The time has come for us to seriously point the Adventure Bus east and head home to Nova Scotia. In the past 7 months we drove about 13,000 kms and we have 6,000 kms still to go. In 7 weeks. With friends to visit and lots to see. It is time to hustle our butt a little bit. So, with a few exceptions, from now on this blog will be mostly about the drive.
We left Peachland about a week and a half ago and headed north towards Jasper. With a couple of stops along the way. We are still getting the hang of "hustling our butt".
It was a spectacular drive:
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| Lake Okanagan and Peachland in our rear view mirror |
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| Entering Kelowna from the south |
Kelowna is the Okanagan's major city - a very pleasant spot on the lake with good shopping, a beach, lots of golf clubs, wineries and orchards, etc.
North of Kelowna we drove by a number of lakes
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| Leaving the Okanagan Valley and heading to Salmon Arm BC |
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| Entering Salmon Arm |
I believe Salmon Arm is officially considered the north end of the Okanagan Valley. It too is surrounded by beautiful lakes and mountains. We stopped at the Walmart parking lot to make our lunch. Easy in and out.
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What a great overnight stop this would make.
Grass, trees and a marshland full of birds on the other side of the fence.
And it is away from the road. |
We went around Kamaloops and pointed the car straight north on the Yellowhead Highway (rte 5)
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| Fire damage in the mountains north of Kamloops |
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| The road followed the North Thompson River most of the way |
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| Which, due to snow melt in the Rockies, was very full. |
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| And flowing very fast with lots of rapids. |
That night we stayed at the
Chinook Golf and RV Park in Barriere, BC. A beautiful spot with a great little golf course that ran along the side of the mountain. So naturally we had to stay an extra day to give it a go.
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| Arch is standing in the white tee box. The reds are where the two people are behind him. And beyond him you see a person on the green. A short hole but you hit straight down hill over a large ravine. We both lost balls here. |
The next day we entered the land of the big bears
And we pushed on to Valemount BC. The gateway to Jasper National Park. We did not see any bears, basically just rocks, trees and the river.
Next post will be about our drive down the Icefield Parkway in Jasper and Banff National Parks.
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Let us know when you're going to be around here. Are you planning on staying, Dee and Michael are just up the road.
ReplyDeleteHi Ruth. We are planning to be in London, ON June 12 to about 16 or so. Then Grand Bend for a night and thought we would try to book in at Dee and Michael's park for a night. Around the 17th or 18th. Which park are you in. Would love to have a Texas reunion with you all. We are in Regina tonight.
DeleteAnne, we are planning to drive from the east coast of the US to BC this summer. Our plan is to spend Sept visiting Banff, Jasper, and Lake Louise. Any suggestions on the nicest route across? Originally, we were going to take the Yellowhead hyw all the way.
ReplyDeleteIt really depends on where you plan to cross the border Pam,. If you want to drive through the Okanagan Valley I suggest coming up 97 through Washington and crossing into Osoyoos BC. If you are going to the Oregon, Washington coast then crossing at any point in Southern BC is fine. From there it depends on where you want to be. We wanted to see part of the Okanagan Valley so we crossed at Abbotsford, stayed in Cultus Lake (at a Thousand Trails resort, there is also a lovely Provincial Park there). From there we went to Peachland by driving up hwy 5 (Yellowhead Highway) and across highway 97C - that is where the high pass was - should be no problem if your MH is in good shape. We made it in our 2000 gas Damon. When we left Peachland we took hwy 97 to Salmon Arm then the Trans Canada Highway #1 across to Kamloops where we connected with the Yellowhead Highway again to Jasper. The sections of the highway we drove are in excellent condition and the RV parks very nice - not like US RV "Resorts" . In Canada RV Parks are more like campgrounds but they usually offer full services, cable TV and sometimes iffy internet. Burt the internet is no worse that in US Resorts. The drive up the Yellowhead is very pretty and down the Icefield Parkway spectacular. Photos in the next blog post.
DeleteThanks, Anne, this is very helpful!
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