Crossing into British Columbia was the next step on this Alaska Adventure. We crossed over in Blaine, BC and the border crossing went smoothly without any glitches. We had decided to camp North of Vancouver so we immediately began our drive around the city. Before departing the city we stopped for some provisions and of course needed to exchange some money for Canadian Dollars. The current discount rate is .75 cents US gets you just over $1.00 CA. Certainly it’s nice to get over 25% on our money with the exchange given the cost per liter of gas up here…
Heading North, out the city and past the ferry terminals on our left, we were beginning our travel up the “Sea to Sky Highway”. This road is spectacular with views of beautiful cliffs and vistas of the sea.
We headed towards the town of Squamish, BC where we had found a campground off the beaten path called Paradise Valley Campground. (We actually had tried to get a site in a few of the Provincial Parks on the way though they were completely full. )While the road to this campground was very long and windy and at times we thought we had gotten lost, we were pleasantly surprised when we finally arrived at the entrance to the park. Paradise Valley Campground, while rustic, is definitely appropriately named. The people at the front desk were helpful and said they had no sites with hook-ups though we could dry camp. With our fresh tank full and waste tanks empty we quickly opted for this solution. The host led us via golf cart to site #43 and after several minutes of RV parking gymnastics we were able to get into our home for the next few days. We had chosen this site primarily because it would accommodate our length and it had just enough sun coverage, thru the trees, to make sure our solar panels could do the job. (Note: this campground is spotless, very updated, and the pride in the owners and hosts is unbelievable. Actually we became friends with the hosts Chantal & Robert during our stay here.)
The campground had several nice hikes in the area that were adjacent to a roaring river, fish hatchery, and forest area. The long drive to the park is also very unique as it has trees hanging from both sides for many miles which almost makes it look like a canopy/tunnel … While we stayed here we also found out that Mitsubishi had been granted a permit to film a commercial for their SUV line in the area because of the special aesthetics of this treed long road to the campground (Interesting when we drove through the film crew set-up one day while here.)
Since we modified our crossing to Blaine rather than taking the ferry to Vancouver Island we decided to take a ferry with the mini on our first day here to explore that area. Driving the Mini down the Sea to Sky highway , on the way to the BC Ferries ferry terminal that morning, was even more impressive than with the Motorhome the day before. (I guess convertibles do make things even better…)
We went standby with the ferry and it only took us about an hour of waiting to get on the next available boat to Nanaimo, BC on Vancouver Island. We spent most of the day driving Vancouver Island with stops in: Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park, “Goats on the Roof “– country store in Coombs, and a hike at English River Falls Park. In addition to the stops the drive was beautiful. We arrived back at the ferry terminal and had a quick beverage at an adjacent pub before boarding for our return trip to mainland BC. It was a very full day though the weather was great and the scenery even better.
The next day we drove the Mini North of Sqaumish to the Whistler/BlackComb area. Most know this was the site of the Winter Olympics in 2010. We parked in a public parking lot that was just a short walk into Whistler Village. This area is an outdoor person’s dream. The hiking, biking, skiing, nightlife just might be the most impressive I have ever seen. The architects for this destination of the 2010 winter Olympics did an incredible job building the area for the Olympics and also for a sustainable tourist industry that is flourishing. This is a special place for sure.
After walking the shops and eateries, all through town, we decided to buy a TramWay ticket which also included the Peak to Peak 2nd Tram. This was our big tourist option for the day. The tram is an engineering marvel of construction, efficiency, and integration into the mountainside that services all aspects of the tourist industry. The PEAK to PEAK, between Whistler and BlackComb, is a must do if visiting this area. Wow is all we can say!
After making sure we took plenty of the tourist photos, from both stops of the adjacent mountains, we decided to have a beverage at the top which just might be one of the most spectacular views I have ever had while enjoying a locally brewed beer. Needless to say we LOVED Whistler…
We had been enjoying our stay so much at Paradise Valley we actually ended up extending it to 5 days. Probably the only reason we finally moved on was it was time to freshen up our holding tanks. Note: Paradise had no dump facilities though the local Canadian Tire does for free. We actually used their Sani dump on the way into town and on the way out of town.
An additional reason we had extended our stay here was we needed to do some laundry, which is a necessary evil of full-time Rving at least every 2 weeks. We explored options and the only available location in Squamish was Comfy’s Coin Laundry. While it served the purpose I definitely would only give it a 1 star rating for a myriad of reasons…
Having spent 5 nights in the Squamish area it was time to move on North. We drove the the entire Sea to Sky Highway (Rte 99) the entire next day. The drive North of Whistler was nothing short of amazing. Probably the biggest challenge was being able to enjoy the views in spite of the narrow road with very limited shoulders and mountain rides with some of the steepest grades we have driven on (We actually had several 10-13% grades…). – Joanne loved the view though was a wreck by the end of the day from the very steep drop-offs, on the passenger side, which we were driving very close to…
At the intersection of Rte 99 & Rte 97 at Cache Creek we turned North on 97 and continued our journey into Central BC. We stayed in Clinton, BC just because of the name for one night at the GoldTrail RV Park. The owner was an interesting guy who has a dinner special each night based on road kill???… (Needless to say we didn’t partake and just stayed for the night and next morning continued North on the next step of this Revolutionary Journey of Northern Canada and Alaska….
