A DETOUR THROUGH BRITISH COLUMBIA
- Hannah McDonald
- Jul 23, 2024
- 9 min read
Groggily opening my eyes, reality comes crashing down as I hear someone outside the car (our home on wheels) loudly remark, “Yeah, they evacuated all of Jasper last night.” That really happened. Not a dream.
Tumbling out of our car into the Best Western parking lot and entering the lobby, we see it’s crawling with people. Jasper has 5,000 residents plus thousands (as many as 12,000 according to the New York Times) of seasonal employees and even more visitors. All those people had to come through this tiny town—Valemont. The community very kindly opened their doors to as many as possible. It’s the first real town from Jasper in this direction, and there isn’t another for hours. Despite their kindness, there certainly isn’t the capacity for all these evacuees, and we are very lucky to have gotten to sleep here for the night.
Due to the location of the fire, the evacuation route is a 12 hour drive to Calgary (through Kamloops in British Columbia and back to Alberta). We will follow the route but end in Banff, the next stop on our trip. What is normally a 4 hour drive from Jasper to Banff is now 10 hours, so we rejoin the floods of people taking the one road to Kamloops from here. There’s a whole lot of nothing along the way (except all the people leaving Jasper). We are learning just how remote Jasper is. The mountain views remain for some time—beautiful, although we spot smoke from other small wildfires along the way—and then we hit desert in Kamloops. Joelle is diligently doing all things logistics in the passenger seat to effectively reroute our trip—finding a campsite for tonight, finding activities to do in these new areas using the guidebook, checking on cancellations of our derailed plans, etc. It turns out, we are driving through three National Parks—Revelstoke, Glacier (the Canadian one), and Yoho. Plus, we are going through Golden, which is a great place to spend the night and play at an adventure park. We have made this into a lemons to lemonade reroute through British Columbia.
Mount Revelstoke National Park
The Trans-Canada Highway takes us right to Mount Revelstoke National Park, and Joelle has found a few brief activities for us. The first is Skunk Cabbage Boardwalk Trail. Gratefully, we stretch our legs after so much driving. We start down the boardwalk trail, which is lined with Skunk Cabbages. Their leaves are visible but, fortunately, it isn’t the time of year for the skunk smell of their yellow flowers. The vegetation is unlike any we’ve seen in the area yet—a very green and lush wetland with lots of chirping birds and ferns. The trail is short and, while normally a loop, we hit a dead end due to trail repair and head back.
Our next planned stop in Revelstoke is Giant Cedars Boardwalk Trail, just up the highway. Unfortunately, it is closed so we make our way to our campsite for the night—Whispering Spruce Campground. The mosquitos viscously attack and ash falls from the smoke-filled sky, but we have a safe place to sleep for the night and still manage to do our laundry. We also learn the evacuation story of some backpackers staying the night: Just before the Jasper evacuation, they got helicoptered out of the backcountry after hitting the “SOS” button when they realized the fire was 3 miles from them. We feel fortunate that our evacuation was much less eventful.
Golden Skybridge
Golden Skybridge has suspension bridges and adventure activities spanning a deep canyon, normally with mountain views, although it’s too smoky to see anything today. We opt for the only reasonably-priced option: The Early Riser Adventure Pass. This gets you in the park at 8:00am with unlimited access to the five main attractions until 11:00am. By far the best way to do it. We are one of the first cars in the lot and watch them push the ticket booths open for the morning. The woman at the counter gives us advice on how to get the most out of our pass, including saving the Canyon Edge Challenge Course (ropes course) for last because it takes about two hours and, as long as you are in line by 11:00, the passes will work.
The park is peaceful and empty (aside from the mosquitos). We make our way to the far side of the park, and there’s lots to explore on the way, including a playground and seesaw. We use the bouncy suspension bridge to cross the deep canyon with the Kicking Horse River rushing through it. Wouldn’t want to drop anything. On the other side, we browse the informational signs before arriving at our first attraction: The Railrider Mountain Coaster.
The mountain coaster is alpine slide adjacent—just shorter and less steep. This early, there's no line. We see children can ride in the same cart as their parents so naturally Joelle and I ask if we can ride together too. The answer is yes—woohoo! Joelle is in the back with control of the breaks, while I sit in front of her. The coaster pulls you up the hill, and this is where I’m wondering if going together was the right move. Gravity is pulling us down as the coaster pulls us up, squishing both of us. The coaster, which can speak (weird), signals us to remove the breaks, and Joelle releases them completely. The rest is a blur of speed and screams. We are flying, with the breaks only briefly applied around a particularly sharp turn. Before we know it, it’s over, and we decide maybe it’s best as an individual activity. So, we hop right back in “line,” taking our own carts this time. Round two is significantly less fun. Even with no breaks, it is a leisurely slide. Apparently, combining our weight makes a big difference. Not an individual activity after all we conclude.
Now we head to the zip line for a ride back across the canyon, where more activities await. Again, there's no line. We get geared up in our harnesses and helmets and chat with the employees, both from Australia. The zip line is brief but beautiful above the canyon.
The rock climbing wall is next, followed by axe throwing. We have to do the rock climbing wall twice because, rather than trusting the belay, we climb back down the wall the first time. We have to redeem ourselves...the belay is much easier.
