Day 13, Friday September 23rd

New Denver to Revelstoke; Mountains, lakes, a ferry, and a real town worth mentioning.

It would have been my parent’s 75^th wedding anniversary, and it is one of my brother’s wedding anniversary today.

We get up early and have a makeshift breakfast. It is beautiful weather and the light is quite striking so early in the day. From New Denver we drive along Slocan Lake via Roseberry to Nakusp on Upper Arrow Lake. I try to catch the beautiful light, but it is difficult. The mountains gradually become visible. We try to catch the 9.30 ferry, but stop too frequently.

The ferry at Galena Bay is seen as a continuation of the road – there is no other option – and so is free. It only crosses every hour, on the half hour. The view from the ferry landing is beautiful, and we have some time to see the 10.30 ferry cross the lake towards our side. Time to use another toilet, one of the famous upside down buckets! To our surprise the ferry can take even a number of the heavily loaded trucks and logging trucks, which are very long. Once on the ferry the view of the lake and surrounding mountains is breathtaking. There are rocky islands and peninsulas where pines try to clutch on for dear life. The people on the ferry are also an interesting mix of truckers and tourists and locals. One man has a moustache which has such huge curls upwards, that I can imagine them being used for a game of medieval  “tilting” . I suppose he will sleep with two nets around them, one for each side.

On the other side of the lake we watch in awe when a logging truck disembarks and goes backwards up the landing. Meanwhile we enjoy our picnic lunch on a table in Shelter Bay Provincial Park, together with nosy squirrels and under a tree which has obviously been robbed of its acorns and leaves by a hungry bear. The grass is littered with leaves.

 We continue along Upper Arrow Lake, which is mainly hidden from sight. At Blanket Creek Provincial Park we stop near an awesome canyon. I try to capture the deep gorge on camera, but it doesn’t work out. Besides, I have climbed a steep hill on slippery shoes and am scared stiff that I will slip and slide down. It is easier to make photos of the canyon down near the lake where we hit upon picturesque Sutherland Falls.

Early in the afternoon we arrive in Revelstoke, where our first stop is a sidewalk café for coffee. The evenings are getting cooler, and I unwisely left my zip-in fleece at home. So I buy a nice fleece here, we do some more shopping and go to the Bank. It is an attractive town, nicely situated on the confluence of the Columbia River and the Illecillewaet River in a wide valley. It reminds me of Aspen, which has still a few interesting historic buildings, and wide streets divided into regular blocks. A bit higher up is the Trans Canada highway , and it has a busy railway line where we see a large number of freight trains passing by blowing their whistle. There is a Railway Museum as one it was an important railway hub. The small town has several cafés, lots of shops and restaurants. Apparently festivals are organized here as well. We find a motel within walking distance of the main street, which is clean and convenient, although the golden and purple sheets plus the dark wooden bed frames and furniture would be more fitting for a house of pleasure than a sober motel room where the door opens directly into the room.

Revelstoke from the Meadows in the Sky Parkway

As the weather is so beautiful we decide to go up to the alpine meadows, to the Meadows in the Sky Parkway. It takes 30 minutes by car – a distance of 26 kilometers - to reach the top, where a shuttle takes us even higher. As the park gates are locked at 5 o’clock sharp, we can only have a very swift look around. The view is so stunningly beautiful, a view of meadows, snowy mountain tops, pines and rocks, that we decide to return the next day and spend another day in Revelstoke. We can see the different mountain ranges, the Selkirk Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. Revelstoke Mountain itself is only 6360 feet high and below the tree line. The trees here are remarkable. They are very tall with very short branches.

This means they will not break under the heaps of snow – up to five meters - which fall here each winter. The Rockies are the only habitat of those trees. There growing season is very short and lasts only two months, so they grow very slowly. The ones we see here are very old indeed, some even over 500 years, the guide tells us. The alpine meadows still have some flowers, but a month earlier they must have been glorious.

Paintbrush is still flowering, and we also find some velvety white flowers, yellows and blues. All the colours, the dark pines against the white mountain tops and the blue sky, the yellow aspen, it is the best we have seen so far.

After just 40 minutes we have to descend again. In town I buy a pair of better walking shoes preparing for tomorrow and we find a very nice Italian restaurant  where I enjoy lobster ravioli with shrimps, a salad to start with and strong black coffee for a dessert, which I had not expected in this town. On our way back we walk along the tree lined streets and admire the starry sky over the river.