Friday trip to Whistler

Another marvellous day. After a delicious bacon and eggs breakfast, we set off for the town of Whistler, about 150km trip from here. Whistler was the location for some of the 2010 Winter Olympics events, and the final medal presentation ceremony.

On the way up Route 99 (Sea to Sky Hwy) we made a couple of stops to admire some beautiful waterfalls. The first one was Shannon Falls, south of Squamish, at the top of Howe Sound. Perhaps surprisingly, we felt no ill-effects from being at Squamish.

We stopped at Tantalus Viewpoint for morning tea. Here there was a wonderful vista of snow-capped mountains, the highest of which was 7500 feet. When we get home, I'll stitch some photos into a panorama, but here are a couple to give the idea:

Next was Brandywine Falls, 47km north of Squamish. It's allegedly named thus after the prize in a competition between two lumberjacks to guess its height, many years ago. (These days, it's 70m high.)

En route, we called by a place to get up close and personal with a brown bear. And yeah, I kept my head this time.

We arrived at Whistler and found that we had loads of company! It's school holidays just now, and the ski runs are serving as mountain bike runs. The kids ride the chair lifts up, and then come speeding down. Great fun. Also, this weekend, there's an ironman comp. there, and the place was rapidly filling up with competitors, support teams and spectators. Here's part of the extensive mall precinct:

We enjoyed pizzas at a local joint, from where we could see mountain bikers and chair lifts.

As mentioned above, Whistler has an Olympic Games connection, so the mandatory photo was taken with one of us in an arm wrench...

After leaving the very pretty town, Ted took us to see some local holiday cabins. So Shell, this is what we're looking for, on about an acre or so! Can you see what you can do? The mountain view is pretty important too. I guess we can manage without the glaciers as I don't think there's too many of those around Newcastle.

Then we headed down the mountain, stopping a couple of times, including at Porteau Cove which is on Howe Sound and where several shipwrecks have been sunk as a haven for pretty fish and snorkelers to enjoy. It is very fjord-like with the very high Coastal Mountains coming right down to the sea and apparently the water is also very deep.

We also passed the Cliffs of Insanity...

And then to Horseshoe Bay where we watched the massive ferries come in and load the hundreds of cars waiting and then leave for Vancouver Island and other places further north. We had fish and chips watching this idyllic scene before heading home as 4 tired bunnies!!