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B.C.'S Best Fall Road Trips

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B.C.'S Best Fall Road Trips B.C.’S BEST FALL ROAD TRIPS As the call of the beach fades with the last days of summer, fall is the perfect time for a road trip in B.C. Here are five of the province’s best car-bound adventures DARREN WHITE Fall colours along Highway 95, south- west of Golden, B.C., on the west side of Yoho National Park. BY RYAN STUART Hiking the Southwest Coast to explore further, and so I do. TRIP Over the next few days I will #1 Lillooet wander north along the Sea to Sky Highway, turn northwest N onto the Duffey Lake Road and 1 99 then swing back into Vancou- JOFFRE LAKES Travel up the Sea PROVINCIAL PARK ver on the Trans Canada High- 8 way. Within a few hours’ walk to Sky Corridor and back Pemberton STEIN VALLEY NLAKA’PAMUX of this grand loop of the south- HERITAGE PARK Lytton/Stein down the Fraser Canyon Canyon ern Coast Range I can bag a for the ultimate hiker’s Whistler summit, hug a giant tree, touch road trip a glacier, follow a canyon and BRITISH 1 GARIBALDI COLUMBIA run through an alpine meadow. PROVINCIAL Boston Bar Distracted driving takes on a PARK First up is the nearby Stawa- different meaning along the 99 Hells Gate mus Chief. The famous granite Sea to Sky Highway. After peo- dome’s sheer wall may look Squamish ple-watching my way through STAWAMUS CHIEF insurmountable from Squa- PROVINCIAL PARK Yale Vancouver’s downtown streets, Harrison 5 mish, but a natural staircase Stanley Park’s 50 shades of Lake leads up its backside to three green pulls my eyes from the Hope summits. It’s an entertaining road. Then it’s the water and Stanley Park Harrison 7 scramble up the occasional Hot Springs mountains from over the Lion’s 3 ladder to the top where acro- Gate Bridge. Before long, the VANCOUVER 9 phobes should stay back from highway tightropes between STRAIT OF 1 Chilliwack the edge. The views over the sea cliffs, turquoise waters and GEORGIA Abbotsford Squamish estuary and valley sprawling peaks as I head to- to the glacier cloaked Tanta- ward Squamish. U.S.A. 40 km lus Range and beyond explain It only gets worse. Glaciers why some locals make this flash, black bears wave and the moun- hike a weekly mission. tains don’t stop until Lillooet. Then it’s The highway’s “sky” aspect canyons, rivers and big trees all the way only becomes more pro- back to Vancouver. It’s a loop drive that nounced closer to the resort goes from sea to summit and back. But town of Whistler. Brandywine the roadside attractions have nothing on Meadows is the most inspiring what lies a short walk away. Right from destination in the range. The the highway, hiking trails reach deep into route climbs quickly through the candy bag and beyond to places that forest into an expansive alpine do far more than simply delight the eyes. basin that begs for rambling Strachan Mountain is a great example. and yodeling. And even I, who Perched over Vancouver, the trailhead prefers solitude to crowds, has is only 25 minutes from downtown. no trouble finding ample space From the Cypress Mountain ski area on the loop hike to Decker Tarn I stride purposefully along the Howe shoulder and the views of Howe Sound, on Blackcomb Mountain. Whisked to the Sound Crest Trail, passing backpack- guarded by green mountains, inspire me alpine on chairlifts, the tourists fall away laden overnighters. Soon the trail bursts higher. Eventually I reach the twin sum- with every step into this airy playground from the forest into an alpine meadow. mits and absorb the panorama: Vancou- of craggy summits and rugged glaciers. Here, I leave the well-trodden path for ver and the Strait of Georgia below, Van- Back on the Sea to Sky Highway head- a faint route, leading straight up. When couver Island to the west and the Coast ing north, it’s a winding plunge into the my quads start to burn, I look over my Range peaks all around. They beg for me Pemberton Valley. Then a pastoral ramble 28 • BCM EXPLORESQUAMISH.COM ROB STRUTHERS TRAVEL INFO Distance: 570 kilometres Duration: Three to five days Resources: vancouvertrails.com; whistlerblackcomb. com; bcparks.ca; Don’t Waste Your Time In The BC Coast Mountains, by Craig and Kathy Copeland; 103 Hikes in Southwestern British Columbia by Jack Bryceland TRAVEL TIP The new Sea to Sky Gondola in Squa- mish offers quick access to some of the most scenic trails in town—check out the airy suspension bridge—with amazing views over Howe Sound. A From Top: Cruising trail leads to the top of the lift, if you the Sea