21 June, 2015 1 comments Leave a comment

This spring we are on a five week adventure in our RV to the west coast of Canada and back. We left our Ontario home in late May and plan to return in early July, after journeying about 10,000 km.

We have made this trip many times, as we have family in British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba, but it is interesting this time to see the landscape in spring rather than summer. The photo above is the Trans Canada Highway north of Lake Superior. I love the colours: spring greens against the dark evergreens and the red rock of the region. This will make a great painting.

We are traveling 'light' this trip, with just our pickup truck and trailer, shown above. (Not our usual Traveling Roadshow of kayaks, ATV, or mountain bikes.) Our main purpose is to visit with family - spend some quality time with my Mom, (she just turned 95), see many of our nieces and nephews, and visit my husband's sister at her cottage.

Above is a scene in western Alberta, where we encountered more lovely spring greens, this time against the smoky blue of the mountains. Glacial lakes all have that unique, opaque, sea green colour, due to rock particles suspended in the water. I will paint this scene one day too.

The Crowsnest Pass is one of our favourite routes for trailering across the mountains in BC. The photo above shows how dense and healthy the forest is there.

Even in the first week of June, Osoyoos, BC is hot and hazy (above). We found out  that lots of Canadian RVers spend their winters camped here, as the climate is relatively mild, with just a few days below freezing. It's a good option for those full time RVers who can't get health insurance outside of Canada.

After visiting with my Mom for ten days, we headed up the Yellowhead Highway towards Kelowna, in the interior of BC. We saw more beautiful forests, in every shade of green.

We chose an ideal time for vacationing in British Columbia this year, as that province experienced a drought, and we have enjoyed blue skies and no rain for almost our entire trip. Forest fire smoke became noticeable in the lower mainland (greater Vancouver area) after we were homeward bound. In the photo from the Yellowhead Highway above, I think the haze is smoke, but we could not smell it in the truck.

We visited friends in Kelowna, in the Okanagan region of BC, and camped in a charming little campground in a commercial apple orchard, perched on the hills above town. The daily drive past vineyards, with Lake Okanagan in the distance, (shown above) was simply magnificent.

The cherries were almost ready for picking in the Okanagan Valley (above) in mid June.

Once you get away from Lake Okanagan, the interior of BC is very dry (above). We passed through the Shuswap region, which has scenic lakes with houseboats for rent. Some day we will go back there for a lake holiday.

Pictured above is our travel route through Rogers Pass, BC.

There was still snow in the mountain valleys in Rogers Pass, in the third week of June.

We passed this lovely river scene in western Alberta, on our way to Calgary.

I hope you have enjoyed this 'virtual spring tour' of Western Canada. If you would like to see more photo-articles from my travels, click here to subscribe to my Studio News.

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