North America Things to Do Tips by Bwana_Brown

We finished off our 1999 tour of Vancouver Island in British Columbia with a visit to the beautiful little town of Tofino, located on the west side of the island just outside the northern end of Canada’s Pacific Rim National Park. Tofino is a laid-back, hippyish sort of place with a beautiful harbour located between the snow-capped peaks of the central Vancouver Island Ranges and the many heavily-treed inlets of the coast. We enjoyed a high speed Zodiac whale watching trip while there, enjoying both the landscape and great sightings of huge Grey whales.

The moist and warm airs of the Pacific Ocean make for some huge trees all along these coasts and logging is a very big industry. We had a taste of that earlier in the trip when we stopped for a look around MacMillan Provincial Park as we left the east coast of the island and headed for Tofino on the west coast, via Port Alberni. The main attraction in this park, which straddles both sides of the highway, is a patch of old growth forest known as Cathedral Grove with trees up to 800-years old (2nd photo). Short walking trails allow visitors to get up close to the huge Douglas-Fir, Western Red Cedar, Western Hemlock and Bigleaf Maple trees that comprise the main canopy of the forest here. The largest tree in the park is a 76-m high Douglas-fir with a circumference 9-m and a diameter of 3-m.

Due to the various parallel mountain ranges covering BC all the way from the Ocean to the Alberta border, there is no shortage of opportunities for outdoor adventure activities. The UNESCO World Heritage National Parks of Yoho and Kootenay combine with those on the Alberta side to make one of the most scenic spots in the world. On our 2006 trip to the west, we ventured into Akamina-Kishinena Provincial Park on the continental divide as we tried a hike of moderate difficulty to spectacular Wall Lake. After a very pleasant stroll through the lodge-pole pine forests we were rewarded with this beautiful sight, including a large snowfield still holding on in mid-July!

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Directions: Canada's Pacific Ocean province

San Francisco is one of my favourite cities on the continent. Located in California, further south along the Pacific coast from British Columbia, my first visit was a brief one in 1979 as my family passed through on our way to a three year working assignment in Papua New Guinea. I only made it back a second time in 2003 as members of my wife’s family converged from England for a get-together. It is not difficult to be impressed by the Golden Gate bridge – this view was taken from the Battery Spencer area on its northern side from an area of fortifications built in 1895 to protect the harbour. The bridge itself opened for traffic in 1937 after a 4-year construction project and is still considered one of the engineering marvels of the world.

We had a great time wandering the streets of the city and taking in the sights – Alcatraz Island, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Coit Tower and the views from Twin Peaks. One of the unique attractions of San Francisco is the ‘world’s crookedest street’ (Lombard) as seen from its top end in the 2nd photo.

Finally, no visit to the ‘flower power’ city of SF would be complete without checking out the Haight-Ashbury district (3rd photo)! On our single rainy day, I went on a shopping expedition there in the heart of former ‘hippie central’. We were looking for some specific CDs but just generally enjoyed wandering along the streets of this very laid-back and different looking part of SF.

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Directions: In California, about mid-way down the Pacific coast between Canada and Mexico

The city of San Diego, with supposedly ‘perfect’ weather year-round, is located just south of Los Angeles and only a few miles from the Mexican border. I spent a few days there in early 2003 and, if I had to pick a favourite activity for San Diego - it would be the Hotel del Coronado. It is the largest all-wooden building in the USA, constructed in 1888 as a luxury hotel on the Pacific Ocean. We only had a short time to tour parts of the hotel on our Trolley tour of the city but, what I did see was amazing! The opulence of the dark wood interiors, the well manicured grounds, the fantastic ocean view, etc. This location has been used by various Presidents to host visiting royal guests and I would say that it was definitely up to the task!

The Hotel del Coronado also had a large expanse of beach, looking out towards Point Loma where the Spaniards first landed on the west coast in 1542. The Cabrillo National Monument on the point memorialized this act. The 2nd photo was taken from the Del's glass-walled promenade deck between the beach and their outdoor swimming pool area.

