A few years ago, Winnie's sister had given us a dome tent as a gift. We had mostly only used it in the back yard except for one overnighter at a park with church friends. Winnie had also gotten a smaller one that the two boys can squeeze into together (along with a selection of stuffed animals). Having taken our first stroller-free air trip the previous winter, we got ambitious enough to plan a summer tent trip. Gilbert and Winnie had driven through the Canadian Rockies in the summer of 1994, so Gilbert suggested it was time to revisit, and showed the boys maps and old photos.
We got a practice camping day when we used the tent one night in Baker City, OR, during an Independence Day weekend trip to Boise. We also visited:
- The Tamastslikt Cultural Center east of Pendleton, OR (Tamastslikt means "interpret" in the Walla Walla language);
- The National Oregon Trail Interpretive Center near Baker City, OR, which we hit late enough that they didn't charge but too late to walk down where there were still wagon ruts;
- The Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise, which to San Franciscans would be like an Exploratorium with good lighting;
- Morrison-Knudsen Nature Center east of Boise State U., a free attraction with a small exhibit building and some paths that connect to the riverside bike/walk path where we could see people riding innertubes down the river;
- The Pursuit, a church meeting in a movie theater in a large Boise shopping mall;
- The World Center for Birds of Prey, a hilltop center housing numerous falcons and other raptors;;
- And, lest you think we only did educational places, Boondocks Family Fun Center in Meridian, west of Boise, for some bumper boats, mini-golf and laser tag.
Links to Boise Trip Pictures
That was just the tune-up for our longer trip, where the boys just had to pick which stuffed animals to bring, and count down the days until we left; while Gilbert figured out where to stay and Winnie figured out what NOT to bring considering the limited trunk space and the desire to eat hot food sometimes (the three guys probably would have been satisfied with cereal, bread and snacks on non-restaurant meals, supplemented with occasional supermarket stops).
We started on the afternoon of August 5 and drove north toward Lake Roosevelt via Ritzville and Davenport. The Kettle Falls campground (whatever falls once existed were flooded when the Grand Coulee Dam created the lake) was not far from a Boise lumber plant, but no noticeable noise or odor affected us. We made a mistake of using a non-DEET bug spray, which didn't do the job. Our cooler definitely did, and the frozen "taco soup", strategically placed to reduce the amount of ice required, was still frozen and needed to be broken out of its bag to be heated up.
Saturday morning took us through Northport and across the border (we had to surrender a few apples even though they were store-bought). We went over one pass going eastward and stayed overnight in the valley town of Cranbrook. People elsewhere in BC speak of it like people in California might refer to Fresno, in a sort of "don't judge the rest of our state by that backwards hick town" way, but it seems like a typical modest agricultural/commercial town. We were going to eat at Triple O's (a mini White Spot) until we heard their shake machine was not working, and ended up going across the road to Burger King because some of the other places had closed (we had slipped into Mountain Time and it was past 8 PM even though it was bright as afternoon to us).
Everything we had read indicated that campgrounds could be crowded, and there were no online reservations set up yet apart from the ones closer to the town of Banff. Even the border crossing guard had suggested we try to get a spot by noon (we had intentionally selected Sunday to enter hoping that the weekenders would be on their way out), so we didn't take time to attend church or to stop at the frontier town of Ft. Steele on our way through the valley, nor did we stop along Highway 93 through Kootenay National Park on our way up the mountains. Our first choice spot of Castle Mountain, midway between Banff and Lake Louise, had numerous available spots. We could have gotten one by the creek, but after the previous mosquito episode, we decided to take one a bit away and more in the sun (but not too far from the restrooms).
Driving the Bow Valley Parkway didn't lead us to any of the advertised animals, and Moose Meadows was admittedly as much a tie to the past as Kettle Falls, rather than a description of the current inhabitants. The boys dozed as we went into town and up an overlook over the river at the Banff Springs Resort, which we also took a walk around (hard for a visitor to find a drinking fountain). Having seen a deer near Phil's Restaurant (only wild animal sighting of the day), we decided to stop there for supper. Andrew got the free pancake plate offered to little kids. We could see the animal overpasses and fencing along Highway 1 that were constructed for animal and vehicle safety, which weren't there on our previous visit.
