Tuesday September 8, Yahk Provincial Park, BC

The rain had stopped over night, and there was low cloud over the mountains as we left camp…after doing our “Kiwi Ambassador talk” with a very nice couple from Vancouver. Patty had been to NZ in the 80’s and is keen to bring her partner Ken to visit.

The roads were much quieter today after the holiday weekend, as we drove a circuit back to Nelson, then back up the Kootenay Lake to Balfour for the ferry to cross to the other side of the lake. These are big ferries, and the trip takes 30 minutes, but they are free…it just amazed us. We were on the smaller of the two, the bigger one takes about 80 vehicles. We crossed the time zone in the middle of the lake, so our day was an hour shorter! We also noticed quite a dusting of snow on the tops of the hills, no wonder the temperature over night was pretty low and only in the low teens during the day. The sun had come out so it felt really pleasant.

Headed north to the little town of Rionel, although a quaint town there was not much there, so back to Kootenay Bay for a lunch stop beside the lake. This is such a pretty area and were keen to find a campsite beside the lake, but as we drove south along the lake edge we couldn’t find anything. We stopped in the small town of Crawford Bay which has a number of excellent working galleries. The weaving shop brought back memories and Ian enjoyed chatting with the chap working in the forge.

It was late in the afternoon when we left the lake and arrived in the town of Creston, and after thinking we were going to stay the night on the lake, the town held little charm. So continued on about 20 kms to a Provincial Park on the Moyie River which turned out to be a good call.