It's sunny at last! We awoke this morning to sun streaming through the skylight, and the sound of birdsong and freight trains outside. We had to have another pancake breakfast because we forgot to take photos of the last one. This time we just shared a plate, but the camp lady brought Katie an extra pancake anyway! Everyone is so lovely here!
We packed up our (almost dry) tent and headed down the road to the Meadows in the Sky Parkway, which is a road that heads up Mount Revelstoke to Balsam Lake. Winding 26 kilometres uphill (including over 1km of elevation) the road passes through cedar and hemlock forest, which eventually gives way to snow forest of spruce and fir before opening up to the renowned subalpine wildflower meadows of Mount Revelstoke National Park. Unfortunately, we were a few weeks too early, so the wildflowers were only just starting to show as little buds. Nonetheless, the view from the top was awe inspiring.
The road doesn't go all the way to the top, as there's not enough space for parking up there. For most of the summer months, you can take a shuttle from to the summit area, but it wasn't running today as there was still too much snow on the higher parts of the road. We walked for about 30 minutes from the carpark up to a fire tower right on the summit. I wouldn't mind having that job, sitting in the tower, looking at that view all day.
We'd totally underestimated what was up here. We thought that this would be a quick 30-minute detour, but we ended up spending about three hours between driving up and down, stopping at lookout points along the road, and walking to the summit. Katie loved the signs along the way, warning us about amphibians and marmots on the road!
We stopped in Revelstoke for lunch and some shopping before we head onwards to the wilderness. The chilly bin had been running on a pile of ice packs (from the many food boxes we'd ordered in Vancouver), but only one was still frozen, so we bought a bag of ice to help it along. We also went to the dollar store and bought some plastic containers, which we could use to keep our food out of the inevitable pool of water at the bottom of the chilly bin. I stopped in at an outdoor clothing store and bought a Tilley Hat, as I didn't bring a sun hat from NZ. Hopefully, this one will last me for many years!
On the road to Illecillewaet Campground, we stopped to take some photos of the valley we were driving through. The dramatic backdrop of blue sky and rugged mountains was genuinely stunning. The pull-off where we stopped also turned out to be the entrance for Mount Sir Donald campground, which according to a sign on the gate was closed due to a spruce beetle infestation.
Arriving at Illecillewaet Campground, we drove around all the road loops until we'd identified the best spot. In this campground, you find a place yourself, and then go and report to the ranger station and register your campsite number with your name and vehicle. The first ranger we came across warned us that there had been a Grizzly bear hanging around the campsite for the last 24 hours, so we should be especially vigilant with keeping our site clean, and maybe walk to the bathrooms in pairs. Scary!
This is definitely the most 'natural' place we've been so far. Since I sat down to write this, we've seen several squirrels, a couple of Steller's jays, and some pileated woodpeckers with little red mohawks!
