Golden Days - Day 1

We woke this morning to the smell of fresh-brewed coffee at 7am and after a quick bowl of cereal, Darryl, Aunt Helen and I were off to ``the mountain”.

Aunt Helen really enjoys taking people up the mountain to show off the incredible view and the resident grizzly bear, Boo.

At 9am, we headed up the winding mountain road to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, which is a fairly new ski resort that also has a thriving summer clientele who come to see “Boo” at the Kicking Horse Bear Refuge or to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain for the views and the dining at the Eagle's Eye Restaurant.

Riding up to see the bear, you take an open chair lift, which Aunt Helen wasn’t feeling quite up to, so Darryl and I left her in the café at the bottom of the hill while we took the chair lift up the hill.
We had been told that the best time to see the bear is in the morning when he is most active, and he did not disappoint!

After the 1 hour guided info session about, and with, the bear, we took the chair lift back down the mountain and met up with Aunt Helen who joined us in the gondola ride to the very top of the mountain for breath-taking vistas and lunch at the Eagle's Eye restaurant.


Lunch was excellent and surpassed only by the view and the company. Although Aunt Helen claims to be getting a little forgetful, she certainly remembers a great deal and has a lot of really wonderful stories to share about the area and about our family. She is obviously very proud of her children and grand children – and the area in which they live.

She mentioned to us on the gondola ride up that she used to plant trees for the forestry 30 years ago and pointed out the mountains where she did that.

After lunch, we made our way back down the gondola, which is about a 20 minute ride, watching mountain bikers take to the hill (full body armour is a requirement!). It must be a thrill for them, but it sure looked terrifying to me!

We dropped Aunt Helen off at home and Darryl and I left for Yoho National Park for the afternoon where we searched in vain for a moose (Darryl wants to see one before the end of our trip and zoo’s don’t count!).

Our stops included a place called “Natural Bridge”, Emerald Lake & Takakkaw Falls (the highest falls in Canada, I think?) and then a quick stop in the cute village of Field in the park for a new park pass and finally back here for dinner, but before we arrived back, just outside of Golden, we were treated to a close encounter with a battle worn big horn sheep on the side of the transcanada who cared little of cars and people with big cameras while he made himself comfortable for a little late day sun bathing.

Dinner and a cold beer later and I’m nearly ready to call it a night. I had planned to go to bed early tonite as we have another big day on the road planned for tomorrow, but here it is 1:19am and I’m still typing away like an idiot (according to Darryl, at least), but I did take a break for a hour to flip through some old photo albums Aunt Helen dug out. I was delighted to see photos of my dad as a young boy – the youngest I have seen of him, I think!

Until tomorrow…

- Paula

Leaving Invermere for Golden

Up and at ‘em early this morning – earliest start for us yet. I think we were both up, dressed & down for the continental breakfast before 7am and we were on the road shortly after 7:30am. Good thing too – as what would have been an hour and forty five minute trip driving straight through, took us 8 with detours and stops for wildlife spottings!

Today was my turn to drive and my knee is starting to give me a lot of grief earlier and earlier in the days now as it’s not getting any rest between either driving or walking every day. Oh well, it can rest when I get home. As long as I can keep moving for the next week or so!

At 8am we were driving along side the Columbia River Valley – which we were beside off and on most of our drive throughout the day – what an incredible sight it was in the rising sun this morning. Vast and lush with colour in front of the mountain backdrop.

By 8:30, we were in the town of Radium, waiting for the local info centre to open so we could buy our pass to get into Kootenay National Park, where we were planning a stop at Radium Hot Springs. The info centre didn’t open until 9, so we wandered off to see if we could find a road down into the valley for a better view of the Columbia valley. We found a service road that led to a lumber yard and train tracks and followed it for some time. We saw white tailed deer, a hawk we weren’t able to ID as it was in the shadows of a trees some distance away and a snake that Darryl startled when he stepped out of the car on one of our stops.

