Th Rockies!

We left Sun Peaks early, again with that feeling of “ this would be nice for a few days”, which I think is a good thing:  means that we are stopping in very nice places.  Today was a long day driving from the Shuswap Highland to the Rockies - but an easier drive than I had expected.  I thought the road would be mountainous and twisty, but instead, it follows the North Thompson river almost the entire way, and is thus in a valley.  The The road is mostly flat and pretty the entire way, weaving through bucolic landscapes. 

On our way, we first stopped at Wells Grey provincial park, in the Cariboo mountains - no, I had not heard of either one either…. But it never ceases to amaze me how many truly wonderful places I’ve never heard about:  This is a huge park, where we could easily have spend a week:  there are lakes, trails, mountains and wonderful sights.  It is known for its many waterfalls - of which we managed to see two: the Spathats  Creek Falls, and the Triple decker falls - they were magnificent! The other ones would have required more serious hiking…. How I wish we had the time…. (Then again, the point of a road trip is to see a lot, and quickly, which by definition means we cant really linger….). 

As we got closer to the Rockies, we got to experience the typical weather of the mountains:  changing from minute to minute.  We got some rain, but also really gorgeous skies! (Top picture).  But it means we did not stop at Mount Robson Provincial park, although it suppositely provides great views of the mount it is named after (the highest mount in the Canadian Rockies), but it would clearly have been in the clouds.  So we just continued on to Jasper, crossing into Alberta (and changing time zone).  

As we got near the town of Jasper, we saw many remnants of the devastating fires of 2024, where the entire town had to be evacuated, the park closed for 6 weeks, and about 1/3 of all structures in town were destroyed.  Wild fires are a constant worry in this part of the word.  In fact, as we were leaving Sun Peaks this morning, we were startled by a loud alarm on both our phones, with immediate evacuation orders.  Luckily for us, it was in the area we were in yesterday, near Liloohet.  But it really brought the point home.

We did not have time to do any sightseeing around Jasper today.  The town itself is not very charming (possibly because of the above mentioned destruction), but we will be doing much more tomorrow.  

We were too tired to go out, and just grabbed a roasted chicken and salad at the local grocery store, and had dinner in our room.  It was lovely.  

Below are some of the flowers and fungi I found on the trails today.