Trans Canada Highway 1 East

Our first campsite on Canadian soil was not far from the border crossing at Sumas.  We were relieved because we had made it through customs with our four bottles of wine, a six pack of beer and all our fruits and veggies. The Milepost had an advertisement for The Cottonwood Meadows RV Country Club in Chilliwack, BC. It sounded inviting and the promise of "the nicest bathrooms" won us over.  It turned out that, for us, the bathrooms were the best feature of the park.  For $36 CDN dollars for full hookups, we parked in a tight space surrounded by bushes and clouds of mosquitos.  We fell asleep to the drone of the traffic on Trans Canada 1.

As soon as we left the campground we realized that we were in beautiful country.  We travelled up the Fraser River Valley on the way to Hope, BC.  The scenery was breathtaking!  In every direction we were surrounded by snowy peaks.  This is prime farm country with many farms and the ever-present aroma of manure.  We had a wide sky with puffy clouds and in and out sun all morning.  

 

As we drove along I was madly taking pictures out the window.  Many times I would catch a breathtaking view and before I could snap a picture it would be gone.  Those "zen" views never got captured, but many others did.

When we first saw the Fraser River outside of Hope, we knew we were officially on the "Gold Rush Trail". The prospectors must have gone crazy when they saw these mountains! For a minute, David thought he might have found a way to finance this trip. 

The Fraser gold rush started in 1858.  The Milepost reports, "Most of the miners hailed from California gold rushes and caused an immigration influx that the non-sovereign territory could not handle.  Recognizing the problem, the territory of New Calidonia was quickly renamed The Province of British Columbia by Queen Victoria, and it became a crown colony.  This enabled officials to properly record and monitor the onslaught of immigrants."

The Fraser Valley becomes the Fraser Canyon north of Hope.  It is very narrow and deep and the scenery is dramatic.  The road is built high above the river.  In places tunnels had to be cut through the mountains.  These tunnels were cut in 1960-64.  Just before the Yale Tunnel we pulled over to take photographs. From that point I could see six waterfalls tumbling down the steep mountainsides. 

The railway below us was first built in 1881 and the trains are still using them.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at a rest area just outside the little town of Lytton.  Lytton is located at the confluence of the Thompson and the Fraser Rivers.  Historically the sand bars at Lytton yielded alot of gold, but now the area is better known for its river raft trips. 

From Lytton the Fraser River flows west, and we followed the Thompson river in an easterly direction.  As we went over the mountain passes the vegetation changed.The thick evergreen forest and snowy peaks were replaced by thin stands of trees and dry rocky cliffs. 

Along the highway there were caution signs for deer, elk, and big horn sheep, but we never saw any.  My only exciting spotting was an eagle flying over the Thompson River.  The road was above the river at that point, so it seemed as if we were travelling side by side.  We had experienced dramatic changes in the landscape today, and were experiencing a bit of sensory overload.  However, my heart was soaring like that eagle as we pulled into The Clinton Pines RV Park at the end of the day.