As we left Fairmont we bid farewell to our travel companions who were continuing eastward, while we were circling back toward home.
We drove northward, enjoying the magnificent views of the Columbia Mountain range on one side and the Rocky Mountains on the other. Between these two ranges, along the west side of Hwy’s 93 & 95 is the Columbia River valley (or Rocky Mountain Trench) which offers a different aspect to the imposing mountains. It is a broad, deep, and long glacial valley that is an important area for migratory birds and anadromous fish species The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest and flows from the Rock Mountain’s in BC into seven US states. At the town of Golden we were back on Hwy 1.
It had started to rain quite heavily as we approached Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park (1330 m.) which made for a slow and tiring descent into Revelstoke where we had made reservations for a night at Martha Creek Provincial Park. After checking the forecast and seeing no change in weather we opted to continue onward and shorten the following day’s drive. A couple hours further on we arrived once again at Quilchena Resort. Weather cooperated for a while allowing us to have some water play time. A family of Marmots on the hillside chatted to us as Cedar played in the water.
Last leg of our trip the next day was once again in fog and rain. Driving the Coquihalla Hwy in bad weather is no fun, but we made good time and spent the night at Vedder River again before returning our rental the next morning. The return process was long; we spent a couple hours transferring our stuff to the truck and cleaning the van, then had to wait another hour before a staff came to do the inspection and send us on our way.