Next stop on our trip was Kamloops which is a 4 hour drive from Whistler which encompassed the most changes in scenery that we had seen so far. As Jess was still battling a bad cold at this point, I was left to drive meaning we broke the day up with lots of stops in between. The first of these stops along the way was about an hour in at Nairn Falls.
We stopped off at Nairn Falls and parked in the car park thinking that there would not be too much of a walk to the waterfall. We were wrong however and ended up taking an hour to get to the waterfall and back again. However the scenery was nice and the half frozen waterfall quite magical to look at.
We then stopped after another 45 minutes as there seemed to be a good camping spot with a toilet to use. However as this one was slightly off the beaten path, most of the area was still under a foot of snow and hence very slippery and hard to navigate. As such this was a very quick toilet stop and then back on the road. We stopped at Lillooet for a spot of lunch before quickly driving through to Kamloops and checking into our motel.
One of the best things we did in Kamloops was the Kamloops Wildlife Sanctuary. Located just down the road from our motel, the sanctuary housed all sorts of animals including raccoons, elk, grizzly bears and wolves as well as a large bird exhibit which included some eagles in it. The main attraction for us was the bears as this was the first time either of us had seen a bear up close. We also quite enjoyed the bird exhibit where we saw the bald eagles.
Once we were done with Kamloops we made the trip to the town of Jasper which is located within the Jasper National Park. As we were entering a national park for the first time we had to pay for a park pass which will last us 12 months allowing us to enter any of the other national parks in Canada. The drive to Jasper contained many beautiful snow capped mountains and even a few frozen lakes as well.
Once in Jasper we checked into our hotel and then headed out for some serious hiking the next day. The first hike that we attempted was called the five lakes hike which encompassed walking around five beautiful lakes which were in various stages of thawing out. This hike took us about two and a half hours and definitely made us sweat. We then drove about half an hour to our next hike which was much easier and shorter but encompassed walking around a beautiful and fully frozen lake. This hike was exceptionally accessible as it had a paved section the entire way round allowing wheelchair access as well as access to another person who lapped us a few times on roller skates.
Comments