Falls into spring: day four

Monday, May 1

Today was to be a day of driving with our next overnight in Canmore, AB. Our route would take us over Kelowna's William R. Bennett Bridge. Opening in 2008 it replaced an older, smaller bridge across the lake providing more traffic lanes and 18m (almost 60ft) of clearance under its navigation span.

Approaching the William R. Bennett Bridge from West Kelowna.

Once we passed through Kelowna we made our way north on Highway 97 along the shores of Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake.

Passing through Vernon, Armstrong (famous for its cheese), Enderby, then Grindrod; along the eastern shore of Mara Lake to Sicamous where we stopped to top up the gas tank. But before stopping for gas we made one slight detour to one of places we've been meaning to see for a long time. A short 400m (1/4 mile) drive off the main highway to the trailhead and a strenuous 67m (220ft) hike brought us to Sicamous Creek Falls.

Trailhead sign for the Sicamous Creek Falls Trail

 

Sharon at Sicamous Creek Falls

Turn around 180º and this is the view!

In the traihead parking lot

This little hike is well worth the stop. There are couple of picnic tables and washrooms so it would make a really nice lunch stop.

From Sicamous we headed east through Three Valley Gap and on to Revelstoke where we stopped to pick up a snack.

Through Three Valley Gap

In downtown Revelstoke.

First of the eight snow sheds through Rogers Pass

Made it through Rogers Pass without incident, on to Golden, past Field, over the Kicking House Pass into Alberta, past Banff ending the day's travels in Canmore.

Out of Golden and up Ten Mile Hill and over the Park Bridge

Not much construction to deal with but there was some....

Picturesque Field BC

Always like it when numbers line up.

Past Banff and Rundle Mountain

We spent a relaxing evening in Canmore to end the day's adventure. Tomorrow we head home, but not after a couple of stops in town.... stay tuned.

Upcoming road trip!

I just realized that it's been six months since I last posted! I hope to start getting back to some more regular posts for the balance of the year starting with report on our upcoming road trip. Starting next Friday we'll be on the road for five days with overnight stops in Vernon, Penticton and West Kelowna in BC's beautiful Okanagan valley and one stop in Canmore AB  on the way home.

Westside Road between Vernon and Kelowna

Planning on a couple of hikes and/or bike rides,  perhaps a wine tasting or two, and maybe even some spirited driving down some twisty roads!


If you have any suggestions or recommendations for some low cost activities in the area please leave a comment below.

A "ferry" tale road trip day 6, June 7 2014

We stayed at the Best Western in West Kelowna last night and had probably our best night's sleep on the trip so far. Following a great breakfast we headed into Kelowna to our first stop. One of Sharon's favorite things to do is visit thrift stores in the various places we pass through and  we have found some really good deals in the past. Today we stopped at the MCC Thrift Store in Kelowna. Picked up a couple of books and some plates and then made our way to our next stop of the day.

 

Over the bridge...

First stop of the day

From MCC we headed across the upper part of Kelowna headed for Myra Station, the east parking area for the Myra Canyon section of the Kettle Valley Railway. This amazing stretch of railway engineering features eighteen trestles and two tunnels. This is the same railway that include the Othello Tunnels we visited a couple of days ago.

Through the orchards...

Up the forestry service road to the parking lot.

While excavating a tunnel through here unstable rock was discovered so they cut through instead.

We were privileged to see this soaring golden eagle.

Looking back along the trail.

Sharon and I walked to the three km marker and back along the trail and in doing so crossed eight of the eighteen trestles and went through one of the two tunnels. This is a great walk or bike for families as the grade is essentially flat. The highpoint of the KVR is in the section at just over 1200m. There have been some very creative people hiking or riding up here as we ran across lots of these inukshuks at one spot...

Now that's public art!

Got back to the car around 12:30 and decided to head to Vernon for our lunch. Before we got down off the mountain we almost ran into a bear!

That's a bear that had just run across the road in front of us!

 

Between Kelowna and Vernon on Highway 97

In Polson Park

The spot we picked was Polson Park. From there we hopped on Highway 6 eastbound and made our way through Lumby and Cherryville to the Needles Ferry, a free five minute ride across Lower Arrow Lake.  This is another beautiful stretch of twisty, rolling two lane blacktop on both sides of the crossing. 
 

Challenge accepted! :)

Approaching the ferry

ALL ABOARD!

One of the three cables that guide and pull the ferry across the water.

South of Nakusp

What's Brewing on Broadway

We saw quite a few more motorcycles out today; probably because it's Saturday and the sun is shining. Stopped for a coffee and a muffin at What's Brewing on Broadway in Nakusp. Great atmosphere and a delicious muffin! Adding about 50km/30miles to our journey brought us to the Galena Bay Ferry. This one is about a 20 minute ride across Upper Arrow Lake and is also free. It was here that we caught up to the motorcyclists that had passed us earlier.

Between Nakusp and Galena Bay

Motorcycles like to go fast!!!

Waiting for the ferry.

There's the motorcycles!

Admiring the view

From the Shelter Bay terminal it's only another 50km/30 miles or so to our hotel for the night in Revelstoke.

Between Shelter Bay and Revelstoke.

Heading to the hotel after filling up with gas.

We have been blessed with awesome weather our whole trip. Very little rain and lots of sunshine. The car has been running well and the roads have been incredible. We have both enjoyed driving the lesser traveled roads for a couple of reasons: the light traffic and the great scenery. I think the big difference is that on these roads you are driving in the countryside rather that driving through it as you would on the major, heavily traveled routes.

Our supper stop this evening was the Nomad Food Co. on Victoria Ave in Revelstoke. I had a burger and Sharon had a falafel wrap. Prices were very reasonable, the  food was excellent and service friendly. I think it's safe to say that we'll be back at some point!

Nomad Food Co. Photo credit to Marathon Mouth blog.

Thank you to Sharon for indulging me this afternoon's drive. We were originally going to make our way to Revelstoke via Sicamous. I'd also like to thank her for taking the bulk of the photos you're enjoying.

CLICK HERE FOR DAY 7

A "ferry" tale road trip day 5, June 6 2014

Up to an early start this morning as we were heading the the BC Home School Expo being held at the Tradex in Abbotsford, about a 25 minute drive from out hotel. We attended a couple of sessions with this year's keynote speaker, Andrew Pudewa. He's a very engaging speaker who clearly enjoys what he does and is very confident in his presentation, definitely not one of those speakers that has you looking at your watch every ten minutes. Although we're not from BC we did see a couple of friends working their booth.

We said goodbye to the expo and headed east for the first leg of our trip home. After a stop in Hope for a quick bite to eat it was on the road northwards up Highway 5, aka the Coquihalla Highway, to Merrit BC and then eastward on Highway 97C to our overnight stop in West Kelowna.

Typical Fraser Valley scenery in the Lower Mainland of BC

What's a road trip without a stop at Tim Horton's? This one is in Hope BC.

Northbound on the Coquihalla Highway

Approaching Merritt BC and the turnoff to Highway 97C

Lots of beautiful views along 97C

Eastbound on 97C

First glimpse of Lake Okanagan

Down the hill into West Kelowna

All in all an enjoyable day with a great hotel at the end. Tomorrow we're off to Revelstoke via Nakusp which will have us taking a couple of ferry rides! Stay tuned.

CLICK HERE FOR DAY SIX