Thursday September 14
We breakfasted on our back deck, again enjoying the view over the bubbling river before checking out and hitting the road. The scenery for the next hour or so was very in keeping with the “Old West” feel of Winthrop. There were rolling grassy hills and some rocky crags with dry brush. I told Neil I expected to see a tumbleweed roll past the car. This area had been used by sheep farmers, and I imagined the landscape was not much use for anything else. However a little further along we entered the Okanagan region, and suddenly we were seeing miles and miles of apple orchards hugging the Methow river and the steep-walled crags above. Apparently the shorter growing days and cool temperatures of the area produce truly excellent apples.
Eventually we reached the Canadian border at Danville. A few simple questions as to our plans and what we were planning to do and the border gurd stamped our passports and sent us on our way with a cheery “Enjoy your trip!”. We stopped just across the border in Grand Forks at their nice little town park to have lunch.
We were now traveling along BC highway 3 which is also known as the Crowsnest Highway. This part of British Columbia has several lovely lakes which are popular summer vacation destinations. We drove past Christina lake and later at castlegar we crossed the mighty Columbia River. We had seen a lot of the Columbia in 2016 on our previous Pacific Northwest trip but we had not seen it in Canada before.
This last part of our day had us driving way up mountains and then winding way back down to rivers or lakes again – I can’t remeber a day when my ears have popped so much! The scenery was all very forested and green. Eventually we arrived in the little town of Creston where we are spending one night. Creston was chosen simply because it’s halfway between Winthrop and Waterton Lakes National Park which we will head for tomorrow. Creston is a very low key little town, the hotel isn’t fancy but the room is clean and the ned comfortable. Our meal at Jimmy’s Pub and Grill downstairs was excellent. The Pub was established in the 1960’s by a Greek-Canadian family and there were some tasty greek options on the menu. Creston is also in the middle of a wine growing region so it was nice for me to sample a local Pinot Gris on their verandah under the grape vines.
On to our first Canadian National Park tomorrow – and I know this one is definitley number 1 on that list!