Kamloops Part two........

We made our way home from Kamloops via the Coquihalla Highway,the scenery is very different from the Fraser Canyon route. The canyon route as I said is slower pace and follows the Fraser River. The Coquihalla route was designed primarily as a trucking route and for those who want a faster route into the interior portion of the province. With all that being said this route takes you through some very mountainous terrain, in the winter months the the snowbanks are as high as 20 feet, sometimes you feel like you are travelling through snow tunnels.

Our trip home takes us through the community of Merritt that is where they hold Mountainfest with performs like Brooks and Dunn, Sugar Land, you name it most popular country music artist have been to Merritt. That's really the towns claim to fame...each July for 1 week the towns population grows from 4,000 to over 100, 000 it's really a sight to behold. Being that it is a very arid place the camp site become one big dust bowl and with temperatures at times soaring into the high 30's you just want to spend your time in the river that run through the camp grounds.

After Merritt you make the long climb to the summit and toll booth. Here the long winter is still evident with the snow still on the ground and the small lakes still covered with ice. It is very picturesque.

The mountain ranges just past the toll booth

We start to make the decent you don't realize the elevation until your ears start to pop and I guess the runaway lanes for the semi trucks is an indicator that you are descending from a steep grade. We make our way back to Hope where again the mountain views are spectacular and the vegetation is lush and green.Not the greatest shot, we were travelling at 120km/hr and I took this through the windshield.

And here is the man of the hour, my hero he drove many hours that day. Once we left the wonderful tranquility of the mountain ranges, we were quickly brought back to reality. Just before we got to Chilliwack there was a terrible accident involving a motorcyclist. Traffic in both was being diverted, needless to say the traffic was very backed up. We made our way through that and when we heard on the radio that there was a slow down further ahead on the highway, we thought about taking an alternate route but that would have added considerable time to our trip. We opted to forge onward for those of you who are familiar with the No. 1 highway the traffic started to back up again around 190th street....that is a very long ways from the Port Mann Bridge. By the time we got to the cause of the slow down the vehicles were over to the side and the occupants were exchanging information. The slow down was just a whole lot of looky loos.....we were hoping to make the 3:00pm ferry home but with all the delays that was just not in the cards. We did however make it for the 5:00 with lots of time to spare.

We arrived back on the big rock and breathed a sigh of relief, it's nice to go away but it's so nice to come home.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!!