British Columbia – RV Travels in Europe and North America

September 9, 2017 Stanley BC

Ron always had fond memories of Hyder AK from our last trip to Alaska, so the plan was to drive the Cassier Highway to Hyder. Hyder has this frontier town feeling which was very fun for Ron. There is no US customs at the border in Hyder, and there is no police or fire, those services when needed are provided by Stanley British Columbia. The Americans in Hyder can be paid in Canadian currency as there are no banks in Hyder and the nearest American banks are over 1000 road miles away.

On our last trip we were held up for several hours at the junction of the Alaska and Cassier Highways due to a very large wildfire on the Cassier just south of the Alaska Highway. When we were finally allowed thru it was in a convoy led by a fire vehicle, and we actually passed thru areas where we could still see flames near the road. It was quite a memorable experience.

The remnants of the fire we passed thru seven years ago and a shot of the Cassier Highway.

This trip we had nothing that dramatic, but we could still see the effects of the fire from seven years ago for the first 50 or so miles. Other than that the Cassier Highway was pretty uneventful but pretty. We did see a black bear on the road but otherwise it was mostly covering a lot of miles.

I would like to say that Hyder lived up to the memories we had, but it did not. It had a ghost town feel, we could not tell if it was because they had closed up for the season, or because the town was in real trouble. We went down to the fish creek Forest Service observation deck, but there were no bears. By now it was a long day so we went to the only open RV park near by and paid for a commercial campground.

August 7, 2017 Kelowna BC

We were discussing options last night about what to do next. Our initial thought was to take it slow going north and spend another day in Washington before spending a couple of days traveling around the Okanagan Valley in BC looking at wineries. But the smoke and heat was getting to us. The air quality was categorized as unhealthy in Wenatchee, and unhealthy in Kelowna so we made the decision to just try to get north of the smoke. Below is an example of the smoke obscuring the views.

Today turned into a travel day with the priority being getting in some miles. It was an uneventful drive north except we came upon a very severe accident that stopped us for about 40 minutes, and then after entering BC we came upon another accident where the truck involved had caught fire and burned totally.

We decided to wimp out and stay in a place with power so we can run our AC. Between the smoke and the high heat we decided to put comfort over cost. Luckily we called ahead to find a place as it is a holiday in Canada today, and even more lucky the place we called had just had a cancellation and we got their last spot for the night. It is a very nice campground above Kelowna on a working farm called Orchard Hill RV. We highly recommend it.

August 8, 2017 Williams Lake BC

Another lazy start to the day. The original plan was to head towards a Provincial Park to spend the night and take in some sights, but as we were heading north out of Kelowna the smoke from the fires continued to get worst. Ton finally said that maybe we should just get to Alaska and come back and see British Columbia after the fires were out. It made a lot of sense as the intensity of the smoke is hard to describe.

We rerouted ourselves towards Dawson Creek on the most direct route which took as thru Kamloops. Kamloops had the most intense smoke we had seen so far on the trip, with visibility down to a mile or less in some places. As we pulled into Kamloops there was a sign showing that Route 97 was closed due to fire activity. As you can guess Route 97 is the direct route to Dawson Creek from Kamloops so we needed to reroute. We ended up on a 80 mile detour around the fire to rejoin route 97.

The impact of the fire is massive. Tonight we are staying on the grounds of the Williams Lake Stampede(Canadian for Rodeo). Sharing the grounds with us are about 10 fire engines from various towns in BC and Alberta. A helicopter with a water bucket just flew buy, and in the mall in town is a large Red Cross evacuation center staffed with about 20 people. Talking to a local this is the biggest heat wave BC has had since the late 50’s and the most fires in one season since 1961. Right now they have fire crews from all over Canada, the US, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and Chile. It really is something traveling thru the middle of a natural disaster.

So despite our best intentions of taking it slow we are back in the miles per day race until we get north of the fires.

August 9, 2017 Dawson Creek BC

We woke up to a very smoky morning. We thought we may have been thru the worst of the smoke when we went to bed, but sometime during the night smoke blew in and it was as bad as we had seen yesterday.

We planned a long day driving today to get out of the smoke. We had targeted a town called Chedwyn, but as we pulled in the two parks in town were packed. It seems Chedwyn and Dawson Creek are having an oil boom with all of the good and bad that comes with it. Both towns were noticeably bigger than 5 years ago, and the quiet RV parks that were thrilled to see tourists are now very full with oil workers. Chedwyn was offering temporary parking in a parking lot in town. We decided to push on to Dawson City. As we pulled in it looked like the same problem. We checked in with the visitors center and they said it was rodeo week and they recommended we head up the highway.

