Trip Report
We drove by I-5 to Vancouver. Our second day took us to Little Mountain to the Queen Elizabeth Gardens and the Bloedel Conservatory, an enclosed tropical garden. Then we had a conducted tour of the UBC Museum of Anthropology. We visited Granville Island for lunch, then went on to Gas Town and its steam clock.
On the third day we visited Stanley Park, Capilano Canyon and ate lunch at the top of Grouse Mountain (it rained!). After lunch we drove to Whistler, a ski resort.
Our fourth day we took a back road to Lillooet, zero on the old Gold Trail to Barbersville. It is also where we met the Frasier River. After lunch and an interesting museum we continued north to Pavilion Lake, where we saw a bear close up, then Cache Creek and on to Kamloops, one of the principal cities in central B.C. We were amazed to see great acreages of Ginseng which grows under a black plastic netted cover. Our motel was very nice with a swimming pool, which many used.
When we left Kamloops we headed eastward along the Big Thompson River to Adams and Shuswap Lakes. We continued on to Revelstoke, which is along the Columbia River. It rained this afternoon. Then it was south to the Okanogan Valley with its many lakes. We stayed in Kelona along Okanogan Lake. It and towns to the south are in an orchard district of mainly apples, peaches and grapes. Kelona was having a water crisis and we were warned not to drink the water.
The next day we drove to the border and into Washington. At Omak we turned toward Coulee Dam by way of Nespelem in the Colville Indian Reservation, where Chief Joseph is buried. We ate lunch at the base of Grand Coulee Dam and then visited observation points both near the dam and on a far hill. We traveled along Lake Banks, which is the holding pond for water pumped up from the Columbia and which feeds the irrigation project. We stopped at the Dry Falls and heard the story of the great Spokane-Missoula flood that happened 10-15,000 years ago. On our way across the plateau through Waterville we saw some very large erratics; rocks pushed there by the glacier whose front was in this vicinity. It is quite a canyon going down to the Columbia. We followed the east bank through the many orchards to Wenatchee for our last night.
The next day we stopped briefly in Leavenworth to see this Bavarian-like town, and then passed over Blewett (Swauk) Pass through Clo Elum and Snoqualmie Pass to Auburn, Tacoma and then home by I-5. We arrived at 5:10 pm, having been swiftly and safely driven by John Goddard. With the exception of a few light showers, the weather was nice.
B.C riders were: Margaret Baldwin, Mary & Richard Bentsen, John & Marian Borchardt, Mary Lee Cheadle, Eaton & Mary Conant, Clair Cooley, Margaret Fea, Bette Hack, Evelyn Hile, Martha & Roland Johnsrud, Rosella Jones, Virginia Kapsa, Helen Knowlton, Dodie Leppmann, Marie Loome, John & Lenore McManigal, Cleora Mersdorf, Barbara & Walter Miller Frances Newson, Elizabeth Reanier, Bernice Rickey, Kathleen Schlenker, Ruth Seitz, A1 Thiessen, Millard Thomas, Louise Thurber, Marjorie Townes and Ewart Baldwin (leader).
