August 20, 2007

August 20, 2007

It is overcast and raining today. Given the greenness of the surroundings, this is probably not uncommon. We drive from Golden, BC west to Glacier National Park of Canada and stop at the Rogers Pass visitor center. They have some exhibits on the discovery of this pass over the mountains and the construction of the railway over it. On the drive here the road passed under several lean-to tunnels. Aimee and I speculated they were probably to prevent tumbling rocks from dropping on the highway. The exhibits explain that they are to protect the road from snow. This is major avalanche country!

We continue on thru Glacier to Mt. Revelstoke NP. Because of the rain and cool weather, we decide to forgo doing any hikes and just keep driving southwest toward Seattle. Between the weather and traffic it is slow going. I thought we were going to breeze thru this deserted stretch of Canada. It turns out BC is much more heavily populated than I would have imagined. The Okanagan valley and the city of Kelowna is especially crowded. This long river and lake valley is Canada’s wine and fruit country. Based on a recommendation we make a brief stop at the Grey Monk winery in Winfield for a tasting. The wine is surprisingly excellent. I never knew Canada had good wines. Beside fine wine this winery has a beautiful restaurant on a hillside terrace overlooking the lake here. Aimee and I both wished we had not already stopped for lunch. We spend the evening at an RV park in Oliver, BC on the border with Washington state.