road trip 2022 - day 9 to Jasper

 I'll actually be staying in Hinton, a town about 75km east of Jasper. So while I'm here I'll have to drive in to the park every day to do some hiking. (At the time that I looked for accommodation, the town of Jasper was completely booked.)

Today, I left Edmonton early, and since was before noon by the time I reached Hinton, it was too early to check in so I continued on to Jasper to see what I could do today. I stopped at Maligne Canyon, just before the town of Jasper. The canyon is very narrow and deep with fast moving water carving out interesting limestone formations. Quite a sight.

It was very busy - the parking lot was full - so there were a lot of people walking along the path by the canyon. It's about a 2 km path along the canyon. Then, there is a quieter path that continues through the trees for another 2 km to a bridge further down the river. 

It was raining off and on today but fortunately not while I was walking. Afterwards I went into Jasper to stop at the Tourist Information Center, and get some information about day hikes. By then it was about 4 pm so I headed back to Hinton to check in. On the way, it was quite cloudy so there wasn't much of a view of the mountains. However on the side of the road there was this magnificent stag just grazing, not fazed at all by all the people stopping to take pictures.

road trip 2022 - day 7 and 8 - study and JLPT

For these couple of days I was focused on the test. I spent Saturday mostly studying from a JLPT practice book. I studied at a coffee shop on Whyte Avenue for a while. The street was much quieter after the Canada Day celebrations finished. Also kind of rainy that day. 

In the afternoon I walked from my hotel to the JLPT test site at the University of Alberta to make sure I knew the way. U of A has a beautiful campus - red brick buildings surrounding an open green quad. 

Sunday was test day. I got up quite early, and it was sunny and warm for the walk to campus. When I got to the building, there were a lot of people, several hundred I'd say, waiting to register. Different levels were held in different rooms. I chatted briefly with a couple of young guys waiting to enter the classroom for our level - they'd come from as far as Ontario and New York. 

The test itself has parts for vocabulary, grammar, reading and listening, and you have to achieve a least a certain score on each part to pass. I'm sure I did well on everything except the listening part - always my weakness. I have to wait until September for the result.

Afterwards I did laundry and went to the craft beer place again. Taking it easy for the rest of the day.

Back at the hotel, the bar was having an open mic night. Nice folk music and a great way to unwind.

road trip 2022 - day 5 and 6 to Edmonton

 I left Barkerville in the morning, saying goodbye to the lovely hosts at the hotel. I was thinking that I hadn't done any drawing yet on this trip, but on the way out I caught a view of the church worth trying. I sat down on the step of a building across the way, and started the pencil sketch. However, I had to finish the initial sketch quite quickly and get up and leave, as I was being eaten alive by mosquitos. I finished with the ink and the watercolour pencil later in the day.

The weather was nice. I stopped in Quesnel for a coffee, and a walk along the river for a bit, before continuing to Prince George. It was a short drive today, and I arrived early. I used the time to stock up on groceries. I then found a craft beer place downtown, Crossroads Brewing, and had a beer while I finished my drawing. 

I had spent a summer here in Prince George as an undergrad, but that was almost 40 years ago, so not surprisingly I really didn't recognize anything.

The next day I got up early for a very long day of driving. The first couple of hours of Highway 16 east of Prince George is a long stretch of nothing but rolling hills and forest, with after a while mountains rising up on either side. Kind of eerie, really. This is a long, flat valley of the Fraser River - almost hard to believe it's that same river that empties in Vancouver. I then reached the very friendly little town of McBride, which was founded as a stop for the railway. There is still a train station, and the tourist information center is in the same building.

Continuing east, the mountains rise higher and soon you arrive at Mt. Robson Park. As the lady in the McBride tourist information center said when I asked about seeing Mt. Robson from the road: "you can't miss it". Incredible view.

I stopped at the Mt. Robson Visitor Center and walked around for a bit.

Back on the road and soon crossed the border into Alberta and Jasper National Park. I had planned to stop at the information center in Jasper, but being Canada Day the town was packed with people, so I just drove straight through. The scenery of the Rocky Mountains in Jasper National Park is amazing. I will spend some time here after Edmonton, so I'll talk more about it then. In the meantime, a drive through a National Park like Banff or Jasper is not complete without traffic having to stop for wildlife.

From Jasper it is still another three hours or so to Edmonton, making it a very long day. Almost 9 hours on the road including stops. I eventually made it to my hotel on Whyte Ave, which a busy area with restaurants and bars. Things were in full swing with Canada Day celebrations. Despite the long day, I didn't feel like going to bed early. I found a craft beer place, Situation Brewing, and had a beer and read for a bit before calling it a night.

road trip 2022 - day 4 Barkerville

I spent the whole day in Barkerville. I'm so glad I booked a couple of nights accommodation inside the historic park, as it gave me the whole day today to look around. St. George Hotel is the genuine article, one of the hotels from the late 1800's.  Here is the outside, and the main sitting area on the inside.

I started the day with a 1 and 1/2 hour walking tour, which gave a fantastic overview of the history of Barkerville and the gold rush, and lots of stories about certain people of the time. The interesting thing about Barkerville is that it was never a ghost town - there's always been people here - which may have helped it being preserved the way it is. While some buildings have been replaced, most are original buildings in their original locations. 

After the tour I spent the rest of the day walking through the town checking out all the buildings.  It had rained very hard all night, so in the morning the street was still pretty muddy.  Fortunately it didn't rain during the day, and by mid-afternoon it cleared up.

I stopped for lunch at Wake Up Jake, in one of the old buildings.

