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A Retrospective 50 Year Memory Tour of Western National Parks & Other Sites

1964 & 2014

Introduction: In 1964, Paul & Marilyn Koch took a 10 week camping trip through National Parks and

other locations in both Canada & the USA, following the route shown in the map below. The trip

covered 3 Canadian Provinces and 33 USA States. In September 2014 armed with photographs from

the original trip they took a retrospective journey in the reverse direction through the Western

portion of the trip with the intent of photographing a number of locations and sites as closely as

possible to the original photos. This document shows the comparative results. Month of the year -

July vs. September, weather, and time of day all had an impact on many of the pictures but overall

with a few exceptions things looked much the same.

1. Map of the 1964 Trip with USA Western Parks Highlighted

The 2014 trip began on September 21st with a flight to Las Vegas, a quick trip to the Hoover Dam

followed by an evening in Vegas. The next morning we headed for Death Valley National Park to be

followed by visits to National Parks and other sites in California, Oregon, Washington, British

Columbia, and Alberta. The trip ended in Calgary 3,554 winding miles later.

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1964 Pictures on the Left 2014 Pictures on the Right

2. Hoover Dam

The major change at the Hoover Dam was the recent construction of the O’Callaghan, Tillman

Memorial Bridge. The second picture in 2014 was taken from the bridge.

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3. Fremont Street, Old Downtown Las Vegas

This location clearly won the prize as the location that had changed the most over the 50 years! In

1964 the Golden Nugget was only a casino with normal traffic flow in front of it and now it is a major

hotel and is part of a large multi-block closed and covered gambling mall. The nightly overhead light

show called the ‘Fremont Experience’ is quite entertaining and a zip line runs overhead for those

interested in that adventure. We stayed at the Golden Nugget for the night.

4. Artist’s Drive in Death Valley National Park

We were quite amazed to actually find this rock formation and see that although the roadway had

been moved and paved, the rocks and the scenery were still the same. Our red 1964 Chrysler Valiant

hardtop and our 2014 Hertz red Ford Mustang convertible complete the pictures.

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5. Old & New Mountains at Lone Pine, California

While the pictures are not identical a careful examination of the skyline shows the same profile of the

higher mountain but taken from a different angle. These mountains are part of the range that

includes Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous 48 US States.

6. Sequoia National Park Sign

We were quite amazed that the sign at the north park entrance had not changed at all!

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7. Sequoia National Park Auto-Log

Due to deterioration of the Auto-Log, it is no longer possible to drive the car onto it. It was rather an

odd feeling however to walk on the log and put my feet exactly where they would have been when I

stepped out of the car in 1964.

8. Sequoia Tunnel Log

The one-way direction of traffic through the log had changed but the log did look much the same.

The 2014 picture was taken into the sun late in the afternoon. The cross section of a tree from 1964

shows Marilyn pointing to the year Christ was born but we were unable to find it on this trip.

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8. The General Sherman Tree

The General Sherman Tree, the world’s largest tree, is the prime visitor attraction in Giant Forest.

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9. Wawona Drive-through Tree in Yosemite National Park’s Mariposa Grove

This tree was blown down in a 1969 wind storm. To access the area now one must take a tram. We

were told that this is the last year this area will be open to the public for at least ten years.

10. The Grizzly Giant

The Giant Sequoia named Grizzly Giant is probably 1900–2400 years old: the oldest tree in the grove.

In 1932, park officials claimed it as the fifth largest (by volume) tree in the world, but other trees were

subsequently found to be larger. We found that it looked a little worse for wear over the 50 years.

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11. Yosemite National Park – Views from Glacier Point (1 &2) & Yosemite Falls (3)

Notice that the primary differences are the lighting due to time of day in the 1st view and the lack of

water over the falls due to the season (July vs. September) in the 2nd & 3rd views.

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12. The Lone Cypress at Pebble Beach

Considered to be about 250 years old, this tree is now protected by not allowing people to access it by

the path and steps as seen in 1964.

