British Columbia Circle Route
- Thread starter August
- Start date
August
Observer
mountainpete said:
I'm thinking of making a detour to Edmonton on the final leg of my trip to visit a cousin. On the way home from Edmonton I'd like to take a different route than Highway 2 to Calgary and Highway 1 to Vancouver, or Highway 16 through Jasper. Instead, I was thinking of taking Highway 11 through Rocky Mountain House. Is this route fairly scenic? Are there any off-pavement routes along the same lines?
digitaldelay
Explorer
Alternate Route
Hey August:
Hwy 11 is very scenic once you get past Rocky Mountain House. Between Rocky and the Banff border (around Nordegg) there should be lots of off-highway, although I am more familiar with the self-propelled (backpacking) routes in the area! Anyone else have better info on this??
Once you enter Banff at Saskatchewan Crossing and pay $2.00/L at the PetroCan, you have to go South on the Icefields Parkway (Hwy 93). FYI, I'm pretty sure you need a Parks Pass to travel that section of road.
Are you coming to Edmonton via Dawson Creek & Grande Prairie (Hwy 43) or Prince George & Jasper (Hwy 16)?
Have fun here in Edmonton!
Jason
August said:
Hey August:
Hwy 11 is very scenic once you get past Rocky Mountain House. Between Rocky and the Banff border (around Nordegg) there should be lots of off-highway, although I am more familiar with the self-propelled (backpacking) routes in the area! Anyone else have better info on this??
Once you enter Banff at Saskatchewan Crossing and pay $2.00/L at the PetroCan, you have to go South on the Icefields Parkway (Hwy 93). FYI, I'm pretty sure you need a Parks Pass to travel that section of road.
Are you coming to Edmonton via Dawson Creek & Grande Prairie (Hwy 43) or Prince George & Jasper (Hwy 16)?
Have fun here in Edmonton!
Jason
August
Observer
$2.00/L?! Is that because of the recent Petro-Can refinery shut-down in Alberta or is it normally that high?digitaldelay said:
I'm pretty sure I'll be coming in on 43 via Dawson Creek. I took that same route to Grande Prairie then south on 40 to Hinto last February so if you know of any other routes I'm all ears.
I don't have a whole lot of time so I'm really looking for bypass routes from the highway rather than dead-end trails.
mountainpete
Spamicus Eliminatus
digitaldelay said:
$2.00? No way. Really? It's $1.21 - 1.28 in Calgary right now and in the low $1.30's in Rocky Mountain House.
If that's true that is a serious take it up the tailpipe situation! :ar15:
digitaldelay
Explorer
August said:
Well, maybe not $2, but it is always higher there due to it being the only gas between Jasper and Lake Louise.
Petro-Can Edmonton is back online now and should be producing that sweet elixer once again!
Grande Prairie to Hinton via Grande Cache is very scenic, as you will remember. It adds about an hour versus taking 43 all the way to Edm, and watch out for wildlife! If you go that way again, there are lots of oil and forestry roads to explore along the way, but none that serve as shortcuts or bypasses. The highway is always fastest! Just before you get to Grande Cache, stop in at Sulphur Gates Park (a short gravel road up to a very scenic viewpoint). On that hiking trail you have to watch out for the wildlife of the big, brown & furry variety!
If you take 43 all the way to Edm, watch your speed. We have provincial Sherrifs now, and it seems their only mandate is to patrol Alberta's major highways for speeders.
Either way, drive safe and keep the shiny side up!
Jason
mountainpete
Spamicus Eliminatus
August said:
If you have time, this would be a fairly ultimate route from Edmonton to Vancouver.
Long way over
It basically goes from Edmonton to Rocky Mountain House via secondary highways, down the Forestry Trunk Road (which has no services but lots of camping and it's the real Alberta IMHO). Over the Cochrane for fuel. Up Highway 1A to Highway 40. Through K-Country and the beautiful views over to Highwood Junction. The trip to Longview is optional if you want a meal or beef jerky. Second section of the Forestry Trunk road. More of the real Alberta with great areas to camp or picnic around Livingstone or Dutch Creek. Last section can get muddy in heavy rain, but no issue for 90% of trucks.
Through Crowsnest into BC at Fernie. From Elko, cut through Kikoman Creek (I know my spelling is off there) and the fire roads. These are some of my favorite high speed fire roads anywhere. Watch out for deer. Optional route up to Cranbrook or bypass.
If you have never done it before, see Kootenay Lake and take the ferry across towards Nelson. Good camping around there. Optional route going north towards Trout Lake instead of Nelson and connecting back to Highway 1.
Rest is basically highway all the way to Vancouver. If you have never went that way I highly recommend it. It's longer then just taking Highway 1, but a better view of the province. If you have the time you won't regret it.
If you want to take a few more of the fire roads when you hit BC, just stop by a Canadian Tire and pick up Backroads Mapbooks for SW BC. Easy to follow routes on the main fire roads and there loads of Forestry camping sites along the way.
Pete
digitaldelay
Explorer
Saskatchewan Crossing - Gas Price
I just found a report of $1.68/L as of early June 2008 at The Crossing Resort (where the Petro-Can is). Price in Edmonton was $1.27 at that time. I think I paid about $1.23 yesterday, so a little lower than in June.
