Revelstoke BC

We got to score a couple of lifers in Revelstoke British Columbia. We got to hit the Canadian portion of Glacier National Park. While many of the US glaciers have completely disappeared, there are about 100 active glaciers in the Canadian version of Glacier National Park. While we couldn’t hike a great deal because most of the hiking trails were still under snow, we did manage to hit the visitor center, capture a few geocaches, and hike to our hearts content.

We discovered the Revelstoke Dam, one of more than 60 on this amazing resource for our two countries. We learned surprisingly that over 95% of power in the Province of British Columbia is hydro generated. The Dam is the 5 largest in the world from a power generation viewpoint and will likely move up. When the Dam was finished, only 4 of the 6 possible penstocks for power generation were completed. Since then, a 5^th has been added, and there is still room for one more.

We also managed to make it to Mount Revelstoke National Park. Revelstoke as a town pretty much only exists because of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the 1870’s the CPR was looking for a way across the Rocky Mountains that would allow it to connect the east and west coasts of Canada, preserving the nation’s wealth. In 1881 they hired A. B. Rogers to find such a pass, and in 1882 he discovered what is now referred to as Rogers Pass. The CPR plowed rail through the Pass and completed the transcontinental railroad, but the pass proved to be at constant risk of avalanche, and in the winter time, a full-time staff lived alone along the rail like attempting to keep it free of snow.

On March 4, 1910 an avalanche had completely closed the line, and a crew of 60 men set out to clear it. With the line nearly clear, supervisor John Anderson left the crew and headed to the work shack to contact Revelstoke and let them know that the rail would soon be clear. After he left, another avalanche came from the opposite canyon wall, and killed all 58 men still working, including John Anderson’s brother. The CPR still travels through this corridor, but now uses a 5-mile-long tunnel to bypass the worst of the avalanche area.

Apparently, the climate and terrain here attracted Scandinavians. We hiked the Soren Sorenson trail in Mount Revelstoke NP several times, and we also discovered the historic Nels Nelson Ski Jump. Built in 1916 and known locally as the Big Hill, this ski jump set the pace for Canadian ski jumping for decades to come. Now inside the NP, ski jumping records were set here from the day it opened until 1932.

During his career Nels set Canadian records 5 years and set many world records that would stand for many years. Locally they refer to 1931 as the year of the Great Fiasco. When a world competition came to Revelstoke, the judges concluded that Nels Nelson’s Big Hill was too big and steep to be safe for competitive jumping and demanded that a lower launch point be used. Although the locals still posted huge jumps from the Big Hill, the judges disqualified all those jumps.

Although I mentioned the preponderance of Scandinavians, Canada is truly a melting pot of people from all over the world. While I would not have necessarily thought of this combination of ethnic food, apparently it works well in Canada, or at least in Revelstoke. We actually had lunch here and found it really nice.

We discovered Revelstoke Mountain Resort, and massive ski complex just a few miles from downtown. We hopped on the gondola and headed up to the first stop on the massive hill and hiked around to very picturesque views of the Columbia River. The gondola continued up to the summit of the resort, but sadly that was still under many feet of snow, so wasn’t open.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Revelstoke is on the Columbia River. I didn’t know this but the source of the Columbia is way up in norther BC. I was a bit confused that Simon Fraser had originally thought the Fraser River that he explored in 1806 was the Columbia River. Now I know that the Columbia actually travels in all four directions, north, south, east and west in different parts of BC. Then it heads south and forms most of the border between Washington State and Oregon.

The Columbia River is impressive here. We traveled along it for much of our venturing in Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks. We found it again in the town of Golden on the east side of Glacier NP. We found the longest wooden covered pedestrian bridge in Canada straddling the Columbia in Golden. We will also travel it some more as we head toward Kamloops tomorrow.

Canadians just love their camping and RV travel. If you don’t happen to own your own RV it’s really no problem at all. I know it happens in the US as well, but RV rental in Canada seems like a way of life. And while there are some interesting variations, RV rental in Canada pretty much means a Class C unit on a Ford chassis.

Of course, the nonstop waterfalls continue. We hit Moses Falls along with a plethora of others. Each and every hike we take gets us up close and personal with a waterfall. The Woman loves it. To be honest, so do I!

Talk to you soon!