We are making a round trip to Hope, BC today and had
decided we would go down through the Thompson and Fraser Canyons to enjoy the
different views then return on the Coquihalla Highway. The Thompson River leaves Savona at the end
of Kamloops Lake and meets the Fraser Canyon at Lilloett, so we get to enjoy
two canyons.
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| Thompson River and CP train |
Although there is some confusion when doing the research
for this, it appears that the CN and CP share their rail lines. Once they reach the Fraser River, one side is
used for one direction, the other side is for going the opposite direction,
with the crossover happening at Siska in the Fraser Canyon.
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| CNR tunnels |
As we can only imagine this day and age, these rail lines
were carved into these rock bluffs with many problems. Construction was done manually with much risk
to human lives 1881-1885 and the history that goes with this is not something
we’d want to see again, thankfully we won’t.
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| Thompson River Rapids |
Muddy waters this time of year with runoffs happening and
the rapids in this part of the Thompson River are great for summer rides but
not this time of year. CN on opposite
side transporting potash. Always a busy
mode of transporting freight, it is very common to see potash, coal, oil plus
much more.
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| View from Jackass Mountain |
We are climbing Jackass Mountain, elevation 2006m (6581ft.)
which is part of the Cascade Range. In
1862 the Cariboo Road was built for access to the Cariboo gold fields but the
very difficult part was a trail to cross Nicaragua Bluff. Many muletrains perished on this trail as
they tried to traverse it, therefore the name.
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| Hell's Gate Airtram |
The airtram at Hell’s Gate will be open again once the
pandemic allows that to happen. Traffic
is light and over the years since the Coquihalla opened, small businesses have
had to close down due to the lack of business, but thankfully the airtram
survives.
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| Alexandra Lodge |
The Fraser Canyon part of the Trans Canada Highway was
built in the 1950’s and it was definitely not easy travelling through here back
in those days. I remember sitting in the
family car roadside waiting for another vehicle to pass by on those dirt and
narrow roads during construction days.
It’s likely the Alexandra Lodge housed many construction workers at that
time.
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| Bridge over Fraser River |
We are now on the ‘new’ Alexandra Bridge that was built
1960-1964 and can see the ‘old’ Alexandra upstream. We did make a stop to see the old bridge on
this trip so I’ll be sharing that soon.
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| Yale Tunnel |
As we follow the Fraser River we drive Highway 1 and pass
through seven tunnels. The Yale tunnel
is where Lady Franklin Rock, named after a visiting British aristocrat, pokes
out of the river allowing a very narrow passageway. This was as far as the
steamboats could make it up the Fraser River from the coast.
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| Yale, BC |
The history of this tiny town is amazing. It is hard to believe that this town of less
than 200 people once had about 10,000 residents. The Goldrush days in 1861 brought everyone
north and at that time, Barkerville became the largest town and Yale was the
second largest north of San Francisco!
I do find history very interesting now, it is too bad I
didn’t feel that way when studying it in school! Lol
Hope to make the Yale Museum a stop on the next trip down
through the Fraser Canyon.
