Highway 99 to Whistler

The drive to Whistler took us the best part of the day, as we of course, took plenty of stops to take pictures and stretch our legs. It was a proper mountain drive, with steep snaking roads, stopping areas for trucks to check their breaks, and "Runaway" slopes for vehicles whose breaks are not working too well! Runaway slopes are basically short, but very steep uphill tracks positioned on the downslope on which a "runaway" can divert to and presumably (via gravity) stop should the need arise. Some of these slopes looked a little on the short side however, and I had visions of articulated lorries doing Evil Kanevil style leaps off the mountain as the "runaway" slope turns into a take-off ramp!

One of the Joffre Lakes
We passed through the small town of Lillooete, where we took a welcome toilet break in the town museum(!) The museum contained some impressively mounted stuffed animal heads and other relics from the town's history. Of particular note, were some photographs of Japanese WWII internees. These folk had their homes confiscated and sold, and were effectively imprisoned in this isolated town for the duration of the war for the simple fact that they were Japanese. The photos showed various scenes of social events (baseball etc.) and normal life, but one can't help but imagine the effect of losing one's home just because of your country of origin. Anyway, I digress. Onwards towards Jasper, we stopped at the Joffre Lakes. We almost didn't stop there as the journey was taking longer than expected (due to our many stops), but we are oh so glad we did. The water has an amazing color and translucence that is absolutely stunning as you can see from the picture above.