Anchorage - Vancouver Day 5

Thursday night we stayed at the Canyon Creek Trailer Park in Hixon.  This is Kim who got us settled.  We generally prefer minimum amenities campgrounds, but we were ready for showers and since it is the end of the season, there was practically no one else there.  There were no large (or small) campers anywhere near us.  And there was wifi.

The tent and small vehicle campsites were private little spots in the woods.

We had dinner across the street at the Pub Kim recommended.  I was thinking, "We're in Canada.  Maybe a pub will be like one of those we were at with Doug in England."  Wrong.  The menu was high on deep fried items.  And there were video screens promoting poker and Keno.  I'd asked one of the gas station people that day about all the scratch cards.  She said she stopped buying them.  They sold expired ones as well as current ones and there was no way to know that until you went claim your winnings. 

She said she'd won $25 and they said, "Sorry, this is expired." 

"So, I asked, no one would know they'd bought an expired one unless they won?"

 "That's right."

 Selling expired scratch cards should be illegal - especially if they don't have a date on them.  And if you find out you bought one that was expired, you should be able to get your money back.  I'm not saying that the woman was right, but that's what she said.  Every gas station I went into to pay, had a case of cards at the cash register. 

 While the scenery is still pretty nice, there are a lot more evidence of human presence.


I think this was a place called Sunrise.

And it started to rain and it rained steadily and hard enough to get you good and wet for a while.

I believe this is 100 Mile. 

See, there are nicer spots along the way. 












Eventually the canyon below us got deeper and narrower until we got to this historical marker commemorating the introduction of a fishways that enabled sockeye salmon to pass the canyon.  The building of two railways along the canyon had caused serious blockage for salmon, culminating in a huge rock slide on Feb. 23, 1914 that pretty much blocked the salmon's passage.  [You can double click the picture to read it more easily.]

From "Fish Passage Structures on the Fraser River" that describes the whole history in detail on various webpages,

The first phase of construction at Hell’s Gate commenced in 1944 with a major fishway on either riverbank, completed in 1946. The fishways were designed so that the natural hydraulics of the river would not be adversely affected. The design parameters took into account the size and swimming abilities of Pacific salmon and the expected number of fish to be accommodated.

 We went through a series of tunnels like this one along the canyon above the river.

This picture is for Jeremy who would be happy if I only put up pictures of power lines. 


We're in Vancouver now enjoying time with our daughter.