty stiff with the up and the down, especially the down. The first part was pretty reasonable but the last half-km kicked up to be super steep; I had to take rest breaks every other bend in the path and only the burning desire to see what the view was like from around the next bend in the path kept me going. But I’m glad that I did. On the way down we met a couple coming up who hadn’t gotten to the hard part yet, and the lady was already about to give up. I tried to encourage her; I hope she did okay.
A view through the trees along the bottom part of the trail, which is where the Canadian Pacific Railway used to run. There was a huge resort in this valley in the late 19th century, but it’s all gone except for a couple bits and pieces of foundation now. When we walked through, the aspens were scattering fluffy downy seeds that caught the sunlight. It was extremely magical.
Selfie at the bottom of the hike, let’s go!
There were several very energetic streams that the path crossed; the higher we climbed, the better we saw where they came from.
We had lunch in this riverbed. There were a ton of tiny little black-and-white and white-and-black butterflies here.
This is a big ol’ pile of glacial debris. Crazy to think of these rocks just being shoved and dragged along by ice.
Pretty little streams are also mosquito breeding grounds. : P
The view back north towards the mountains across the valley.
Panorama of the entire east side of the valley.
I love these patchwork lichens taking over every scrap of space on this rock, like little kingdoms.
None of these pictures really show how steep it was. We’re getting pretty high, though!
That waterfall on the right of the picture was quite noisy!
I MADE IT (he made it too but that was never in doubt lol)
There’s a big outcropping of stone at the end of the path which is incredibly oxidized – but more than that, it’s been pressed into these paper-thin layers that look like wood.
We also discovered that my new car is no better for going uphill than my old car was; I ended up driving very slowly up most hills (at least 20km below the speed limit) to avoid burning out my engine. If we ever do a mountain trip again, I’m renting a stronger car. I guess my car is like me, lol.
That evening Tharash cooked tabbouleh with the camp stove that we bought, and it was really good! Also the little stove worked very well; it was well worth the $30 or whatever that I paid for it.
The next day we went to Yoho National Park. And because you needed a Park Pass to visit this one, and I missed the place at the start of the park where you buy those, we went all the way to Lake Louise (the visitor centre at least) to buy it. So since in 2018 we were at Lake Louise in the evening and night fell very quickly after that, now Tharash has seen 100% of the mountains that he missed previously.
We returned to Lake O’Hara’s parking lot, only to find that the trail up to the lake is 11km just to get to the lake. The guide posted at the info sign suggested we go see Sherbrooke Lake (a 3km hike, much more reasonable for me) and Takakkaw Falls, and those were both excellent suggestions. There wasn’t really a place to eat lunch by Sherbrooke Lake, but we managed it anyway. There was a hiking group of seniors who came up behind us, and it was kind of nice for me because they all wanted to talk to the European and ask if he was having a good time here in Canada; I had nothing to add to this conversation. Tharash also saw a brief glimpse of mountain goat in the woods.
I liked these purple daisy things, with the common red paintbrush in with them
More paintbrush
Sherbrooke Lake looking north
Takakkaw Falls was super spectacular, and I gasped dramatically when it first came into view driving up the access road. And you can get right up to it, there’s a paved path so anyone can go. But even though it was busy, and the parking lot was full, it wasn’t too crowded. The spray from the falls drifted for hundreds of metres, and it was really refreshing with how hot the day was shaping up to be. The name of the falls is a Cree word meaning “it is magnificent” (and Yoho means “awe”).
The river below was fast, pale with sediment, and extremely cold – which was quite nice on such a hot day.
That evening we went to a pub in Golden for dinner called The Wolf’s Den, and it was really good food. I had a bison burger, and Tharash had an elk burger. I couldn’t quite finish mine, so Tharash finished it for me (he said it was tastier – it did have maple bacon jam in it!).
The next day we changed our plans. We had originally intended to go to Osoyoos, to see BC’s desert and the Nk’mip cultural centre, but since the interior was undergoing a heat wave and Osoyoos was looking at temps of at least 40 C, we decided to go to Whistler instead. So we went back to Kamloops (shortly after which a goat jumped across the highway right in front of me and gave me a heart attack), and then past it we took Hwy 99 to the coast. It was very narrow, and I pulled over a lot to let other traffic pass because first of all my car didn’t like the hills and second of all I wasn’t comfortable speeding on such a narrow winding road that I was not familiar with. But when we got to the super twisty steep parts, everyone was going slow so I could drive at my normal slow speed and not worry about it. It was very spectacular, even better than Hwy 1, if less practical. It was great to see the Coastal Mountains getting closer and snowier. Every turn seemed to show a new mountain with more snow on it. We stopped at the first campground we saw, and they had a space for a night. We were lucky it was a Thursday, because I bet if we’d come on a Friday everything would have been full. We were on a bit of a hill, and it was much more relaxed than our previous campsite for me – at least at first. Tharash made pasta for dinner. But then he decided to make tea at dusk, and then the mosquitoes came out ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. They were probably attracted to the heat of the stove.
We didn’t take many pictures of the drive, and certainly not of the scary twisty parts, but it felt so much more remote than the busier highways to the south.
Turns out American robins are very different from European robins!
The next day started out not great for me; I was super tired, and the artificial alpine village of Whistler was confusing and disorienting. Also I was tired of wearing my heavy hiking boots so I just wore my regular walking shoes for going up the mountain. But eventually we got gondola tickets and went up the gondolas in the order that they opened – Blackcomb, then Peak-2-Peak (the longest free-hanging gondola span in the world at about 3km), and then we had time for a better breakfast, and then up the Peak Express skilift which was quite thrilling. I didn’t dare take any pictures; I saw some dropped ski poles on the rocks, and we were like 3-4 stories high. While waiting in line for the Peak-2-Peak gondola, Tharash saw a bear, which disappeared before I saw it. But we did both see a marmot. We took one of the short trails, marvelling at the lingering snow and the vast valleys. I even went on the little suspension bridge. We could have stayed for longer, but I had only paid for so much parking (and we were late getting back to it – glad I didn’t get a ticket!).
Panorama of the entire view north of Whistler Mountain, including (R-L) Black Tusk, Mount Garibaldi, Castle Towers Mountain, and the Cheakamus Glacier. And an inukshuk tourist photo bait.
Someone kindly took a picture of us! Tharash is wearing his new First Nations eagle-design shirt.
This lump of leftover snow was so interesting with all the dust naturally-airbrushed onto it.
One thing that was amazing to feel up here was the amount of SPACE there was – there’s so much distance between us and the valley floor, between us and the other mountains, between us and the sky. Whistler is in the middle of the valley, but I find the two different-coloured lakes behind it very interesting. According to Google, the green lake is called Green Lake. However, the blue lake is called Alta Lake.
Then we drove the rest of the highway south, passing by the Britannia Beach mine which I remembered from a summer holiday my family did in 2000; we did get caught up in Vancouver rush-hour traffic but we were in plenty of time for the ferry. This one was larger than the one we had taken across the other way, so we could stand right at the front and watch the passage through the islands. And then we had Chinese take-out for dinner because neither of us felt like cooking or going out haha.
Wow, Jen! Both of your BC Adventure Trips were so well planned and obviously enjoyed!
I love all the descriptions, especially the notes about plants, trees, rocks and the terrain. The photography brought it all to life for me. Thanks for including those selfies!
(Sent to me by your Dad)
Thanks so much! I’m so glad you liked reading about it!