Whistler, Vancouver BC 8/30 – 9/2/2009
The drive to Whistler from the north was very scenic. The road wound up the valleys high above the floor. An occasional switchback brought us over the mountain ridge to the next valley. The weather was very cloudy. The clouds and the smoke from the local fires spoiled the views.
Whistler was teaming with people and traffic. We couldn’t even find a place to park. We toured the area. Whistler is the largest Ski Area in North America and will host the 2010 Winter Olympics. The whole area was knee deep in preparation for the Olympics.
We continued on towards Vancouver. We camped for 3 nights at Alice Lake Provincial Park in Sqaumish about 30 miles north of Vancouver. This was a great family campground with swimming beaches on Alice Lake and plenty of trails for biking and hiking. We took an 8 kilometer hike around the 4 lakes in the area.
In Vancouver, we went to Stanley Park and the Museum of Anthropology at University of BC. On the way to UBC from Stanley park, we saw more of downtown Vancouver than we anticipated. We got lost! Stanley Park was wonderful. It had great views of the bays and islands. We had lunch high on a hill overlooking one such bay.
In Squamish, we toured a historic copper mine by taking the miner’s train into the mine. We experienced somewhat what was like to have worked in the mine.
It took us two hours to get accross the US/Canada border!
This is our last journal posting from western Canada and Alaska. We have crossed into USA and are now in a Wal-Mart “campsite” with Mount Rainier clearly visibile above us. The traffic is very noticeable after travelling on isolated roads of northwest Canada and Alaska!
We have a 9/8 appointment in Engene, Oregon with a Trailmanor dealer to get our camper a check up! We thought we would see Mts Rainer, Helen and Hood while waiting.