On the road between Lillooet and Whistler

A view of Blackcombe Mountain from Whistler Village.








Stopped on the side of the road.









Mountain vistas.







Duffy Lake is still frozen.

Lillooet to Whistler

An Avalanche that had been cleared the day before.

Just one of the many steep grades on this road.



Traveling from Lillooet to Whistler the road is one of the most challenging that we have traveled on in North America.

Lillooet

A special view from Dutchess as she is parked over looking the Fraser River.

Lillooet is a town built on both sides of the Fraser River with the main railway link from Northern BC to Vancouver passing through town. The glory days of Lillooet were in the mid to late eighteen hundreds with a population of over 15,000 people most of them arriving with the Gold Rush. At that time it was the second largest town/city west of Chicago. The old suspension bridge, built in 1913, has been maintained and is now available for cycling and walking across the river.

Our campsite was carved out of the cliff, with switch back roads and terraced levels. Our view out the front of Dutchess, the bridge above and out over the Fraser River to the town on the far bank.

Gold Country:

From Vernon we traveled through Kamloops wanting to spend a couple of days at Juniper Beach Provincial Park near Walhachin but have found out that many of the parks out of the Lower Mainland and Okanagan Valley do not open until May. So we traveled onto Cache Creek for a couple of nights.  From there we took highway 99 through the Marble Canyon Provincial Park to Lillooet.

Two ninety degree sharp turns to negotiate under this railway bridge, with very little room to spare.  The road was narrow but mostly in very good condition.

Wonderful views of the valley with the muddy Fraser River.

 

Any flat area of land is irrigated to grow grass for hay.

Walhachin

Walhachin was a thriving community in the mid 1800’s but today other than farmland, the bridge over the Thompson River and the remnants of the old pump house and the resident birds nesting on the top of the bridge, that is all that remains to be seen.

Killdeer

In Anita’s back garden a Killdeer had laid four eggs amongst the stones.

Anita’s

Anita in her back garden

We had a wonderful five nights at Anita’s before setting off on our summer travels in Dutchess and Granny 

Overlooking Vernon

On the drive down Sliver Star Mountain we stopped to look out over south east Vernon and Kalamalka Lake.

This view over looks Vernon in the valley with Kalamalka Lake in the distance on the left and Okanagan Lake in the middle of the picture and the water to the right is Swan Lake. 

A closer view of down town Vernon with Okanagan Lake in the back ground and Swan lake in the front.  Herongate is down the hill in the trees to the left of the picture.

Silver Star

In Vernon we had a little rain and thought that up on Silver Star Mountain there would have been some fresh snow. The ski season is finished and everything was closed up tight, except for one restaurant and bar. So we drove Granny up the mountain and discovered only a light sprinkle of grainy snow on top of the old dirty winter snow.

Dinner at Anita’s

On Friday night Anita had a pot luck dinner party for twelve. 

Above: Anita, Pat, Darleen, John, Nancy, Bob, and Carolyn

Below: Glenda, Ken, Kath, Bob, Anita, Pat and Darleen

It was wonderful to see so many Vernon friends all in one swoop, with only Brian and Marilyn and Steve and Anne missing.