Thur. 17th September ‘26
Jasper isn’t quite the Eastern most point of our Western Canada leg, but it is the most Northerly, and today we head south and west and start our return to the Pacific coast and Vancouver Island. We have two long driving days ahead of us – 4hrs to Wells Grey Park today and then 6hrs to Whistler tomorrow. As there isn’t much to see en-route then Claude’s suggestion is to get an early start so that we can get to Clearwater (in Wells Grey Park) by lunchtime and so have the afternoon free for sightseeing. Sound logic, especially as we won’t have time for sightseeing tomorrow either.
Actually, Claude doesn’t get it quite right. We are only an hour or so out of Jasper when we catch a glimpse of the Rocky Mountaineer train running parallel to us. The tracks follow the road for many miles but often with inconvenient trees in between and also we are travelling much more quickly than the (notoriously leisurely) train. Janet finds a coffee stop that is right by a level crossing and, although it still manages to take us by surprise, I manage to grab a shot as the train goes by. When we were planning this trip we thought about an itinerary that included the Rocky Mountaineer but decided against it partly because it would have meant a one-way car hire, and partly because it couldn’t compete with our Ghan experience.
On our way, not only do we cross back into BC but we also cross time zones and regain the hour we lost a week or two ago. It is still strange to us that the time zone does not follow the state boundaries. We also say farewell to the Rockies and as a final reminder, stop to take a picture of Mt Robson and its snow-covered peak. The paucity of photos today is a reminder as to how uneventful the drive was – we were even reduced to stopping to take pictures of a bridge over a (random) river and some train tracks. Thank goodness for the Rocky Mountaineer earlier!
Claude says that the entire reason for us to have a stay in Clearwater is so that we can go see the Helmcken Falls which are the 4th highest falls in Canada. As we planned this trip a long time ago, I can’t really remember, but I have a feeling that we stopped in Clearwater because we didn’t want to drive from Jasper to Whistler in one day. Regardless, Helmcken Falls were a disappointment. Yes, there is a big vertical drop but there is no way to get remotely close to them, the canyon walls are steep with no trails available, and the sun is directly above them as we stand on the viewing platform. We have got to quite a few waterfalls in our time in Canada and these were easily the most disappointing.
More promisingly, Google Maps tells us that nearby is Bailey’s Chute – a narrowing of the river with rapids where salmon are often seen leaping at this time of year. Leaping salmon – ideally with bears feeding on them – is one of the major sights we are hoping to see this trip but were expecting that to be more on Vancouver Island next week. Regardless, too big an opportunity to miss so on we go – another 20km on unmade road. Bailey’s Chute was only a short walk from the car park and yes it did what it was supposed to – there were rapids and there were salmon trying to leap them. Trying to photograph them was another matter entirely – with quite a wide span of river and a few minutes between fish, they were beyond our photography skill. Take your pick between a sharp picture of foaming rapids but not salmon or and a blurry picture of rapids and salmon. Sorry!
Actually, Clearwater did have a surprise for us (besides the Quality Inn being much better than expected). Because of the time zone change, sunset is now 7:15 rather than 8:15, so a sunset trip out to the Raft River View Point, was entirely possible, especially as it was only 5 minutes’ drive away. Raft River was much more sedate than at Bailey’s Chute, but according to the couple we got talking to, there were still salmon swimming upstream. The evidence was in the dead fish that were distributed along the river bed. Apparently, we are a few weeks away from peak migration time when it can get really frantic. We just contented ourselves with the sunset view.