We're in British Columbia!

When we first got to the Glacier Centre in the middle of the Icefield Parkway, we stopped by the ranger station to get hiking advice. The young ranger there told us about Parker's Ridge and Wilcox Pass, and we had already planned to hike those two well-known trails. But then he mentioned his favorite trail that is much less known. He showed us on the map where "Beauty Creek Trail" starts and told us about the waterfall views. All-righty, before we leave we'll have to check that out. The tiny parking lot at Beauty Creek didn't have many cars in it, but we had walked less than a mile when we found ourselves on the edge of a deep slot canyon. If you look closely, you can see Mark at the top of that canyon wall.

 Then the parade of waterfalls began. This blog can be a type of "Where's Waldo?" exercise, as Mark or Denisa can be found in each picture. Can you find us?

Beauty Creek was coming down its mountain at a steep angle, making one pretty waterfall after another. Did you find Waldo?


For those that aren't good at the "Where's Waldo?" game, this one is more obvious.

As we followed the trail that ran right beside the slot canyon walls, we got glimpses at how deep that canyon is. Does it seem strange that Mark is always taking pictures of Denisa standing on the very edge of those tall canyon walls?

We met a couple hikers coming down the trail who told us to keep going to the end--even when we thought we must have surely seen the biggest and prettiest waterfalls already. We finally did make it to the end--Stanley Falls. What an awesome and little-known hike!

It was a nice hike back down the mountain, seeing all those waterfalls again from a new direction.

But this is the end of our time at the Glacier Centre parking lot. It was a great place to hang out on a Canadian holiday weekend when all the reservable campgrounds were full. But after three nights it is time to head down the road towards some camping hook-ups. We had a beautiful blue sky day as we drove the motor home by more of the Rockies.

It takes about 1.5 hours to drive from the Glacier Center to Lake Louise Village. We noticed that the beetle-ridden pine trees disappeared as we drove south into Banff National Park territory. Here the pines are healthy and green again.

Mark has researched fuel prices, and even with the inflated prices found at Lake Louise Village, it's the cheapest place to fill up diesel before we cross into a new province. He found that certain restrictions or taxes in the province of British Columbia make fuel more expensive. So he braves the crazy traffic and congestion of the village to pull into the diesel lanes for a couple hundred liters of fuel while we're still in the province of Alberta. We're glad that this will be our last motor home fill-up in Canada. At $1.229 Canadian per liter, that comes to $4.65 Canadian per gallon. Even with the good exchange rate, that fill-up still cost us $3.525 per gallon in US dollars. That's the most we've ever paid for diesel since we started full-timing four and a half years ago.

Then we're on the road heading west on the Trans Canadian Highway towards our next destination. The mountains and the lakes literally touch the highway through this section.

It's only a few miles down this road that we crossed the line into a new province for the motor home. We've been to British Columbia in the car for several hikes, but this is the first time that the motor home has seen this province.

This section of the Trans Canadian Highway has more perils than most sections. There's the "ten-mile-hill" that includes 7% grades going up and down. We think it is interesting that a country that uses the metric system doesn't call it the "16.0934-kilometer-hill."

One section is especially narrow, with views on the left going straight down the mountain, and rocky ledges going straight up on our right.

Those rocky ledges obviously lose some of their rocks, because metal mesh shields are in place to try to keep them from raining down on the cars on the highway. Denisa could have touched those mesh screens from her passenger side window because they were so close.

We were on the road almost three hours today as we rolled into our new home town--Golden, British Columbia. We're staying at the Golden Municipal Campground for six nights, and our site is right on the Kicking Horse River. It's a picturesque view from our motor home windshield as we look out onto the walking trail and the river with the foot hills in the background.

But what's that sound? Right on the other side of that walking trail and river, there is also a very busy train track. Once again, our bed room is very close to trains that run at all hours of the day and night!

As we want to get to know our new home town, we explored that hiking/biking trail in front of us.

It takes us downtown, to the pedestrian bridge that crosses Kicking Horse River.

Even though its only a few years old, it was constructed using the same techniques that were used 100 years ago.

Crossing the bridge takes us to Spirit Square, with its hanging flower baskets and nicely-landscaped public area in downtown Golden.

As we pedal our way back towards home, we get another view of the river. But wait, what's that movement in the water?

We watched as two deer swam their way across one side of the river, and we can see them now on the edge of the island in the middle of the river.

We continued our river-side bike ride even into the forest behind our campground. What a nice surprise!

Even with the trains, we think we're going to like our stay here in our new home town of Golden, and our new province of British Columbia.