Kamloops

Well, we saw bears today, but we did cheat a little.  We went to the Kamloops Visitors Centre with the intention of getting some fishing gear to go fly fishing.  It was all a bit complicated with licenses and locations so we ditched that idea.  They suggested we go to the Kamloops Wildlife Centre where they take on injured and orphaned local wildlife and either fix them for release or if they can’t be repaired sufficiently, they keep them for study and showing.  Among their current stable are bears, moose, racoons, elk, mountain sheep and lots of birds; all of which are local animals.  A few photos for the children.

So…we got to see a couple of very active grizzly bears, some brown bears and lots in between.  Spent a couple of hours there trying to avoid the school groups (Pam had plenty of advice she held in on discipline...).

From there we decided to go and have a look at the Sun Peaks Ski Resort.  It is a huge resort with a little town centre, about 6 ski lifts and about 40 ski runs.  There has been a little snow fall at the tops of the mountains but the season doesn’t open for a couple of weeks.  The place was like a ghost town because it is between the summer and winter peak periods. 

Came back into the centre of town and walked along the river.  Kamloops is a town of about 90,000 as it is the junction of the North Thompson, South Thompson and Thompson Rivers so it was a big trading town in the 1800’s. Very neat, clean city park between the rivers and the city centre.  Wandered home about 5 and walked around the corner to the pub we had tea at last night for tea then home to get ready for a drive to Whistler tomorrow.

We have been a bit surprised about the size of the towns, with Calgary and Edmonton being large cities; Banff and Jasper had populations of 5,000 and 7,000.  We found, just because a city is well known, doesn’t mean it has any size.

View from the Wildlife Centre to the bare mountains, I'm sure they'd look better covered in snow, shame we won't see that.

Just a duck.

Their only animal in their 'Raptor' show, a 6 inch falcon.

Coyote looking at Pam as lunch.

The first Grizzlie, being chased by his brother.

Of course, an argument follows.

The wolf.

The brown bear, just a little more elusive.

A grumpy mountain goat.

Eagle with a sore wing.

Three wise horned owls, not sure they were so pleased to see me?

The slopes and one of the ski lifts at Sun peaks.

Mount Paul, overlooking Kamloops.

Pam, looking for a fishing spot on the beach at the junction of three rivers.

Carved rocks in River Park.

River Park looking towards the city centre.