Kimberly to Kalispell

 

“Welcome home”, the border agent said, handing back our passports as we crossed from Canada into Montana. “When you get back to California, you make sure that you tell everyone that the scenery in Montana is ugly, the people are mean, and that the weather sucks.”

It was Sunday, but we only had a few hours drive, so we slept in, and then went for a leisurely breakfast at Our Place in the Platzl. We got finished at 11 AM, and walked over to hear the cuckoo clock chime. Some people who were standing around, missed the warbling Bavarian, but soon realized that they could get him to sing at any time for a donation of $2.

The drive down to Kalispell was uneventful. On the way, we listened to the last few minutes of the service from Calvary Chapel Kalispell on the Internet. Our friend from Costa Mesa, Jasmine Alnutt, was playing keyboards, and it was nice to see her again after two years.

We checked into our hotel, My Space Kalispell, around 2PM. This was the same place we stayed three years ago when we visited Glacier National Park. Once we got settled, we called Jasmine and arranged to meet her, and her sister’s family for dinner at 4:30PM.

We agreed to meet at Mackenzie River Pizza and Grill, a Rockies chain restaurant. I looked up my blog entry for three years ago, and saw that this was the same restaurant we had eaten at last time we were here. Even the menu items were the same, and I ended up ordering the same Bison burger and Bison chili.

It was so nice to see Jasmine again. A little more than two years ago she graduated from Liberty University with her Masters in History, and moved to Montana to be the Dean of Women at Montana Christian College in Kalispell. (Jasmine is on the far left, in front of the computer expert who should know enough Photoshop to make himself look svelte.)

Last year, her sister Mattie Tatton (on the far right) moved back from Scotland to work as an assistant to Dr. Jones, the president of the college, and to help with accreditation. Before Christmas, her son and daughter Lauren (sitting next to Mattie), joined her, and, in late spring, her husband Martin (sitting across from Kathy) came over to make the family complete.

Unfortunately for Jasmine and Mattie, the college closed down permanently at the end of June and so both of them had to look for new jobs. Martin left his job at Volvo in Scotland and is now working for Nomad, a company that makes command and communication vehicles for situations like firefighting. Despite the uncertainty, everyone is doing well, enjoying the wonderful weather of summer in Montana, and the fellowship of their church community.

On Tuesday, Martin had to work, and so Mattie and Jasmine came over and we went ambling through the old part of Kalispell. It started raining, so we ducked into the Western Outdoor Store, which had the largest collection of boots and western gear I’ve ever seen.

After the rain let up, we went across the street to Montana Coffee Traders and had some coffee to go with our conversation.

Around 1PM we headed over to Sykes Diner and Market, a local institution, for lunch. We were meeting one of my favorite OCC students, Alina Jost, along with her husband Joseph and new toddler Lewis.

Alina had been Jasmine’s roommate when they lived in Southern California. About four years ago she met a young man while playing chess online. They eventually met in person, got married in October 2021 and moved to Kalispell where Joseph runs his own construction company. 

Today they have a son, Lewis, who is almost two, and enjoys being spoiled by his “aunt” Jasmine. I can’t tell you wonderful it was meeting Joseph and Lewis, and catching up with Alina after three years. It was a delightful lunch.

After lunch, Mattie and Jasmine took us over to Whitefish where they live to see their Calvary Chapel.

Across the street from the church is an especially calm portion of the Whitefish River. We walked the loop trail, admiring the river, while Mattie told us about her adventures kayaking from the church to Orchard Point on Whitefish Lake, and then back.

It’s been a wonderful two days here in Kalispell. I always enjoy conversation and fellowship so much more than sightseeing, no matter how beautiful the scenery. In the morning we’ll leave early for our 7-hour trip down to Idaho Falls.

Golden, Lake Louise, Banff, and Kimberley

On Thursday, Kathy and I had a continental breakfast at the Alpine Meadows Lodge, and were headed down the long dusty gravel road to Banff by 9:30 AM. As with the previous day, we had a short, 3-4 hour drive, so we planned to stop off and see some of the sights in the Yoho National Park.

We were happy to see when leaving Golden that the accident from the night before had been cleared, and there were no 20-mile-long lines of tractor-trailers blocking Highway 1 to Banff. In fact, the road was remarkably clear. Our first turnoff was at Emerald Lake, just outside the town of Field.

The parking lot was full, with more people than were at Meadows in the Sky yesterday, but we easily found space on the side of the road and ambled up to the lake. The lake looks like its name sounds; it’s turquoise and emerald, and very popular. There were a lot of people canoeing. The path around the lake is more than three miles, but we had at least one more stop before Banff, so we just walked part way. 

