On Sunday, the 13th, I finally left Jim’s ranch and headed to Canada. Going north from Tonasket you see nothing but orchards and vineyards as you cross the border. There are fruit stands and signs for wineries everywhere. Since I had a long drive I didn’t partake of the wine tasting opportunities, but I did stock up on fruit. It’s funny, but right away I could tell I was no longer in the US, even though Canada is not all that different. It just has a different feel to it, almost like that of a European country. I found a place to stay for the night along the way and headed out again in the morning, finally reaching Mt. Revelstoke NP by late morning. It’s one of the smaller national parks and doesn’t even have a campground, but we drove up to just below the summit. No use hiking up a steep trail when you can drive up. Besides, it had been about 10 days since our last real hike so we took a moderately level trail to a lake. Only thing was that it turned out longer than I thought so we were both pretty tired afterwards. It was a nice introduction to the Canadian Rockies. We got some good views of the peaks and glaciers in the distance getting me excited for what was to come in the next few weeks. 
We camped in Glacier NP that night. The campground wasn’t great but it served its purpose. One funny thing about the parks around here is that most of them have a major highway running through them. It’s not as big as our interstates, but it is 4-lane in spots and there is plenty of truck traffic since it’s the major east-west route through Canada. With the parks being quite mountainous the highway is one of the few roads through them so, as a result, many of the campgrounds are not far off the highway. This means that they can be pretty noisy. Luckily, the traffic dies down almost completely at night. The other funny thing is that they charge you extra if you have a campfire – every night! I thought this was pretty strange, not to mention expensive at C$8, so I asked one of the workers about it. She said that they have a problem with people bringing their own wood which can be infested with beetles that will kill the trees, so they supply the firewood and charge you for it. Abbey doesn’t like campfires (yes, due to the crackling of the wood), so one of her neuroses has finally saved me money instead of costing me. Glacier didn’t have a lot in the way of sightseeing or hiking so we moved on to Yoho NP the next day. It borders both Banff and Jasper but is smaller and less well-known. It has some nice hikes so I drove up to Emerald Lake after I found a campsite. Emerald Lake, like all lakes around here, gets its blue-green color from something they call “rock flour”. 
Rocks in the glaciers get ground up into a fine silt as they move downhill and the silt gets carried into streams, rivers and eventually lakes by the glacial meltwater. The silt gets suspended in the lake water to make it cloudy and they get their blue-green color because that is the only light that gets reflected back to the surface. 
The streams and rivers are more grey and very cloudy. Poor Abbey has a tough time seeing rocks and fish in the lakes, but she still tries. We hiked around the lake on a real easy trail but it was long enough to give us enough exercise without wearing us out too much. I was saving my legs for the Iceline Trail the following day. Abbey got to stay behind in the RV because it was about 13 miles with a lot of elevation gain. It gave me some great views of Takakkaw Falls, some glaciers and the icefield above. 
One thing you won’t find in the Canadian Rockies is solitude. And you’re just as likely to hear French, German or some other language as you are English. You can escape a lot of the crowds if you avoid the bus tours and go out on some of the longer hikes, but even those are fairly crowded. And just like I’ve noticed in the States lately, the hikers are of all ages with many in their 60s and 70s. Despite the crowds though, it is well worth it. The Rockies here don’t seem to be as high as Colorado, but there are tons of glaciers and huge ice fields if you get up high enough to see them. I only wish there was a little more snow on the peaks, but it is mid-August and the mountains are still impressive nonetheless. It just seems that mountains look so much more picturesque with snow covering them, or at least their tops.
The next day and a half I had to be around an internet connection and phone so I could complete the purchase of my land. So we detoured from my original plan a little and went to Banff for a night. Unlike American NPs, many of the Canadian parks have a town, or townsite as they call it, inside the park. They are essentially normal towns or cities with schools and everything, though they are mostly geared to the tourist industry. Banff seemed like a nice place to hang out so I am looking forward to coming back here after visiting Jasper NP up north. Plus Banff NP seems to have the best selection of day hikes.