SPENDING A SATURDAY IN HOPE BC

Hope BC is 95 miles east of the big city of Vancouver and is the junction of three mountain highways and a site of a former Hudson Bay fort located on the banks of the Fraser River.

The Trans Canada Highway, also known as  Highway #1 heads north into the rugged Fraser Canyon which splits the Coast Mountains and the Cascade Mountains. 

Highway #5 heads north-east into the Coquilhalla Pass, known by many around the world as the Highway From Hell due to the TV series which follows the real life struggles of commercial tow truck operators winching 18 wheelers back up to the highways after they have gone off the road.   

Highway #3, known as the Crowsnest Highway, heads due east and follows a lower elevation route that is a two lane winding lane for most of its path. While the elevation is lower, the highway is no less dangerous.

The town of Hope sits at the western terminus of the three mountain highways as they exit the mountains and enter the flat land of the eastern end of the Fraser Valley. From there it is a relative straight shot west to Vancouver and the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Today we would be settling for the town of Hope itself to wander around the town, shop the stores, and find a few geocaches which were new in the past few months.

Hope is also known as the chainsaw carving capital of Canada as there are no less than 80 carvings, most of them life size or larger. 

We have seen many of these over the years, for the grandkids along today this was a first for them. We looked at a few of the carvings and then let the kids play of the local playground before we head on to find some geocaches.

One of the fun caches of the day was located next to a residence which had two old stumps on the city property by the sidewalk and the family had turned the two stumps into a showcase of colourful birdhouses. Bird figurines are hidden among the bushes of the garden to complement the esthetics of the bird houses. 

Next geocache on the list was at the Pioneer Cemetery, which is always an interesting place to visit. What often strikes me was the short years most of the original people lived due the hasher lives they lived. 

Young Rowan found this cache, it was a plastic stick which had the cache tucked into one end of it. For a plastic stick, the cache blended in well with the other wooden debris on the ground.

The last three geocaches were located along the old Kettle Valley Railway right of way which headed east out of the town in the direction of the gold and silver mines of Southern BC.

If you followed this trail for another mile or two you would come across the Othello Tunnels, a wonderful feat of engineering where they blasted 5 tunnels through a short, steep canyon to allow the train passage through impossible terrain.

Pictures of Othello Tunnels and the Hell's Gate Air Tram from a previous visit can be seen here 

This section of the trail is less than a kilometre and is an easy walk and a great place for the kids to stretch their legs.

We found the cache at the start of the trail, with second cache being at the end of the trail. About halfway between the two, the youngest grandkid looks around a good hiding spot and found a geocache I did not have on the list. As I had found that cache previously, I had ignored it on my new search  Kudos to Camden for finding that one!

We continued on and found the last cache at the end of the trail, which much to the kids delight was a scary looking skull staring at you from under the forest debris.

By now it was the end of the day, we had all had our share of exercise for the day. The grandkids had scored some books at the book store, where all books are only $2.00 each, and the adults had a chance to get out of those house after days of winter rains.

We headed back home just a little tired and somewhat cold from the unexpected windy day in Hope. The temperature was mild at 12C, (54F) but the cold breeze just blew right through our hoodies and light jackets. Oh well, we survived.  😀 

Thanks for reading about the day's adventure. Leave a comment if you liked the story and you must click on the link to look at the pictures to get gain full appreciation of the day.

ALL PICTURES FROM THE DAY CAN BE SEEN HERE