Smithers, British Columbia - September 11th to 12th, 2022
We enjoy exploring an area, with no expectations of what we might find. Even though the one thing we were hoping to see in the Smithers area turned out to be disappointing, we found other interesting things along the way.
It was a short drive from Seeley Lake Provincial Park in Hazelton to Tyhee Lake Provincial Park in Smithers on Sunday. We stopped in Smithers to check out the town. It is a ski town with a nice Main Street of shops and restaurants. However, it was Sunday and most of the stores were closed, including the visitors center. We were hoping for a nice bakery, but none were open. Smithers is only a 15 minute drive from the campground, so we made plans to come back on Monday.
Tyhee Lake, like Seeley Lake, is not a very large park, but we liked it much better than Seeley Lake. For starters, it is far enough off the highway that the traffic noise is very faint if you can hear it at all. The lake is also more accessible. There is a boat launch and swimming beach. There are more camp sites at Tyhee, with better spacing between sites and more privacy. Most importantly, there are free showers! We tried to use the RV dump at the campground, but it looked broken and cost money. We remembered that there was a free dump back at the visitors center in Smithers, so we planned on dumping there on Monday.
Keith had washed his hair in the sink the night before, but Ann hadn’t washed her hair in over a week. She was tempted to take a shower at the laundromat the day before in New Hazelton, but it was still cold that morning and getting her hair wet did not sound inviting. Sunday, like Saturday, warmed up by late afternoon, with temperatures close to 70 degrees. So Ann went straight to the showers. It was a good thing that it was warm outside because, although the water was heated, the building was not. The shower building roof had large vents to the outside, which kept the shower rooms from steaming up, but did nothing to keep the heat in. Ann felt like a new person after getting all nice and clean.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the sunshine. Ann ventured out on the Aldemere Trail by herself. The trail circled the property of the park. It was only a little over a mile long. It started out in an aspen grove, then circled around to the lakeshore, passing by an observation deck, the boat dock, and the swim beach. The trail was a little hard to follow along the shore, but Ann found the continuation of it past the walk-in tent sites where it headed back into the aspen grove again.
There were a pair of loons on the lake. It looked like an adult loon was teaching a youngster how to dive for food. The young one was staying close to the adult, imitating its moves. Ann could see fish swimming around in the clear water. Along the trail in the woods, there were still some berries and a few flowers…and bear scat. It’s a good thing she brought her bear spray with her. She saw about four piles of fresh bear scat along the trail.
Monday was yet another day where it was freezing in the morning, but warmed up into the 70’s by late afternoon. We drove into Smithers for a mid morning treat. Every once in a while, we come across a gem during our travels. Ukrainian Food or UFO on Main (Ukrainian Food Owesome) in Smithers is one of those gems. We liked everything about it. The inside was decorated very nicely, with a very comfortable and inviting atmosphere. The sandwiches and pastries in the display case looked wonderful. A couple of groups of local retirees were sitting around tables, sharing the latest gossip.
We both ordered a fresh fruit and berries crepe with sweet cream cheese filling. It took a while for them to prepare it, but we could watch them being made from our comfortable seat at a table. While the crepes were steaming on top of the griddles, the cook sliced the banana and strawberries, arranging them on top of the crepe along with blueberries and raspberries like it was a work of art. After folding up the crepes, he garnished them with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. The crepes were much larger than we imagined they would be, but we had no trouble finishing every last delicious crumb.
On our walk back to our Red Tail Lodge, we stopped in the Sausage Factory. Ann was rather upset that our small fridge was rather full, so all she could buy was one package of bacon. She would have loved to buy more. They also had Ritter Sport chocolate, our favorite chocolate from Germany, so we bought a couple of bars.
We stopped in the visitor’s center to use their restroom and see if they had any more information about the Chetamon Wildfire and the power situation in Jasper. The roads are still open, but Jasper is expecting to remain on generator power for several weeks. We’ll wait to make a decision in five days when we leave Mount Robson Provincial Park. To avoid Jasper and drive around to the south to get to Lake Louise will more than double our driving time that day, plus we will miss seeing most of the Icefields Parkway by not driving through Jasper National Park. We would rather drive down from Jasper if they’ll let us.
There was still a line for the dump station at the visitor center, so we decided to go sightseeing instead of waiting. We drove over to Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park, about half an hour north of town. We read that there was a short trail to some fossil beds. The drive to the park was pretty and the short trail through the woods next to a stream was rather nice, but the fossil beds were disappointing. The viewing area is so far from the cliffs where the fossils are, that, even if there were some fossils in the cliffs, you wouldn’t be able to see them, even with binoculars. There were some rock chips laying on the railing of the viewing area. They had some discolorations on them. Were they fossils? Who knows!
There was still plenty of time left in the afternoon, so we drove over to Twin Falls Provincial Park, to the southwest of town. A short, but steep and rocky, trail brought us to a viewing platform of two waterfalls. The one waterfall was flowing strong, but the other one was more of a trickle. They are both fed from a glacier not far above. The glacier is not visible from the viewing platform. However, there is a steep trail that leads up to the glacier (Glacier Gulch and Twin Falls). Had we planned that hike earlier, we might have done it.
When we returned to the visitor center, the dump station was available, so we dumped our gray jugs and filled our fresh water. We’re so glad we didn’t wait around.
Since we didn’t drive very far from the previous campground on Sunday and didn’t drive very far on Monday, our lithium batteries were getting rather low. Many of the campsites at Tyhee Lake have electrical hookups, including ours. So we took advantage of it and plugged in to charge our batteries. That was only about the third time we’ve plugged in all season.
After dinner back at the campground, we took a stroll around the campground and called it a day.
Although we didn’t see any fossils, we found some trails, waterfalls, beautiful farmland, and a charming town. When you are not surrounded by the expansive, stunning landscapes of national parks, you start to notice the little things around you, like the flowers, birds, insects, fish, and local people. And they can sometimes be just as interesting.
Check out our related video: Smithers, British Columbia
(Ann)