Sunday 16th April – East across beautiful British Columbia

Following a quick Skype to family for Easter, we checked out at 11am and headed back through Whistler.  There was a lovely clear sky today so we could’ve gone up on the highest and widest gondola in the World between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains but we need to make ground towards Jasper and Banff as now there is less than a week to reach Calgary for the Baileys flight home. I feel like it would have been a great experience but it is a good excuse to have to come back sometime.

It was probably a good thing anyway, we went on to have a very long day for the best of reasons – around every corner was a stunning vista or wildlife that needed to be photographed.

From Green lake outside Whistler (left), to the view down the river to Nairn Falls, to Lower Joffe lake (below) which was only just accessible without snow-shoes.  

Lower Joffe Lake - I promise you there is water somewhere there under all of that ice.

We had lunch at Duffy Lake (below), before seeing a whole family of bears by the roadside this time. I hope the fact that we have managed to see four bears so far this trip is a sign that their numbers are increasing.

What an amazing sight - mumma bear with two cubs right by the roadside.  We watched them until they disappeared into the trees.

The journey took us past Lillooet lake with its turquoise waters and train track winding around the edge of the waters:

Hard to believe, but that is all the same BIIIIG train!

We were heading to Kamloops.  Not that we were aware of anything to see there, more that it is approximately half way towards Jasper.  We weren’t sure where to stop for the night and the drive had taken a lot longer due to the above distractions. We stopped off by a lake a distance short of Kamloops with electric hook-ups but they weren’t turned on yet (out of season) so we opted to continue to make the city. But when we got to Kamloops it was a lot larger than we expected and the Silver Sage campground was in an ugly industrial area and looked a bit trailer-park-y.  So, by the time we started north on Highway 5 towards Jasper and made it to the Pines RV park it was heading up to 8pm and getting dark.  Jo made a tasty chilli which we ate with sweet potatoes before all relaxing whilst our dinners went down enough so that we felt ready to call it a night.