Anyways, bend over! :shakin:
Jason
I just found a report of $1.68/L as of early June 2008 at The Crossing Resort (where the Petro-Can is). Price in Edmonton was $1.27 at that time. I think I paid about $1.23 yesterday, so a little lower than in June.
Anyways, bend over! :shakin:
Jason
paulj
Expedition Leader
Forestry Trunk (940) south of Highwood Junction is decent gravel, but not near as scenic as the part north of there. I did that several years ago in the fall. Near Coleman on Hwy 3 I was surprised to see a lot of downed aspens and cottonwoods. Apparently an early web snow storm a few weeks earlier had downed a lot of trees that still had leaves on them.
3, Crowsnest through Sparwood, Fernie and points east is nice. I haven't tried to cross the first set of mountains on the BC by backroads, though I have camped at Whitesawn Lake and visited a couple of the hot springs in the area
3 from Cranbrook to Creston is relatively low level highway. 3 east of Creston crosses the highest allseason paved pass in BC. 3A north along Kootenay Lake is nice, though when I drove it, views were obsucred smoke from grass fires near Creston.
Alternative backroads route is Kimberley to Gray Creek over Gray Creek Pass. You can even buy a before-and-after T shirt at the general store in Gray Creek.
There are number of alternative roads in the Nelson, Castlegar, Rossland area. Supposedly there is even a difficult backroads way from South Slocan area to Fauquier on Lower Arrow Lake.
I tried a historic Cascade route from Christina Lake to Rossland. The first 20km from Christina Lake was straightforward forestry main to the pass. The next leg had 'closed' signs but no indication as to where or why the blockage. Since stormy weather was approaching I only tried a few switchbacks (down towward Rossland) before returning to Christina Lake and taking 3 over Paulson bridge to Castlegar and Nelson.
In the Grand Forks - Greenwood area you can take a gravel road past the historic Phoneix mining area. Apparently forestry mainline roads north from Grand Forks to Neeles are quite passable, though long and dusty.
Kettle Valley to the Okanagan is another area where you can take forestry roads instead of 3. Oliver to Cawston is another gravel alternative to 3.
I've take a steep gravel road up from 3 at Hedley and on to the west side of Apex Ski area. Princeton west to Coalmont and Otter Lake is paved but with some scenic canyon driving. I'm not sure how feasible it is go from there to Hope (in effect cutting around the north side of Manning). But the drive through Manning is nice, especially if you include the side trip up the mountain just north of the lodge.
A whole nother option to hwy 3 is to drop into Washington and take backroads - some paved and some gravel - through towns like Northport, Orient, Curlew and Oroville, returning to Canada at Nighthawk (day light hours only).
Four Wheeling in the BC Interior by Mark Bostwick covers backroads from the Kootenays to Cawston, as well as routes to north in the Cariboo and Chilcotin.
3, Crowsnest through Sparwood, Fernie and points east is nice. I haven't tried to cross the first set of mountains on the BC by backroads, though I have camped at Whitesawn Lake and visited a couple of the hot springs in the area
3 from Cranbrook to Creston is relatively low level highway. 3 east of Creston crosses the highest allseason paved pass in BC. 3A north along Kootenay Lake is nice, though when I drove it, views were obsucred smoke from grass fires near Creston.
Alternative backroads route is Kimberley to Gray Creek over Gray Creek Pass. You can even buy a before-and-after T shirt at the general store in Gray Creek.
There are number of alternative roads in the Nelson, Castlegar, Rossland area. Supposedly there is even a difficult backroads way from South Slocan area to Fauquier on Lower Arrow Lake.
I tried a historic Cascade route from Christina Lake to Rossland. The first 20km from Christina Lake was straightforward forestry main to the pass. The next leg had 'closed' signs but no indication as to where or why the blockage. Since stormy weather was approaching I only tried a few switchbacks (down towward Rossland) before returning to Christina Lake and taking 3 over Paulson bridge to Castlegar and Nelson.
In the Grand Forks - Greenwood area you can take a gravel road past the historic Phoneix mining area. Apparently forestry mainline roads north from Grand Forks to Neeles are quite passable, though long and dusty.
Kettle Valley to the Okanagan is another area where you can take forestry roads instead of 3. Oliver to Cawston is another gravel alternative to 3.
I've take a steep gravel road up from 3 at Hedley and on to the west side of Apex Ski area. Princeton west to Coalmont and Otter Lake is paved but with some scenic canyon driving. I'm not sure how feasible it is go from there to Hope (in effect cutting around the north side of Manning). But the drive through Manning is nice, especially if you include the side trip up the mountain just north of the lodge.
A whole nother option to hwy 3 is to drop into Washington and take backroads - some paved and some gravel - through towns like Northport, Orient, Curlew and Oroville, returning to Canada at Nighthawk (day light hours only).
Four Wheeling in the BC Interior by Mark Bostwick covers backroads from the Kootenays to Cawston, as well as routes to north in the Cariboo and Chilcotin.