The good news is that we are well out of the smoke and we have blue sky for tomorrows drive. Now we can try to slow down, even thought the next town is about 300 miles away. Also today we reached the official beginning of the Alaska Highway.

The beginning of the Alaska Highway with a Safeway Grocery in the background featuring Liquor and Cold Beer!

August 10, 2017 Ft. Nelson BC

Today was a driving day. There is not much to see between Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson so we got up and headed up the road. We made a short diversion to the last of the WW2 era wooden bridges. It is no longer on the main road and is being preserved by Canada as a historic site. Ron liked it but Ton was not too impressed.

The big change since our last trip is a natural gas boom in the area. There is much more traffic on the road from Dawson Creek to Ft. St. John and a little beyond. It reminds us a little of the Bakken area of North Dakota where Ron just finished up working.

The other change is an overall improvement in the quality of the road. It is much better than we both remember, even though there are some rough patches on it.

We arrived in Fort Nelson around 2:30 pm and stayed in the same RV park we stayed at on the last trip. As usual in these small towns we went to the visitors center, and were told enthusiastically that there was a program on the history of Ft. Nelson in 20 minutes. The air conditioning was good and the staff looked so happy to have someone that we stayed and were the only attendees. It was well done and interesting so we were glad we stayed.

Across the street is a museum that we think is a must see if you make the trip. It is full of interesting stuff and vehicles. We had stopped on our last trip to Alaska and had fond memories. The staff is very proud and glad to answer questions. If you have a chance check it out.

September 10, 2017 Terence BC

Ton has begun to refer this trip as the Fire and Rain tour, with all due respect to James Taylor.

Today we began by debating our next designation. The direct route would be to Prince George BC, but we had been reading about Prince Rupert so we decided to head there. As we were discussing Prince Rupert Ton mentioned that maybe we should check the weather there. We did not have any service at that point, and by the time we did have service we were already committed to Prince Rupert. As we got closer to Prince Rupert the rain was coming down in sheets, and the wind was blowing a gale. It was a serious storm. When we pulled into town it looked like a nice enough place, but there was no way to walk around town without getting drenched and blown around. The campground situation was not so good, and the BC Park we had as our backup was soaked, so we made the decision to double back to Terence BC.

A glacier on the Cassier Highway (before the rain).

By the way the road to Prince Rupert from Terence is spectacular. You are going to have to take our word for it as we could not get any pictures thru the rain. There are a great many ribbon waterfalls, and a couple of proper waterfalls. The road follows the gorge formed by the Skeena River, and near the end broadens out to an estuary with mountains on either side and multiple islands. It is really a nice drive.

September 11, 2017 Prince George BC

As the trip winds to an end we are getting focused on miles over seeing things. Today we found ourselves on good roads where cruise control was the norm. When we arrived in Prince George we did a little poking around the town before finding ourselves in the Walmart parking lot for the night.

While there is not much to talk about we actually enjoyed the day. The sights were nice and while not as spectacular as Alaska still varied and pretty. We have found we are getting comfortable with a variety of places to stop for the night, even urban camping in Walmart.

September 13, 2017 Spences Bridge BC

Today we headed to one of our favorite campsites on Naval Airstation Whidbey Island. It is located right on the Puget Sound and is really a great place to camp.

The initial drive was down the Fraser River Valley and is quite spectacular. I know we are sounding like a broken record but the trip to Alaska is full of spectacular drives.

Ron was focused on making it to the US before buying any more fuel. We made it but only just. Ron was sweating bullets in the line to clear customs, wondering what the punishment would be to run out of gas at the border crossing. When we pulled into the first gas station available after the border it took 33 gallons to fill the truck, a new record by 5 gallons so we really were on fumes.

We arrived early at the campsite at Whidbey and got the last space available. The Navy has spent a lot of money upgrading this park and it is the equivalent of the best campground you would see anywhere. On top of that the camp host does an incredible job both keeping the place clean and keeping gardens throughout the place. It really is special.

September 12, 2017 Spences Bridge BC

Today was a relatively lazy day. We started out a little later than usual, and parked for the night around 3:30 pm. As we drove south we saw signs of the fires that had closed the roads when we were heading towards Alaska. The firefighters did a great job saving property, but the land along the road showed that the fires must have been quite intense.

We targeted Spences Bridge because Ron had read that there was a log cabin pub there worth checking out. It turned out to be a real jewel. It is a very interesting building, much larger on the inside than it appeared from the outside. The owner was fun to talk to, and had a very refreshing view of life. It had been a tough year for them because the fires in this area were very intense and had the highway closed for long periods of time.