The Canadian Rockies

We spent June 9 – 13 in the Canadian Rockies. Leaving Oliver, in the south central part of British Columbia, we traveled north and east through the Okanagan Valley and into the western foothills of the mountain range. This area has many rivers emptying into beautiful clear blue lakes. The biggest is Okanagan Lake, home of the fabled lake monster Ogopogo. The prettiest, Lake Kalamalka, has many colors of blue and green striping its surface and is so clear and still that the reflections of the surrounding hills are as clear as the hills themselves.

We passed through a series of small-to-medium sized towns, including Kelowna, the third most populous “city” in BC. Each town quickly yields to open land, increasingly forested and gradually getting higher and more rugged. Then, you realize that you really are in the middle of a mountain range with steep angles of descent for the creeks and rivers. There are a series of waterfalls, many of them seasonal but running at high volume this unusually wet spring. The terrain remains thickly forested; often, you can’t see more than 5 feet into the woods from the road. We passed Mount Revelstoke, and the community of Revelstoke, and continued to climb to Albert Canyon and the Canyon Hot Springs Resort.

Of course, it began to rain as we arrived and set up camp. The snowy rocky slopes above us disappeared into fog and the temperature dropped. Still, the rain didn’t interfere with our trip to the mineral pools. The resort has two pools of spring water, one at 106 degrees and the other at 86 degrees. Steve and I spent nearly two hours alternating between the two as we soaked out the stiffness of the drive and talked with fellow travelers, including visitors from England, Denmark and Germany as well as our American companions.

Sunday morning began with another good rain shower but the mist began to lift just in time for our departure. We entered Glacier National Park (the Canadian one, not the Montana park) and climbed above the tree line. The bare cliffs still had snow, especially in shady or north-facing areas. We could see large ice fields and small glaciers hanging from high elevations. Rogers Pass Summit has an interesting visitor’s center with displays about the first European explorers of the region. A small valley in the mountain range houses the town of Golden, whose riverfront farms and fields were flooded as the river was over its banks.

Climbing further into the mountains took us into Yoho National Park and cost us an hour as we entered the Mountain Time Zone. Then we crossed the Continental Divide into the province of Alberta. Suddenly, rivers flowed to the east, eventually emptying into the Atlantic Ocean rather than west to the Pacific. An interesting feature in this area is the spiral railroad tunnel. Freight trains in western Canada can be very long, sometimes 1½ miles long. The “big mountain” was a formidable barrier to these trains, so engineers reduced the grade, and eased passage over this mountain by building a spiral tunnel through the heart of the mountain. Some of our group were fortunate enough to see a freight pass through the tunnel while they watched. The engine entered the tunnel and emerged some time later high up the slope, while freight cars were still outside the mountain at the tail end.

We spent two nights in the resort town of Canmore, Alberta. The eastern side of the Rockies is much more rugged, rocky and drier than the western slopes. From our campground, we looked straight up at jagged gray granite peaks, including the Three Sisters which are the logo of the town. The first evening we attended a dinner show called “Oh Canada, Eh!” in Canmore. The servers are also performers in a revue of Canadian history and culture with a humorous tone. It was a fun evening and a nice break from camp food.

Across the Canadian Border

Thursday June 7, the caravan pulled out of Ephrata, bound for the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. We went north on two lane roads through farms and orchards, along rivers and lakes, into the coulee area of eastern Washington. During the last Ice Age, a lake of glacial melt water formed across eastern Washington, the Idaho panhandle and western Montana. The ice dam periodically broke, releasing gigantic floods over the region. The floods were greater than any known during recorded history, depositing silt and gigantic boulders all the way to the coast and beyond, and creating huge subterranean canyons at the mouth of the Columbia River. The gigantic braided lake and river beds that were left behind are called coulees – areas of water-cut mesas and gorges. Grand Coulee Dam spans one of the higher coulees and dams the upper Columbia River for hydroelectric power.

We crossed the Columbia at another hydroelectric dam, the Chief Joseph Dam, then began climbing into fir forest. Everywhere there was running and falling water. The rivers were at spring flood stage and water seemed to pour out of bare rock and over canyon walls everywhere we looked.

We reached the Canadian border at Osoyoos, a smaller border station than the main one near Vancouver. The Canadian customs official was most interested in what we had for weapons. He seemed to think that, as Americans, we must have firearms in the coach and was skeptical as we proclaimed that we had none. Two minutes later, we were in Canada!

Our path into Canada followed the Osoyoos River into the Okanagan Valley. This area is actually the northern limit of the Sonoran Desert – yes, desert in Canada! Although the area only gets about 10-14 inches of rain (and a dusting of snow), irrigation made it a paradise of fruit orchards and truck farms. Water is plentiful in nearby rivers and lakes; it just had to be piped in. In the past 15 years, the area has warmed by several degrees, resulting in milder winters. The warmer climate now permits growing noble varieties of wine grapes. There are over 100 estate wineries in the valley, mostly established within the last 20 years in place of tree fruit orchards.

