Craigellachie at Eagle Pass, the Last Spike

Several days late posting as the National Parks site at Lake Louise campsite doesn't have wi-if so its a trip to the visitors centre away from the site and that's not very good. It's all I can do at the moment to post blips, let alone reply to your comments.

A day of ups and downs, literally as well as outcomes. We travelled from Kamloops to Lake Louise today. On paper, a 5 hour trip that turned out to over 10 hours, admittedly with one hour lost changing from Pacific Time to Mountain Time, dogged by roadworks and holdups which conspired to make the journey more challenging that it ought to have been.

Physically we crossed many mountain ranges by numerous passes; Eagle, Rogers and Kicking Horse taking us over the Monashee, Columbia and Rocky Mountains respectively not to mention crossing the Shuswap Highlands and the Selkirk and Purcell Ranges as well. At the Eagle Pass we stopped at Craigellachie for lunch and to visit the site of the "Last Spike" where the final track spike was driven home completing the Iron Road across Canada in 1885. There were plenty of monster trains to watch at Craigellachie, all with more than 100 trucks and several locos straining up the grade. One train, which I videoed, took over 4 minutes to pass and consisted of 152 wagons with two engines at the front, one in the middle and one at the rear. Craigellachie, a fruit store in Salmon Arm and a supermarket in Revelstoke were the only places we had time to stop at.

We fully justified the delicious fruit and vegetables from the Okanagan and Fraser Valley. Loads of peaches, plums, nectarines, tomatoes, corn, apples, squash being sold at many fruit stalls along the route

All lined up on the itinerary the Skunk Cabbage Trail alongside the Iecillewaet River, the Giant Cedars Boardwalk, Rogers Pass, the Hemlock Trail, the Spiral Tunnels, Takakkaw Falls and Emerald Lake but one by one they were passed by so that we could get to the campsite in Lake Louise before it was dark. In the event it might have been better to divide the journey into two days, giving more time to visit sites along the way.

There was a particularly long delay around Rogers Pass owing to roadworks and I think the visitors centre was close because of the works. Not being able to stop at Rogers Pass was the most disappointing of all as I'd looked forward to visiting the place again after so many years.

One thing we have noticed as we've travelled is the paucity of directions and distances. Even finding the campsite this evening was not easy. Fortunately the sat nav was spot on and took us to the queue to get in, but there was no information at all along the TransCanada to guide us to the campsite. And when we got there, we were faced with a 30 minute wait in a line because it was taking Park Staff ages to book in people who had not made a reservation.

We found the site in the dark, manoeuvred in, and pugged in to electricity, but no water hookups or sewage disposal on the pitch. Despite emptying the grey water tank this morning it was two/thirds full again tonight. So frugal with the water tonight.