Roger's Pass

The Roger's Pass is located on the Trans-Canada Highway in Glacier National Park, 43 miles (70 km) east of Revelstoke and 50 miles (80 km) west of Golden.

Rogers Pass (elevation 1,330 m) is a high mountain pass through the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia used by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Trans-Canada Highway. The pass is a shortcut across the "Big Bend" of the Columbia River from Revelstoke on the west to Donald, near Golden on the east. The pass was discovered on May 29, 1881, by Major Albert Bowman Rogers, a surveyor working for the Canadian Pacific Railway.  (from the above Wiki link)

At the pass summit.  I think that is The Bonney Glacier - the sun was shining directly at me so not a great photo.  This an absolutely stunning view on a clear day, driving West through the Pass.  

To the North and/or East (don't know what mountain or glacier this is)

A closer look at that glacier

 Longer view - hey, a waterfall

Road construction through the pass was completed in 1962, and travel over the pass today is safe and relatively free from the dangers of the "White Death" snow avalanches that claimed the lives of 250 railroad workers during the thirty year period that the CPR used the pass. Parks Canada operates the world's largest mobile avalanche control program to keep the Trans-Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway operating through Rogers Pass. Slopes adjacent to the highway are closed due to artillery fire. Other areas are reserved as test slopes or snow profile sites and must not be disturbed because of their importance to avalanche hazard forecasting.

Here's a snow shed

The Most Beautiful Stretch of Highway in the World

Maybe this is arguable...but not with me.  I have seen some lovely places; I will see more lovely places in my future; the part of the TransCanada that winds through four of Canada's beautiful National Parks:  Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho and Banff   Absolutely stunning. 

So, driving from West to East, here are some random views in Revelstoke and into Glacier

Ailyn The Pop Star

Heeerrre She Is, Miss Ailyn, in jammies with imaginary microphone (click on pic to enlarge)

The Hope Slide

Really, the Hope Slide just doesn't seem quite as huge an event as the Frank Slide (not just because less people died, either).  However, it happened in January of 1965 (and I vaguely remember hearing about it).  I always pull into the vewing location to have a look, as I do at the Frank Slide.  I am so intrigued with what happens when parts of  mountains break off and fall down.

This one had a little seismic activity involved  (Click on photos to enlarge)

Hangin' Out with Ailyn

I'm currently in Vancouver visiting with my nephew Nathan, niece-in-law Suzanne and tres adorable grandniece Ailyn.

Today, yay, it was very sunny and warm.  Nathan, Ailyn and I took the SkyTrain downtown to Canada Place and a park at Science World.

Vancouver harbour and The Lions

Stanley Park from Canada Place

Water taxi to North Vancouver

Canada Place

Ailyn and Nathan

 Retake because one person had her tongue out!

Ailyn doing some posing and goofing around

At the 2010 Winter Olympics flame thingy

Ailyn played with a little girl, Taylor, at the park.  After chasing each other through all the play things and slides, they sat down with Taylor's grandmother, Sylvia who read a book read to them.

B.C. Ferries - a pictoral

Between Horsehoe Bay, West Vancouver and Nanaimo, Vancouver Island

Campbell River, Vancouver Island and Quathiaski Cove, Quadra Island
 (it was gale force winds that afternoon)

Heriot Bay, Quadra Island and Cortez Island

Independent ferry between Island View Beach, Saanich, Vancouver Island to James, Sidney, D'Arcy, other, islands.  I really don't know where this thing goes, but here it is with a truck unloading.

Swartz Bay, Vancouver Island to Galiano and Saltspring Islands

Tsawwassen Terminal on the lower mainland and Swartz Bay, Vancouver Island

Heriot Bay

Tuesday is seafood night at the Heriot Bay Inn and Pub.  We went.  Big plates of scallops, mussels and clams, in their shells, garlic toast to sop up the savory broths, and washed down with a jug of Keith's.  So very good.

The 'we' is my sis Carol and bro-in-law Gene and me

I'll throw in a pix of the big starfish we saw from the dock.

Sunrise on Quadra

Quadra is beautiful.  I believe I could live there, no problem....except that I need a lot more sunshine than the BC coast gets.  I tried living in Vancouver in the 70s and begged to be transferred - anywhere - during a Winter of continual drizzle and gloom.

This Just In....

Pink Hippo!  I hope it's a girl.

 

A young, rosy-hued hippopotamus was spotted in September along the banks of Kenya's Mara River—and the discovery has two photographers tickled, well, pink.

"Just as we started to tuck into our breakfast, we looked up and gawked, open-mouthed, as a pink hippopotamus emerged from the river!" English brothers Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas ... were in the Masai Mara National Reserve to photograph the annual wildebeest migration when they spotted the rare youngster. 

The odd-looking animal has a condition called leucism, which occurs when the skin produces less pigment than usual, according to Joshua Charlton, assistant curator of mammals at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.

"It never ceases to amaze me how often nature reveals something unexpected," Will Burrard-Lucas wrote on the blog.
—Christine Dell'Amore  for National Geographic