Going, Going, Gone at Glacier National Park! OLA

Wild Goose Island on St. Mary Lake along the Going-to-the-Sun Road 

When we were at Lake Louise at Banff National Park in 2007, I was shocked at its diminished ice caps from a 2005 trip. At Glacier National Park I felt a deep sadness. In 1850 there were 150 glaciers and in 1910 it was established as a national park. Now there are only 26 and by 2030 they will all be gone!  Glacier National Park will cease to exist, only 120 years after it was born. We may have done our best to rescue wildlife from endangered status but conserving glaciers is beyond human capability or will.

the view from our RV

Erroneously, I thought that Glacier National Park would be ok in June! This year, unfortunately, it has not been true. Our transition from the tropics to temperate weather, from hot and humid to cold and (lows of 39 degrees Fahrenheit made colder by 20-30mph gusts of wind) has been anything but smooth. Everyone laughed when I donned my Burberry trench coat, alpaca wool hat, and felt gloves! Uncharacteristically, I literally forgot about form and went all the way for function.

a great view

Glacier National Park is a wondrous wide wall of glacier-topped mountains, six of them above 10,000 ft., many above 9 and more above 8, spanning 16,000 square miles, straddling both the northern border of Montana and the southern border of Alberta and British Columbia. As we drove around the Going-to the-Sun Road, in itself an engineering wonder at 50 miles of the most scenic mountain highway in the world, I told Bill that I thought that this is like the Tetons…although much grander in scale!

Mama Bear and Baby
along the road to Many Glacier

We saw picas prancing around small meadows, mountain goat herds dotting mountain ridges along the road to Many Glacier, deer cavorting on our campsite, moose and baby drinking from emerald blue lakes, and mama and baby bears feeding on berries along the Going-to-the-Sun Road! One of the most dramatic features of this geological overthrust is visible in the form of Chief Mountain, an isolated peak on the border, 9,008 ft. of solid rectangular rock standing singularly powerful amid the plains of aspens and evergreens. No wonder he is called chief!

Formidable Chief Mountain

As it turned out the 6 days we had planned to get ready for our northwest to southeast trek was not enough! From getting dental and medical checks to RV maintenance routines, on the last day we found out that we had water and heating problems! Unluckily, no slots were available at Camping World. Fortunately, Blue Creek RV near Spokane fixed our water issue. So we headed on out to the Park thinking we could dry camp. Boy, were we wrong.  Unsuccessful in trying to keep warm during with double blankets each, we transferred the following day to the KOA campground just a mile off the park.

the Vidallos and Colborns

My daughter Claudine, husband Arnold, and kids Ashton, Andre, and Enzo (my very first grandson!), drove from Calgary, Alberta for 3-4 hours to meet us there. For us it was a 6-7 hour drive from Spokane. Amazingly, we arrived at campsite 316 only 5 minutes apart!  Then the fun with the family began. From driving slowly to scope animals, to fixing smokes over a campfire, to getting mercilessly beaten by my daughter Claudine at Scrabble and Upwords (did I teach them well!), and the kids getting their Junior Ranger badges at the St. Mary Visitor’s Center at the East Entrance, the experience was way too cool!

Ashton, Andre, and Enzo
being sworn in as Junior Park Rangers

red shuttle bus

Our memories are even made better with the expertise in photography that Arnold brought with him. Although we are using photos from our camera on this post, Bill and I learned a lot of new tricks from him.  (Please visit his website @ http://3klixphotography.smugmug.com). Actually, we are now considering a wide-angle lens with longer zoom! 

mountain goats dot the mountain ridges

If only we came during the heart of the peak season (July-August), then probably our visit to Glacier National Park would have been perfect. However, knowing that 19 years from today all the glaciers would be gone, we are glad that we found time for it this year! After all, it is the first International Peace Preserve Park, shared between Canada and the US (the Vidallos are Canadians, we are Americans!) Enzo said it best, ‘I don’t wanna go home‘.  But, just like the Park, they were going, going, gone. Sigh!

Next Stop:  Converging at Yellowstone!

Staying Awhile in the Evergreen State-Blaine

M'A'turn @ Beachwood RV Resort

Our stay in Ponderosa Falls in Spokane was so nice we thought nothing could top it…that is, until we reached Beachwood RV Resort, another K/M campground (K/M stands for Kevin and Mike, co-owners of around 7 sites in Washington). Our stay there was memorable for a nice string of visits, parties, and recreation. So the three weeks we were there I have named our Sing, Eat, and Dance weeks.



