All of the pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.
After attending the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues festival in August of '09, we took a trip north and west, with the town of Bella Coola and Alexander Mackenzie's western endpoint as goals.
After attending the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues festival in August of '09, we took a trip north and west, with the town of Bella Coola and Alexander Mackenzie's western endpoint as goals.
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| Water lilies near Clearwater, B.C. |
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| Helmcken Falls in Wells Grey Park. John Sebastian Helmcken |
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| Green Mountain viewing platform. Wells Gray park is largely still wilderness, and this platform allows a peek into the heart of it. Wells Gray Park |
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| The southern part of what is now Wells Gray park and surrounding areas were covered by a thick succession of lava flows. As each successive flow cooled, it developed vertical joints. Picture taken at Spahats Falls. Music to look at columnar basalt by |
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| Home sweet home You can build your own, but we'll get a camper someday. |
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| To serve the miners going to the Cariboo Gold Rush in the 1860's, mile Houses were built. This one is at Mile 153 (measured from Yale in the Fraser Canyon) operated from the early 1900s until it closed in 1963. Home Oil was a Canadian oil company that was both an explorer and retail marketer. Its founders donated the land for the Brown-Lowery Park SW of Calgary. |
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| Store west of Williams Lake.. Horse harness for a door handle. |
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| Can't blame them, really, I wouldn't want them either. They are a bear magnet. The gnome is there to enforce the rules. The Gnome's Home |
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| Ruth on the public wharf in Bella Coola Wharfinger. . . No joke there, I just like saying 'Wharfinger' |
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| BC Packers was better known to consumers by their 'Clover Leaf Brand' name. Bella Coola was one of their outpost plants. History of BC Packers |
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| We were lucky to be able to attend a Nuxalk potlach in the Bella Coola School gym/auditorium. Here, the 'head table' of chief and elders is being introduced. |
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| A large mask is being given away. |
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| With the potlach was the renewal of two wedding vows in Nuxalk style. Here one couple is openly and publicly demonstrating their commitment by standing close and silent. |
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| The long bumpy wet trip in a Boston Whaler to Mackenzie's rock, in Sir Alexander Mackenzie Provincial Park. We were glad to be able to borrow our survival suits. It would heve been much wetter and colder in mere GoreTex. |
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| 'Pictograph' on the east shore of Labouchere Channel, west of Bella Coola. First painted during WW2, it gets refreshed every few years. The crescent fractures on the face of the rock (granite of the Coast Range batholith) were caused by ice flowing out of the mountains from left to right |
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| John reading the plaque at the Alexander Mackenzie cairn |
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| 'Mackenzie's Rock' Mackenzie did write this exact phrase with bear grease and vermilion , probably on this very rock, but what you see here was carved into the rock much later. Biography of Alexander Mackenzie Short history of Mackenzie's explorations |
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| Humpback whale tail |
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| One of hundreds of petroglyphs up Thorsen Creek east of Bella Coola. More are being uncovered continually. |
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| Lance, our guide to the petroglyphs Nuxalk Nation |
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| Petroglyph This picture was used in a Documentary about Thor Heyerdahl. |
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| Petroglyph of a house. |
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| Forest along Thorsen Creek |
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| John and his shirt on the bank of the Atnarko River |
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| An early fall leaf in the Atnarko River |
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| Native grave site in the 'Redstone Native Cemetery west of Williams Lake |
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| Virgin Mary watching over the 'Redstone Native Cemetery', one of the many pieces of the Alexis Creek First Nation |
Dear John, Dear Ruth,
ReplyDeleteyour pictures of the petroglphys in Bella Coola are perfect. We would love to use it in a german TV documentary.
Please contact me.
d.baumann@caligari-film.de
D.Baumann