DAY 62 - 65 (7/4 - 7/7): Banff and Beyond...Back to Seattle

As I mentioned in the last post, we decided to leave Banff early.  Even though Banff is Canada's first, and premier National Park, we feel we have seen so much beauty in this area already and the crowds are really too much!  There are some smaller, lesser known National Parks along our path that we will drive  through and this way we can break up our drive back to Seattle into two nights instead of one.

Before we leave Banff, we do take some time to check out town.  It's really nice, and has grown into a big tourist town.  Here are some photos of our time there.

On our way out we take the Trans-Canada Hwy 1.  In addition to the amazing scenery, we were impressed by the multitude of bridges they have built to support wildlife movement/migration across the highway.  I believe we saw at least seven of these, if not more.

Of the three other National Parks, Yoho was probably the most memorable and impressive.  Part of the reason this park exists is because of the engineering feats accomplished here in support of the railways.  The highway we are on is the location of the original route of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which is very steep.  The dangers of this route were resolved when they built the spiral tunnels that the trains go through now.

Next we learn about one of the sources of water that feeds into the Columbia River - way up here in Yoho!

We take a drive down to the Yoho Valley to see Takakaw Falls.

Barry had to maneuver through a few switchbacks to get there...

There is a beautiful lake in Yoho called Emerald Lake.  We tried to go there, but by noon it was packed!  We stopped at Natural bridge, and then headed out.

I was able to find us a place in Salmon Arm, BC through the iOverlander app:  Northyards Cider Co.  They allow campers to camp in the apple orchards, where they grow the apples that are used to make their ciders.  I am super excited, because as I might have mentioned before, on this trip I am getting into ciders.  Alison, the owner and cider maker met us on the patio of her cidery and was so nice and friendly.  What a great find!

 

We heard that the Frazer Canyon route to Hope, BC is a beautiful drive.  Although it is an hour longer to our next stop, we did enjoy the sights along the way...

Camp for tonight is an RV park in Hope, BC called Wildrose.  

Hope is the "Chainsaw Capital of Canada".  We learn from the Mayor (who happened to be volunteering at one of the sculptures he is helping to re-finish) that they really promote it to help with tourism, promoting the arts, and just good family fun!

After crossing the border and passing through Bellingham we get on the scenic Chuckanut Drive which we missed on our way out of town at the beginning of the trip.  Larry and Dee Dee had mentioned it, and a place called Taylor's Shellfish Farm.  So glad we did it, but a bit hairy because it is very narrow...we missed the turn to Taylor's (frankly we probably could not have made it down to their farm anyways in the van)...but on one stop Barry got a photo of one of their (oyster) beds:

Since we couldn't have oysters and we needed the bathroom and something in our stomachs before dinner, we stopped at Costco for $1.50 hot dogs - Ha!  Ha!  Good thing we did not eat too much...the kids found a great restaurant in Seattle that we ate at - Lioness - and Julia drove up from Tacoma to join us! 

GOOD NIGHT!

Miles driven: 279 (Banff - Salmon Arm), 247 (Salmon Arm - Hope), 140 (Hope - Seattle), 80 (around Seattle)