In my last blog post I talked about how the skies in Calgary were hazy due to forest fires in British Columbia. But I didn't realize just how bad things could get until we crossed the border. After doing the typical tourist stuff in Banff/Jasper we crossed the Rockies where we visited Mount Robson provincial park. Fun fact: Mount Robson is the tallest mountain in the Rockies at 12,989 feet.
We then meandered south until we arrived at Clearwater, British Columbia, which is a really village in the middle of nowhere. There's not much there but it does have the distinct advantage of being at the base of Well's Gray Provincial Park, which has 39 named waterfalls and is a hidden gem in the middle of the province.
Dawson Falls
It's a beautiful area but it was at Clearwater that we really started to notice the distinct smell of smoke in the air. Also, the sky started to get much more grey. Luckily we were pretty distracted by all the waterfalls and some fun whitewater rafting, but our luck ran out when we headed further south to visit some friends in the tourist town of Revelstoke.
I kid you not, I have seen an eco-disaster and it lives in British Columbia. Imagine day after day of featureless soul-sucking sky where the colour of the sun shifts between a pale white and a sickly orange. Image smoke rising from the hills where the fires are burning out of control as no one is putting them out (as there are too many forest fires).
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| Smoke rising from the hills. This photo was taken in mid afternoon but it looks like evening. |
But by far, the worse thing was the air. It tasted like ash. In my home province of Ontario, people eat outside as they are afraid of COVID. In Revelstoke, it was the opposite: we went to a pub and they closed the patio as it was too dangerous to breathe the air outside!
We weren't in Revelstoke very long and soon we moved on to Radium Hot Springs and beautiful Kootenay National Park.
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| The surreal paint pots trail |
We've also had a few great adventures since Revelstoke including seeing three bears on a hiking trail just today! But how the disaster in BC isn't getting more press is beyond me.
Oh that haze looks awful. I'm glad you weren't there too long. We had some forest fire smoke in Toronto from forest fires up near Thunder Bay. It was surreal, we got that weird pinky orange sunset too...and poor air quality warnings.
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