Driving out of our campground at Watson Lake, Yukon we almost immediately crossed into British Columbia. Crossing the Yukon/BC border felt as if we were close to home even though we were still 1200+ miles north of the border. Today we would be leaving the Alaska highway and driving down the Cassiar Highway. This would take a few days as the Cassiar is 450 miles of 2-lane road through some of the most remote parts of British Columbia.
The Cassiar Highway – Entering British Columbia
The Cassiar Highway compared to the Alaska Highway is much less traveled. This put Julie and I a bit on edge because at this time the Canadian police still had not found whoever had killed the couple on the Alaska Highway. To make matters worse another person had been found murdered along the Cassiar Highway. As there is only 2 ways south we had to pick one and as we had already driven the Alaska Highway; we chose the road less traveled.
I had been on the Cassiar Highway once before back in 2007. As we set out south on the road it seemed that nothing on it had changed in the last 12 years. It was still sparsely populated, moderately well maintained for being in the middle of nowhere and it went though unbelievably beautiful scenery. Soon enough though we came across a scary scene. We had known that we were going to pass one of the murder victim’s crime scenes on the road but we didn’t know exactly where and when.
Canada’s Killers
All of a sudden we came around a corner and there it was. We were about 2 hours from the nearest town when we saw about 10 Royal Canadian Mounted Police cars and about 30 people. They were standing near a burnt out truck and had put a few tents next to the adjacent area. It only took us a few seconds to pass the scene but it really shook us. The story in the news was that the person that was killed was a professor from the U. of British Columbia. He had been traveling in his truck camper and from what it looked like the truck had been set on fire in the middle of the night. We tried to keep positive thoughts as we were still in such a beautiful place. It was still a scary thought that someone would be that evil to kill someone as they slept.
Bell II Resort
The rest of the day went off without a hitch. We were driving in some of the most beautiful wilderness in the world. We stopped at overlooks, skipped rocks in crystal clear lakes and took in the scent of thousands of miles of pine forest. It was really pretty awesome. As we were pretty nervous about staying in a sparsely used government run campground we found one of the few resorts on the 450-mile road and luckily enough they had a few RV spots. The resort was called Bell II and was set up in a Swiss style, complete with chalets to stay in and a sauna. They were busy in the summer but where they really shined was in the winter. As mountains surrounded us but had no ski resorts the Bell II specialized in heli skiing. They had a fleet of helicopters that would fly you to one of the nearby mountains, drop you off near the top and pick you up at the bottom. It was very cool to say the least.
We woke up the next morning ready for our 2nd day on the Cassiar. Going south from Bell II the road started to get a little more populated. We started to see a house every now and then and even the occasional car. The scenery stayed just as amazing but as the miles passed we got closer and closer to the end. Around early afternoon we finished the Cassiar Highway and jumped onto the Yellowhead Highway. All roads in northern Canada in addition to having a normal route name seemed to be called the “insert name here” Highway as well.
Smithers, BC
We had made plans to stay in the town of Houston, BC that night but on the way there came across the town of Smithers. All I could think of at first was Smithers – the character from the TV show “The Simpsons”, but the town turned out to be the nicest one that we had come across in weeks (sorry Yukon & Alaska). The town was built to service the railroad in the early 1900’s and had been built in a Swiss-Alpine style. It was beautiful to say the least. We walked around town checking out a few of the outdoor shops. One that we went into was particularly cool was a German Style butcher shop called “The Sausage Factory”. Here we bought some Bison pepperoni and a few German chocolates. After the butcher shop we stopped by an outdoor coffee shop called the Bugwood Café. It was pretty cool sipping coffee on their outdoor patio looking at the mountains in the distance in this very European looking little town. After the coffee we jumped back into Bubbles and headed to the next town over where our campground was. We cooked some of the halibut that we had kept from our fishing expedition in Alaska. It tasted amazing after a long day on the road.
Prince George, BC
The next day we woke up and set out for a night in the largest town that we will have encountered since leaving Whitehorse, the town of Prince George. It was a bit rainy that day and we arrived in Prince George in the early afternoon. I had been there once before but it was nothing like I had remembered. Thinking back I’m not sure I had actually gone downtown before but when we pulled in downtown we were not that impressed. It looked like the towns best days had passed it by but we were eager to find the positive spots…there are usually a few in every town. We found some good coffee at Zoe’s Java House before wandering over to Crossroads Brewing & Distilling. This brewery looked like it was the nicest place in town. We sat down and had a beer. It was Friday around 4pm and the office crowd had started to get there. Everyone looked pretty pleased to be there drinking a beer and excited for the weekend. After we finished up our beers we headed over to our campground for the night.
Quesnel, BC
We woke up ready for another day on the road. I’m not sure I’ve said it before but the British Columbia motto is “The Best Place on Earth”. It is so true. From the northern border with the Yukon and Alaska to the Southern Border with Washington this huge province is just amazingly beautiful. Our main stop for the day was the beautiful little town of Quesnel. The town is sandwiched between the Frasier and the Quesnel rivers. We happened to be there late Saturday morning and a farmers market was going on. We stopped and picked up some delicious BC cherries. We normally don’t eat out too much to save money but as we hadn’t since Whitehorse we figured that we should see what the local restaurant scene in Quesnel had to offer. Here we found Heavy D’s BBQ. Heavy D’s turned out not only to have BBQ but also Lebanese food. It was an interesting twist for a BBQ restaurant to have and one that we were really glad to have stumbled upon. After we ate we met the owner Danny who was glad we stopped by. He had recently opened and was crossing his fingers that people would like his Lebanese-BBQ crossover. We sure did and made sure to give him a great review on Google!
From Quesnel we continued our drive south through central British Columbia. I know I’ve talked about how beautiful the Alaska Highway is but the north/south road system through northern and central British Columbia might beat the beauty. You pass endless mountains, streams, rivers, lakes and abundant animal life. With so few people living or taking this route it almost feels like you have the province to yourself. We loved it!
Next up….Canada has a desert? We visit Canada’s desert city of Kamloops!
