Vancouver

Today we hired bikes and rode around Stanley park (among other things). Having not been on a bike for a number of months, our back sides were in agony after a relatively short time. We pressed on regardless.Above is the Brockton Point Lighthouse with the Lion's Gate bridge in the background.

One thing you notice in B.C. and Alaska in particular is the obsession with totem poles! I know its native art blah blah blah, heritage.... Apparently, this cluster of totem poles in Stanley Park are part of the most visited heritage site in B.C.

After conquering Stanley Park, we continued along the inlet to the south of Vancouver Downtown to the far end. This "Golf Ball" was part of a World Expo & is now Science world. We chose not to go in because the write-ups on it didn't inspire us.

We continued around the inlet to Granville Island. I'm not too sure why its called an island because it isn't even nearly surrounded by water. The entire place is pretty much a big market. It's a bit like the Fremantle Markets back home. Some people really enjoy it, but its not my thing. I hate shopping and crowds so it has two black marks against it from me for starters.

After having a fairly average lunch there we headed back to town. We cheated by jumping on one of the little water taxis (see centre of photo above) that take you to the other side of the inlet for a couple of bucks. The way my rear was feeling, I wasn't about to ride the however many kms back around the inlet. We sat along the waterfront watching the world go by for an hour or so & happily handed the bikes back.

Overall, Vancouver is OK, but its more of a city of business than tourist place. I'm glad I've had a look around, but I would leave it off the list if I was short for time when travelling. Vancouver Island is far more interesting. We're off there tomorrow.

Vancouver

We had some unfinished business in Vancouver from a year ago so we are spending a couple of days there on the way to Vancouver island. One of the things on the to-do list was to go to the
Vancouver Lookout (Vancouver's answer to the Calgary Tower or Sydney's Centre Point). Every second city seems to have one these days.  It wasn't anything too spectacular, but it was OK. Above is Burrard inlet with Stanley Park in the foreground, and the Lion's Gate Bridge in the background. You'll also notice a gas/petrol station in the middle of the inlet for boating customers. The inlet is a busy port & busy airport (sea planes). You can easily sit along the waterfront all day watching the world go by.

Here's proof that Vancouver has a busy sea plane port. Notice the aircraft control tower on top of the nearby building. I wouldn't say Burrard Inlet was as busy as Vancouver Airport, but it's still busy enough to need constant supervision. The aircraft take off & land just to the right of the tower.

This is the business end of Burrard Inlet. It's the biggest port on the west coast of Canada. There aren't many other options other than Prince Rupert. Notice the rail yards in the foreground as well. I'm guessing that most of that freight comes through Calgary or Jasper at some point. The white passenger trains are the Westcoast Express that brings commuters to & from the outskirts of greater Vancouver. The port facility you see is only the tip of the iceberg. The inlet runs quite far inland from what you can see & the industry follows.

We wandered around the city exploring some of the places we hadn't been before including the Gas Quarter.

We had a great view of the twilight from our hotel room.

It was pretty late when the sky finally almost went dark.

Marble Canyon

Bow Valley Parkway

This morning we opted to have a day with not too much walking. The Twin Falls hike has taken its toll. So we drove along the Bow Valley Parkway looking for animals and stopping along the way to take in the sights. At one of the lookout points, we were sitting, peacefully taking in the view when the peace was shattered by the Rocky Mountaineer bound for Kamloops & Vancouver.

Summer is in full swing and the wildflowers are in full bloom at the moment rushing to reproduce before winter takes back the mountains.

The elk around the valleys are busy growing antlers at the moment and this big boy had a decent point count. He was making the most of the fresh green grass while it lasts.

Marble Canyon.

Our plan was to do a couple of short walks in Kootenay National Park in B.C., Marble Canyon and the Paint Pots. They are only 3 kms apart just on the other side of the border, about 25 kms from Banff.

Marble Canyon has been closed to the public since a "Wild Fire" (Bush Fire in Aussie speak) ripped through this area back in 2003. This summer is the first time it has been open since the fire. It's at least on par with Maligne Canyon near Jasper for interest. At the deepest point it is 60m deep & is only 3m wide at the narrowest point.

More wild flowers. These are wild strawberries.

Paint Pots and Ochre Beds

Our second walk was to the Paint Pots. Along the trail to the paint pots you cross over the Vermilion River on a suspension bridge (above) & across the Ochre Beds (below).

The last 100m or so climbs up beside a small creek laden with iron & other minerals giving the soil a vibrant orange colour (below).

The paint pots aren't actually that interesting, but the walk up to them is worth the short stroll.

Twin Falls

Today, Kerri and I completed the 16km Twin Falls loop trail just over the B.C. border in Yoho National Park. The walk starts from the Takkakaw Falls car park and heads deep into Yoho Valley (above). (We came to Takkakaw Falls in July last year.)

The trail meandered through the forest initially before climbing up to get a view of the opposite side of the valley. Through a gap in the trees we saw Angel's Staircase (above).

Laughing Falls

Along the trail to Twin Falls, there are a number of other waterfalls worth having a look at. The most notable is Laughing Falls (above & below). Maybe it isn't the world's most spectacular waterfall, but it's certainly worth a rest stop en-route to Twin Falls.

