British Columbia, Canada

[LindaAnn]

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 recommendations for RV parks, highway conditions, etc. We would probably do this next summer.

Thanks for any input.

**I mistakenly posted my request in the RV camping and roads instead of here.

[Grit_dog]

LindaAnn, lower mainland BC is one of if not the most beautiful spots on the continent. You can spend the night or longer in Hope, nice little town, but not really "out of the way." The Coq is not scary in the summer unless your rig is under powered or your brakes are bad, lol. And it's very scenic, just not a peaceful drive, it's a (the only) freeway. 3 is a nicer route East/West.
Whatever you head, it will be a wonderful trip!

Winter time, if we're headed to Penticton or Kelowna for hockey, we typically avoid the Coq coming from WA due to road conditions and the propensity for accidents if the roads turn to _____. Otherwise, it's the quickest route across.

[StirCrazy]

Harvey51 wrote:
(fill up with fuel in Hope before high lower mainland prices)

if you getting diesel, lickman road in Chilliwack is the cheapest place I find to fill up, cheaper than hope. for gas I am not sure how cheep they are compared to others. getting the gas buddy app is a great way to know when to fuel up for better pricing.

Steve

[Old_Islander]

Harvey51 wrote:
We took the Coquihalla highway southbound in March on our way to Vancouver Island. It snowed fairly heavily and driving was a little tough with few places to get off for a rest until we were nearly to highway 3 at the south end. Behold there was a nice, friendly private campsite where we had a quiet night and good showers in the morning. On a back road toward Hope we saw the entrance to a park with historic railway tunnels. Unfortunately it was still closed for winterCanyon Provincial Park

Thanks for that link, Harvey. I've lived here all my life and didn't know about that park. I'll make a special trip there and see it soon. My granddad was a conductor on the famous 'Kettle Valley Railway' and would have been through those tunnels hundreds of times, back when the railway was still in operation.

[Harvey51]

We took the Coquihalla highway southbound in March on our way to Vancouver Island. It snowed fairly heavily and driving was a little tough with few places to get off for a rest until we were nearly to highway 3 at the south end. Behold there was a nice, friendly private campsite where we had a quiet night and good showers in the morning. On a back road toward Hope we saw the entrance to a park with historic railway tunnels. Unfortunately it was still closed for winter.

Canyon Provincial Park

We continued to the coast (fill up with fuel in Hope before high lower mainland prices) and had a nice time on Vancouver Island - no snow and wading in the ocean was pleasant. The whale watching boat in the west coast made me very sick so I couldn’t drive for a day and the narrow, winding highway eastward was tough for DW to drive.

[Old_Islander]

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.

[garyhaupt]

What he can do is...YouTube it. Lots of video's on the Coke. A far nicer drive is to be had....depending on where you are going after 'the drive'.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=coquihalla


Gary Haupt

[StirCrazy]

soccrman wrote:
There's nothing on the Coq but pavement!!

well aside from 3 rest areas, campgrounds at coqahalla lakes, and one of the other summits as well as in Merritt, hope and Kamloops, and a tone of curves, very few long strait sections... but other than that its a strait stretch with nothing on it but pavement….

[soccrman]

Re the Coq - live in Calgary and have driven it a few times - basically a straight thru interstate with decent views in places and lots of big trucks!!
As noted its only from Kamloops to Hope. Drove out that way 2 weeks ago becos I was in a hurry - but came back last weekend on the old #1 thru Fraser Canyon past Hells Gate etc. IMHO a far superior drive - altho 80km or so longer. There are camping spots along the way as well as a lot of decent spots to stop and view. There's nothing on the Coq but pavement!!

As an aside you can see why it was built. The old road must have been hell before they finished it - a lot of it is only 2 lane - and you can also see a few run down spots on #1 that have suffered greatly for lack of traffic. But its a great drive!!

