Interior BC

By Jen.

As we made camp at Lake Seton BC Hydro Camp, another wildfire started up in the region. We were beginning to think the smoke was following us. The smoke varied in density throughout the region, so we tried to head towards clearer air, but we weren’t very successful at it. Still, some days were better than others.

Our camp at Lake Latremouille was pretty clear.

Our guidebook had said that Wells Gray Provincial Park was “off-the-beaten-path,” so we made our way there. It ended up being busier than we had expected, but still a good visit.

Helmcken Falls was an impressive site.

But, the smoke followed us here. See how orange the light on the ground is? And our shadows were fairly blue instead of black.

As always, warm mineral springs create interesting colors to look at.

As Jonathan was walking along ahead of me, he spotted a bear. I was immediately excited and got ready to take pictures. A couple behind in Dutch-accented English asked if we had seen something, and we let them know there was a bear. They were immediately very concerned, but Jonathan explained to them that it was ok and how to handle their presence, while I tried to shoot off some photos. Apparently they had never encountered a bear in the wild and were fairly afraid. We explained that they have no interest in us, we just need to avoid startling or threatening them. While the bear was trying very hard to get away from us, it had to pass fairly close to us to get past us.

An adorable black bear.

The Dutch couple then asked if they could walk with us for the remaining distance as protection against bears. This was just as well as they were interesting couple and we had a good chat with them as we finished the loop around Ray Farm.

The water at Clearwater Lake was clear, but the air was not.

The next morning was a walk up to the alpine meadows of Trophy Mountain.

Clouds and smoke obscured the sky, but the wildflowers were plentiful.

We were treated to views of a parent grouse with chicks as well.

These were some older chicks.

We made our way to Lolo Lake that night, and found our campground inundated with teeny little frogs. We had to be careful not to step on them.

That is my pinky finger there!

From here, we had planned on going to Mount Robson Provincial Park. But since the mountain camera showed heavy smoke in the area, we decided to venture further north to the Ancient Forest instead. It gets it name because many of the red cedars here are between 1000-2000 years old. This is actually a rare inland temperate rainforest, and one that is the furthest from the coast. Miraculously it was saved from logging and still stands today. This rainforest could actually be classified as a snowforest as the snowpack in the winter actually is what keeps the forest going through the dry summers.

This Big Tree is estimated to be 2000 years old. It has a trunk diameter of 5 meters (16 feet).