Thursday 7/29/99
Day 1: Hope, Yale & Lac La Hache
It's that time of year again for another trip to Alaska as this will be the third summer ina row that we have drove. There was a differend feeling about going to alaska this year. Not quite as excited as we had been in the past because most places we are going we will have been to. This one would also be a litttle different in that Shawna would be going for her first trip. She is looking forward to going to Chicken as that all she has been talking about for thelast month. It's Thursday morning and Cindy picks me up at work around 10:30 as it was an overcast day but still warm out. I tdid start raining around Bellingham and we were hoping the thistripwould not be like the summer that we have had so far in Seattle. That's all it's done is rain with a couple weekends of summer. We get to the Canadian Border around 1:30 and went thru customer without having to go inside. They didn't ask as many question today and it may have been that we told them we had already been to Alaska before.From the border we take highway 15 north through the town of Cloverdale where there was a rodeo in town this week. We reached Trans-Canada Highway 1 and would drive east toward the town of Hope. The highway is four lanes but watch for rader guns as you can usually tell because everybody slows down to 55 mph. I don't think they are really trying to issue speeding tickets as much as they are just wanting to slow down traffic. Although it is still raining, it's kind of a drizzle right now and we are hoping that it might stop when we start driving north.
We arrive in Hope around 3:30 and this is a small town of 4,000 people but the town is much larger for only that many residnets. Thats because tourism is a major business here with three main highways merging at this town. There are many hotels, restaurants and a large city park. We decide to go into town here and rest for a little while. We went window shopping and into a bookstoore before going to the the city park. This is a nice park that has a wooded area on one sidewith picnic tables and toys for kids to play on the other side. Shawna and Jacob play on the toys for 1/2 hour while Cindy and I walk around and rest. There are also some nice wooden sculptures of an eagle, bear and fish animals out in front of the park on the sidewalk. Now would be a good time to eat lunch/dinner as we found a buffet Suzie-Q's that was both american and chinese food. It was ok for abuffet and what we wanted as we were all full when we left. Shawna informed us at dinner that she would be writing a trip report. We reinforced the idea but knew it probably wouldn't happen.
Left town at 4:30 and drove north on Trans-Canada 1 along the Fraser River. The Fraser is a large river that has alot of history behind it. There used to be steam boats that ran this river all the way up to Williams lake. ther was a large gold rush that happended in the mid 1800's that made this the most popular rive in British Columbia. We passed Emory Creek Provinciual Park on theway as this is a nice place to stay if wanting to explore the area. It's close enought to Hope for town supplies but right off of the Frazier if you wnat ot fish or do some whitewater rafting. We reached the town of Yale in about an hour. This town is popular for the gold rush that occurred here in the 1850's. There is a museum here that was closed when we got there but I would recommend to anybody interested in the history of the Fraser river. There is also an old cemetary, trading post, rafting trips and a few hotels in Yale. The sun finally out as we wouldl past the small towns of Spuzzun, Hells Gate and North Bend. This is a scenic drive on a nice day as you are looking over a canyon of the Frazier river. There are also many tunnells along this stretch of highway which was fun for the kids trying to hold their breath. Boston Bar is an industrial town as we saw a mills and lots of truckers in thearea. North Bend is just across the river and logging is themain reason why this little community is there.
We drove next to Lytton as this town is where the Frasier and Thompson River meet. Skihist Park is just north of Lytton and it had camping on one side and picnic area on the other side with a view of teh river. It was quiet with nobody around. The view of the Thompson River had railroads on both sides of the river, and lots of clifs with rockat the top and eroding into sand at the base. We continued on Trans-Canada 1 and would follow the Thompson River as the scenary now changes to flat dry land that is usually used for ranching. The next town is Cache Creek as this is another stopover point for tourists with are many hotels and restaurents here. Clinton is thenext town north which is a country western setting. there are many ranchers taht live on the outskirts of town and ther are several restaurents and stores and is also a old cemetary on the outskirts of town. We drove thru at 100 Mile house at 8:30 and decided to stop around 9:00 at Lac La Hache Provincial park. There are 80 campsights here across from the lake as it was about 2/3rd's full. People were quiet here although you could hear the trains and also truck on the highway.
We drove 425 miles today