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Published: August 6th 2011
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July 30, 2011 Saturday Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park, BC or in the native tongue, Anhluut’ukwsim Laxmihl Angwinga’asanskwhl Nisga’a. 53 degrees rained all night, but see some sun peeking through. Starting mileage at 13456.
Approximately 250 years ago, a volcano erupted and killed about 2000 of the Nisga’a people in this valley when the lava covered several villages. You can take a guided tour of the small cone. The new community is located on a hillside instead of along the river valley as the older villages were. After taking several pictures of the lava flow, we left the park and drove toward the town of Terrace about 60 miles away.
We stopped and took a walk to Vetter Falls. The cedar trees and the foliage undergrowth of this area look very similar to the forests of Northern California, Oregon and Washington. The falls were on a fast moving river and were very nice.
We continued our drive through more lava beds and then along lake after lake after lake. I know I have said it before, but they have so much water here---creeks, rivers, and huge lakes. Every couple of miles you drive along side of or cross over
one or the other. At the edge of the road Valerie caught a quick glimpse of a bear.
Got into Terrace for the Riverboat Days Festival and parked the RTs in the mall parking lot in time to get out our folding chairs to watch the parade. It was raining off and on so Diane and Jim put Rocky in his rain coat so he could watch the parade with us. This really tickled a row of children who were sitting on the curb on little stools in front of us. For a community of 10,000 with 20,000 in the total area, they put on a nice little parade. Many First Nation bands and other ethnic groups like the Sikhs and Portuguese each had floats with individuals in costumes walking along side or in back of their float.
When the parade was over, we walked about 4 blocks to the large farmer’s market and looked around. They were also selling crafts and food at many of the tents. Behind the market, was a pavilion set up for various bands to play.
For lunch, we ate where one of the tribes/bands, who
live a couple miles out of town, was selling a smoked salmon dinner. The dinner was held in a grassy lot across the street from their community center. The dinner consisted of a piece of fry bread, a good size piece of smoked salmon, and potato salad. The potato salad was made the way we usually make it except it had radish slices in it. The men had dug a large pit and were burning several different kinds of wood in order to make the “right flavor” of smoke for the salmon.
After lunch, we all went grocery shopping at Safeway. Valerie and I didn’t get much as the prices seemed to be very high or we couldn’t find the items we wanted. We have shopped at Safeway as they give you $.05 off a liter when you fill up at their gas stations.
We drove out across a very scenic bridge that crosses the Skeena River and found the Furlong Bay Provincial Park that is located a few miles out of town on Lake Lakelse. The park was almost full since it was, unbeknownst to us, a three day weekend. The ranger allowed the two units to share
one spot, which then cut our cost in half. It was a pleasant camp spot in the trees.
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