As I left Clinton early in the morning, the weather was definitely cooler than it had been the past couple of days. Driving north along Highway 97, you enter the Cariboo district of BC, with rolling green hills and farms, surrounded by forest. Very lush compared to the dryness of the Chilcotin area to the south. Highway 97 is a wider, faster highway than what I've been on so far, so I covered more distance in a day.
A few minutes drive north is the turn-off to Chasm Provincial Park, with a viewpoint about 5km off the highway. It is an amazing view of canyon that was cut through layers of lava by glacier meltwater.
While it's not obvious to me from looking at the landscape, the geology of the whole area is build on former volcanic activity. A lot of the rocks underneath the grass and trees are volcanic in origin. In fact, the Indigenous Interpretive talk that I attended yesterday mentioned this: lava rocks were used for cooking and sweat lodges because they retain heat, obsidian was used for tools, etc.
I continued to 100 Mile House, where I went into the quaint town center for a coffee. A bit further north is the 108 Mile Heritage Site, which is a collection of buildings from the late 1800's and early 1900's, maintained by volunteers.
There's a barn, a one-room school building, general store, trapper's cabin etc. Most are log buildings. There's a old red brick building which housed a museum but it was closed today. There was also a beautiful little log church.
Next stop was Williams Lake. The tourist information center has a good museum about the culture and history of the area. Williams Lake has been a ranching area for a long time, and there is a yearly Williams Lake Stampede that is a very big event. The museum has lots of old photos and descriptions of families that had settled there, and a lot of antiques for the early 1900's. There is a also section on the indigenous history at the time of the gold rush. An aspect of the gold rush that I did not know before was the resulting smallpox epidemic that affected the indigenous communities.
Next I drove into the Williams Lake town center for quick walk around. I checked out the Station House Gallery, in the old train station. There are several other art studios and shops in the area.
It started to rain, and as I started driving north again, I passed through several strong thunderstorms with heavy rain and high wind.
Just north of Williams Lake is the Xatsull Heritage Village. By the time I reached it, there seemed to be a break in the weather so I decided to go. I turned off the highway onto a gravel road that started to drop toward the river. Soon I reached a lookout over the site.
As I went further, the road got rougher, descending more steeply, and becoming so overgrown that growth in center of the road scrapped against the bottom of my car. This would not be a big deal, except for the fact that my 24 year old Toyota is on it's last legs. I kept wondering if I would be able to make it back up the hill to the highway, especially since by then the heavy rain had started again.
I did take a look around. There is a pit house and some light wooden summer shelters, similar to what I saw at the Tuckkwiowhum Heritage Village a couple of days ago. This one was more run-down, however. There was a interpretive guide on site, who was very friendly, and explained that the site was first built in 1998, and some structures replaced in 2010.
With the heavy rain and wind starting again, I didn't make any more stops, but headed straight to Barkerville. I reached the entrance to the historical park, and asked at the reception how to drive to the hotel. The answer was: you don't, you park here and walk to the hotel inside the park. Wow. Pretty cool. So I carried my bags to the 1900 era, Victorian-style hotel in the middle of the historical park. Here's a shot from my the balcony.
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