Birch Bay State Park

 The Resort has two large pools (one heated and enclosed with a bubble during cold weather), three hot tubs (one of which is indoor), a dry sauna, an adult lounge with billiard, pingpong and other tables and a youth lounge with billiard, pingpong and fusbol tables, a nursery area, and a video arcade. Outside are tennis courts, driving range, and a playground. And the general store is a good-sized grocery.




me on a beachwood at Birch Bay

   A nice 10-minute walk through the beautiful (especially the change of colors in Fall) Birch Bay State Park behind the store leads you to Birch Bay, with lots of big, artsy driftwoods adorning the beach (hence the name). At the bay are various recreational activities with kayak, bike, and golf rentals, and a large mini-golf course. Famous for sinful, tasty fish and chips, Birch Bay is a touristy community of vacation homes.



the Aberions in front of the cabin

  The first week, Deejay’s family (Tavy, his dad, Darlyn, sister, and husband Paolo) and Trisha and the two kids Yeye and Kenji were in a cottage beside our RV. I call the first week Sing because Tavy is an avid karaoke singer and so we had a great time singing at night after the morning sightseeing trips and afternoon recreational activities as the resort. An avid karaoke ‘performer’ myself, I had loads of fun!




the spit that splits

The second week I call the Eat week. Our friends Benjie and Fides Alviar came to visit us again. On the first day we toured them around Birch Bay and could not help but feast on the famous fish and chips! Then we went to Semiahmoo (meaning half moon) Bay. Beachwood is in the city of Blaine whose harbor is separated from the main body of the bay by a Spit, on which is the Semiahmoo Resort. The spit splits the bay such that it looks like a half moon. From there one can see White Rock, a city in Canada.

a view of White Rock from the parkway that leads to the Resort

Blaine’s northern boundary is the Canadian border. The city is home to the two main West Coast ports of entry between the United States and Canada, the Peace Arch Crossing, the primary passenger vehicle port of entry, and the Pacific Border Crossing, about a mile east, the primary point of entry for heavy truck traffic, and thus is known as the Truck Crossing.

admiring the kiosk of the concrete factory



trying to unsettle the pigeons



So the next day we went to Vancouver, BC, only about an hour away where we again could not help but sample exotic fruits and other goodies at Granville Island where my most favorite public market in the world is located. At the boardwalk are dozens of pigeons waiting to be fed. In the middle of one-of-a-kind shops a man dressed in a ballerina outfit was entertaining crowds. We even found a concrete factory that told its story in an interesting kiosk’ near its entry.

 


the ballerina on Granville Island




with Bolet, in front of Pinpin

   Then we went to meet another friend, Bolet, who lives in Vancouver, at the famous Pinpin restaurant where hordes of Pinoys and Pinays (what we fondly call people from the Philippines) eat because of its many authentic Filipino dishes. And, though we had a lunch that our tummies could not carry, we still went to the Newtown Bakery in Chinatown to buy our siopaos and other Pinoy treats. 



playing billiards???



On the last weekend our guests were Krishna, my eldest grandchild, Randy, her boyfriend, and Diana, his sister. However, the teens were not interested in sites! Instead they frequented the hot tubs and lounges. On Saturday night we all went to the crab feed where I finished two whole crabs and two pieces of roast chicken! But I call this last week our Dance week because after the Feed there was live band music. Bill and I danced the night away with another couple from Canada, members of the resort.

Mt. Baker in all its glory



a sighting of an American bald eagle

 In between these weekend visits were trips to Bellingham, Mt. Baker, and the towns of Concrete (yes, they make concrete there) and La Conner (in the heart of Skagit Valley, the tulip country in America and, although the flowers are not in season until spring, that is where I saw my first bald eagle by the road), Washington.  Bellingham is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Whatcom County. Situated on Bellingham Bay. 

a nice spot on a city ridge overlooking Bellingham Bay

a strikingsculpture on WWU campus

Although Bellingham is smaller than neighboring metropolitan areas such as Seattle, Vancouver, or Victoria, the city and its surrounding region offer many attractions which are popular for both residents and visitors. The city’s scenic splendor is appreciated by residents and tourists, mainly from Canada. Cliffside views of the San Juan Islands and the glaciers of Mt. Baker can be seen from the city. Even Western Washington University is a tourist destination for the countless sculptures around the campus.