Twin Falls

Here's the reason we walked 8 kms along a fairly steep trail at times. Twin Falls was definitely worth the walk. <Edit: Even 2 days later, our legs still hurt.> It was quite the nice scene to sit for a 1/2 hour and have lunch.

Twin Falls is quite remote and not accessible by any vehicle bigger than an ATV. Despite that, there's a fairly significant steel bridge that crosses the steam at the foot of the falls. On the other side of the bridge is the return part of the loop trail.

After a pleasant lunch at Twin Falls, we started out long trek back to the car. Instead of retracing our footsteps we continued along the loop past Marpole Lake (below). Just after we set off toward the lake, we crossed the path of this pretty little unnamed small creek cascading down the hillside.

Marpole Lake

We descended through the forest a little way down to Marpole Lake. Unfortunately it started raining just as we reached the lake so taking photos just wasn't on. As we climbed up along a scree slope, I was able to snap a shot or two back towards the lake.

Hoary Marmots

The scree slope seemed to go on for ever. The trail wasn't marked very well and it was quite a tricky climb. Near the top of the slope, we spotted a couple of hoary marmots sunning themselves on the roof of their house after the rain.

As we crept closer to the marmots (they were living on the side of the trail after all) we realized there were in fact 3 of them. I guess it isn't that surprising because they're the largest cousin of the ground squirrels that live in large families.

We managed to get right up close to these fury little animals (actually they're not that little). They are the same species as the one that we saw up in Alaska. The Alaskan version was a blue grey, whereas these were more brown.

Eventually the trail stopped climbing and we descended back into the valley. Just as the loop trail comes back together, there is a couple of small lakes. They especially interesting. Above is Lake Duchesney.

As we broke out of the forest and across an avalanche chute half a kilometre from the car park, we could get a good look at Takakkaw Falls cascading nearly 180m off the escarpment in front of us.
It had been a tough, yet rewarding day despite the cloud and occasional shower. There are many interesting hikes like this one in the Rockies waiting for us to conquer.

Grande Prairie Surrounds

Today Shawn took me for a tour around his patch. He has family scattered all around the general vicinity and dropped in on a few of them during our rounds.
Grande Prairie is surrounded by lots of lakes and we stopped in on a couple of the nicer ones.

Saskatoon Lake

Monday morning, after a bit of a sleep in back in Grande Prairie, Shawn took me for a cook's tour of the general area. We set off west initially with the first stop, Saskatoon Lake. It wasn't a big lake but there was no shortage of bird life. These Franklin's Gulls lined the shore, picking off insects etc.
Before I came to North America, I thought there was only one type of Seagull. How wrong I was.
There were a bunch of water birds out on the lake as well.

Beaver Lodge (the town)

Grande Prairie is along the route the Americans take to Alaska. The residents of the area decided to build this tourist attraction, The Big Beaver. So apparently the Canadians do have a sense of humour.

Farms

Bison Farming

Many of the local farmers grow canola around Grande Prairie. It seems to be a good option with the short summers that far north. So many of the fields looked like this one. The yellow was so vibrant and was such a welcome change after the drab white and brown of winter.

Bison have proven to be very difficult to photograph in the wild on account of the fact that they've been hunted out of the wild and are now in isolated populations on fenced reserves. The odd thing is that the farmers in the north seem to farm them in favour of beef cattle. Since this is their natural habitat, they can withstand the harsh winter way better than the imports.

There is a downside to farming bison. They're a bit of a handful to move. They don't like people and they don't like being antagonized. They can run quite fast and if they don't like you, they give you a head butt that you aren't likely to recover from. This big bull didn't take kindly to me getting out of the car and taking photos of him. He was sitting chewing his cud when we arrived, but soon stirred up the dust, stood up and gave me a nasty look. I didn't stick around to test his patience. The rest of his herd in the adjoining paddock had a lot less attitude.

The Wild Rose.

The Alberta state flower is the Wild Rose. Being much smaller than your garden variety rose, they don't attract the same attention. Having said that, the can survive the brutal winters buried under snow.

Dunvegan Provincial Park

About 90 kms north of Grande Prairie is Dunvegan Provincial Park. It straddles Peace River. As you approach the park you greeted to this sight. It was a lot like the Golden Gate Bridge, but much smaller and painted more imaginatively. You will notice the hillsides are carpeted with yellow. Its wild mustard. Canada is such a beautiful place in summer.

A real Beaver Lodge

On the way back to Grande Prairie, we stopped at this huge beaver lodge with the hope of seeing one of the local residents. I saw a splash as we pulled up and decided to wait patiently until he surfaced again. We spotted him a couple of times, but it was 20 mins until he was on the surface long enough to take a photo. It's not a great shot, but it's proof that I saw one of these elusive creatures. He's right in the centre of picture if you can't find him.

It was pretty cool visiting the north for a few days. I was able to experience something completely different. Thanks to Shawn & his parents, Lois & Ed, for the opportunity. I hope to see you again soon folks.

Sturgen Lake

We had another crack at fishing this morning but the skies were clear and the fish were way too skittish to even bite. We had a red hot 45 mins when we first arrived yesterday but after that it went very quiet. Fishing's a funny sport that way. So with the fish off the bite, we packed up, cleaned the cabin, and headed back to Grande Prairie.