At 10:15am, we entered Kootenay National Park and passed through an immense and impressive rock cut right away, which we had to stop and take lots of photos of, of course.

From there, we stopped at the Radium Hot Springs Pools and wandered the grounds there for a while taking photos. It looks much as a last remembered it, except that when I was there 23 years ago, there were no fences on the steep hill above the hot pools and that is where we saw goats and snow (it was March last time I was here). We didn’t take the time to go for a dip in the pools, kinda wish we had, but another time, We were anxious to get further into the park and hoped to spot all manner of wildlife.

At 11:30am we came to Olive Lake – I’m not sure how it got it’s name, but I suspect it might have something to do with it’s colour. In the early morning light, the water was crystal clear and the palest green colour. It was stunning. We walked around the lake and took photos for a while, reading warnings of recent bear sightings in the area with a mix of fear and excitement, but we didn’t see any.

We stopped for lunch, such as it was (Doritos and coke) on the banks of the Columbia River. As we were leaving the car to walk around the rest area on the banks of the river, Darryl and I were discussing the prospects for lunch, and he asked me “Did you lock it?” (referring to the car), and I, thinking we were still talking about lunch, replied “We don’t have any chocolate.” I’m going to blame it on low blood sugar, but Darryl says I need to get my ears checked again. It was an honest mistake – when you’re hungry “lock it” could conceivably sound like “chocolate”, right?? We had a pretty good chuckle over that.

I dipped my toes in the Columbia River and immediately pulled them back out – it was as bitterly cold as it was beautiful in icy blue tones.

We continued on our way deeper into the park, spotting the occasional white tail deer in the brush along the roadside. Ahead, we could see several cars pulled off the road and Darryl told me to slow down and stop – it was a sure sign that there was something happening – and wouldn’t you know it, he was right! There were 2 black bears grazing on the side of the road!

At 1pm we turned around at Kootney Crossing – our plans for today were only to take the road into the park halfway – later this week we will travel the other half coming from the other side.

As soon as we had cell service, we called my Aunt Helen to let her know we were on our way and we headed back through Radium and turned north to make our way to Golden.

En route, my mom had asked me to make a couple of stops for her, which I would have made on my own anyways. I have 2 uncles buried in a cemetery near Briscoe. One I never met; my Uncle Ken, who passed away long before I was born, and my Uncle Vern, who passed away in 2001.

We had been told that the cemetery was south of Briscoe and that if we got to Briscoe, we had gone too far, so we drove up to Briscoe without seeing the log cabin church and cemetery. So we back-tracked and drove the stretch again, detouring down several side roads in case it might be down there…no luck. Finally, Darryl told me to stop at the Briscoe general store and ask for directions. As he went in, his cell phone rang, it was my Aunt Helen calling! While I talked to her and got directions, Darryl went into the store and asked the clerk, and an elderly patron who asked him who we were looking for at the cemetery, where it was, Darryl told him “My wife’s Uncle, Vern Bryant,” and he said “I knew Vern!”; small world, huh?!

At 1:30pm, we finally found the cemetery and the graves of my two uncles. It was hard to find even with the correct directions – the driveway is very overgrown and steep down before a long gentle slope up to the century old log church at the crest of a gentle sloping hill.

At 3:30pm, we made it into Spillemacheen, where my Aunt Helen & Uncle Vern used to live. They had a farm there where my uncle had cattle and he also led guided big game hunts in the mountains. We found their old house and took some photos of it and the mountain in the “back yard” with the bear cave near the top. Of course, it’s not actually a bear cave, but that’s what I called it when I was little and visited with them on a previous trip.

We took a road nearby for a detour and found ourselves in Bugaboo Conservation Area, which was a pleasant surprise. There were many, many areas where we hoped to spot moose, but saw nothing but sparrows, ducks, kingbirds and finally a pair of osprey although they just passed through and landed in trees too far for us to take photos.

