2015 Canada West: Kamloops and Fraser Canyon (6/23/2015)

Tuesday, June 23, 2015
From Revelstoke, we continued west on Trans-Canada Highway 1/TC-1 towards Kamloops. BC.
First stop was the British Columbia Wildlife Park.

An Ursus arctos horribilis/Grizzly Bear (KSS)
What is that furry thing to the right?

Erethizon dorsatum/North American Porcupine (KSS)

Wildlife Express mini train (KSS)

BC Wildlife Park Train Museum

Domestic goat (KSS)

The remains of Buck-Doe City (KSS)

Ursus americanus kermodei/Kermode Bear,

subspecies of the American Black Bear;

"Clover" is the only kermode bear in captivity

 (KSS)

The Kermode Bear, also known as a Spirit Bear, is the provincial animal of BC.

Cervus canadensis/Elk or Wapiti (KSS)

Female Alces alces/Moose (KSS)

We had hoped the Wildlife Park would identify the various rodents we have seen, but they did not have any that were labeled! I am pretty sure we saw Cynomys ludovicianus/Black-tailed Prairie Dogs popping up from holes in a hillside. Also a Marmota monax/Groundhog, and perhaps a Ondatra zibethicus/Muskrat (a skinny-tailed beaver!)
In the city of Kamloops, we had lunch at the Noble Pig Brewhouse. Quite sophisticated!

Fish 'n' chips

Beef cheek sandwich

They made the best IPA Kent had ever tasted!

The Noble Pig Brewhouse poster (KSS)

From Kamloops we continued to follow Trans-Canada Highway 1/TC-1, following the Thompson River until it met the Fraser River in Lytton, BC.

The silt-laden Fraser River meets the green Thompson River

Here the Fraser River is half brown and half green

Caboose Park in Lytton, BC with a
Canadian National Railroad (CNR) #78939 caboose

Caboose Park: Lytton Jellyroll, a slice of
a geologic structure made by a submarine slump

We made an unsuccessful attempt to see the Cisco Railroad Bridges, one a Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) bridge and one a Canadian National Railroad Bridge (CNR), in close proximity as they cross the Fraser River. In Banff National Park, it appeared many viewpoints were blocked by tall evergreen trees, and this seems to be the case here, where the bridges can no longer be viewed from TC-1.

Tamiko crosses the Alexandra Bridge (1863,
rebuilt 1926 on the original foundations) (KSS)

The Alexandra Bridge was part of the Cariboo Wagon Road that took hopeful prospectors to Fraser Canyon and the Cariboo gold fields.

View down the Fraser River towards the TC-1 bridge (KSS)

Alexandra Bridge from the west bank

Flooring of the Alexandra Bridge

After leaving Fraser Canyon, we followed the Fraser Valley, a wide fertile area with vineyards and farms.

Giant Raspberries (2011, by Manjit Sandhu)
in Abbotsford, BC, the Raspberry Capital of BC (PBB)

Next: Vancouver.