Well here it is, the first official day of winter, and since there isn’t much of anything happening around here, I’ve decided to go back and blog about the trip we took to the North West Territories, back in June of 2005.
After copying the pictures I had stored on 2 CD’s into this computer, the first thing that came to light was how much digital cameras have advanced in the intervening 4 1/2 years! For this particular trip, I purchased what would have been my second digital camera, so new and so top of the line in a ‘compact’ camera that I had to wait for it to actually be available in Canada. Now I look at those pictures, most of which aren’t even a megabit in size, and think…oh my! However, I’ve doctored them up as best I can….
The second thing that comes to light is that we had pretty lousy weather…..that must have been a really wet year….or at least the spring, and the third thing is that we didn’t spend nearly enough time in the territories and really need to go back.
Like all of our trips, we set out right after work, heading up the Fraser Canyon, spending the first night at Skihist Campground just past Lytton on highway 1.
This trip was taken back before Ernie had the arrangement at work where he can take extra time off, so I think we only had 3 weeks, possibly 4…I should check that by the dates the pictures were taken, but I guess it doesn’t really matter….
We were on the road early the next morning as we had a long run to Ten Mile Provincial Park just north of Quesnel….remember we stayed there on our Yukon Trip this year….back in 2005, we had arranged to meet Ernie’s brother and his wife there as they would be accompanying us to the territories. It is a rather long, somewhat boring drive, alleviated by a stop
at the visitor’s center in 100 Mile House where there is a Duck’s Unlimited marsh, great for bird viewing. This male Yellow headed Blackbird was in the reeds there. These are one of my favourite birds….100 Mile House is about as far north in B.C. as you’ll find them.
We had made good time and arrived at Ten Mile with plenty of time for wandering around. This is the picnic area….this was early June…still surprising that it was pretty much deserted.
There were a lot of wildflowers along the numerous hiking trails in this campground, including this ‘Heart-leaf Arnica’,
and these ‘Queen’s Cup’ or ‘Blue Bead’
and of course, the Red Columbine
but the most impressive, only because this was only the second time I’d ever seen them……were these
Mountain Lady slippers
Next morning we were on the road, again, bright and early, with another long run ahead of us…through the city of Prince George, up highway 97
took a break to stretch our legs at a rest area beside the Crooked River where there was a large flock of Common Merganser ducks….next stop was for lunch at
Bijoux Falls Provincial Park…this shows the general type of landscape in the area, that is highway 97…
Here are the actual falls
this is the parking area….that is our brother in laws truck and fifth wheel, and our truck and travel trailer in the rear, which was our RV set up until this spring when they both got traded in on the newer truck and camper.
I got a kick out of this sign, talking about the Steller’s Jay. Where I live we see Steller’s Jay on a daily basis, but I guess most people don’t as this species is only found here in the northwest.
We didn’t have to be ‘patient’ to get a picture…we had to fend them off as they would have packed off our entire lunch if we’d let them!
I think, at this point, I’ll post this entry and start on the next….it takes a long time to get from the south-western most tip of British Columbia to anywhere in the north of the province!
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