13. Pictures in San Francisco

The first picture we retook in San Francisco was a view of Chinatown where, with the exception of

some small changes and the older cars, the picture had hardly changed at all.

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The second picture was taken after a trip down the famous and winding Lombard Street. It was a very

busy place and difficult to get a picture without a crowd of people in the way.

The third San Francisco picture is a scene from Telegraph Hill. We were surprised that this skyline had

hardly changed at all, although there appears to be a large new church in the foreground. Not seen to

the left of the picture is the main skyline of San Francisco which had changed dramatically although

we didn’t have a 1964 picture to compare.

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The final picture of San Francisco is the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Except for the lighting due to

weather and time of day, the pictures speak for themselves.

14. Avenue of the Giants

We were told at the Humboldt Redwoods State Park museum that the Avenue of the Giants log sign is

no more but a green highway sign did its job. There were very few freeways in 1964 however.

The 346.1 foot tall Founders Tree looked amazingly the same! This 2014 picture gives some statistics

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Here are the 1964 & 2014 pictures looking to the top of the tree.

15. Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

The North Entrance Sign taken as we left the park was similar but had obviously been rebuilt. The

beauty of Crater Lake is magnified by the deep blue water colour when the sky is completely clear as

is evident by the pictures on the next page.

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Wizard Island

Phantom Ship – as tall as a 16 story building!

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16. Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park, Oregon

We had camped here and explored the beautiful sand dunes in 1964. This time we spent an hour and

were told that the sand dunes change quickly over time. We did not take the time to see if we could

find the same location but did take several sand dune pictures and one of a tent site in the same

section of the camp as we had pitched our tent in ‘64. Was it the same site? No one knows!

17. Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

The major difference in these pictures is the amount of snow in mid-July vs. late September.

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18. Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park, British Columbia

19. Canadian Pacific Railway Spiral Tunnel on the Trans-Canada Highway

The signs have changed, the trees have grown, and the trains still run!

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20. Athabasca Glacier and the Columbia Icefields

This shocking but not surprising change in the Athabasca Glacier was by far the largest and most

meaningful change in natural systems seen on the trip. The first two pictures taken from

approximately the same location exaggerate somewhat the distance by which the toe of the glacier

has receded, since the toe is now obscured by the large gravel hill that has been exposed. The toe of

the glacier in 1964 was at the edge of the lake to the right, close to where a parking lot for glacier

access is now located.

The following pictures give a more detailed view of the glacier’s loss. The bridge in the first picture is

at the front of the parking lot as you start to hike to the glacier. About half way up the hill was a

marker showing where the toe of the glacier was in 1982. In the second picture taken at the top of

the hill, you can see that it is still a significant way to the glacier which is partially hidden – about as

far again as the distance back to the parking lot. The third picture shows the current toe of the glacier

to the left and the gravel hill that partially hides the glacier to the right. Wikipedia indicates that the

Athabasca Glacier has retreated approximately 1.5 kilometres in the last century and the rate of

retreat has accelerated since 1995. The big question remains. How much of that is due to the burning

of fossil fuels and how much simply to natural causes? No one really knows but it does speak to the

need to cut our fossil fuel based energy consumption in every way possible.

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21. Athabasca Falls

Athabasca Falls, a few miles downstream from the glacier demonstrates the significantly different

water flow from early-mid July to the first of October.

22. Lake Louise, Alberta

We were pleasantly surprised that Lake Louise ice & snow looked very similar to 1964. This may

result from the direction the mountain slopes are facing protecting them from a lot of direct sunlight

and the fact that there had been significant snow falls in the week prior to our 2014 visit.

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23. Moraine Lake & the Valley of the Ten Peaks, Alberta

24. Banff Avenue and Mount Cascade, Banff, Alberta

25. The Weary Travellers Relaxing on Our Daughter Susan’s Condo Deck in Calgary