We left Spillemacheen and continued north going through various small towns along the way, always with the Columbia River Valley on our left side. In Herrogate, we started spotting what was to be the first of many, many nesting osprey – so many so that eventually we stopped stopping to take photos of them and just pointed them out to each other and carried on. Although there was one we did stop and take photos of as the light was excellent and it was close to the road.

A couple of small falcons or kestrels rounded out the days wildlife sightings.

We arrived in Golden at 5:30pm and Aunt Helen and her friend Karen had a wonderful roast beef and corn on the cob supper ready for us. The four of us sat down to supper and a nice long chat to catch up as I haven’t seen my Aunt since we got married.

Dinner was wonderful and relaxing with excellent company. We stayed up far too late chatting, catching up and looking at photos from the day and got to bed for the night far too late.

June 30, 2009

The day started with an early continental breakfast at the hotel, then on the road by 9am – so much for the early start!! All of our best intentions to stay on our home time schedule have gone completely out the window – mostly due to all the late nights visiting here. What my family here doesn’t seem to realize, is that when it’s midnight for them, it’s feeling like 2am for us and we’re bagged!! This is something that gives my cousin Coreen’s husband, Terry, much delight. When I started yawning at 10pm, the ribbing started and lasted well into the night!

Today marked another milestone for us as we made our first Timmy’s stop of the trip for what turned out to be one of the most horrible cups of coffee I’ve every had from there, and so, it will also be our last stop at Timmy’s on the trip.

Our plan for this morning is to make our way to the mountain skiing village of Kimberly, which is modeled after a Bavarian alpine village. We took Hwy 93/95 to Ta Ta Creek, then went southwest on 95A to Kimberly.

This is a big day for wildlife spotting – just in the am alone, we saw:

9:15am soaring bald eagle
9:29am bald eagle hunting in Kootenay River
9:49am 2 turkey vultures
9:50am white tailed deer
9:54am nesting bald eagles
10:00am 2 kingfishers
10:12am great blue heron
10:30am bald eagle
10:40am red tailed hawk
10:42am white tailed deer
10:56am mule deer (buck)

11:00am we arrived in the village of Kimberly and it was as quaint as we expect it would be. Most of the town looks like any other but they have two cobblestone streets (The `Platzl`) that are closed to automobile traffic and are lined on both sides with Bavarian style buildings, shoppes and restaurants. Darryl and I wandered the streets and browsed in the shoppes for a couple of hours before sitting down to lunch on a patio at the Gausthaus am Platzl restaurant where Darryl had a glass of their Bavarian pilsner beer (Warsteiner) with his lunch of pulled pork & brie sandwich and I had garlic sautéed prawns with rice and a Corona.

It was another sunny, warm, gorgeous day – absolutely perfect patio dining weather, and we were loathe to bring it to an end, so when our waitress suggested homemade strudel and coffee after lunch, we were more than happy to take her up on the offer. Darryl had strawberry rhubarb strudel and I had the more traditional apple – both were delicious.

By 2:30, we had made our way to Elizabethville and the Elizabethville falls. A short hike off the road took us to a scenic lookout over the basin at the bottom of the falls.

By 3:10pm, we had completed the loop and were back in Cranbrook where we began that morning.

Out afternoon wildlife spottings included:

3:22pm white tailed deer
3:51pm osprey fishing
4:30pm osprey on nest at Wasa Lake

At 5pm, we arrived in the area called Canal Flats, which is known for its variety of wildlife, but I think someone sent out a memo we were coming and told all the animals to hide, as we saw none. Even still, with no animals, the scenery was incredible – the colour of the water was unbelievable. Shortly after, we got our first glimpse of the Columbia River and then were at our hotel by 6pm for the night.

Monday June 29, 2009 - Leaving Lethbridge

Monday morning, we got up, showered and packed up our suitcases before heading upstairs for breakfast with Aunt Shirley and Uncle Elwood, who was feeling better after laying low the day before. We took photos on the front lawn after breakfast with everyone and then Aunt Shirley took us to the Vauxhall Cemetery to see where Grandpa and Grandma Bryant are buried.

