Wells Grey Provincial Park

Good morning guys,

Time is passing through with light velocitiy and I have only few time to keep up.
There is much work to do and because of that my hiking and exploring activities are reduced to a minimum. That´s one reason why I´m not posting as many threads as I wished.
At least work worthed it. I got my first mark in geography of Latin America and it was a good A.
The next marks will come up in Corporate Finance where I had to work on a case study and the due date was yesterday. The next 2 weeks will be very stressy due to the fact that there are three midterms, 3 assignments and like every week quizzies ;)
Sounds great, doesn´t it?
Now some things about my last trip which was on saturday the 29th. (Long time ago ;P)
I was invited to join a trip to the Wells Grey Provincial Park. It´s located northwards of Kamloops and only 150 km away.
I tried to connect the location in Picasa but it doesn´t work because it is not a town...
This time the group differed completly from the last times. We were 7 guys. 2 frome Korea, 3 germans, Thomas from Italy and one guy from Switzerland.
The way to the park was very comfortable and for canadian relations very short. We started early in the morning and took the beautiful highway 5 in northern direction. On our way we could recognize the deep impact of the pine beetle epidemic. The coniferous forests on the slopes of the mountains where completly dead and a huge amount of the dry trees where twisted.
The reason of this epidemic are warm winters in the nearer past. In fact a result of a location based wam period in the past.
I don´t want to speculate if it a result of the global warming effect because it is recognizable that every one pushes the debt of it in this direction. It´s of course the easiest way...
Further northwards on our way the mixture of trees on the slopes changes from monoculture scots pine forest to a mixture of fir, pine, larch and birch forest.
It was an amazing view because of the combination of colours. Green, yellow, orange and brown slopes with a blue hirizon and addionally the darkness of the flushing water of the thompson river.
When we arrived at the tourist information center we asked if the salmon season is still going on. We heard that it must be a very nice happening when they try to reach their spawning grounds upwards in the rivers. Unfortunately they told us that it is was over and so we replanend our trip. There was still enough to see.... :D
Our first destination was 40km away by car and extra 5km on a "hiking trail". The street was a track in lousy condition but we were lucky because it was dry and it was no real problem for our Toyota mini van ;)
The first highlight hit us 10 minutes after departure. A bear mother and 2 childs crossed a glade only 15 meters from us away! In the first moment we could trust our eyes and noone of us was able to take a good picture. Unlucky international students :D
On our way we had several stops to take pictures and to enjoy the great landscape. We passed only 2 additional cars and met two other guys who tented at the end of the track.
To arcieve our first destination we ha to hike 5 km through a rough and mounteanous landscape. It was not really a official hike but you could imagine where other before you had walked ^^.
Our ogoal for the first part was a nice waterfall which cut in a glacial moraine of 15 meter thickness. It was almost noon and after a short break for group pictures we had to return to our car and leave for the other waterfalls.
The reason why British Columbia has so many waterfalls and a very high amount in usable waterpower is determined by the geological history.














The Coast Mountains and the Rocky Mountains sourround the Interior Plateau and due to the relatively new epirogenesis the slopes a very steep and therefore there is a high amount of kinetic energy available. This is only a short explaination.
If you want to know more ask me :D
HAHA!
Enough for the moment. During the trip we saw many different wildlife animals like cariboos, foxes, another bear which was grasing on a meadow (didn´t know that they are eating grass before), different birds etc.

All in all it was a very nice day with nice guys, a gorgeous landscape and it was cheap!

Cu folks