After 2 nights in Whistler our next destination was Banff which was almost a ten hour drive away. We decided to split the journey up and spend a night in Kamloops and then a night in Golden and do lots of little stops on the way.

Nairn Falls Park

Our first stop of the day was Nairn Falls Park which was just 30 minutes outside of Whistler. There was a 1.5 km hiking trail which we followed which took us to the viewpoint of the waterfall.

^{The trail and water fall at Nairn Falls Park}

^{We were able to hike down to the river and see the water}

Duffy Lake

We then drove another hour along the road until we reached Duffy Lake. There was a little driveway down to the lake where we were able to get a parking spot and go for a walk. The lake was beautiful and there were lots of tree trunks lying on the ground which we could climb on. I think they had been carried down by the river.

^{Duffy Lake}

^{Tree trunks at Duffy Lake}

Kamloops

We then had a further three hours to drive before we made it to Kamloops for the night. As we drove close to the town the sky was getting quite smokey due to forest fires in the area. We had booked ourselves the Hampton Inn for the evening which Tom & Izzy really enjoyed as there was a pool with a waterslide.

The next morning we set off quite early again as we still had a four hour drive to reach Golden. As we drove we could barely see the sun due to all the smoke in the air.

Mount Revelstoke National Park

Halfway into our journey was Mount Revelstoke National Park and we thought it would be the perfect place to stop for a couple of hours. We arrived at the town, visited tourist information, picked up a subway and headed to the park. Due to all the forest fires they were not allowing many cars into the park as they did not want people parking on the grass so when we arrived there was a queue to get in. We decided to wait and see if anyone left and luckily within 30 minutes we were able to enter. If we had arrived much later I don’t think we would have been able to visit.

We parked up and followed the trail to the summit fire lookout which was built in 1927 but has been decommissioned.

^{Setting off on our hike to the Fire Lookout}

^{The fire lookout}

Unfortunately due to all the smoke we could not see very far from the summit.

We continued to follow the trail and came across a lake which had some stepping stones that we played on for a while before heading back to the car. I really enjoyed Mount Revelstoke.

Golden

We continued our drive to Golden where we checked into our hotel for the night – Basecamp Golden. It was situated on the river so we headed out for a riverwalk and found a restaurant just 15 minutes away. We sat outside on the balcony and had burritos for tea before returning for the night. The following day we were continuing on to Banff.

^{Riverwalk in Golden}

^{Dinner in Golden}