June 20, Canadian Glacier National Park

Got up early this morning and headed for the Canadian Glacier National Park. Clouds and a light drizzle most of the day, along with fog or low lying clouds over the peaks of the mountains. There is also some snow still left on the peaks, covering the actual glaciers, but not to worry, the park was beautiful! We stopped a couple of times to do some short hikes through the forest.

The first hike was through the Giant Cedars of Glacier. This was an easy walk as it was all boardwalks with gentle steps through a Jurassic Park or rain forest sort of feeling. Peaceful and beautiful at the same time, not a combination you find often. The old trees are left where they fall so that they can replenish the forest floor and supply nutrients for the younger trees. The ground is covered with leafy ferns and their light green color against the reds of the rotting trees is quite a contrast and high above is the ever green canopy of the giant cedars.

The visitor’s center to the park was open and we stopped, but the gift shop was not open yet, neither was the hotel next door, once again we were too early, the summer season stops were not open yet. This time it worked to our advantage, as everything we stopped at was suppose to be charged for through Parks Canada, and we had all forgotten our passes. Ours is now in the car!!

Revelstoke National Park is about 16 km’s past Glacier, so we continued driving. Revelstoke’s landscape is much like Glacier’s, beautiful valley’s sandwiched by tall peaks covered with snow and glaciers. Just outside of the park is the city of Revelstoke where we gassed up, got some groceries and made a stop at Tim Horton’s donut shop before heading back home.

When we were at the visitor center in Glacier we found out that the south west part of Alberta had received a lot of rain overnight and that they were having trouble with flooding in Calgary and that there had been roads washed out or blocked with mud slides on the way to Banff National Park. The very same roads we are suppose to take to get to the park tomorrow.  YIKES!! The visitor center at Revelstoke told us the same thing, so it’s not looking good for our visit to Banff. After we got back home, we got a local channel to come in and boy what a mess! Not only are roads washed away, but so are bridges and the land they are anchored on! Don’t think this is going to be a simple fix, so we are studying the maps looking for an alternate route.

At this time, the Calgary Stampede site is completely flooded out as well and they aren’t sure if they will be able to get it ready in time or not. The Stampede is an important event to the economy of Calgary, so I’m sure they will do everything possible to get it cleaned up. We are supposed to go in on the 3^rd of July, so we’ll see.