This is a post that should have been written a week ago! But, it’s been a social time on our travels, so I’m just getting to it now!
The last you saw of these guys (pointing our own thumbs to us), we were making our way back to the mainland. First thing we did when we got to Prince Rupert? Last fish n’ chips meal by the sea (for now!) From there we took our “good luck / keep the gobly goops away” shell given to us by someone in Haida Gwaii and hit the road. I think we mentioned that the road from Prince Rupert to Terrace has some of the most beautiful scenery. We were able to truly enjoy it this time because we weren’t worried about running out of gas and even stopped to enjoy it (that’s how confident we were in our gas situation)!!
Because it was the August long weekend, we had some trouble finding a place to stay. We ended up at the same campground we had stayed at on the way to Haida Gwaii. Kleanza Creek Provincial Park is next to Kleanza Creak and the Skeena River, has beautiful sites, is well maintained and is the campground I may forever compare other campgrounds to. Luckily, they had a last minute cancellation which we scooped up for two nights. We enjoyed the park, took in RIverboat Days in Terrace, played frisbee golf, took a couple dips into frigid water, and enjoyed the babbling creek mere steps from our camp site.
Back on the road, we took our time. We spontaneously ended up in Hazelton which had the most “mountain shaped mountain” overlooking the area. We visited the Ksan Historical Village and Museum where we had a really cool conversation with a totem pole carver. I really liked the feeling of the area and after reading a bit more about it, it is somewhere I would go back to spend more time in.
Our next spontaneous spot brought us to a rare rainforest. The Ancient Forest is the only known rainforest in the world so far from the ocean (800km). Guess what? Just like the other ones we had spent time in … MAGICAL
We have been pretty lucky in that we’ve avoided most of the smoke that has blanketed the province from all of the various fires this summer. By Prince George, we started to experience it and by the time we crossed the border got into the Rockies and arrived in Jasper, we couldn’t even tell we were in the mountains! If you would have told us Jasper was in the foothills, we would have believed you!
In Jasper, I experienced a few firsts – first time at the Lodge, first time camping in Jasper, first time stopping at the numerous amazing waterfalls and first time walking up to the Athabasca Glacier.
From the Rockies, we headed in the direction of our old stomping grounds … (To Be Continued)