Alaska '08 Day 65, Prince George to Squamish

Fri Aug 15, 2008

Prince George to Squamish

We stayed in the Wal Mart parking lot in Prince George. After looking at our alternatives for heading south we decided to take the road through Vancouver (Sea to Sky Highway) rather than going through the Fraser Canyon. Everything we had said the Sea to Sky Highway was more scenic.

Bought fresh fruit; plums, peaches, pears, and blueberries just south of Williams Lake.

Clinton to Lillooet

We picked up the Sea to Sky Highway just south of Clinton BC around 5 PM. The drive to Lillooet is over a hilly, winding, mountain road with some hairpin turns. The road is full of heaves and breaks. This area is dry and there aren't many trees. Lillooet is just across the Fraser River. It is a pretty big town and it is in the middle of no where, it is a tough drive in to here no matter which way you come.


Lillooet to Pemberton

Aftuer Lillooet the road climbs a side canyon and gets into wetter terrain thick with large evergreens. This stretch of road has some steep grades, 15%, hairpin turns and one lane bridges. I passed several motorhomes on this road, in the states they wouldn't allow motorhomes on a road like this. The road eventually drops down and follows a stream up through a pass and over to a rough looking indian town (Mt Currie?) and then into Pemberton.


Pemberton to Whistler

From Pemberton there is a relatively flat drive up to the ski town of Whistler. We got into Whistler at sundown; ~9PM.

Whistler to Squamish

South of Whistler they are widening the 2 lane mountain road to 4 lanes for the 2010 Olympics. They have the road torn up from Whistler all the way to Vancouver, with very little left untouched. They are blasting, building new bridges, and have the road routed all over the place. In some places changing as often as every 100'. By the time we hit this it was dark. Many sections of road were poorly marked and there was a steady flow of people coming out of Vancouver to go to the Whistler area for the weekend. Between the lack of street markings and the oncoming headlights it was very difficult to see where the lanes were routed and where the edges were. I got about 30 miles from Whistler, into Squamish, and called it quits. This was too tough to drive in the dark. We stayed in a hotel parking lot in Squamish.

181 miles today.

7654 miles so far.

- Jon