On Friday afternoon our group toured three wineries, with talks by the vintners about their styles and methods of wine production. The area still gets hard winter freezes (most years) and one of the wineries specializes in the production of ice wines. To make ice wine, a vintner has to take a big risk and leave fruit on the vine until it freezes hard. The frozen berries are hand picked, often at 2 AM, and immediately pressed to separate a concentrated juice from the ice crystals. The wine is a sweet dessert wine with intense fruitiness. Another vintner specializes in wines made from fruit or fruit-grape blends. The third was a marvel of modern technology applied to winemaking. Then, we stopped for local fruit and produce. Strawberries and cherries were just coming into season and were perfectly ripe and sweet.

The Caravan Converges

On Monday June 4, we made our way east along the Columbia Gorge then north into Washington. Our goal was Ephrata, Washington, the rendezvous point for our Alaska RV caravan. We crossed the Columbia River east of The Dalles and climbed (and climbed and climbed) from the arid north river bank through high desert terrain to prairie and irrigated farm fields near Goldendale (the site of a prominent public observatory) and finally into fir forest with slopes steep enough for winter “snow play” recreation. We spent Monday night at Brooks Memorial State Park north of Goldendale. Unfortunately, the sky was too overcast to return to the Observatory for the evening open telescope.

Tuesday, we traveled north through “Washington’s Palm Springs”, a region of high desert near Yakima, then into an area of orchards and alfalfa farms near Ephrata. Upon arriving at our rendezvous RV park, we met the wagon master and tail gunner staff of our caravan, as well as the other guests. The staff consists of two couples, the leaders, or wagon master, who handle the finances and logistics, and the tail gunners, who follow the guests, prepared to assist in case of breakdown or to rescue any one who gets lost.

The guests come from all over the US, from New Hampshire and Florida to Utah and California (us!). Our caravan has 14 guest couples and our two staff couples, 32 people total. We have a wide variety of RV’s. Several couples have 40-foot diesel buses; several have large fifth wheel trailers towed by full-size pickups. We are the smallest motor home, as we expected, but one couple is making the trip in a truck camper and another will spend 3 months in a 16-foot fiberglass trailer towed by an SUV.

Our first afternoon and evening was spent in an orientation and get-acquainted meeting. The tail gunner Larry checked all the vehicles for soundness and assisted with minor maintenance issues. We had mail forwarded to General Delivery at the Ephrata post office so went into town to claim it and to find the RV supply dealer to pick up some forgotten items. Then, we made what we thought would be one last stop at Walmart to get Steve some sweatpants, since he thought he’d forgotten his. Well, there were no sweatpants at this time of year. It took stops at 4 more Walmarts on our way north before we found some in stock. Of course, several days after buying two pair, Steve found that he had indeed packed sweatpants but not sweatshirts!

Wednesday night, we turned in late, both eager and a little apprehensive about the start of our Alaska adventure.

The Columbia Gorge

We left the Monaco Service Center Friday morning, June 1 and drove about 150 miles past Portland to the Columbia River gorge. We found a spot at Ainsworth State Park near Cascade Locks. This is a small park in the woods south of the river bank – very nice facilities (full hookups for $16/night and free hot showers), green and moist and fairly cool for the gorge area, and quiet except for the ubiquitous freight trains rumbling along the tracks near the river. Saturday was Oregon State Parks Day, a free night of camping as a thank you to supporters and users.

We spent the weekend viewing waterfalls, including Horsetail Falls and Multnomah Falls, driving what remains of the historic highway along the river bank, and visiting Bonneville Dam and Fish Hatchery. Unfortunately, Steve caught a cold and felt progressively worse over the weekend so we didn’t take our planned drive around Mount Hood and didn’t do any hiking. We stayed an extra night at Ainsworth to give him a chance to recover and as a result, I got to take a tour of the Pendleton Woolen Mill in Washougal, WA on Monday morning. Pendleton processes scoured wool, dyes it, spins the yarn for their yardage, weaves the cloth and fulls or felts the yardage. The goods then are cut and sewn into garments, scarves, purses, etc. or sold as fabric to home sewers and for upholstery. Some of the yarn is diverted to another mill at Pendleton, OR (well east of where we were) for weaving into patterned Indian blankets and robes. I had visited this mill more than 20 years ago and welcomed the chance to take the tour again.

Monday noontime, after returning from the tour, we moved east along the gorge, crossed the Columbia River into Washington and headed north. The terrain change moving east is almost startling. Thick green forest changes to sagebrush and rock. The river is windy - it is not uncommon to see whitecaps out on the water. The area around Hood River is a favorite spot for sailboarding. Surprisingly, the eastern part of Oregon and Washington, and the central area of British Columbia, is desert!