One of the Trolley-tour stops around the city included the Seaport Village area along the San Diego harbour waterfront (3rd photo). This is an area of shops and restaurants located close to the cruise ship docking wharfs. Also in the Seaport Village area was a large basin where many yachts were docked, right beside the tourist shopping area.

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Directions: The southwest corner of California, on the Mexican border

The number one geological attraction in North America has to be the Rocky Mountains. I have visited them on both sides of the Canada-USA border and have always been impressed by their majesty. The Canadian portion of the Rockies includes five UNESCO National Parks, including Jasper, Banff and Waterton Lakes in Alberta; Glacier, Yoho and Kootenay in British Columbia and Kluane in Yukon Territory.

This 2004 view of Banff National Park brought our car to a standstill as we simply had to get out for a proper look! Castle Mountain, although not overly tall at 9390 feet (2860 m), is actually the first mountain of the main Rocky Mountain ranges that you will encounter when entering them from the east. Glacial action has worked at the mountain over the centuries, leaving a reddish mountain that seems to rise up in steps, with castle-like peaks. In addition to smoothing off the entire mountain, its eastern side (on the right here) was gouged out into a giant amphitheatre. Flowing in front of this impressive mountain is the Bow River. Its origin is not many miles further up the highway, but it eventually empties into Hudson Bay, half a continent away, via the Nelson River.

Moraine Lake (2nd photo) in Banff is quite a nice little spot, nestled in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, famous because those peaks were featured for many years on the back of the Canadian $20 bill. The weather has had its effect on them too, with a whole section of the mountains between those two peaks has given way at some distant time in the past. The result is a huge fan-shaped mass of broken rock that has slid down into Moraine Lake.
In the foreground is a couple enjoying one of the rental canoes that are available there.

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Directions: Yukon Territory, northern British Columbia and along the BC/Alberta border

During a 2006 visit to Glacier National Park in Montana, we only had time for one decent hike. Following a hotel breakfast we caught the 8:30 AM voyage of the tour boat 'Chief Two Guns' to the end of Swiftcurrent Lake, followed by a short hike to Lake Josephine where we boarded a second boat, 'Morning Eagle' which dropped us off near the end of that lake. From there, we began our climb toward Grinnell Glacier on the Continental divide. The hiking trail to Grinnell had very sharp and deep drop-offs into the valley below for most of its length and this view shows the three lakes we passed on our way up. It was a great climb in beautiful weather, taking us just over three hours to reach Grinnell Glacier at a bit over 6000-ft elevation (2046-m).

We next drove over the Rockies on the ‘Going-to-the-Sun’ Road where we crested the Continental Divide (2nd photo). A great view of the steep valley beside the 'Garden Wall' awaited us – we had just climbed up its other side! In this view, the slash winding along the mountainside to the right is the route the GTTS Road takes as it gradually descends to Lake McDonald on the Pacific side of the ranges. Even higher than the road is the Highline hiking trail, leaving from the Logan Pass Visitor Center. Unlike the eastern side of the park where the flat Prairies march right up to its boundary, the western side is a sea of mountain peaks that cover the ground all the way through Idaho and Washington to the ocean.

We spent one of our four nights in the NP on the shores of beautiful Lake McDonald (3rd photo). At 10 miles long, 1 mile wide and gouged 472-ft deep by glacial action, this is the largest lake in the park. Because of the large and sparsely populated Blackfeet Indian Reservation located on the eastern side of the NP, there are more and larger populated communities on the Pacific side, making Lake McDonald one of the most popular destinations in Glacier NP. Of course, Glacier is just a sample of the many fantastic National Parks scattered all through the American Rockies!

