We continue to meander our way, heading toward the Canada-USA border where we will cross into Montana, we really think this has got to be one of the most beautiful areas of the country. This relatively small area in the southeast corner of British Columbia stretches from the Okanagan to the Alberta border and packs a big scenic punch! We’re surrounded by historic little towns, majestic mountains and lakes, and some of the friendliest Canadians (but hey, I’m biased😏)
Little towns like Creston with its wineries; the museum with some fascinating exhibits artefacts and Tim’s great fish and chips.
We follow the road and head north to the small town of Kimberley, fashioned after Bavaria with its downtown Platzl -an outdoor pedestrian walkway. We carry on to Fernie, another small ski resort town that is completely surrounded by the Rockies.
Interesting folklore – In the 1890s, William Fernie, the namesake of the town, met a tribe of Indians while prospecting and saw the Chieftain’s daughter wearing a necklace of shiny black stones. Knowing the stones to be coal, he asked the Chieftain their source and the Chieftain agreed to tell him provided he married his daughter. Once Fernie learnt the source of the coal, he refused to uphold his side of the deal. The angered Chieftain then put a curse on the valley, vowing it would suffer from fire, flood and famine.
Over the years the city of Fernie has been besieged by disaster. In 1902, 124 men died in a mine disaster; then Fernie burnt to the ground in 1904 and in 1908, a forest fire nearly wiped out the whole town.
In August 1964, a ceremony was held led my members of the Kootenay Indian tribe to lift the Fernie curse. As a reminder of the curse, the Ghostrider of Mount Hosmer can be seen each sunny summer evening on a rock face high above the city. It is a spectacular shadow of the Indian princess sitting on her horse being led by her father the Chief. See if you can spot it in the real photo below.
From Fernie, we take a brief stop to admire the largest truck in the world – the Titan – built as an off road hauler for shifting dirt and rock in the mines. With a fully loaded weight of 600 tons, and height almost 7m, length 20m and width 7.5m, its a beast of a machine.
We ride another 2 hours on the Crowsnest pass and then through Waterton National Park to reach the Canadian-USA border. The drive into Waterton National Park is beautiful and the crossing into the States at Chief Mountain, a small mountainside border crossing is without hassle except for the fact that Sinclair’s USA visa runs out 3 weeks earlier than expected because his 90 day visa entry started when we transited through the USA back in mid June. Luckily, the customs officer is very friendly and accommodating and after giving us the ‘spiel’, he reissues the visa for another 90 days. Whew! So after almost 8000 kms and visiting 5 provinces, we leave Canada. USA here we come!
What interesting country we live in such beauty, we just got back today from our vacation
Wow, that went by quickly. Hope everything went well and you all enjoyed the holiday. We’re in Montana, heading for Yellowstone next. See you next month xx
Great Blog guys. Love the pics an commentary. Keep it coming. Enjoy the the next week
Thanks Brian, glad you”re enjoying the blog