Camp Monaco

Camp Monaco is the (tongue-in-cheek) name of the RV facilities at Monaco Coach Corp. Factory Service Centers. We arrived at the facility in Harrisburg, OR on Memorial Day for a brief visit. The coach had a couple of minor issues (and one that could have been a major problem) that we wanted fixed before heading out to Alaska.

We parked with water and electric each evening then had to evacuate the coach (including the dogs) each morning by 7 AM. The technicians then drove the coach into the shop, worked on it until about 4 PM and returned it to our site for the night. The dogs were welcome in the customer lounge (but not on the furniture, which disappointed our pair since they have couch privileges at home). Otherwise, we had to drive them around with us.

A funny noise from the engine compartment turned out to be potentially serious. The dash air conditioner clutch was not releasing. It could have seized and, if it did, could have snapped the main drive belt. We would then have been “dead in the water” until we could be towed to a service facility to have a new belt installed. Luckily, the Coburg, OR Cummins Northwest service center could fit us in and got it fixed (under warranty).

Also, mechanic Mike at Top Flight Automotive in Junction City was able to locate and fix a gas leak in the Suzuki. Apparently, the gasket around the fuel sender at the top of the gas tank was not sealing. Now, we no longer smell gas dripping from the ‘Zuki (not a good thing when you’re towing it behind a motorhome full of gas and propane, with the potential of sparks from rocks or a dragging tow cable igniting the whole rig!).

We spent three days dealing with the service issues and shopping for forgotten items. We were finished Thursday evening, May 31, and able to resume our vacation Friday morning, June 1.

Departure Day - at last!

Our departure was delayed due to several unexpected problems at home. The house refrigerator died just days before leaving. We had to shift all the food into the RV 'fridge (even food not planned for the trip). Then we had to shop for a new one and wait for delivery so we'd have somewhere to put leftovers on our return. Also, packing just took longer than planned. We finally left LA on Tuesday May 22. We had to skip a side trip to San Francisco to visit friends. Instead, we zipped up the I-5, stopping for dinner at Harris Ranch (>$100 for Beef Wellington, a nice grilled steak and 2 glasses of Pinot Noir!), and stayed in their truck/RV parking lot for the night. (After blowing the daily budget on prime ranch-raised beef, it was nice to have a free, if noisy, campsite.)

Wednesday found us at Lake Shasta, in the wooded Forest Service campground at Lakehead. We noticed that the blooming wildflowers changed as we drove north - here the lupine was just finishing its bloom while at home it was long past. However, the lake was low - about the same level as we saw on our stop last August, despite the winter inflow. Just north of the lake, Mount Shasta still has a deep snow cover.

On Thursday May 24 we passed into Oregon and stopped at a membership RV park in Sutherlin, OR, north of Roseburg. Then we spent Memorial Day weekend with friends at Silver Falls State Park near Salem, OR. We had a light shower Sunday morning. It was nice to see water falling from the sky after Southern California's winter of drought. The woods are lush and green in Oregon and there are ferns and wildflowers everywhere. The lupine is in full spike and so thick at the edges of the woods that the ground is solid purple or blue. Silver Falls State Park is known for its waterfalls, including several where the trail goes behind the falls. We visited four waterfalls in two short hikes during the weekend. It's a unique experience to have water cascading over you while standing behind the fall. Each of our trips seems to develop a theme without our planning one. This time, the theme seems to be waterfalls - more about that later.

D-day minus 1

Tomorrow morning, we pull away from home and start our Alaska adventure. We're frantically running around doing all the last-minute (and forgotten-until-now) stuff. We still have 2½ weeks until our caravan rendez-vous in Ephrata, Washington. However, we'll be busy until then.

First we stop in the Bay area to visit friends. We'll camp at Anthony Chabot Regional Park in Oakland (actually closer to Castro Valley) Monday and Tuesday. Then we head for Oregon - Wednesday night at the Antlers Forest Service Campground by Lake Shasta, Thursday night somewhere in southern Oregon then we meet friends near Salem, OR for a Memorial Day weekend campout at Silver Falls State Park.

The last week in May will be spent at the Monaco Coach Corp. Service Center in Harrisburg, OR. They will do some warranty work on the coach while we camp in "Camp Monaco", the campground on the premises.

June 1, we're headed for the Columbia Gorge and a fun time viewing the waterfalls that feed the Columbia River. (In ~1985, I took my mother, sister and niece on a trip through the Northwest. My niece and I especially remember climbing the cliff and walking BEHIND the waterfall at Multnomah Falls. I don't know if that's still possible but I look forward to visiting that site again.) We'll go as far east as Hood River then turn north into central Washington to arrive in Ephrata on June 5. Then, the adventure really begins!