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Directions: Through the western states of USA as the Rocky Mountains ranges spread out below Canada

In April, 2002 I had some time before a business meeting in the southwestern USA Rockies, near Phoenix, Arizona, only a few hours drive from the world famous Grand Canyon National Park. My wife and I quickly jumped into a rental car and headed for an overnight stay at Yavapai Point, on the South Rim at Grand Canyon Village. From there you can stare down 4500 feet to the Colorado River snaking its way along the bottom of the canyon. Across the 10-mile wide canyon at this point the North Rim is actually higher with a 5400 foot drop to the river, giving the Grand Canyon an average depth of almost 1-mile.

The next morning, just outside the NP and only a few miles from the Rim we noticed that the Papillon ('butterfly' in French) Helicopter Co. had a very nice looking tour centre for flights over the canyon. Realizing that we probably would never be back to this area again, we decided to fork out US$115 each for their first ride of the morning at 9 AM (2nd photo). During the half-hour flight, headsets provide a narrative of the Canyon and what we were seeing (available in 9 languages). The views from the chopper were spectacular as we suddenly shot out past the rim and we were well satisfied as we finally drove away!

We were quite impressed with the forested mountain landscape as we passed through the Flagstaff area just south of the Grand Canyon on both our north and southbound drives. Flagstaff is nestled in the San Francisco Mountains with its highest peak, the 12,750 ft. Mt. Humphreys shown in the 3rd photo along with some Ponderosa Pines.

For more spectacular countryside, take winding Route 89A between Flagstaff and Sedona! Basically, the highway runs along Oak Creek, a small stream that has carved itself a path along a fault line in the mountains. The road drops from 6000 feet elevation to 4500 feet in just 12 miles so the drive offers more great views. As we neared Sedona, the mountains and their trees give way to the Arizona desert and its sandstone buttes, like the impressive ones in the 4th photo.

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Directions: Southwestern USA, not too far from Las Vegas or Phoenix

As you leave the western mountains and head east, there are a number of places down through the interior of North America with interesting scenes. The Canadian Rockies end rather abruptly and you are soon out onto the flatlands of Alberta – in this case near the community of Okotoks, south of Calgary. The impressive 'Big Rock' stands alone in relatively flat countryside. It turns out that this estimated 16,500 tonne specimen is the largest glacial erratic in the world, dropped on this field 10,000 years ago when the glacier that carried it melted. For a size comparison, that is me standing on a broken off piece in front of the left portion of the rock. It began its life on a Rocky Mountain peak in present day Jasper National Park, but was dislodged by a massive landslide 18,000 years ago. The side of the mountain ended up atop a glacier that was flowing below, resulting in the landslide debris being slowly carried eastward as the glacier crept out of the mountains. Eventually, the glacier came up against a major obstacle when it ran into the Laurentides Ice Sheet that covered all of central North America, resulting in the glacier being deflected south, still carrying its load and dropping bits as it gradually melted.

Another scene that fascinated is the Hoodoos of the Red Deer River valley (2nd photo), north of Calgary at Drumheller. These amazing spectacles were carved out of the rocks through 10,000 years of erosion by wind and water. One minute you are driving across the prairies, and the next you descend into the Red Deer River valley to this landscape! A hard sandstone cap protects the softer minerals below as erosion continues to take place.

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Directions: Alberta, Canada along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains

Moving a couple of thousand miles south to New Mexico, about midway between Taos and Santa Fe in the north of the state, the highway meets the Rio Grande River gorge at a little place called Pilar. Located there is an interpretive center with interesting facts on the river, where it cuts some steep gorges through the rocks and there are a few places where you can pull off the highway to enjoy what the Rio Grande has to offer. This far north, the river is not very wide and, in July 2003 the current was also quite tame, just a few rapids here and there. Outfits offer rafting or kayaking rides, where you can float along for a few miles over some small rapids and enjoy the scenery.

