Continuing on Highway 3, the Crowsnest Highway, this two lane road leads you through pine forests with snow covered mountain peaks as your backdrop. You wind your way through a canyon following the Salmo river just past Highway 6 which leads south to the US border, catching glimpses of the rushing spring run-off through the trees at every bend. The highway begins it ascent up to Kootenay Pass at 5,800 feet/1774 metres you again get a sense of the pressure changing as you climb in elevation. The beauty of this area cannot be described well enough, it leaves you speechless in your descriptions. It is like passing through an evergreen womb, you are delivered in a way by the beauty. This could be as close as you can get to driving in wilderness, nothing but tree covered mountain and a rushing river to follow.
The drive up to Kootenay
The Pass
It all opens up into the Creston Valley, a huge diverse landscape of marshland and farmland in the framework of the mountains. In Creston we found the Buffalo Trails cafe where we had homegrown buffalo chilli and good coffee from "Dooey, Roast'em and Howe" :-) Leaving Creston in yet another ascent towards a wall of treed mountain we came across a lone cyclist in search of farm labour work but unsure of what direction to go. After some map searching we realized he was headed the right way so we all continued respective quests.
We continued onward towards and through Cranbrook, an urban sprawl in its early stages. From here we had to head south to go east. This is why.
Near Elko we saw our first mountain goat. Both mountain goat and bighorn sheep share the same terrain here. We arrived in Fernie a sophisticated ski town with three different mountain views to choose from, snowy range, rocky crag or evergreen. The Best Western Fernie Mountain Lodge offers rooms with views of all that. And so this is where we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Creston Valley
Lone cyclist
We continued onward towards and through Cranbrook, an urban sprawl in its early stages. From here we had to head south to go east. This is why.
Near Elko we saw our first mountain goat. Both mountain goat and bighorn sheep share the same terrain here. We arrived in Fernie a sophisticated ski town with three different mountain views to choose from, snowy range, rocky crag or evergreen. The Best Western Fernie Mountain Lodge offers rooms with views of all that. And so this is where we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening.
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