British Columbia, Here I Come!

This time tomorrow, I will be in British Columbia! After tomorrow, the only province I will have left to visit is Newfoundland and Labrador!

I'm trying to plan out my route to Oliver. It's a 700km journey. Normally, I'd say that I could easily do that in two days, with just one overnight stop, but normally I'm not driving through several national parks with slow speed limits and let's not forget the mountains. I think it will probably take me three days to get there, but it can't take any more since I could be called to work on Monday. Could is a big word, but I wouldn't want to miss my chance.

I'd like to invite you all to visit the Parks Canada website and get information on RV camping along this route just so you'll see that I'm not exaggerating when I state that this is a ridiculously frustrating task. In order to get information on campgrounds, their amenities, and their rates, I have to visit an average of four websites!

After about an hour's worth of Googling, I finally was able to determine that my first overnight stop will probably be at Kicking Horse Pass campground in Yoho National Park. Camping there is 30$ per night. No hookups. 40$ if you need a day pass. No hookups. Let me say that again. No hookups. As if that wasn't bad enough, the campground doesn't take reservations, so if they're full, tough luck, I have to push on to Golden. This type of fleecing by the Canadian government is par for the course, unfortunately. If you're coming to Canada, I suggest sticking to provincial and private campgrounds. Visit the national parks by day only!

Because there are apparently so few places to stop overnight between Canmore and Golden, I'm not guaranteed a spot at Kicking Horse, and I won't be pushing off till noon tomorrow, I doubt I'll be detouring to Lake Louise. :-(

I have to say that this is the first night before departure since Thunder Bay that I'm just about raring to go! I've been here a full week and it's been really nice, but I've had my fill of the area for now.

Even though I'm nine kilometres from the nearest full service town and thirty kilometres from Calgary city limits, I still feel that this location was fantastic. I really enjoyed doing my daily excursions and coming home to this spot. It's not as quiet as it could be since it's right at the intersection of two busy roads, but it's peaceful and the staff is very friendly. I just wish the window in front of my computer didn't overlook the dumpsters. :-D

I'm seeing a lot of rigs in this park that are not much different from Miranda all gussied up with skirts in preparation for the winter. Oh, those brave souls! As for me, I'm headin' for the promised land. :-)

But I have to say the weather here has been incredible. It dips to close to freezing at night and goes up to about 25 during the day. Miranda turns into an oven (it was 32 in here this afternoon!). I don't know how to describe the sun out here, but it feels really close and it's unbelievably intense. Soon as it sets, though, BRR! It's meant nice days for exploring or puttering at home, but nights that are really comfortable for sleeping, so absolutely ideal RVing conditions. Pity they can't last all year. :-)