The morning flies by, and having done everything on this side of the canyon, we head back across. We have just enough time to do the zip line again. Now after 10:00am, it's getting busier, and the lines are longer. There is no way we can wait in the regular line and get to the rope course like by 11:00, so we chance the singles line. We barely wait before we are both ushered through. We get our equipment quickly since we’ve done it before, and it doesn’t hurt that the staff remembers us. We climb the spiral stairs to the top of the platform, making it through the lengthy line in record time. “Let them fly,” we hear over the radio and off we go.
We take the suspension bridge back across the canyon and get in line for the ropes course—the Canyon Edge Challenge Course. After a 30-45 minute wait in line, we get equipped with our harnesses, helmets, and clips for the course. On the training course, we learn how to clip ourselves in and use our zip line attachments. There are several levels of courses, and they direct us to the easy ones to start. The course is low in the trees with a series of hanging bridges to cross, a zip line, and "slides" that aren't steep enough to actually slide on. A mom and her daughter are fighting fears as they go, and we offer encouraging words. Once you’re on the course, there is no way off but through because of how you clip in, which we calmly explained to them during their multiple efforts to bail. Finishing the beginners course, Joelle is excited to tackle the hardest course. Why not? First, we have to pass the pull-up test. Joelle does easily, and I learn I can still do a pull-up. Woohoo! We receive some additional training before this course, and the woman makes a big deal about whether we really want to do it. How hard are we talking…? The course starts with climbing up a tube made of rope, and we end in the tree tops, high above the ground. The platforms sway a bit, and people are below us doing the other courses. From here, the obstacles get fun, and they require some thinking and strategizing. On one, we swing ourselves from rope swing to rope swing. On another, we try to find our way across a series of stirrups hanging from above. We try strategizing and get close but ultimately zip line past the stirrups, paying for it with a whack from each one as we go. The hardest, I find, is the series of wood pieces hanging like swings at an angle. This one requires some core strength. The last obstacle is jumping off a tall platform and trusting the belay to get us to the ground. Glad we practiced that on the rock wall! This course is a lot of fun, and we descend having gained trust in our harnesses to catch us, raw hands, sore arms (just mine), and gratitude that we are wearing pants.
It is nearly 1:00pm and our passes have expired, so we take the lower suspension bridge back, watching the canyon swing (expensive ticket, not included) and playing on the slack line and swingsets as we go. If you find yourself going through Golden, we recommend The Early Riser Adventure Pass at Golden Skybridge. It kept us entertained for hours.
Yoho National Park
Yoho National Park is often considered a day trip from Banff. Joelle’s finds us a hike to Wapta Falls in the guidebook. The morning crowds have left, so we find parking and get on the trail. We hop over several dead trees lying across the trail, and after some time, we get a peek at the powerful falls. The trail splits, and we ask a group emerging what is in each direction. The trails go to the same place, with one being steeper and the other having a many trees lying across the trail. We opt for the trees, and sure enough, we find ourselves weaving over and under them. As long as none fall on us this will do. Emerging from the trail, we hear––then see––the waterfall. It is relatively short, but it’s wide and powerful. Oddly, it seems like a dirt pile is stacked up in front of it, but Google images seems to always have that pile. It must be a permanent feature. We weave through the fallen trees to make our way back out, while being attacked by mosquitos. Joelle pulls her hood over her head and cinch it down, leaving just a small part of her face showing. “Ha! Come at me now bugs,” she challenges. “Careful,” I warn. Minutes later, she is stung in the face by a bee. Rude.
After inspecting the bee sting and Googling what to do for it, we make our way to Yoho’s Natural Bridge. I’m not really sure what to expect on this one, other than natural things making a bridge... Sometimes it’s fun not to Google something in advance, trust the guidebook, and be surprised. Other times, it’s wise to Google it to make sure it’s worth the effort. The Natural Bridge is low hanging fruit though—we can drive right to it and it's on the way to Emerald Lake. Perfect time to be surprised. We score a parking spot, although it is much busier here. The Natural Bridge is large rock that extends across a rushing river, with a small gap at the bottom that water funnels through quite powerfully. It is a unique and cool natural creation. There is a not-so-natural (man-made) bridge downriver that we cross to get a good view of the Natural Bridge and the rushing river.
We continue up the road to Emerald Lake, where we find all the people. It is hopping, with many day-trip tour busses from Banff in the large parking lot. The lakeshore is bustling as people hang out on the beach and some brave the cold water for a swim. Out on the water, there are tons of rented canoes. We begin walking the path along the lake until we find a small nook without any people, where we enjoy the turquoise water. The lodge across the bridge is visible, and the mountains, while hazed over, are outlined above the water. Fossil appreciators would be interested to know Burgess Shale is just barely out of site across and above the lake. On our way out, we, of course, put our hands in the water for a temperature check.
Leaving Yoho National Park, we cross the border back into Alberta and circle back to take a picture in front of the British Columbia sign (we didn’t exactly get one when evacuating into BC…). It may not have been what we planned, but we made the most of our detour through British Columbia.
Way to FLEX!