slow road, pt 1

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Recently we took a few days’ trip to visit our eldest daughter and her partner who live in the North Thompson River valley, east of Kamloops, BC. With us was also our eldest granddaughter who was eager to see her aunt and was going to stay there for a few days longer than us. As always it’s a gorgeous drive by way of Coquihalla Highway, through high mountains and steep valleys.

We enjoyed excellent gourmet meals prepared by Richard. We gave them a hand with work in their huge garden. One evening we went out for a superb Greek dinner in Kamloops followed by a tour of the city including the Thompson Rivers University campus with its magestic view of the city and the river valleys. (Sorry, we took no photos!)

We had planned our return journey via the longer and slower route which we had not travelled in many years. Leaving the family, we first took the slow ranch country road along the north side of the North Thompson River (the main highway runs along the south side) only as far as Kamloops. I was eager to get a closer look at the unusual rock formations along the north slopes of the mountain range straddling the river. I like to call these “pre-Hoodoos” because they are in early stages. At home via the internet, I learned that further west yet nor far from Kamloops, there are true hoodoos – for next time!

I’ve blogged several times about past trips to this area, but suggest just this one from a trip in summer 2010 which shows two more photos of the North Thompson River valley. More to come about the rest of the slow road home.

Added 25th June: Tom’s comment below made me think that some of my newer readers (like Tom) likely haven’t delved deep into the almost 10 years of archives on this blog. I’ve written a fair bit about rock formations, petroglyphs and such related phenomena and how these have inspired my art work. Hoodoos are one such so I have gathered together some links below to past posts about them, should they be of interest to some readers. I enjoyed the revisit myself!

~ on badlands, hoodoos & petroglyphs
~ what are hoodoos?
~ visiting Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park
~ more about Writing-on-Stone

UPDATE later: The rest of the series may be found at the links below:
part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, interlude, part 6 and the finale.

June 24, 2013 in Canada and BC, Rocks, Travel by Marja-Leena