Sunday, September 10, 2017

Driving Cross Countries, Summer 2017 (Part 3 of 4 - Traveling and Fishing in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada)


Cassiar Highway in British Columbia is very scenic, not only because of the beautiful surrounding scenery, but also because of the abundance of wild flowers along the roadsides.  Though this highway is narrow and bumpy, especially in the northern half, I enjoyed the driving.  I felt as if I were driving on a flower garden path. From Cassiar Highway, we took side trips to:  Telegraph Creek (village) and Salmon Glacier, British Columbia.



On the way to Telegraph Creek (village) on Telegraph Creek Road, we had a remarkable view of 
Grand Canyon of the Stikine River.



    At the end of Telegraph Creek Road is Telegraph Creek (village).
It has buildings from gold rush days, more than a hundred years old.


 The next side trip taken was to view Salmon Glacier.  We left Cassiar Highway for
 the Stewart-Hyder Access Road, then Salmon Glacier Road.


                                              Salmon Glacier, British Columbia.


Salmon Glacier Road is a very rough dirt road winding up to Salmon Glacier Summit viewpoint, which offers spectacular views of the Salmon Glacier. We had seen many glaciers already at this point of our trip, when we were driving, taking a cruise or hiking, but Salmon Glacier was the most impressive as its vastness spreading right in front of our eyes.  

That night we stayed at a campground in Hyder, Alaska.  While I was preparing dinner on the picnic table, some campers tried to get my attention and shouted, "a bear".  I looked around and saw a black bear behind me about 50 feet away.  It didn't mind me and continued walking to the bushes.  The next morning I learned from the campground host that this bear was the camp's neighbor.  It wouldn't bother any campers if they didn't bother it.  Anyway it was too close for comfort.  I was lucky for it wasn't hungry the night before.
  

We finally left the wildness and wild animals behind, and back to civilization when we arrived at Vancouver, British Columbia.



Vancouver, British Columbia.

We stayed in Vancouver for a week and enjoyed a variety of cuisine.  The best of all was the simplest - Raw.  We bought two big sea urchins from Fisherman's Wharf, and opened them up immediately. With a little bit of soy we tasted them.  We thought we were in heaven.










                Two biggest sea urchins we have ever seen.


After Vancouver, we visited Canadian National Parks in British Columbia and Alberta.


Before entering Jasper National Park, we encountered the amazing Mt. Robson, British Columbia.  





Pyramid Lake, Jasper National Park, Alberta.

In the early morning, we flyfished in Pyramid Lake.  Large mayflies were hatching and fish was rising.  I hooked some small ones but the big ones were too far away for my cast range.  I got great photos, but no fish.




                    Photos of me being skunk in Jasper and Banff National Parks.
     
                            As a consolation, maybe I can use these picture-perfect photos
                                       to print a tenkara fishing carender of 2018.



Driving from Jasper to Banff on the Icefields Parkway, we had one of the most memorable sights:
Athabasca Glacier.


     The unbelievable thing about Athabasca Glacier was that it was easily accessible and
 we could walk on it as far as we felt safe.  


Our luck of catching fish returned after we had left Banff National Park.

                             
                                 Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park, British Columbia



                                                            A Small Brookie.



                                                 Kicking Horse River, Yoho National Park

 From the photo above, one can see this section of Kicking Horse River had two colors.  Beyond the shore, the water was murky because it was from melting snow and contained a lot of silt. It is not the kind of water a fish wants to live in. So when I chose my fishing spot, I would pick the one where clear clean water was flowing down from a stream (right side of the photo).


                                                                    A Bull Trout (?)




                      Illecillewaet River,  Revelstoke National Park, British Columbia.






















For tenkara trout fishing, we had most fun in Illecillewaet River.  We picked the same kind of spot where a clear clean stream merged into the main river.  We caught fish after fish.  Most were rainbows. but some might be bull trouts. We had much fun fishing, but we had to stop in about an hour to be on our way.


Part 4 will be the last of these series.  We were back to US to fish in North Cascades National Park, Washington and North Umpqua River in Oregon.


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