Monday, May 28, 2018 (Travel to Cochrane Lake, Cochrane, Alberta)

It was an absolutely beautiful day to drive through the mountains as we continued east to Alberta...so much so that I took a ton of pictures! 313 to be exact...which meant Steve had a lot of editing to do! And why it's taken so long to update the blog. He managed to get the numbers down to around 81...still a lot but such beautiful scenery!

After a great sleep in our quiet boondocking spot, we hit the road at about 7:30. We had a long drive ahead of us and we would also be loosing an hour with the time zone change in Alberta.

The Trans-Canada highway follows the edge of Shuswap Lake....and passes through Sicamous...

At this point, the highway leaves the lake and continues on inland. We stopped and filled up with diesel at a Husky Station on the other side of Sicamous...$1.29/litre...the cheapest we've seen since our return to Canada! Snow capped mountains in the distance...

The Burner Grille in Malakwa...a rather unique building!

The Eagle River ...

3 Valley Gap...and Three Valley Lake Chateau and Heritage Ghost Town. This place is worth a visit if you're ever in the area...

Crossing the bridge over the Columbia River into Revelstoke...

You'll have to excuse the reflections and bug splatter on some photos :)

Illecillewate River (don't ask me to pronounce that!)

We went through a number of snow-sheds....you can still see the snow and mud on this one...

Entering Glacier National Park!

We passed through this area in July 2010, stopping for a couple of days to see the area and go hiking. The information centre at Rogers  Pass is closed right now and looks like it is going through a major renovation but 8 years ago we had hiked a trail from the centre...check out our blog from then by clicking here. Such beautiful scenery and a fabulous hike!

More snow-sheds....

You can see another before exiting this one...

Columbia River again as we near Golden, BC....

Heading up into the mountains again as we leave Golden...

This roadside cliff is draped in netting to contain falling rocks...

Look closely and you can see two men hanging from the crane working on the cliff...

Entering Yoho National Park. There was a lot of road construction including a couple of stops...

Nearing Field, BC...

We stopped at the Yoho National Park Visitor Center at the entrance to Field...










A beautiful spot to stop for lunch...

Wapta Lake...

Alberta...and Banff National Park!

We passed many wildlife bridges in BC and Alberta. The ones in BC aren't nearly as nice as these..

An incredibly beautiful area...pictures just don't do it justice!

A bike path between Banff and Canmore...The Rocky Mountain Legacy Trail is a scenic 22 km paved trail that connects Canmore and Banff. The trail begins across from the Travel Alberta Visitor Information Centre on Bow Valley Trail. The Trail is popular with cyclists and hikers and has several incredible viewpoints along the way.

Too bad so much of it is beside the highway...

Passing the very beautiful community of Canmore. This place is also worth a visit...

We left the Trans Canada highway, taking highway 22 north to Cochrane. As we drove this stretch, a rock flew up and hit the windshield just below Steve's line of vision. Looks like we'll be needing a new windshield soon...our third.
Entering Cochrane...

Crossing the Bow River....

A few kilometres past Cochrane, we turned onto Cochrane Lake Road. Approaching Cochrane Lake...

We arrived at Ken and Charlene's place around 4:00. Steve and Ken have been friends since childhood when they were neighbours in Regina, Saskatchewan. The plan was to park across the street on their neighbours boulevard which requires disconnecting the trailer after levelling off so we could run the fridge. It's extremely unlevel and a little tricky to get into with a tree in front of the truck and a raised driveway behind the trailer. After disconnecting from the truck Steve was raising the trailer when all of a sudden there was a funny noise and he noticed the cross shaft wasn't turning and only one side was going up now. Geez a big rock chip and now this! After such a long drive, some humming and hawing, it was decided to hook back up to the truck and empty the contents of the fridge into Ken and Charlene's spare fridge and deal with the trailer in the morning. We were staying in their house anyway.

Ahhh...time for a beer! Ken and Steve...

This is Zoey...the newest addition to the family. She'll be one year old in July.

Looking forward to spending the next few days with Ken and Charlene!