The mountains and more

The next leg of our journey involves going through the Rockies via the Crowsnest Pass. After about an hour of driving on the flat prairie, we came over a rise in the road to see this. I don't see any pass, do you? 

Somehow, a midst all the towering white mountains, a trail emerged. No snow and nice gradual rises, what a great trip. Every turn of the road opened new vistas which took your breath away. 

I've always heard of the Frank slide which happened around 1900 and how it wiped out an entire town and killed hundreds. I finally got a chance to see it. This mountain was being mined and suddenly one night, the entire side of the mountain let loose and slide down burying the town and all the people. Most of the rocks you see are larger than houses. The trees in the distant centre of the picture gives some idea of how massive the slide was. Huge boulders are piled on each side of the road because the slide covered the road which sat in the centre of the valley. 

This is the other side of the road. These rocks roared down the hill, across the road and up the other side of the valley to a depth of 100 feet. No town could survive that.

We stopped for lunch beside a lovely alpine lake. Crystal clear water and snow covered greenery. A beautiful spot. We were a bit apprehensive about driving through the mountains, but its been an easy, lovely drive. So far.

Got through B.C. and through Idaho and stopped just inside Washington State at Newport. A lovely campground but they kept the temperature below freezing so we left rather quickly for warmer climes.

After leaving the mountains behind we came across the prairies of central Washington. It looked just like southern Alberta with lots of farming and cattle. We saw dozens of farms with huge piles of bales under tarps like this one. We found out later that millions of bales are shipped to Japan from Seattle. Who knew? I guess that partly explains why Kobe beef is so expensive. They have few hay fields in Japan. 

As we left the farms behind, we crossed the Columbia River which separates the flat lands from the upcoming mountains. 

The descent to the Columbia and rise back up was almost 10 miles long so we stopped to give Harvey a breather. Notice the Saskatchewan dirt still on Harvey and our car. Also, in the background, sits Mount Rainier, considered to be the most visually striking mountain in the lower US. Look how it towers over everything around it and it's still a hundred miles away. Maybe we'll get a closer look, stay tuned.