This was not a typical summer for planning a holiday! We'd originally decided to go see the Oregon Coast, but a few days after we'd booked a place to stay, the Canada/U.S. border closed and we thought we'd better cancel while we could still get a refund.
Camping seemed like a good idea, but where to go? I looked up "best places to camp in B.C.," and one idea that stood out was Mount Robson. We'd passed through this area three years ago after leaving Jasper, Alberta, and had learned that Mount Robson was the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. We were interested in going back--especially me, since I'd thought driving through the Rockies had been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
With so many others in B.C. also planning camping trips, we weren't sure what would be available, but at the beginning of June we were able to reserve a spot in the Robson Rivers campground for August 5-9. I started looking up camping tips and gathering supplies (also a little difficult, with the outdoors sections of most stores pretty bare!).
We drove the 7 hours to Mount Robson, stopping in Kamloops, and arrived at the beautiful provincial park.
The scenery did not disappoint, with Mount Robson itself towering over the area at over 12000 feet and several other similar-sized mountains in every direction we could see.
After stopping at the visitors center, we headed over to our campsite ... only to find someone else already set up there! The woman said she'd been told she could stay for "one or two nights," and had already stayed for one, hoping for a second.
I looked at our van load of tired kids and overflowing supplies and wondered what to do.
Soon, a camp supervisor came by and offered us a different site in the nearby Robson Meadows campground. We followed him there and had our choice of a few different spots--they looked pretty much the same as the one we'd originally booked ... but our site in Robson Rivers was close to the washrooms--and our new site wasn't.
This might not seem like a big deal, but with our kids it meant Jason had to get up and trek down to the facilities two or three times a night. Somehow we survived :)
We also got a free bundle of firewood for being willing to switch spots--although Jason had already packed four bundles from home.
Anyway, we set up our tent and started our campfire. Normally when we've camped there has been a fire ban, but this year we've had lots of rain and not much really hot weather. So, it was fun to have campfires every night--roasting hot dogs and marshmallows the first day.
Janae, Alaina and Eric had prepared a skit for us, and we had lots of laughs.
And we even had some songs with Janae on the ukulele.
The girls had brought their dolls to camp, too, finally getting to use their sleeping bags Grandma had made in a real outdoor setting.
The next morning, we started on a hike to Kinney Lake. Most people go to Mount Robson to hike the Berg Lake trail, which is a multi-day trek. Since some of us weren't quite ready for that, we had decided to try Kinney Lake, which was on the same trail but only a couple of hours in.
Parts of the trail were flooded, so we had to climb up on some rocks to get around the very high river in some spots, but it was a really nice walk.
Kinney Lake was beautiful!
But really cold! That didn't stop Janae, Alaina, or Eric from swimming ...
but Ben, Jason and I opted to stay out.
After Kinney Lake, we went on a much shorter hike to a waterfall called Overlander Falls.
That night Eric lost his second top front tooth! Now he's missing all four front teeth :) Unfortunately, he lost or swallowed the tooth--we never found it.
The next day (Friday), we went to Jasper National Park. We had camped there three years earlier, but I really wanted to go back and drive through more of the Rockies again.
It was raining in Mount Robson that day, but Jasper was beautiful and sunny. We'd hoped to go back to Miette Hot Springs--where we'd swam in the warm and cold pools surrounded by incredible mountain scenery--but it was closed due to Covid-19. But we did get to see several moose and deer, and also return to this incredible lake that is shallow all the way across. Janae and Alaina walked almost to the other side, the water only coming up to their knees!
Next we visited Maligne Lake
and Medicine Lake.
Pictures really don't capture the beauty--or the feeling of being surrounded by this type of scenery. Everywhere we looked could have been a painting or postcard!
Back at our campsite, it poured with rain most of the night and got down to only 3 degrees. We'd left 28-degree weather, so it seemed really cold! I wore two pairs of PJs and three jackets, but I was still shivering.
The next morning was sunny, though, and we'd planned to visit some more Mount Robson sites. First we went to Rearguard Falls--which were incredible rapids.
Then we went to Jackman Flats--a desert area with beautiful sand and a forest where many of the trees had burned, becoming homes to new animals. The flats were covered in unique lichens that would keep deer alive during the winter.
We went back to the visitors center, where it was cold and windy. Jason and Ben shopped in the gift shop while the rest of us waited for lunch (we watched one man's lunch blow away in the strong wind that was blowing!). Jason and Ben came out of the store wearing thick "mountain men" jackets they had bought. So, finally someone was warm :)
Eric got something less practical but very cute: a stuffed bear that he named "Beary."
We didn't see any real bears on our trip, but two campsites over from us had a bear visit. We heard people shouting and banging pots and pans to help redirect it away from the area. It was all pretty exciting!
After lunch we went to Valemount to visit a museum about how the area was settled. Eric calls it "the tiny museum." Everything in Valemount was so small--we saw the library and hospital, which were both smaller than our house.
It was another rainy evening, so we played Crazy 8s in the tent for a while until the weather cleared and we had our last campfire.
Ben finally had a good sleep that night in his new jacket.
The next morning we packed up and drove home, sad to leave the mountains and fresh pine air behind, but looking forward to sleeping in our own beds.
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