Cheryl and I had three days off this week and decided to go to Barkerville. It's about an hour east of Quesnel BC on highway 26.
Wells is before Barkerville. It has a very active arts community with gift shops and galleries selling original art.
Wells also has "Big H's" fish and chips. Who would think you can get great halibut and chips in the central mountains of BC. Well he does it. His fish comes fresh from Prince Rupert.
We always stay at Cariboo Joy's RV park. It's not your usual park. Some of the sites are FHU and the rest have electric or water and electric. She has a dump site that is free for customers.
Here's the entrance to the park
This is our site - lots of shade and level.
Behind us is the central part of the campground with the office, washrooms and gazebos to lounge in.
There are three provincial campsites that don't have services as well in the area.
Barkerville is about 3 miles from Wells. It's a restored mining town from the Cariboo gold rush around 1860's
There are lots of exhibits of artifacts from the time period. Actors in costume roam the street and visit with the tourists. They seldom go out of character and talk to you as if you are in the gold rush time.
This is the main street
Two of the local ladies lead a tour of the town to a group of school kids.
The blacksmith makes pokers, steak turners and necklaces from raw stock and sells them.
This is the cornish water wheel. It was used to pump water and lift ore from the mines. This one is a reproduction and works. They do a demo show of the wheel that is a story about trying to sell shares in the mine. Worth every second to watch it. It is hilarious.
This is Lady Playfair, the owner and Mr Grimsby her mining engineer during their show.
All in all Barkerville and Wells are worth the detour from highway 97 at Quesnel to enjoy a couple of days in history
Wells is before Barkerville. It has a very active arts community with gift shops and galleries selling original art.
Wells also has "Big H's" fish and chips. Who would think you can get great halibut and chips in the central mountains of BC. Well he does it. His fish comes fresh from Prince Rupert.
We always stay at Cariboo Joy's RV park. It's not your usual park. Some of the sites are FHU and the rest have electric or water and electric. She has a dump site that is free for customers.
Here's the entrance to the park
This is our site - lots of shade and level.
Behind us is the central part of the campground with the office, washrooms and gazebos to lounge in.
There are three provincial campsites that don't have services as well in the area.
Barkerville is about 3 miles from Wells. It's a restored mining town from the Cariboo gold rush around 1860's
There are lots of exhibits of artifacts from the time period. Actors in costume roam the street and visit with the tourists. They seldom go out of character and talk to you as if you are in the gold rush time.
This is the main street
Two of the local ladies lead a tour of the town to a group of school kids.
The blacksmith makes pokers, steak turners and necklaces from raw stock and sells them.
This is the cornish water wheel. It was used to pump water and lift ore from the mines. This one is a reproduction and works. They do a demo show of the wheel that is a story about trying to sell shares in the mine. Worth every second to watch it. It is hilarious.
This is Lady Playfair, the owner and Mr Grimsby her mining engineer during their show.
All in all Barkerville and Wells are worth the detour from highway 97 at Quesnel to enjoy a couple of days in history
