Scenes Through a Dirty Windshield #5 – Vancouver to Kamloops via the “Smokequahalla”

NOTE: This post contains slideshows and if you are reading it on your phone, it is best viewed direct from the SITE, rather than in the READER.

All photos taken on July 24, 2021.

Our parking meter and visiting time both expired at 2:00 P.M. We said our goodbyes and headed back on the road, bound for Kamloops for the night.

Our path out of Vancouver went via Hastings Street and then over the Port Mann Bridge and onto the Transcanada Highway, bound for Hope. On the way, we caught a perfect view of Mount Baker.

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We gassed up at Bridal Falls and continued on our way to Hope, where we would turn North on the Coquihalla Highway #5. This highway, originally opened as a toll road on May 16, 1986. The tolls continued until 2005, when the construction and maintenance cost were at last fully funded. The distance between Hope and Kamloops using this route is 203 km. Many portions of this road have a 120 k/h (75 m/h) speed limit, so the time between points is 1 hour and 56 minutes, rather than the 3 hours and 9 minutes it would take via Highway 1 or the almost 6 hours it would take to go via the Okanagan.

Signs warned about restricted vision on the highway due to forest fire smoke, so we wondered what delays that would bring, At the Southern end, the skies were clear and we rolled on to the Britton Creek rest stop (first slide). After that point, we could see the smoke levels increasing and start to feel the smoke’s effects on our throats and eyes.

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We zoomed onward, up and down the passes and into and out of smoke zones. In places, we could see fire fighting ground crews setting up.

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In other places, helicopters spun up and down overhead, loading their buckets from the nearby lakes in an attempt to douse the flames.

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One last summit into the smoke and we were down into Kamloops. Forecast for tonight—-dark and smoky.

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