Wow, today was the most fun I’ve had in a while.
It started out a little meh because most of the main road in Revelstoke National Park is still closed due to snow. I drove up until the road was blocked and they had a big turnaround post. Some people were parking and then walking further up the park road. I wanted to, I tried to, but I lost my courage. I was too affraid of having a bear encounter 🙁 After all, I had already seen a BIG pile of bear scat in the middle of the road.
After losing my courage, I felt a bit upset with myself. I don’t know why I am so affraid of bears. I would like to drive back up there tomorrow and at least walk up some of the way. As long as there are other people around and I have bear spray…it should be fine. (Says the lady who was attacked by dogs TWICE in Thailand). We will see about that tomorrow. I did stop at the Nels Nelson Ski jump area and stand in his pants (see photo). I scared the crap out of myself hiking over there because there’s warnings everywhere about a female black bear and her cub frequenting the areas. But, damn it, I wasn’t going to miss out on everything because of the flipping bears! Let’s say I did it, but I shit my pants most of the time thinking I would run into a mama bear any minute.
Do you want to know how many bears I saw today? Zero. I saw zero bears. Hopefully, I will find a way to be less affraid.
Anyway, on to the super FUNtastic parts of my day.
I went to the Revelstoke Mountain Resort to ride the Pipe Mountain Coaster. Oh lordy, that was a BLAST! I rode it twice. What is it? This ski resort decided to find ways to make $ in summer and installed a monorail roller coaster down the ski slope. You ride in a little single-person car with the lever hand brake and then careen down the mountain. Check out the video…it’s so fun. Everything else I wanted to do there was basically closed because there was still snow on the upper slopes, but the coaster was worth the trip on its own.
Since I had extra time, I decided to drive back to something I passed on the way to Revelstoke yesterday. I knew it was only about 30 minutes away and it looked fun. There were two attractions in the same stop. One was an arial park with an outdoor obstacle course in the trees with ziplines and lots of fun obstacles. Think rope ladders, suspension bridges, net climbs, and some things that were clearly just someone’s answer to “what hard interesting thing can we put here between these two trees?” I wore myself out doing everything except the “double black diamond” section. I am thinking I will wake up sore tomorrow. Oh, and somehow I hadn’t had enough excitement. Before I left I asked, “Is there anything else here I should really try before I go?” They asked me, “are you affraid of free fall drops?” So…up the sky tower I climbed to do the sky drop. You basically climb up a ladder on this tall tower and then…jump off the ledge. The harness and cables slow you down about halfway down, but the first half is basically freefall. At the top I almost lost my nerve to jump…and then I just leapt off the thing. The lady at the front said she heard me scream on the way down (in the fun happy way), but I don’t even remember screaming.
After the arial park, I dragged my tired old self over to the second attraction – the Enchanted Forest. The guide said a lady made all of the figures and creatures by hand…some traditional fairy tale icons and some just made up in her own head. Then they made a trail through the forest with scenes from fairy tales and little houses for kids to enter and play in. It was a wonderland for children and I wished I had my two nephews with me. I imagined how much fun they would have there. I thought it was all pretty funny and I enjoyed the surreal walk in the forest.
I returned to the town of Revelstoke to explore the little town, its shops and it’s charm. Now, I am at a local pub enjoying a local craft beer and some snacks before I head back to the campground.