After that, we dropped Aunt Shirley off at the house and said our goodbyes and headed off towards Retlaw.

Aunt Shirley & Uncle Elwood had lots of these types of birdhouses around their house - various types of footwear enjoying a second life! These were on the back fence by the driveway.

Retlaw is where my grandparents settled when they moved from Whitby, Ontario to Alberta. When they moved west in ’31, they already had my Uncle Alan, Aunt Norma and Uncle Vern with them. My Uncle Elwood was the first son born in the west, and my dad of course, was the last, being the youngest. The rest are scattered in between.



My dad may or may not be named after Retlaw (Walter spelled backwards is Retlaw), but he also had an Uncle Walter that he may have been named after. I’ll have to ask him. Several of his brothers were named after uncles they had, so I suspect that is the actual case, but still, it’s interesting to note the correlation between his name and the town.

I had been advised by my Uncle Elwood that there really isn’t anything at Retlaw anymore – most of the town is gone and only farm fields, the cemetery and the church remain. The church has been restored by past residents who come out each Christmas for a once a year service. They dress warmly as there is no heat in the building! The farm house that my dad’s family lived on is no where to be seen – it is now just a farmers field.

This is not my photo of the Retlaw church, as I didn't drive over to it (saw it in the distance though and it looked very quaint)

So, after a 45 minute detour down a very loose gravel road in our new car (!!) we realized that what my uncle said was, in fact, true, and sadly there really is NOTHING to see in Retlaw. Darryl was very happy to say “I told you so” (several times) and was unhappy that we were going to be very late to meet my Uncle Denis in Lethbridge where he had invited us to join him for lunch.

We met him at Humpty’s diner at 1pm but he wasn’t at all worried. He had talked to Aunt Shirley who had told him we were late getting away from Vauxhall and were going to make a stop in Retlaw, so he was expecting us to be somewhat delayed.

We had a long, leisurely lunch with Uncle Denis before finding the local Starbucks to grab a drink for the drive to Crow’s Nest.

Leaving Lethbridge, we were treated to the sight of a train crossing the famous bridge – the largest and oldest of it’s kind in Canada. Darryl took a couple of photos of it. In the distance ahead, we can see mountains and are getting excited!

Gradually, the flat plains gave way to more rolling terrain…we were in the foothills…and the mountains were getting more distinct but still quite a ways off in the distance. The transition from plains to foot hills to mountains takes a short amount of time and is somewhat gradual so that you don’t really realize it until you notice that suddenly you aren’t seeing much green anymore, and a lot more grey and brown.

I have been looking forward to coming back to Crow’s Nest for many years – the place and the story captivated me when I was last here in 1986. It is a surreal scene of utter catastrophic devastation, yet the town rebuilt and carried on amid the rubble of the slide. I have told Darryl about it many times and was really anxious to show it to him and take in the new interpretive centre. We knew we had until 6pm when the interpretive centre was scheduled to close, so when we arrived in Frank and it was 5pm, we figured we had an hour to take in the interpretive centre. Imagine our dismay and disappointment when we got to the door and saw a sign posted that said that yes, they were in fact open until 6, but they lock the doors at 5!! We were at the door at 5:04pm!! I was furious, but Darryl wasn’t too worried. He peeked through windows and felt we weren’t missing much so we just walked around and took photos of the slide, of Frank, Frank Slide and of Turtle mountain. I was able to tell him most of the story as I remember it well.



After we left Frank, we made one more stop at Sparwood to take photos with the Titan – the worlds biggest truck, then drove from there straight through to Cranbrook to our hotel for the night.


Along the way we saw two bald eagles just west of Sparwood, white tailed deer, a heron and a red tailed hawk in Fernie. Rocky mountain sheep just past Fernie. 2 more white tailed deer in Jaffray and at a scenic overlook, we saw several cedar waxwings, a northern red shafted flicker and a wild turkey.

Dinner that night was sandwiches and cheese from the local Sobeys in our hotel room while I got caught up on some website work – I finally had internet access!!

- Paula