After making our way to the car we got back on the highway and drove about 15 miles east to Takakkaw Falls, which is one of the highest falls in Canada at 833 feet. This time we were lucky enough to snag a spot inside the parking lot, even though there were more people than at Emerald Lake (probably because it was later in the day.)

We walked the one kilometer to the base of the falls, which were very impressive. They were loud, and it was wet and cold. Everyone was trying to get as close as possible to get a picture. 

When we got back to the parking lot it was after 3 PM and we were both hungry, so we turned off the road in the town of Field to get lunch at the Truffle Pigs Bistro and Lounge, which was touted in our Moon Canadian Rockies Road Trip guide book, but we both thought that the food was a little too fancy for our taste. We shared a Cobb “not a salad”, which included things like duck breast and pickled pearl onions. It was more like an antipasto plate with Cobb ingredients, instead of a regular salad.

Because we were in the Rockies, I wanted to try trout, but instead of lake trout, I got a piece of steelhead which seemed pretty much like salmon. Kathy ordered the pork schnitzel with spaetzle, which we both remembered fondly from out trip to Wolfsburg, Germany several years ago. It too, was not what we expected, so, all in all, the meal wasn’t that memorable. 

In fact, most of the recommendations I’ve gotten from guidebooks lately haven’t really lived up to my expectations. We find that we’re relying more and more on the recommendations on Google Maps, with a 4.0 as our cutoff. In Italy this summer we ate at a place and only noticed it was a 3.1 after we sat down. It was quite disappointing, and since then, I’ve been much more aware of low ratings.

We reached our hotel in Banff (the Dorothy Motel) a little before 5PM. The Dorothy features a self-check-in procedure, but the instructions that they emailed me involved downloading an app and registering for an account. That was more than I could face after a day on the road. Fortunately, we found a helpful human at the Caribou Lodge, down the road, which owns the property, and we got into our room before 5 PM.

After we got settled in our room and had a cup of decaf, we drove downtown to look around. Commercial development in Banff is highly regulated, with almost all commercial establishments confined to a 4 or 5 block section of Banff Avenue, and the streets parallel to it. There are restaurants in many of the hotels, that are out of this section, but that seems to be the only exception.

As a result, driving downtown and finding parking is really a nightmare. After a half-hour we found a parking space, and walked through the park down to the river and over the bridge. This part of town was not crowded; most people seemed to be walking on the main drag, looking in shops, or standing in line to get into Starbucks or the ice-cream store.

Friday: Lake Louise and Moraine Lake

Friday morning we signed up for a shuttle to take us to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. We got up early and left our motel before 7AM, to catch the bus at 9AM at the tour-bus depot behind the Mount Royal Hotel on Caribou Street. Our motel gave us two three-day bus passes with our room, so we caught the local bus which dropped us off right in front of the Starbucks, where we had breakfast. We wanted a sit-down breakfast but none of the ones we found opened before 8 AM. 

After Starbucks, we stopped by Subway and got a sandwich. Again, the Web and the sign in the window said that they opened at 7AM, but a second sign said they now opened at 8AM. It looks like Banff is full of late risers because we had the place to ourselves. We caught our tour bus—really a Transit Van—a little before 9AM, and a half-hour later, were dropped off at Lake Louise, for an hour and a half.

The lake was beautiful, but crowded. At the top of this section there is a photo I took by standing at the bottom step going into the lake, and using the pano feature on my iPhone. It looks just beautiful. However, if you step back just a few feet, it looks like this [with a whole lot more people yet to arrive].

We walked around the lake for a little more than an hour, snapping photos with all of the other tourists, lined up and waiting our turn. Despite the crowds, it really is awe-inspiring.

You’ve probably seen the inspiring photos of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, similar to this one. When you’re actually at the lake level, instead of in the hills above it, it is not that impressive at all. It looks a little like a monster Motel 6. None the less, when we got back to Banff I looked up the room rates; they start at $1,250 a night. Location, location, location.

Since we only had an hour and a half at each lake, we headed back when we were half-way around the lake. Back on the bus at 11:30 AM we set off for the half-hour drive to Moraine Lake.

Lake Louise has a definite “whiteness” to the color of the water, but Moraine Lake seemed bluer. Perhaps it was the time of day, since they are both glacier fed, and both are beautiful. We walked around the lake and found a ledge with some tree roots to sit on, where we ate our picnic lunch.

Moraine Lake was definitely less crowded than Lake Louise. Still, it was not as pristine as Kathy’s picture (above) would make it appear.

Here is the same photo, at the same time, only a couple of steps further back.

At 1:30 PM we met the van in the parking lot and drove back to Banff, which took a little over an hour. On the way we had a conversation with a young lady, Gretchen, who works for Boeing in Denver, updating aviation maps for pilots. We also talked a little with our driver, Kenny, who has been here in Calgary for two years, after emigrating from Hong Kong. Finally, we met Andy, a water engineer, also from China, who is starting his PhD at Brown next week. It was really refreshing meeting so many different people.

