July 15, 2025 - Driving from Alaska to Maryland
Quesnel to Vancouver, BC

Today we would be driving from Quesnel to Vancouver.   There were two ways to do this.  About halfway down you could get on our old friend the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) and take it into Vancouver.  This way was about 7 and a half hours.

Or about halfway down you could get on Highway 99, the Sea to Sky Highway.  This way is more scenic but takes longer:  8 hours.  We would discover the Google Map time estimate was incorrect.
   
We departed Quesnel and continued south on Highway 97.  We stopped at a place called the "108 Mile Road House".
 
This area is known as Cariboo, and the Highway originally known as the Cariboo Wagon Road.  There was a Cariboo Gold Rush in the 1860s.
 
The 108 Mile Ranch began as a Post House on the Cariboo Trail in 1867.   The 108 sustained a mixture of cattle ranching and lumbering until 1969 when a developer acquired it and houses, golf course and other recreational facilities and even an airport were built.
 
But this area was preserved as a heritage site.  10 buildings from 1867 to 1908 still stand and also a 1930 one room school house.
   
 
   
The one room school house where kids received a better education than they do today.
   
The church.
   
The barn.
   
Who knows?
   
The well-maintained site is nestled on the shores of a nice little lake.
   
 
   
 
   
Back on the road heading south.  Pretty country.
   

We continued down Highway 97.  About five miles before the town of Cache Creek, we turned west onto Highway 99, the Sea to Sky Highway.  We could have stayed on 97, which turns into Highway 1 -- our old friend the Trans-Canada Highway -- which would have taken us to Vancouver also.  Or we could have turned onto Highway 1 east which led to Kamloops, a place I overnighted on my Alaska flight last year.  I was getting to know British Columbia fairly well!

From Cache Creek, Highway 1 to Vancouver was about four hours.  The Sea to Sky Highway was closer to five hours but more scenic.
   
Right away we were in the mountains.
   
And lakes.  Pavilion Lake to be precise.
   

Entering Fountain Valley.
   
Rounding the bend.
   
We stopped at a scenic overlook and looked northeast down upon the Fraser River which we had seen in Quesnel.
   
 
   
ZZZ
   
Now looking southwest.
   
A little further on we came to the little town of Lillooet where we decided to stop for a break.
   
Lillooet had a little visitor center/museum so we checked it out.  I'm guessing the building used to be a church.
   
The museum was a one-room affair filled with all sorts of artifacts.  Notice the stain glass window at far right.
   
 
   
That's at least a ten-point.
   
Outside was this giant chunk of jade.
   
It turns out Lillooet is the Jade capital of the world.  Who knew?
   
Looking down Lillooet's main street.   Lillooet maintains a little airport, although we didn't go see it.
   
Then we continue on.
   
Driving alongside a raging mountain creek.
   
Lots of rapids and rocks on this creek.
   
It was slow-going on this section of Highway 99, with its winding road through the tree-covered mountains.
   
We come upon Duffey Lake.
   
Very pretty.
   
We descend from the "Sky" to the "Sea".
   
Looking at Howe Sound -- part of the Pacific Ocean.   Highway 99 headed south, on the eastern side of the sound.
   

Suddenly Highway 99 turned east and we were in West  Vancouver traffic.  It  took us another hour to go from West Vancouver, across the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge, to our hotel in Vancouver.

Although the Sea to Sky Highway was indeed scenic, it ended up being a 10-hour day today; too long.  We drove 403 miles. 

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to checkout Vancouver at all.  I hear it's a very nice city.  We had dinner at a Japanese place across the street from our hotel.  The next morning we drove south across town to the ferry port. 

   
 
   
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