the entry to Concrete, Washington

Certainly those three weeks of Sing, Eat, and Dance make it into our book. We were in Beachwood the latter part of October and early November. What more could we have enjoyed if we were there during spring or summer??? But the holiday season (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year) is about to begin so we went on to Monroe, Washington to be closer to family and friends!

the Cascades with an urban foreground





Returning to the Pacific Northwest, Part 1

After fourteen months of cruising North America, to Alaska though the Alaska Highway, to the Arctic Circle, down the West Coast to Mexico and across the Gulf States to the Keys and the Southeast, back west through parts of the Midwest and now up the Northwest, living in 23 American states, 3 Canadian provinces, and 4 Mexican states, we are finally coming ‘home’ to Seattle, Washington. Although it is now only a mailing address, Seattle seems home to us with friends, family, tenants, doctors and agents there.

From Boise, Idaho, we crossed the Blue Mountains, reached Southeastern Washington, and settled in Moses Lake, the largest city (pop: 18T) in Grant County, the potato capital of the country (despite Idaho’s claim!) . Its Saturday Farmer’s Market was spectacular ($1 large watermelons)!  From there, we toured the Grand Coulee Dam near Electric City, the Hanford Reach National Monument near Othello, and the Gingko Petrified State Forest near Quincy, and the county’s  the orchards, gardens, and nurseries.

Grand Coulee Dam is currently the largest dam in North America and the fourth largest in the world, behind Three Gorges in China, Itapúa in Brazil, and Guri in Argentina.  Under construction in Canada, however, is Syncrude Tailings which will become the largest when completed and, along with a few others, will soon greatly change the rankings.  Nevertheless, Grand Coulee is grand, especially with the laser light show in the evening (headline photo above), with the dam as the screen, telling its story.

The unusual topography of Eastern Washington was debated for a long time but is now widely believed to be the result of massive Ice floods from Lake Missoula in Montana. Created by huge glacier fingers from Canada first acting as dams and then giving way, in repeated waves, about 12-15,000 years ago, Lake Missoula is believed to have carried 520 million cubic miles of water (Lakes Ontario and Erie combined). Imagine the power of the water that rushed through the area, finding its way to the Ocean in just 3 days!

The coulees that were formed are unique in the world and on the biggest of them all, the US under FDR invested Fed funds in building, during the Depression, the largest dam in America.  On the way to the dam are interesting sidelights of the flood.  From Moses Lake, you will pass through Soap Lake, an internationally renowned medicinal lake whose healing waters are mineral-rich (creating the look of soap suds around the lake), supposedly effective in curing many ailments.  The Monument to the lake is a sundial of a Native American couple calling the gods to give the lake its healing powers.

Just north of Soap Lake is the Indian Caves of Lenore where petro glyphs can be found. Then several miles to the east is Summer Falls, the result of the releasing of water from the Dam for irrigation during dry months. It is a 165-foot water fall gushing down a dry, treeless landscape, helping to irrigate 650,000 farms (the capacity is for a million). And further north is another waterfall of a different nature: Dry Falls.  As the name implies, there is no water gushing but mere potholes at the bottom, but once, it was the site of the biggest waterfall in the world, at 400 feet tall and three miles wide, double Niagara!

South of Moses Lake, on the other hand, is Othello where the Potholes Reservoir and State Park are. The potholes are smaller versions of the coulees.  Further south is the Hanford Reach National Monument.  Hanford Reach is the outlying delta of the Columbia River and the site of about seven reactors built to produce Plutonium for the WWII atomic bombs.  One in particular, Reactor B (with C close beside it; there is no A), was where the plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb was produced.   At the northern end of the Reach and near Reactor B are the White Bluffs, white cliffs rising out of the Reach for 400 feet.

West of Moses Lake is Quincy.  From Othello, passing through the Bluffs and the Saddle Mountain from whose summit you can get a spectacular view of the Reach, you will reach Quincy after making a quick stop at the Gingko Petrified State Forest across the Columbia.  Petrified logs of spruce, Douglas fir, elm, maple, gingko, etc. are laid out in an interpretive trail. We cut short our visit for there were howling winds that almost blew my 120-pound frame away.  Furthermore, the logs seemed pretty odd, ‘jailed’ onto holes in the ground with thick steel meshes, quite unlike the Petrified National Forest in Arizona.

Just north of the Petrified State Forest is the Wild Horses Monument, a spectacular sculpture of 15 wild horses on a cliff overlooking the Columbia Gorge.  The Dave Govedare masterpiece depicts the first horses to roam the earth.  And further north are the Cave B Winery and Inn with its yurts and the 20,000 seat Gorge Amphitheater beside it where Keith Urban was to have a concert the following day.  Lastly, there is the Crescent Bar Resort, a member of the 1000Trails system we belong to.  The resort belongs to a vacation spot on the banks of the Columbia with coulee cliffs all along it. Next time we will stay there!