We got back to our motel by 4:30 after navigating the insane crowds mobbing Banff Avenue, then walked a few blocks to the Chili’s in the Fox Lodge for dinner. 

Saturday we slept in, and checked out of our motel just before 10 AM. The plan was to drive for a little bit and stop for breakfast. Once we turned south on Highway 93/95 though, the sign on the highway said “No Services for 105 KM/ No cellphone service”. We thought about stopping in Radium Hot Springs (which reminds me of Radiator Springs in the movie Cars), but the cafes didn’t look inviting. So, we kept on driving until we reached Invermere at 11:30 AM where we had breakfast at Huckleberry’s Family Restaurant. 

One thing both of us really like are old-fashioned drive-up motels. The North Star Motel in Kimberley BC is our last stop in Canada, and both of us love it.

I especially like the fact that we can back right up to our front door, and avoid carrying our luggage up and down stairs. These are so cool. Kimberley is one of several small towns near Cranbrook in the East Kootenays, about an hour from the US border, and two and a half hours south of Banff. 

After unpacking, we read for a while and then went out to dinner at The Shed, located on their pedestrians street, called the Platzl, in the center of town. The Platzl boasts Canada’s largest free-standing cuckoo clock. We had a wonderful barbecue dinner of pulled pork. After dinner, we went over to the Snack Shack and spent the last of our Canadian cash on ice cream. Tomorrow we’ll be heading for Kalispell, Montana to meet with more good friends.

Revelstoke to Golden

Wednesday morning we had a gourmet, 3-course breakfast at the Courthouse Inn in Revelstoke. 

For my first course, I had granola, berries and yogurt, and it was some of the best I ever had. The second course was an omelette with homemade seedy toast, which was also delicious. Our third course were two fresh-baked blueberry scones, which we took with us.

The drive from Revelstoke to Golden is only a few hours, so we stopped along the way in the Mt. Revelstoke National Park. Our first detour was to the Meadows in the Sky Parkway, a 26 kilometer drive up the side of Mount Revelstoke to the alpine wildflower meadows. According to our guidebook, the wildflowers start blooming the first week in August, and we got there on the 6th.

When we got there about 10 AM, the parking lot wasn’t yet full, so we got one of the last spots. Then, I had the bright idea to see if we could drive up a little further to the summit. When we got to the little green tent, however, the rangers turned us around, back to the parking lot where someone else had snagged our spot.

No worries, though. There were plenty of parking by the side of the road leading into the lot. After parking, we got our walking sticks out of the car and set off on the half-mile trail to the summit. 

The walk was beautiful with flowers everywhere. When we came into the park, we were given a pamphlet with the flowers we should look for, and we saw quite a few of them.

When we reached the summit we met a Canadian farmer and his wife. We had a nice conversation and they took our picture, and we took theirs.

On the way back, we took the road, which turned out to be a lot easier than hiking down the forest trail. 

It helped that someone had set up a pair of Adirondack chairs, looking out over the valley, so we were able to take a short rest (not that we needed it). We got back on Highway 1 a little after noon, and soon pulled off to see the Giant Cedars, at one of the only inland temperate rain forests in the US.

There were picnic tables at the start of the trail, so we got out our cooler and had a picnic lunch. 

The boardwalk trail through the old-growth cedars is only about a half-kilometer, but the trees are really impressive. We left around 2:30 PM and drove the rest of the way to Golden (BC, not Colorado).

Our reservations in Revelstoke and Golden were last minute replacements for the two days we had reserved in Jasper. The Courthouse Inn was a pleasant surprise, the Alpine Meadows Lodge in Golden was more of just a surprise. Following Google Maps, we were first surprised to be lead through Golden, then across a one-lane wooden bridge over the Kicking Horse River, and finally down four miles of gravel road on the far side of the river. It was spooky, because we didn’t know what we’d find at the end of the road. I was thinking of some Eastern European horror films I had seen.

When we got to the end of the road, we found a two-story building that looked pretty run down. We thought about turning around and trying for a room in-town. Instead, we went inside and found a pleasant lodge, with ten plain but functional rooms. 

After unpacking, we headed back across the river to Golden for some dinner. When we got there, the traffic was crazy. We almost couldn’t get across Highway 1 to the business district where all of the restaurants were. At dinner, we talked to some of the other diners, and they told us that Highway 1 was closed from Golden to Lake Louise because of a traffic accident, and that it wouldn’t reopen until midnight.

We had a nerve-racking time trying to get back across the Highway again, but finally made it back to the Lodge, where the receptionist told us that people had been calling all evening trying to get a room. We’re glad we decided to stay.