July 5, 2017 Day 18 Wednesday Revelstoke BC

We awoke up ready for a delicious organic breakfast cooked for us by Ryan, our AirBnB host.  We were not disappointed.  Poached eggs on home fried red potatoes, oatmeal with organic yogurt and berries.  So good to eat!  The other 3 couples who had been guests last night had to get on the road, but we had the day in front of us.  So nice.

The nearby Mt. Revelstoke National Park had a road nearly the top of its namesake peak. Although not super tall, the mountain certainly gave us the experience of many Alpine levels.   We were able to drive nearly to the top where we parked and then hiked the rest of the way up.  In later summer time, it would be possible to have a shuttle ride up, but the path to the top still had a lot of snow on it. 

The hike up was delightful as we kept seeing newly blossoming Alpine wildflowers.  These flowers cam up within days after the snow was gone, and have only 6 weeks before the snow returns.  Nonetheless, they were lovely!  More flower photos to be had.

The trails at the top lead up to views of the surrounding mountains and the valleys.  This was a beautiful area.  

 

We found the Red Chairs, of course, and had our photos taken there.  These ones were in tough shape, perhaps due to being buried by 40 feet of the snow during the winter.

As always, we were on the look out for animals.  We found this chipmunk out looking for newly uncovered seeds.  It watched us carefully as we watched it but kept up its work.

We enjoyed tromping through the snow, trying to keep our hiking shoes dry, and not slipping on the ice.  We could feel pleased with ourselves for hiking in appropriate shoes.

On the way down the mountain all of the cars were stopped as the Park’s employees were felling a tree near the road.  They didn’t want it falling on anybody.  We took advantage of the stop to look carefully at more flowers.

Once down to the valley we stopped at the local Railroad Museum.  The town was built because of the transcontinental railroad and they had quite a story to tell.  Inside the building was one of the largest steam engines which had been used to pull trains over the Rogers Pass in what became Glacier National Park.  The exhibits were good and they had a variety of rolling stock just outside in back.  This included some of the equipment used to plow snow off of the track. The museum sat next to the main line and several trains passed by as we were there.  Added some additional ambience.

We returned to our AirBnB for a little rest before going out to dinner.  We followed our host, Ryan’s, recommendation to eat in a small restaurant that specialized in German, East Indian, and Thai food.  What good food and a fun place to eat!  There was a very diverse crowd who all seemed to be enjoying themselves.  There were only a few tables and a small kitchen but the food was great.  Then we walked over to the town center where the evening’s free concert was just underway.  The artist this time was Johnny P. Johnson who sang folksongs from each of the Canadian Provinces.  What fun.  Then it was time to call it a day.