Some buildings I checked out were the old school house, and the functioning Anglican Church.

 I also visited a print shop that is still active.

I asked the guy at the print shop how much of the equipment was old, and he said everything except the typeface which gets worn out. He was busy printing up signs for Canada Day events. He said that in a 'normal' (ie. pre-COVID) year, there are so many shows going on that it impossible to see everything in one day. I definitely want to come back and spend more time in that case. 

I've always heard about Barkerville and so I knew it was a famous place. But even so, it exceeded my expectations. Definitely a special place.

 

road trip 2022 - day 3 to Barkerville

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.

 

road trip 2022 - day 2 to Clinton

 In the morning I continued north on Highway 99 from Lillooet, with several stops at pullouts to enjoy the scenery. This is a view of Lillooet, with the town center toward the back.

After an hour or so, I reached the Marble Canyon area. (Don't be confused by the name, if you look it up there are many, many places named Marble Canyon.) There is a provincial park there, which has some campsites along a nice lake and is popular for boating and fishing. More interesting, though, was the landscape on either side of the road as I drove through. There are very steep limestone formations above hills on one side, and lakes on the other in which you see white glowing limestone patches under deep blue water. Unfortunately there was really no place to stop to take pictures.

The next stop, a short while later, was Hat Creek Ranch. I planned for very little driving today as I expected to spend some time here. I wasn't sure what to make of the advertising for it - that is, if it would be a tacky tourist trap or not. However, I was not disappointed. It is a BC and a Canadian Heritage site, and the layout and the buildings are all very authentic. There are barns, farm buildings, and the actual Hat Creek House, all built in the late 1800's. Informative signs give a good feeling for the history and the role of the Cariboo Wagon Road in the difficult terrain of BC before the railroad. 

The interior of the Hat Creek House is full of original furniture and antique items from the time. Even the wallpaper in the hallways and bedrooms is authentic. Here's a shot of the salon.

When I went outside, the guy taking care of the horses had them out pulling a carriage for exercise, and he asked me I wanted a ride, so I hopped in.

There is also a Shuswap Indigenous Interpretive Site with several artefacts and a guide who describes some of the plants that were used for food and medicine, and describes the various processes for drying and cooking food, for example. Also very well done.

All in all, I spent over 2 hours at the ranch. I'd recommend it. Fortunately it was not too hot today so spending all that time outside was not too tiring. Still, I had an ice cream cone at the restaurant.

After I left the ranch I turned north onto Highway 97, and went straight to the village of Clinton where I stopped for the day.

road trip 2022 - day one to Lillooet

 This years holiday is a two-week road trip on my own. The actual purpose is to be in Edmonton on July 3, for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). The test is the official certification of Japanese language ability, and there are 5 levels: N5 (beginner) to N1 (fluent). I passed N5 in 2019, but since then the test has been cancelled due to COVID. And because of that, the school in Vancouver that offered it has stopped doing so. So now, the only place in Western Canada to take the test is at the University of Alberta. 

Well, I thought, I may as well make a road-trip out of it. I've always wanted to travel the Gold Rush Trail in BC, and I haven't been to Jasper since I was a kid. The plan is to head north from Vancouver up the Gold Rush Trail, stopping in Lillooet, Clinton near Cache Creek, historic Barkerville, Prince George, and then a few days in Edmonton. On the way back, a few days in Jasper, and a stop in Revelstoke on the way back to Vancouver. 

Except for a couple of long days, each day will only require a few hours of driving, allowing me to stop and look at something whenever I feel like it. There's nothing like a long road trip to explore your thoughts. And, hopefully I'll get some drawing or painting done. It's much nicer driving when you're not under any real schedule. As soon as I got on the highway, I saw cars speeding and weaving between lanes, trying to pass and get ahead. I remember those days, when having a car pass you was like some kind of personal insult. It occurred to me: when you're young, you're in a rush to go nowhere, when you're old, you know the destination so you take your time.

Today I left Vancouver in the morning, and stopped at a café in Hope for an hour or so, to continue studying from a JLPT practice book. I'll have to make some time for that every day until the test.

From there I continued up the old Number One highway, stopping at Alexandra Bridge Provincial Park to eat a packed lunch. Just past the Alexandra Bridge I stopped to look at an information sign near the Historic Alexandra Lodge, and the owner of the lodge was outside. We chatted for a bit about history of the area and the lodge. He said the first floor of the lodge itself dates back to 1891. He's currently fixing up the property.

I continued on, and then stopped at Tuckkwiowhum Heritage Village. It's a nicely laid-out park with examples of wood dwellings, food caches, etc., and it was nice to walk around. 

However, everything else there - the gallery and restaurant for example - are currently closed. Perhaps still because of COVID.

I continued up the Number One Highway to Lytton, the village that was destroyed by fire last year, and it was shocking to see the thoroughness of the devastation. There's really nothing left. I drove through Lytton to get to Highway 12 that goes to Lillooet. At Lillooet, Highway 12 intersects Highway 99, which comes from Whistler. The whole loop from Vancouver to Whistler to Lillooet to Hope and back to Vancouver is called the Coast Mountain Circle and is almost 700 km.

I've never been on Highway 12 between Lytton and Lillooet before, and the scenery is spectacular. The area is very dry, covered in grass and Ponderosa pine, and the green and brown sides of the mountains rise steeply above the Fraser River valley. 

When I got to Lillooet I checked into the hotel, ate a supper from the food I'd packed, and walked down the street to the Reynolds Hotel Pub for a beer while I did more Japanese review. One the way back the sun caught the mountains on the eastern side of the valley.