When we left Stewart to get back on the Cassiar Highway, we counted seven black bears along the route going south. Our destination was Smithers, British Columbia, located on Hwy 16. This marked the last day that our RV would be tagging along behind my parents.
We spent the night at the Glacier View RV park in Smithers, which had a great view of the Hudson Bay Glacier. The white area between the two peaks is the glacier.
After we set up, we went out to eat and took a hike to the twin waterfalls that cascade down from the glacier. It was pretty steep getting up to the platform and the temperature dropped as the water was cooling the air.
As the sun was going down, I ran out to take another picture of the mountains. It was such a beautiful evening and the upper clouds turned pink.
The next morning we said our goodbyes to mom and dad and headed out early. Right in the middle of the road in downtown Smithers stood a wooden statue. Darin slowed down for a picture, but we couldn’t stop because it was a long travel day.
Each town we passed had similar statues. It was a bit comical, but we fell into the trap of snapping photos of each one during the drive. Just pretend that Darin is standing beside them!
We booked a night in Quesnel, B.C. located on Hwy 97 south of Prince George. Logging is the biggest industry in that area and lots of trucks were on the road. Each town had lumber mills and even the trains were carrying pulp.
Once we reached Quesnel, the air quality became hazy and at that point we realized it was smoke from all of the wildfires in B.C. and the Pacific Northwest. All you could see was an orange ball when you looked up at the sun. It was quite disturbing.
We got up early the next day, hoping we could get away from the smoke and headed toward Hope, B.C. We passed by acres and acres of burned trees and then we knew that we were not going to get away from it very easily.
Driving down Hwy 97 took us through the “Arizona” equivalent in British Columbia. It was like a desert, but there were two large rivers winding beside the road. The contrast between the colors of dirt and plants and sky was beautiful!
Driving down the winding road with an RV slowed us down, but the views were amazing. Every now and then, an irrigated field seemed out of place, but definitely looked green and lush in comparison.
Next we had to drive through seven different tunnels. It was interesting, to say the least! The day had started out great and went downhill fast after this point.
Our GPS took us down a dead end road in Hope and Darin had to get us out. When we arrived at the campground, they didn’t have our reservation AND they were full. We had no choice but to keep driving to the border.
Knowing our passports were in the RV, we needed to stop at a rest area to retrieve them. Two miles before the border, we followed the exit sign, but the lot was full. We kept driving down the access road and we found a dirt turnout. With passports and food in hand, we were ready for the crossing at Sumas, WA. All of a sudden one trailer tire was losing pressure and the alarm on the tire monitor went off!
The line took about 30 minutes, but we finally made it to Washington without a flat tire. I called a couple campgrounds and we got lucky because one manager had just received a cancellation five minutes before I called. Phew!
The mountain looked out of place, but what a nice welcome back to the US. It was a long drive that day, but we were happy to return to “civilization” with good cell service and wifi. Once we settled into the Seattle area, we ran a bunch of errands like banking and visiting a tire store. It was time to make our next campground reservations and plan our trip southbound.