Whistler

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After leaving Jasper, our first stop on the long journey to Whistler was at Valemount. We'd heard from someone we spoke to in Jasper that the salmon are spawning in the river which is only a few hundred meters from the visitors centre. We parked at the visitors centre, then walked down to the viewing platform and it didn't take long before we spotted a couple of salmon making the arduous journey upstream. There weren't any waterfalls or anything so we didn't get to witness any spectacular leaps but they're not small fish so it was pretty cool to see them thrashing through the rapids. Sadly, after they've spawned they die, and we did see a couple of dead ones on the bank.

From Valemount we stopped for the night at a place called Bone Creek Wilderness Retreat. It was a fairly rustic looking place with a few cabins dotted around the owners house with a well-tended lawn and a few chickens scratching about. When we got there, there was no one around apart from the couple of very large dogs whose job it is to scare off the bears. We were getting ready to leave but the owner eventually turned up and was a very odd character indeed. He was leaning on a stick with long unwashed hair, wearing clothes filled with holes, the more you spoke to him though, the more charming he became. It actually ended up being a great stay, the cabin, which wasn't much to look at on the outside was amazing inside. It was also beautifully peaceful, apart from every hour or so when a train would come rumbling though, blowing its horn about 20m from the cabin. The train noise was easily ignored, but the mosquitoes weren't, they were voracious, easily finding the tiniest bit of skin missed when applying repellent, little bastards!!

After Bone Creek we stopped for the night at Kamloops. There's not much to say about Kamloops, it's not too distinguishable from any other large urban sprawl. It was nice to have an option on where to eat out for dinner and the prices were remarkably low after being in the national parks, but we pretty much spent most of our time in the motel swimming pool, which suited the boys just fine.

From Kamloops it was one long 4-5 hour drive to Whistler. Our initial plan was to to stop in whistler maybe one night, but as with most places, once you start looking into it you realise theres so much to do so we ended up spending much longer. We booked ourselves into an apartment with Airbnb which was really expensive but beautiful, and it did have a hot tub on the roof so that kept the boys happy.

Our first morning in Whistler we drove down to green lake to Whistler 'airport'. We'd pre-booked a seaplane glacier tour , which at $169 each for the adults and $89 for the kids seemed a bit of a bargain for half an hour exploring the area by plane. Due to the cost I assumed we'd be lumped into a big seaplane with a load of other people, but it turned out we had our own little plane all to ourselves. Also it was a really beautiful day, clear blue skies with minimal clouds and amazing visibility. I always worry when booking these kinds of experiences that when the day comes it'll end being grey/raining. Thankfully not the day we booked, we couldn't of asked for better weather.

I've never taken off from water before and I expected it to be bumpier than it was. It actually didn't seem all that different from taking off from regular tarmac. As soon as we were airborne, we were greeted with the most spectacular alpine views. It was amazing just how close we flew to the peaks and glaciers, the kids got a real kick out of it, and sat mesmerised by the view out of their windows. As it was out first morning in Whistler, and we hadn't explored yet, it was nice to get an aerial view of the area and get great views of the mountains we'd be exploring (by chairlift).

Of course, half an hour flew by really quickly (pun intended) and we were landing again. It was a great experience which I can thoroughly recommend if your visiting. The kids really loved it too, so great for all ages.

Whistler village is a strange one, It's primarily a ski resort, so we were unsure what to expect in the middle of summer. They've done a spectacular job of making it a great place to be even when there isn't any snow on the ground. When we arrived there was a major mountain biking event finishing so there was a great atmosphere and a real buzz to the place. It's very 'manufactured' looking, spotlessly clean, well-organised and an absolute joy to walk around and explore. when we arrived, the people who we got the Airbnb off pointed out some great places to eat in the village, one of which was a bakery called Purebread. When we first went in it just seemed like it was going to be another pretentious hipster venue, but if you can look past the decor and the way all the 'artisan' products were displayed it was obvious why it was so popular, everything looked incredible. Over the few days we were in Whistler, I lost count of the amount of time we visited, slowly working our way through the many sweet and savoury offerings. Another obsession we got into while in whistler was chicken wings. There were a lot of places offering wings and on certain days they had happy hours where you could get them for 35 cents each, with a multitude of coatings. We couldn't get enough of them, and they made for a delicious cheap lunch, even if they're not particularly good for you.

For one of our Whistler days we purchased Peak 2 Peak passes, which allowed us to use all the lifts on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains and the Peak to Peak gondola that transports you between them (if they were operating). I was unsure how long we'd be up the mountains, but we were up there all day. We were lucky with another bright sunny clear day, so visibility was perfect and it was gloriously warm.

The first thing we did was take the multitude of chair lifts to reach the ‘Peak’ of Whistler mountain, which afforded us absolutely breath taking views of the area. It wasn’t even that busy which was a bonus. After a short while we took the chairlift back down from the peak to the roundhouse lodge for a quick snack before taking the Peak 2 Peak gondola across to Blackcomb mountain and doing the fairly short alpine walk through beautiful meadows and scenery. It was only a short taster walk of what is available but small legs can only carry you so far, so it was enough for the kids, and thoroughly enjoyed by all. We even managed to get a good look at a Hoary Marmot sunning itself on some rocks. After Blackcomb we then made our way back down the mountain using the chairlifts, and headed back to our apartment for a long soak in the hot tub before getting all our things together for the short drive to Vancouver.

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Whistler and the sea plane tour
Great to see another blog from one of TBs top photographers in my book. My how the boys have grown since we saw you all in KL. Our son lived in Whistler for 6 months several years back. Your blog reminds me it is time we also spend time there. And we'll definitely get the sea plane tour...looks brilliant. Hi from Denise & I to all of you.

[MichaelnFaye]

:)
Hey Dave, yep getting scarily grown up now... especially considering this trip was two summers ago! Safe travels