We continued north on hwy 99 from Roger Creek park towards Lillooet, through some amazing views. It's a rugged area, for sure:
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| Some erosion going on at the pull-out |
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| Majestic mountains (of course) |
Hwy 99 north from Pemberton on is quite rugged. I don't think the van engine and transmission have ever worked that hard. The engine coolant temperature crept up to 100C from its normal 80C on the largest climb through there, but no problems.
Luckily traffic tapered off as we got further north. This area (and others) is a lot busier since our previous trip here about 24 years ago.The combination of heavy traffic and heavy haze (mostly smoke) made it hard to enjoy the spectacular views up this way.
We left our overnight stop at Roger Creek pretty early, and headed to Lillooet for breakfast:
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| Good old-fashioned restaurant here in Lillooet |
We stopped at another little Provincial Park for a break:
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| Almost the only wildlife we've seen lately |
We had heard various reports of road closings in the Cache Creek area due to landslides, so didn't know quite what to expect. It turns out there were 2 problem areas, both on Hwy 99.
The first was a small slide a ways north of Lillooet. One lane open, with flagmen for the 100 yard outage. It was a real slide, coming down from one side and obliterating the road in places. On the other side was a BIG drop to the river. They'd have to be very careful clearing this one:
The second slide area was more a series of washouts spread over several kilometers, severe in places. Material washed down from hills on our left and wiped out the road and some residences on the right. These wouldn't be as scary to fix as the first one, but it's going to take lots of fixing to prevent future problems too:
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| Lineup waiting for the pace truck for this 1-lane series |
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| This kind of slurry came to the road in several places |
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| These cars were mostly buried to above the wheels |
This second series of wipeouts was in the Hat Creek Ranch area, near the junction of Hwy 99 and TCH 1.
Near Cache Creek we stopped at a "Ghost Town" for a tour, mostly buildings that were used for movie sets. An 83 year old gentleman had fun being the Marshall and guide:
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| Cathie likes her wooden men |
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| Busted! No touching, Lady! |
Continuing on TCH1, we headed for Revelstoke, for no particular reason. Most campgrounds we saw were full. A new campground just outside Revelstoke had lots of room, and only(!) wanted $58 for a fully serviced site. We also turned down their $48 offer for an unserviced site, in spite of their brand new washroom and hot tub.
Before long we got to Blanket Creek Provincial Park, on Upper Arrow Lake about 20 km south of Revelstoke on #23. This turned out to be what looked like a brand new park. No site services, but good washrooms and showers. Even their distributed vault toilets had flush toilets and a sink. Very nice after roughing it for a bit.
Today's approximate route:
Bob and I drove passed the osprey nest shown in your Aug. 6th pics, the chick looked like its parents were giving it a flying lesson. The baby quails are growing rapidly too. No as smoky here today either.
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