[SideHillSoup]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Victoria is not that much RV friendly per my experience. The ferries for RV are pretty expensive, while in the city big RV will keep making parking issues.
I took different ferries and the one from Anacortes to Sidney (?) is beautiful ride.
Would I not have friend there, I probably would walk on ferry and use local transportation with hotels.

I agree on the ferry prices, and not specifically the reason we downsized, however the ferry prices were part of the equation.
We went from pulling a 35 ft 5th wheel to having a camping in the back of the truck (24 ft) that is only 4 ft longer than the 20 ft reg vehicle length. You do t pay for over height on B.C. Ferries, so we are only paying for that extra 4 ft, some routes that’s $40 per ft, some as low as $7 per ft.
So far we have been on the ferry from Prince Rupert to Haida Gwaii and back, Vancouver Island, one Ferries to Quadra island, Cortez Island and on the new ferry from Port Hardy to Bella Coola, on the Sea Wolf.
That ferry from Port Hardy to Bella Coola in the summer months sails 07:30 to 5:30 pm just about every other day. We have done three cruises to Alaska and we saw more wildlife including bears and whales ( 9 different sightings of whales) on the Sea Wolf than we saw on those 3 cruises combined.
Yup it’s expense, but the stuff we viewed from the Sea Wolf and the ferries were an experience we will never forget.

There 6 whales in this group, and the Captain of the Sea Wolf stopped the ferry so we could view them. They were about 2000 yards off the starboard side of the ferry, This was all the zoom my camera had in it.


The inside passage.


Loading time onto the Sea Wolf at Port Hardy, ferry only holds 35 vehicles and I did a quick head count during the sailing and only counted 61 people on board, I may have missed some, but the ferry being a smaller ship, made for no crowds at all.




Soup.

[Kayteg1]

Victoria is not that much RV friendly per my experience. The ferries for RV are pretty expensive, while in the city big RV will keep making parking issues.
I took different ferries and the one from Anacortes to Sidney (?) is beautiful ride.
Would I not have friend there, I probably would walk on ferry and use local transportation with hotels.

[C-172-AV8R]

Me thinks you've left a vast experience behind here. You have a chance to go on a Sea Cruise through the San Juan Islands without spending a lot of money. It's an adventure with the opportunity to see a whole bunch of different interesting spots. The capital city of Victoria could take a week in itself with all the various things to do such as the Empress Hotel, Parliament buildings, Royal Museum, Beacon Hill park with their hands on petting zoo, A tour on the Victoria Harbour City Ferry boats and a trip to the World famous Butchart Gardens. This doesn't even scratch the surface of this city. Or Vancouver Island where you can get as busy or as relaxed as you like. There are several ways to get here. Through the Gulf Islands with the B.C. Ferries. The Washington State Ferry through the San Juan Islands from Anacortes Washington or the Coho Ferry From Port Angeles Washington. There are tons of guide books a few of them such Camping B.C or Times Colonist Discovery Magazine

[Kayteg1]

Having friend in Victoria, I visited it several times over the years and that is beautiful.
This year we made Alaskan highway trip and BC has several faces.
First - near Hope you will find lot of traffic, what is not something I was looking forward to.
Than drive in the Fraser river canyon was very exciting and we discover "hidden treasures" on the way, like this campground for $25 (Canadians) with hookups.
North BC drive was a bit boring as you drive hundreds miles in forest, not seeing much but the bears.

[SideHillSoup]

This list of B.C. mountain pass “Hwy” elevations.
Hwy Pass elevations

[Johnny_G1]

The Coke is a fast rd. but very boring and a hard pull from either direction, myself if I travel to Vancouver I take the Fraser Canyon and it is a very good rd now than it was 50 yrs ago, going south from Kamloops I like 5A to go to Princton and on to the US but that is my because I can get see things and not have to drive 140k like most of them on the Coke. Going east from Clearwater I will take the rd. up through Jasper and east from there.East from Kamloops and you have some hard pulls to the Alberta border.