Next Stop: Fall City, Washington and Anchorage, Alaska          

   

Exploring British Columbia

(This is a post of a previous trip and the picture above is what greets you right before entering Vancouver from the north.)

The highs of our Arctic Circle experience did not readily subside as we cruised back to the lower 48.  From Dawson City we had to go through Whitehorse again but before reaching Watson Lake we had to take a right to the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, also known as Glacier Highway.  This nickname intrigued me no end.  But what gave me incomparable thrill was seeing the letters BC, formed by rocks we had earlier laid out on that small stretch of the Alaska Highway (before we made the right turn), were still there!

Stewart-Cassiar is a lonely highway through northern British Columbia.  I did not see a glimpse of a glacier-topped mountain until after a few hours, when we were making the turn to the town of Stewart, British Columbia towards the coast.  But the big surprise was the town of Hyder, Alaska which was only two miles from Stewart’s border!  That little town of almost a hundred people gave us two unforgettable experiences:  driving up to Salmon Glacier and witnessing a spectacular performance at Fish Creek. 

  

Salmon Glacier is the fifth largest glacier in North America and as we went up the hill (15 miles) from downtown Hyder and Stewart, it slowly made its appearance. When we reached the summit, we saw its entire extent. The pictures I show here do not give it justice.  But the price we paid was high.  The road was dirt-gravel all the way.  And since it was also rainy that day, it was MUDDY dirt/gravel!  I can only imagine the brutal punishment we gave Star.  But there was no other way to get there.  There was nothing commercial about the towns of Stewart/Hyder. No one even wanted to take Bill out fishing on a boat because it was off-season!

Fish Creek, on the other hand, right on the foot of the hill, had a side show waiting for us.  A good-sized black bear showed up and for about thirty minutes hunted for and devoured the salmon he could find on the creek.  I tell you…Bill and I were clicking our cameras non-stop (yes, I used my other point-and-click camera).  At times he was a mere twenty feet from us and we were rendered incognito to him! It really felt like he was putting on a show for our benefit!

British Columbia had many other memorable experiences for us along what is called the Yellowhead Highway:  the small salmon hatchery we found along the way in New Hazelton where we learned how and why they counted the salmon that passed through a small river, some of the oldest totem poles in the world in the small village of Kitwanga, and some native Americans who had the sole privilege of fishing a stream and did so using fish nets in the swirling gorge in Moricetown.  We camped and grilled right next to the river that night. We were not native-Americans so we were not supposed to get that privilege…but they graciously allowed us.

 

Ripley’s must be active in BC, too, for in Houston, we found the world’s largest fishing rod (60-ft tall, conceived by Jarvis) and in 100 Mile House (which is 100 miles from the start of the gold rush there and which fronts reputedly the best fishing in the world in what has been nicknamed the Fishing Highway) we found the world’s largest cross-country skis! But the exploration was not complete until we got to the Rockies again.  There the town of Lilloet, nestled among the high foothills, offered the biggest emeralds I have ever seen…all firmly planted around town.   But the steep grades going down the mountain sides virtually destroyed our front brakes and we paid another steep price for those thrills on the hills.

Further beyond was Whistler, BC, where the Winter Olympics was going to be held January of the following year.  We saw all the frenzied preparations, including the only peak-to-peak gondola in the world, connecting Whistler and Blackcomb mountains.  At the top of Blackcomb were a mountain side rocky hike and spectacular scenery. But, soon the beautiful coast unfolded before us, as if telling us the remarkable city of Vancouver is not far. 

Before you reach the city, you will be shocked at the great big boulder that welcomes you.  We were in Vancouver before so this time around we went to where we had not been, the Lonsdale Quay Market, to see a view of the city skyline. And when we crossed the border to the state of Washington, seeing Mt. Baker at a distance, we knew we were coming home! But, aside from this therapeutic pinch to a little homesickness, we were also ecstatic…about the substantially less expensive gas with which we could now feed hungry Star!

Lasting thought about Canada besides its vast beauty:  the country is so RV-friendly.   Maybe that is why almost every other RVer we saw there was a European! They have discovered the secret!

Next Stops:  Bend, Columbia Gorge, and Portland, Oregon and Longview and Long Beach, Washington