Here's our route for the first day.
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We stopped for lunch at the first rest area on Hwy 1 and the continued east past Chilliwack. Not far from Chilliwack we saw a huge waterfall coming down the face of the mountains to the south of the freeway but nowhere to stop to take a photo.
Later in the day after we'd turned northward with Hwy 1 we came to a turnout with a view of a nice waterfall. I pulled over and shot this photo of the falls which is just north of Yale.
The road follows the Fraser River through the canyons and is rightly considered a scenic by-way. The river was pretty high and muddy. Here's a view of it looking south from the pull out.
Over the next few kilometers we passed through 7 tunnels of varying length which added to the fun of the drive.
We arrived at Skihist Provincial Park in late afternoon. It's perched on the east side of the canyon with about 60 campsites along a big loop. We picked a site at the top of the loop and got to hike down to register and then hike back up. We had a ranger stop by at dinner time to say there were a pair of bears in the area and to beware but we've not seen them. There are a few wildflowers in bloom--lots of lupine along the highway.
In the morning we surprisingly had sun and I stopped to take photos of a few wildflowers along the campground road.
We followed the Thompson River north to Quesnel.
Here's a map of our route on the second day from Skihist Park to Quesnel.
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We got a lovely campsite at Roberts Roost RV Park right next to the lake. A mama duck and her ducklings were sunning themselves on the dock next to our site and she wasn't spooked at all when I stopped to take her picture.
Another mama duck had her babies out in the water.
There were lots of ducks and geese including some canvas back ducks that I'd never seen before.
It's a gorgeous lake and we had a gorgeous day to enjoy it.
It warm and sunny with almost no wind--a little taste of summer as far as we're concerned.
We had light rain and some wind in the morning but it cleared off for the drive to Prince George.
Here's our route for the third day from Quesnel to Burns Lake, BC
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West of Prince George we hit a major squall with heavy rain and a little bit of lightening. But by the time we reached Burns Lake the sun was out again.
We camped the night at Sandy's RV Park on Francois Lake south of Burns Lake. It's a very long (70 plus miles) narrow lake that even has a ferry across the middle of it to get to the resorts and towns on the south shore.
Here's a panorama shot of the entire lake.
The wind was blowing and we had a little bit of surf on the rocky beaches.
The next morning it was 28 degrees outside when we first woke so we snuggled back under the covers and went back to sleep to let Mother Nature warm things up with the sunshine. By the time we motored out it was warm enough not to be wearing jackets.
Here's our route for the fourth day from Burns Lake to Terrace, BC.
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We hadn't seen much wildlife yet but we knew we were in moose county because the deer crossing signs had been replaced mostly by moose crossing signs.
For several hours we drove through a birch forest with miles and miles of white trunks and lakes.
Then along about mid-morning just outside of Houston, BC mountains began to appear on the western horizon. By the time we stopped for our mid-morning rest stop you could see the Hazelton Mountains pretty clearly.
Here's a close up of them.
They got bigger and bigger as we drew closer. We stopped in Smithers, BC to get gas and this was the view from the gas station. I can understand why folks might want to live in Smithers.
They have a ski resort in Smithers and it seemed to be a pretty upscale place.
We stopped for lunch at a rest stop outside of Moricetown, BC and this was our view. Life is rough, huh?
Down below in the canyon you could see the Bulckley River running very muddy and full.
Not long after lunch we came the confluence of the Bulkley and the Skeena River and the road curved to follow the Skeena. I pulled over and shot this photo of the Skeena after we'd come through the pass in the Hazeltons.
We camped that night at Ferry Island Campground in the middle of the Skeena River in Terrace, BC. It was full of wildflowers and had a wonderful nature trail that went all the way around the perimeter of the island.
There was false Solomon's seal (Maianthemum racemosum) and star false Solomon's seal (Maianthemum stellatum) in bloom in our campsite.
We'll take you on the hike around the island in Part III.