California, Here we Come

As we approached the Oregon/California border this morning, the sky was clear and Mount Shasta was visible from miles away. What a welcome back to our home state! Just a few days now and we'll be back home. Maybe another blog or two to wrap things up, so please don't quit reading quite yet!

Central Washington State Adventures

After crossing the Canadian/US border without even the loss of an apple, we continued to discover some Washington beauties, and we don't mean apples in this case. Lake Chelan presented its silky surface and crowning mountains on a blue-sky day. A few days later, on a day trip to Mount Rainier, we again had breathtaking scenery and crisp blue skies. I had to laugh at all the warm hats, gloves, and jackets I toted (recalling the visits to glaciers in Alberta!) as we hiked in short sleeves!

Roadside museums continue to attract us, some of the very best being the Yakima Nation Cultural Center, where there is also an excellent restaurant, and the unexpectedly high quality agricultural museum at Moro, Oregon, on Highway 97. Maryhill Museum and "Stonehenge" on the Columbia River were also rare finds, though the latter still leaves me puzzled at the idiosyncrasies of some folks .

Now in central Oregon and peering southward beyond Klamath Falls into California in a couple of days.

Lesser Known Lovely Spots in the British Columbia region of National Parks, eh?

This is a little lake at the summit of Mt. Revelstoke.

While Banff and Lake Louise and Jasper are the crown jewels of the Canadian Rockies, we have not been disappointed with lesser known treasures like Yoho, Kootenay, and Glacier and Revelstoke. Lovely hikes and far fewer people, too. Spent two days in Revelstoke and were lucky enough to use the one day of sun to go to the peak of Mt. Revelstoke.

(The rainy day we spent at museums and doing the basic housekeeping and repairs of trailer and selves.)

We were intrepid enough to take the trailer down a three-mile rutted road to spend the night at Kinbasket Lake, just because it sounded lovely, and indeed, in the morning, after a night of solid rain, the lake sparkled and we decided it was worth the effort.

Now in the Okanagan Valley, the mountains give way to rolling hills, the glaciers are replaced with emerald green farm fields, and our Canadian adventure is slowly coming to a close as we approach the Canadian/US border in a day or two. To celebrate our journey, we discovered a fabulous Greek restaurant--Dorian's Greek restaurant-- in Vernon, B.C. where Ray had the opportunity to exercise his Greek in an extended conversation with the owners and chef. And we have left-overs of the Moussaka and ribs enough for at least another meal!

Lake Louise & Canadian Rockies

On Bow Valley Parkway there is a spot known as Morant's Curve, named for a reputed photographer for the Candian Pacific Railroad--here is my rendition of train at curve (please note the umbrella of the REAL photographer known as Ray, lower right.

The scenery rocks--in all manner of ways! Mountain peaks, turquoise lakes, and recently a visit to the location of the Burgess Shale, site of the Cambrian Explosion of arthropods. Very interesting to visit our 500,000 year old ancestors, and they do look funny, which explains a lot, right?

Jasper National Park, Alberta

We continue to roll along merrily, more often these days getting held up for a while to accommodate the weather, which had been rainy and very unpredictable--this morning the temperature in the Funfinder was barely a chilly 40 degrees F. Much hiking to many beautiful mountains and turquoise lakes occupies most of our time. A day trip to the Icefields was chilly and spectacularly amazing (told you I should have brought my Thesaurus along!). (Now if I can just download my photos before the Intenet cafe chases me out, you can see for yourselves!)

The ice cap is more than 750 fett in certain areas, and the average annual snowfall on the Columbia Icefield is over 21 feet (seven meters--did I do the conversion approx close?)