British Columbia, Canada
My husband wants to visit BC, Canada and drive the Chiquahalla highway, perhaps stay near the town of Hope. I would appreciate any information from anyone who has been to this area, and any recomme...
Forum Discussion
We’ve lived in BC all our lives, and still enjoy RV’ing every year to some new location. We just got back from a loop thru the central province – almost 3000 km.
Regarding your questions about BC, here are some thoughts. First, I’d forget Hope; uninteresting little town – the hub of 3 major highways (with apologies to its citizenry...;))
As other’s have said, the ‘Coke’ (Hwy 5) is a quick means (2 hrs) to get from the Fraser Valley to the central interior, where you have many amazing choices about where to go and what to see next. If you have time, there are more scenic routes to the interior.
Another choice from Hope – the Hope/Princeton highway (Hwy 3) which travels eastward from Hope. Really some nice scenery and a nice park (Manning Park) half-way thru with beautiful Provincial parks and camping. This highway takes you to the south Okanagan valley – an amazing place to explore.
Another highway out of Hope is the Fraser canyon (Hwy 1) – there is some nice scenery but can be slow in the summer, due to being mostly single lane. Lots of railway history here and in some areas, you can still see the old gold rush trail high about the Thompson River.
At the top of the ‘Coke’, you head into the central interior, where we were. We did a loop up to Prince Goerge on Hwy 97 (which by the way, can be followed south, right to Weed, CA). Then we headed east on Hwy 16, which loops all the way back down to Kamloops at the top of the 'Coke'. Stayed at Wells Gray NP -- saw waterfalls even more amazing than Niagra...
From these highways, there are a thousand side jaunts – we visited Barkerville (small preserved gold rush town from the 1860’s – well worth seeing...) east of Quesnel and a side-trip to Jasper from Hwy 16 (nothing less that spectacular...).
I never drove more than 5 hours a day – never made a campground reservation, and always got a great campsite – twice we got lakefront sites. We did all of this in two weeks.
If you’d like more info about specific areas, let us know... Hope you have a great trip.
Regarding your questions about BC, here are some thoughts. First, I’d forget Hope; uninteresting little town – the hub of 3 major highways (with apologies to its citizenry...;))
As other’s have said, the ‘Coke’ (Hwy 5) is a quick means (2 hrs) to get from the Fraser Valley to the central interior, where you have many amazing choices about where to go and what to see next. If you have time, there are more scenic routes to the interior.
Another choice from Hope – the Hope/Princeton highway (Hwy 3) which travels eastward from Hope. Really some nice scenery and a nice park (Manning Park) half-way thru with beautiful Provincial parks and camping. This highway takes you to the south Okanagan valley – an amazing place to explore.
Another highway out of Hope is the Fraser canyon (Hwy 1) – there is some nice scenery but can be slow in the summer, due to being mostly single lane. Lots of railway history here and in some areas, you can still see the old gold rush trail high about the Thompson River.
At the top of the ‘Coke’, you head into the central interior, where we were. We did a loop up to Prince Goerge on Hwy 97 (which by the way, can be followed south, right to Weed, CA). Then we headed east on Hwy 16, which loops all the way back down to Kamloops at the top of the 'Coke'. Stayed at Wells Gray NP -- saw waterfalls even more amazing than Niagra...
From these highways, there are a thousand side jaunts – we visited Barkerville (small preserved gold rush town from the 1860’s – well worth seeing...) east of Quesnel and a side-trip to Jasper from Hwy 16 (nothing less that spectacular...).
I never drove more than 5 hours a day – never made a campground reservation, and always got a great campsite – twice we got lakefront sites. We did all of this in two weeks.
If you’d like more info about specific areas, let us know... Hope you have a great trip.
