Sea to Sky & Across Canada

Our 6 am ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe bay gave us a very early morning departure from our campsite but rewarded us with a fantastic sunrise over the water and four Humpback whales diving beside the boat.

We headed north along the Sea to Sky highway the views of the bay along the drive were fantastic. Our first night we explored Squamish and checked out Shannon Falls and a bmx park in the town.

Further north we stopped to explore the Olympic Park near Whistler, and climbed all 449 steps to get a ski jumpers view from the top of the Olympic ski jump. It is unbelievable that skiers go off of these jumps. We also explored the biathlon course and saw roller-crosscountry skiers in training.

At night, we managed to snag some last minute tickets to check out Vallea Lumina – a really neat night hike/light show. It was a very unique experience and one of the girl’s favourite stops.

We carried on the next day through Pemberton and found a nice campsite to stop along the way at Marble Canyon Provincial Park. Piper made us some campfire orange cakes to try, like she learned how to make at Brownie camp last year.

We stayed one night in a nice campground outside of Vernon, BC as we drove back through the Okanagan Valley and toured back off the main road to find a secluded little campground at Jewel Lake. Jewel Lake had a great swimming spot and the girls spent several hours in the water.

Our last stop in British Columbia was three days in Christina Lake, where we met up with Trevor’s cousins the Painter Family. We had a fun filled few days swimming, beaching, biking and a memorable float down the Kettle River. The girls enjoyed getting to know their older cousins, Lia and Lexi and took advantage of all the fun opportunities of hanging out with older girls (like going to the playground or a bike ride without your parents around 😁)

We took a scenic route through the south of BC and the Kootenay mountains on our way out of the province. We stopped for a couple of nights at Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. The campground is set down in the badlands off of the TransCanada highway. It is strange as you drive out of the mountains to be suddenly surrounded by flat prairies, and stranger still to drive out of the flat prarie land down into a big hole that seems to come out of nowhere

The park is located on the largest excavation site of dinosaur bones from the Cretaceous period and has a very interesting visitor center with lots to learn about dinosaurs and the area. We even joined an outdoor interpretive program where we learned to make casts of real dinosaur fossils. Dinosaur Provincial Park was a very worthwhile stop in Alberta.

We finished our trek across the western provinces with a couple of nights at Echo Valley Provincial Park in Saskatchewan and Riding Mountain National Park and Cripple Creek campground in Manitoba.