British Columbia, Canada is bare bones, true wilderness.  Prepare well, and provision food well ahead of time.  That holds true through Banff and Jasper.  Towns are small and groceries are scarce.

Driving from Jasper to an unexpected stop in Valemount, then another overnight in Clearwater, making our way to Vancouver was  gorgeous yet, intense driving conditions!  Narrow mountain roads, and steep gradients, especially with the big fast moving log trucks greeting you on every blind spot corner while IN an RV towing a jeep…. pucker factor haha.  It felt as if we were in another far off land through portions of the drive.. Swiztlerland at times, Scotland others… One corner would be vast mountains and glaciers, another would be green meadow.  Very different landscape and sites.  Communities were very small and seasonally operated.

Russia, Canada and the United States are the 3 largest countries in the world.  Canada being the 2nd largest with a population of 32 million (US being 380 million…). We drove literally hundreds of kilometers with out seeing a trace of humans other than the huge and scary trucks….

Along the route near Valemount..  we stopped to view some wild spawning Salmon that a local lady from the previous campground told us to be on the look out for.  Curiously, she also said they were landlocked salmon.. and in Clearwater there was a hole in the wall cafe (trucker style) with mostly locals, that served hands down the best breakfast i’ve ever had! What a treat!!

Along the way we hit a quick bear sightseeing boat ride that looked to be a bit cheesy from the outside, but ended up being an incredible tour of Mud Lake and North Thompson River, a wildlife corridor of the Canadian Rocky mountain range. Waterfalls, glaciers and of course some very awesome and healthy bear were on par for this guided trip! Very glad we stopped to do this.  Yes, touristy.. but what the hell! The guide was very informative and the trip was extremely entertaining.

Arriving into Vancouver late in the day was a bit shocking after being away from large amounts of civilization for almost a month now, but we had some fantastic Chinese for dinner!  Catching up on laundry, school, and provisions and hitting the ferry to Vancouver Island on Friday!