to Sky prefer to earn your panoramas. Highway; overlooking Harrison Lake; chilling out at Matier Glacier, Joffre Lakes. under the watchful eye of imposing Mount Currie before the steady grind up the Duf- fey Lake Road into the cradle of mountains. It could be 10 degrees colder at the road’s summit, near the trailhead to Joffre Lakes, the next must-do hike. The attraction here is not just the trio of ponds reflecting na- ture’s cathedral, but the blue glacial ice rushes toward the confluence with the across the valley. Or seek out giant trees clinging to a headwall at trail’s end. Fraser, is a gem. The river’s constant pres- in Cultus Lake Provincial Park, where a Continuing on the highway, the road ence prevents boredom. And a short way couple of trails lead to several massive itself is adventure enough as it narrows, in it passes pictographs—and more await Douglas fir. swoops and carves toward Lillooet on further along the trail. Back on Mount Strachan, I descend the Fraser River. In the rainshadow of the From the Stein, the loop closes quickly: beside the ski area toward Hollyburn mountains this is dry and hot country, down the Fraser Canyon, past Hope and Mountain, a lump of a peak that’s still polar opposite to the lush coast. I reserve into the Fraser Valley. There are more worth the detour. And then it’s a beauti- the next hike, along the Stein Canyon, mountains to climb here. Bear Mountain ful old forest walk back to my car. In less for fall when this area has cooled down. near Harrison Lake might be the best, than four hours I’ve been awed and en- In moderate temperatures the trek, fol- with its expansive views across the Low- tertained by a morsel of the Coast Range. lowing the Stein River as it plunges and er Mainland and deep into Cascades Five more bites to come. TOP: TOURISM WHISTLER / MIKE CRANE; INSET: HARRISON TOURISM; BOTTOM: ARRAN YATES BCM • 2 9 BY RYAN STUART Wildlife Viewing in the Rocky Mountain Trench rainforest, alpine summits to val- ley-bottom marshes. TRIP YOHO ALBERTA NATIONAL Lake Taken together this is one of PARK Louise BANFF #2 1 NATIONAL the most ecologically diverse and PARK Golden wildlife-rich regions in the prov- 1 ince. And in the fall, with birds C Banff O migrating and wildlife heading for L Embark on a car-safari through U KOOTENAY lower elevations, it becomes even M NATIONAL one of British Columbia’s most B PARK 93 more so. Highways and backroads I MOUNT A ASSINIBOINE Spillimacheen crisscross it all. Bottom line, the biodiverse eco-zones R PROVINCIAL I PARK V Rocky Mountain Trench is well E Standing on its banks in Invermere, it’s R suited to safari by car. Edgewater hard to believe the Columbia River has Cranbrook, with an interna- nearly 2,000 kilometres to go before it Radium Hot Springs tional airport and the hub of the reaches the Pacific Ocean. Here, near its Invermere East Kootenays, makes an obvious Windermere headwaters in southeastern British Co- Windermere starting point. The rolling mix of lumbia, the river is in no rush. It slithers Lake forest and grassland around town out of Lake Windermere slow enough BRITISH harbour perfect winter habitat that stand-up paddleboarders can chug COLUMBIA Columbia for elk and deer, often spotted on Lake upstream with little effort. And just 31 PURCELL the country roads cutting through WILDERNESS Canal downstream, it begins to meander across CONSERVANCY Flats ranch land and farm fields. PROVINCIAL 95 PREMIERE the flat valley in long switchbacks, dead- PARK LAKE This area is also home to the en- 93 PROVINCIAL end channels and sidetrack marshes. PARK dangered American badger. Only But while the river pokes along, the Kootenay TOP 400 remain in the wild in B.C. One OF THE life it supports hurries about its busi- Lake Ta Ta Creek WORLD of the better spots to see these ani- PROVINCIAL ness. On an easy canoe from Invermere Kimberley PARK mals is at Three Bars Ranch, a guest to nearby Radium, we see plenty. With- ranch on the St. Mary’s River near 95A Fort in a few kilometres we check off bald Steele Kimberley. White-tailed deer pol- Cranbrook eagle, osprey, mule deer, mergansers, 3A ka dot the ranch’s pasture nightly N 95 3 red-winged blackbirds and a half dozen 3 and moose, elk and black bear are 20 km different types of LBJs, or “little brown TRAVEL often seen near dawn and dusk. jobbies.” This is the catchall for the birds TIP The region’s microclimates tran- I can’t identify; usually, but not always sition quickly while we continue brown and very common—due to my on Highway 95A toward Kimberley.
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