Monday was reserved for a trip along the Icefields Parkway to the Columbia Icefields. This was the first place that was really crowded, and we wondered where all the cars in the parking lot had come from. The roads up had been fairly open, and our late start kept us from stopping at some of the nice lakes and photo spots we passed on the way north. The Icefields Centre, which had not been there on our previous visit, was like an airport with food, gift shops and ticket counter for the Ice Explorer trips. There was also a glacier exhibit downstairs. The mountains are so large that the Athabasca Glacier (which is only a small outlet of the icefields) is not particularly impressive, and has been receding. With the afternoon sun coming across the water of most of the lakes, which were on our right going back south, the beautiful deep blues we had seen in the morning were not as remarkable. Nonetheless, the boys tried imitating some other visitors who were trying to skip rocks on Bow Lake where we did stop.
Of course, we had to stop at Lake Louise and its green rock-flour water and chateau.The boys remarked that it looked like fun to rent a canoe, but we just walked around the lake and inside the hotel. By this time, it was getting late and we didn't try to take the side trip up to Moraine Lake, which is another mountain-ringed lake but of blue color, featured on the back of the Canadian $20 bill.
Links to Banff Area Pictures
Tuesday was a break from nature, where we drove into the prairie metropolis of Calgary. After a hotel check-in (where they put us next to a row of cyclists who seemed to be from Eastern Europe), we went downtown on the train and visited the Calgary Police Service Interpretive Centre; walked the "+15" walkways between buildings to the little Chinatown, then took another train to
the "Telus World of Science", often known by its original name of Calgary Science Centre. There were many hands-on exhibits, and only Andrew was not too keen on the 3-D movie.
Wednesday was reserved for a trip to the Calgary Zoo. The boys found the "Prehistoric Park" interesting, though the giant reptiles were statues and not animated. Gilbert called it the largest mini-golf course in the world. It was cooler and wetter than the previous day, and we were glad that many of the animals were indoors. There was a night animal exhibit where you first enter a dark room for awhile to get acclimated before walking in.
Links to Calgary Area Pictures
We drove back in the afternoon and did manage to spot one elk. We found our campsite still intact but too wet to cook, so we went back to Banff for supper. The next morning, there was no rain so we packed our damp tents after shaking them out as much as we could, and retraced our path to Radium Springs, but at a slower pace. We also took a detour to the town of Kimberley, which had been a major mining town early in the 1900's but is now a tourist village with a Bavarian theme, like a mini-Leavenworth. The boys found the little museum by the library to be interesting.
We retraced our route through Cranbrook but then kept south across the border into northern Idaho, through Bonners' Ferry to Lake Pend Oreille. Pronounced "Ponderay", like the nearby town, its name was derived from a French trapper's description of natives who wore ear pendants. We then cruised through the lakefront town of Sandpoint, said to be one of the fastest-growing areas and popular with vacationers.
We had looked through a campsite book for nearby campgrounds, and the weather looked dry enough to air out the tents as well. We had decided on Round Lake State Park, and followed the directions from Sandpoint, across a wide causeway (where we could see trains on a parallel one), not realizing it was its own separate (circular, of course) lake. Being Thursday night, there was a good number of spots open, whereas weekends were usually crowded. Although we didn't get to see much of Lake Pend Oreille, the quiet evening at Round Lake was a good break, and the number of stars we could see by the beach was probably far more than could be seen near Sandpoint.
Because the boys started soccer the next day, we packed up Friday morning (which happened to be Josiah's birthday). We went to the visitor center when it opened to rent a canoe, and Josiah got to pick from their assortment of stuffed birds (having lost Penny the penguin earlier in the summer). We took a lap around the lake in the canoe (having asked for a 3rd paddle in case one of the boys dropped one during their turn, but they held on and we never had to use the spare), which prompted Josiah to say it was the best birthday ever despite not having a traditional party. On the long drive back, we spotted a good eatery named the Village Kitchen in Priest River (it was full of customers even in the mid-afternoon), then realized how fortunate we had been when the clouds opened up. By the time we crossed the Idaho-Washington border into Newport, the streets were sloshing with water, and lightning preceded us most of the way to Spokane, where we stopped briefly before the last windy two hours back to Kennewick.
Links to Round Lake Pictures