During a separate trip to neighbouring Arizona, I was very happy to see my first Saguaro forest. Tonto National Forest, slightly smaller than Connecticut at nearly 3 million acres, is the 5th largest National Forest in the USA. Geographically, it covers a huge area in central Arizona, extending from just south of Phoenix northward half-way to Flagstaff. This photo shows a few Saguaro Cacti as well as the yucca, cholla, barrel cactus and agave that cover the semi-arid portions of the Forest. Although they can grow to be 50 ft. high and reach 200 years, an average Saguaro is about 30 ft. and has several 'arms' like this specimen. Their ribbed trunks are covered in 2 inch spikes and they can actually expand like an accordion to store water sucked up by their shallow root system. This storage ability allows them to flower every year, even in drought conditions.

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Directions: Southwestern USA in the Arizona, New Mexico area

Once away from the mountains, the centre of North America is relatively flat for a thousand or more miles, providing its own kind of beauty. This field of hay bales beside the highway north of Vermilion, Alberta looked so nice stretching off to the horizon that we just had to stop for a photo! I am not sure if the harvesting process was totally finished when we were there, but we saw these bales left on the fields like this, or sometimes piled all in a row in the field or again stacked high beside the barns in many farms.

In the great heartland of America, it was a pleasure to drive the secondary highways of Kansas. Although even the main highways were good, the speed limit keeps you moving along and you have to be on the watch for the traffic. Once on the 'back-roads', I could set the cruise control at 50-55 mph (80-90 kph) as per the local speed limits and just enjoy the passing countryside (2nd photo) such as near Fort Scott in an area of reclaimed coal strip mines. The roads were in excellent condition and it was great to be so close to the side of the road too, so you could see unexpected things cropping up and then stopping for a closer look if the fancy struck. Whenever someone came up behind me, I just pulled over somewhere and let them go by so I could concentrate on the scenery.

Speaking of strip mines, the 3rd photo shows the impressive ‘Big Brutus’ drag-line, now retired and serving as a museum centrepiece. This is quite the machine, built by Bucyrus-Erie, and working at the West Mineral mine for its entire life (1963-1975). It was only 3 years after this shovel went into action that a similar tracked arrangement was built and used at the Marshall Space Flight Center to transport the huge Saturn V rockets to the launch pads for the Apollo program. In the case of Big Brutus, each one of the links on its eight tracks weighs one ton allowing a top speed of 1/4 mile per hour!

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Directions: The central area of the continent from Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada, through the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to the Gulf coast

Most people who travel to Canada would like to see members of the famous red-coated Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the 'Mounties'. However, even living in Canada, it is not all that often that you see Mounties decked out in their 'dress' scarlet uniforms, since they are designed for horse-riding instead of today's more mundane police duties! However, if you happen to be in any good-sized town or city on November 11, you just might have your chance because this is when the country comes to a standstill for two minutes at 11 AM in remembrance of Canada's war dead over the decades. In 2006, it was a beautiful sunny day and quite mild for November in eastern Canada as the ceremonies wrapped up with a march-past.

In 1999 we were able to visit the western ‘home’ of the Mounties in Regina, Saskatchewan to attend the graduation of one of our sons-in-law. The 2nd photo shows one of their practise marching and drill sessions leading up to the big event. The 'Troop' is lined up in the drill hall receiving their latest instructions beneath banners of the various Provinces and Territories of Canada. This Training Academy allows the force to train about 500 cadets each year in all facets of police work. Each Troop of new recruits usually consists of about 30 members recruited from across the country and sometimes members of foreign police forces.

While in Regina, you should visit the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Museum located on the grounds of their Training Academy Depot (3rd photo). There are many interesting artifacts and exhibits regarding the history of this famous force down through the years. This organization was formed in 1873 (just a few years after Canada became a country in 1867) as the North West Mounted Police. With the lawlessness and Indian troubles of the American West starting to creep into the Canadian Prairies, the government decided that a 300-man paramilitary force was needed in the West to maintain Canadian sovereignty and to uphold the law.

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Directions: Regina, capital of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan