Week 37 - National Parks and Colombia river - September 15 - Sept Sept 17

We left our Rest Stop and was at the Glacier NP (Canadian) visitor before it opened at 9am.  This NP is small - size wise - but the mountains are tall and there is interesting history.  The Canadian railroad wanted to complete the railroad tracks through this pass which was steep and treacherous.  With lots of manpower (not quite slave wages) and clever engineering, the tracks were made.  In two instances a spiral tunnel was dug through the mountains so the end of the tunnel, after going in a big spiral, was 50 feet higher that at the entrance.  Along the road you can see the openings to the tunnels and, if lucky, you can see the train.

Maybe there a tunnel entrance/exit somewhere on the mountain side.

The railroad company built a fancy mountain resort to "lure" the rich and famous from the east coast to come aboard.  It was quite a successful enterprise until the railroad company realized that maintain the tracks in these mountains was not cost effective, and the company abandoned the tracks and built them somewhere.   At one point along Hwy 1, there is a trail that follows the bed where the tracks used to be.  The original trestles were made of wood, but they rotted.  So stone pillars were built inside the wooden structure and then the wood was removed.

Here's one of the pillars.

Here you can see the above pillar and two more behind it.

And a fallen pillar.

Each mason chiseled his initial on his blocks.  Look at the horizontal "H"

Here's the trail

The railroad opened up the mountains to many people and "mountaineering" began.

Eventually the railroad determined that maintaining the tracks was not cost effective and a different set of tracks was built and the glacier House was left high and dry.

The super fancy hotel, affordable only to the rich and famous, was abandoned and torn down.  What remains are stone blocks which show the footprint of the hotel.

Here is a glacier up behind somewhere

We hiked a bi further up the trail to where "two rivers meet".  Well, I've been where rivers meet, but we went anyway, and it turned out to be a beautiful place.

Saturday the 16th

There really wasn't anything else to do in Glacier NP to se headed east to Revelstoke NP just outside Revelstoke, BC.  The town is a skiing resort town as there is a ton of snow during the winter.  We didn't have reservations at the NP campground of Snowforest (as opposed to rainforest).  In a snowforest most of the moisture during the year comes from snow - not rain.  We thought we had a reservation, but we didn't.  However, the guy at the desk made "things" work and we had a spot for two nights.  The NP was named after some sort of royal person named Revelstoke who donated a bunch of money so that the railroad could finish the track.  There was only one thing to do in Revelstoke - unless you planned to do long hikes - and that was to drive up a windy road to the top of Revelstoke.

We came upon a pullout with signs for Nels Nelsen - whoever that was.   Turns out he was a famous ski jumper from Revelstoke.  

Of course the wooden ski jump tower and platform were gone.  And the ground where the jumpers would land was full of big rocks (maybe they were covered by snow in the jumping days).  Here's a view from the top.  The river is the photo is the mighty Columbia.

The the jump used to be is a pile of rocks on the of which is a metal silhouette of a jumper.  We both stood in and put our our hands as though we were flying (I mean jumping).

This is Dad!!!

And me

There was a rocky trail down the slope 

At the end of the road was a big parking lot and a trail to the top...or almost to the top...we didn't go up to the fire tower.

Campground at Revelstoke was nice.  The bathrooms were fantastic.  And you can rent these tiny bungalows

Sunday the 17th - it was time to leave the mountains and follow the river.  We headed south with the plan to be at a campsite in the US for the night.

Crossing the Columbia in Revelstoke

One thing that we didn't know is that, in several places on the upper Columbia, there are automobile ferries that cross the river/lake.

Okay - here you find out that there are 14 dams on the Columbia - three in Canada and 11 in the S.  By and large they are hydroelectric, but one or two are for irrigation.  At this time, in my opinion, the Columbia River is not a river - it is a lake.

We had to wait about half an hour for the ferry so I took some pictures.

By the end of the day we were getting really tired.  Our map, a AAA map showed absolutely no campgrounds along the 75 mile Lake Roosevelt.  Note to selves.....if you want campgrounds get an official state map.....and we had already learned but not headed this lesson.

Our goal for ending this week (Sunday the 18th) was to find a good place to park and spend the night.  Our Triple AAA map showed not campgrounds for the length of the 75 mile long Franklin Roosevelt Lake.  You should never totally trust a AAA map - get the "official" map of the state.

We hadn't gone far before we saw this sign and quickly turned into a most wonderful US Govt Campsite.

It was very peaceful!  No other people!  We had a great open campsite with a view.  I was a perfect place for the cats to play.

We were easily able to walk down the the water's edge and enjoy the northern end of the 75 mile lake.

And thus ended our second week of our Canadian/Washington holiday