A "ferry" tale road trip day 5, June 6 2014

Up to an early start this morning as we were heading the the BC Home School Expo being held at the Tradex in Abbotsford, about a 25 minute drive from out hotel. We attended a couple of sessions with this year's keynote speaker, Andrew Pudewa. He's a very engaging speaker who clearly enjoys what he does and is very confident in his presentation, definitely not one of those speakers that has you looking at your watch every ten minutes. Although we're not from BC we did see a couple of friends working their booth.

We said goodbye to the expo and headed east for the first leg of our trip home. After a stop in Hope for a quick bite to eat it was on the road northwards up Highway 5, aka the Coquihalla Highway, to Merrit BC and then eastward on Highway 97C to our overnight stop in West Kelowna.

Typical Fraser Valley scenery in the Lower Mainland of BC

What's a road trip without a stop at Tim Horton's? This one is in Hope BC.

Northbound on the Coquihalla Highway

Approaching Merritt BC and the turnoff to Highway 97C

Lots of beautiful views along 97C

Eastbound on 97C

First glimpse of Lake Okanagan

Down the hill into West Kelowna

All in all an enjoyable day with a great hotel at the end. Tomorrow we're off to Revelstoke via Nakusp which will have us taking a couple of ferry rides! Stay tuned.

CLICK HERE FOR DAY SIX

A "ferry" tale road trip day four, June 5 2014

Awoke to another beautiful day with hardly a cloud in the sky. Our travels on this day would take us westward along Highway 3 through Cawston, Keremeos, Princeton and Hope on our way to the Vancouver area.

First stop along after fuelling up the car was only a short distance up the road at Spotted Lake. This site is held sacred by the local First Nations people. Although you are not permitted to go down to the lake itself there is a place to pull off the road and take a few photos.

Me at Spotted Lake.

 We only stopped for a few minutes then continued on our way through vineyards, orchards and vegetable farms along more winding, rolling two lane blacktop. Much of this stretch of Highway 3 follows the Similkameen River which flows from its headwaters in Manning Park, across the US border and into the Okanagan River.

Following the Similkameen River upstream.

Still the Similkameen. We crossed it many times as we headed up the valley.

Our route took us through E C Manning Provincial Park. We decided to stop and stretch our legs at the Wild Rhododendron Grove, about 9km east of the west portal to the park. There is a short ten minute stroll through the grove and we enjoyed some early blooms. I can only imagine what the grove will look like in a couple of weeks when things are in full bloom.

East entrance to Manning Park.

Stopped at the Wild Rhododendron Grove

The grove's namesake....

and some more...

After the refreshing stroll it was back in the car and off to our next stop... the Othello Tunnels. Located in Coquihalla Provincial Park this engineering marvel is well worth the short drive off the highway to find them. The signage isn't that great but if we can find it you can. It's a 1.4km walk from the picnic area to the end of the last of four tunnels so allow about an hour and a half for the walk. The tunnels themselves are a small portion of southern BC's Kettle Valley Railway. The walk itself is easy as it's along the old rail bed which means there's very little slope. I'd recommend having a flashlight along for the tunnels as their floors are a little uneven in spots. We managed without but it was a bright sunny day.

The road up to the parking lot.

Through the tunnels

Sharon enjoying the view.

Some damage caused by rockfall from the cliffs above.

Looking back through the first couple of tunnels.

Me and Sharon on our way back to the parking lot.

When we left we followed the GPS even though we were sure the we should have gone the opposite direction and we're glad we did. It directed us past Kawkawa Lake which is just outsid of Hope. It looked inviting so we stopped by just to have a quick look and we're glad we did...

Kawkawa Lake... a beautiful spot to sit and enjoy the water.

The rest of the drive into Vancouver was uneventful and is almost seeming to be routine as we've done it quite a bit since our son and daughter-in-law moved out here. They joined us for supper on the patio at the Keg in Burnaby. We had a great meal together then made our way to our Langley hotel for a fairly early night.

Tomorrow will bring a conference and a drive to Kelowna BC. Thanks for joining us on our little journey.

CLICK HERE FOR DAY FIVE

Festiva in the Park: day one

FRIDAY JUNE 1st, 2012 

Our road trip has a name.

We realized that we are going to be going through or stopping at quite a number of National and/or State Parks so the trip has been dubbed "Festiva in the Park"

We got away from Calgary this morning about an hour later than we had hoped. Filled up with gas then hit the Trans Canada Highway westward over the Rocky Mountains, through the interior of BC to Vancouver. The first half of today's drive was very familiar because we done almost every year for the past 20 or so. From Salmon Arm on though it's been a very long time since we've been on the portion of the highway. It's been at least 25 years because this was the first time we'd driven BC's Coquihalla Highway and it opened in 1987!

We went through four national parks today, Banff, Yoho, Glacier and Mount Revelstoke. The drive was pretty uneventful with the car performing well... almost 50mpg on the first leg.

Here's a few photos for your enjoyment...

Loaded in and ready to go!

Well equipped for the road.

National Park number 2.

We'll put the road right through...... there.

In Salmon Arm.

With B, E and I on the wharf at Salmon Arm.

Arrived in Vancouver in time for the sunset.

CLICK HERE FOR DAY 2