Mountains and Rodeos

The drive to Valemount was uneventful and didn’t feel as long as anticipated. About half way there the scenery turned from beautiful to stunning. The high rugged mountains of the Canadian Rockies along with dense green forests, something we haven’t seen in California for several years, are really breathtaking. The lakes, rivers and streams are all glacial in origin so they have that blue-green luminance that you get from the silt in the water. There were also a lot of wildflowers to add to the color palette.
Valemount itself is a neat Western town in a valley surrounded but these magnificent mountain ranges. The people have been really nice and once again the local brewery turned out some excellent adult beverage for us to enjoy. It is still hot out, much hotter than is normal, but I guess that is hitting the entire west coast of North America. We only have one full day here so we wanted to make sure to get the most of it. There are a couple of waterfalls that we decided to hike to in the morning before heading to the Rodeo.
After a very tasty breakfast of Pork Back Bacon and fried Duck eggs we headed off to do our hikes. It was surprisingly hazy outside which we later learned was due to a number of forest fires burning the Province right now. No Mom, we are not close to any of them. Anyway the hikes were great and the Waterfalls roaring. We are a little waterfall spoiled living so close to Yosemite but the color of the water here and the impressive volume of the water made them really beautiful. Mount Robson although hazy was really impressive. We decided that the mountains seem bigger here because the rise up straight out of the valley without any foothills to speak of.

After hiking we stopped at the Swiss Bakery in town and picked up a loaf of bread. We got a Swiss specialty that is sort of a combination of seedless rye and sourdough. It is delicious. After lunch at our trailer we headed off to the Rodeo. It was really warm out and there was a delay getting started because some of the cowboys were held up due to road closures but they finally got underway. It was a lot of fun to experience a small town Rodeo. We spent some time talking to a woman who provides the “bucking animals,” the horses and bulls that they ride. It was very interesting how they are bred and trained.

It was a really great day overall. Tomorrow we have another fairly long drive to Fort Frasier. We are leaving early on the recommendation of the man who owns the brewery who is a US Army Vet who moved up here a number of years ago. He said the section of highway that we will be traveling on between here and Prince George the locals refer to as the Zoo. It got that name because apparently if you travel it at the right time of day you are almost guaranteed to see animals. Moose, Elk, Bears, Lynx and a variety of other animals are not uncommon. We are hoping to be as lucky. Sweet Dreams. Love to All.