Sunday we made the drive up from Seattle and, after making it through Canadian Customs, spent the night in Hope (east of Vancouver). One of the signs at the border reminded us the "think metric" and that, so far, has been a little tricky.

The area is nestled among the peaks of the Cascade Range about 25 miles from the border with Washington and North Cascades National Park in that state; a mountain due south of the campground presents a nearly vertical face that I estimate being close to 3000 feet. Southeast of Hope is E.C. Manning Provincial Park, a huge track of land whose west side is rain forest with large old-growth Western Hemlock trees. Just about midway through park the road crosses Allison Pass to the "dry" side of the park and just beyond the pass is a road that offers an nice view of the surrounding mountains. In the distance in this image is Mount Frosty which is near the BC/WA border.

Fairly common in the rocky areas along the side of the road leading to an alpine meadow at the top of the peak were Hoary Marmots. Chipmunks and ground squirrels were also present, as were Clark's Nutcrackers, Gray Jays, and a few Pine Siskin. I was surpised to see some of the "locals" feeding peanuts to the Clark's Nutcrackers and, just like the Florida Scrub-jay, the birds were landing on their hands or arms and taking the peanuts from them.

Tomorrow we will move deeper into the north with a planned stop in Prince George, BC then, on Wednesday, head to the Cassiar Highway spur of the Al-Can Highway. Internet access will get a little iffy after Prince George until we arrive at Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory the first of next week (a park in Hyder, AK may have dial-up speed WiFi available when we are there over the weekend and I will try to post an entry if it is as painfully slow as this one in Hope then I will refrain from posting any images until I get a high-speed connection).