Vernon, BC

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Today we move to Vernon, BC. We are hoping for less smoke. We did have some thick smoke to get though for a little while, then the skies cleared.

Look at the unique rock formations both above and the next 3 below. 

 We stopped at this rest stop. This is North Thompson River.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, this is an agricultural area.  We thought this field of hay bales was picturesque.

This is our home for the next 2 nights.

Above and below are our backyard and duck neighbors for the next 2 nights.

I, Dusty, decided I wanted to get more Saskatoon berry jam. I bought the first jar at a Canadian Costco. So we headed to Kelowna (20 miles) to the closest Costco looking for more jam.

As we got out of the car at Costco we could see this wildfire. This fire started at 1:30pm and this picture was taken at 3pm.
The next 3 pictures are of the fire as we drove back to Vernon.

It was amazing how fast it spread!

 Hwy 97 (our route) follows along side Kalamalka Lake. Isn't it beautiful!

As we drove along, we could see a land bridge across the lake. Below is a closeup of the land bridge.

This is also wine country and there are vineyards all around.

The hillsides are golden from dried grass. They tell us they have not had any rain in 2 months. Everything is exceptionally dry. That's why the wildfires are so bad in BC.

Then suddenly this single black mountain. 

Hwy 97 goes right through Vernon. This is our view headed north into Vernon.

We made it home. This is our backyard, Swan Lake. As you can see the clouds are starting to build. As it turned out, the winds got pretty strong but we never got any rain. Blessed again.