ROF = Ring of Fire journey
British Columbia/ Alberta, Canada
August 18, 2014 BNF 3
BNF 3 Hope, British Columbia
Driving ALCAN Hwy 1 from Vancouver east and we come to Hope. Hope, BC... British Columbia.
At first it looks like a typical small town. ... but there is much more to this place after looking around.
Hope, BC is a jumping off place for folks heading up into the Yukon & to Alaska. This is a funnel point. You're going north... from the west Pacific coast... you come through here.
Did not realize how important the Fraser river was. The Fraser river valley is a major geographic phenomenon in Canadian history... and is still a major economic route to the Pacific port of Vancouver.
The mighty Fraser River. A good half mile wide here and the water is moving fast, and this is in August with no snow pack runoff.
Hope is surrounded by steep 1,200' mountains, still with snow pack in August. This small town of 30 blocks sits in the valley & confluence of the Cocquihalla river joining the mighty Fraser river.
Downtown is a unique western Canadian small town. Main street... small businesses... national banks... local restaurants.
Look around and find out that this is the site where they filmed "Rambo; 1st blood". No wonder this is a unique place. Come to find out that "The Tunnels"... the 100 year ago railroad project tunneling through the Coquihalla canyon... was the scene of Rambo in the canyon. Put this on the see list.
History is... the Kettle Valley railway was trying to connect the trade routes 100 years ago and the CP= Canadian Pacific railway CEO got in a pissing match that Canadian RRs should be the preeminent carrier of RR freight... pushed and completed the East/west RR link for Canada. Kettle RR went bankrupt with 7 tunnels through the rock sandstone canyons of the Coquihalla river.
The tunnels were named for the Shakespeare plays. We went to see the Othello tunnel. Walked through 3 tunnels. Absolutely magnificent Coquihalla river cascading down through the sheer vertical rock canyons. Blue green river... white crashing water in the falls... noise of the rushing water that you could hardly hear... green Canadian forest of Douglas fir trees... rock loeurs from the freezing erosion making a rip-rap ledge on the canyon...
I tried to climb down for pix and slipped and fell on the unstable ledges... got a leg and hand dinged. The slope was somewhat steep and dangerous as I found out.
Got down close to the falls of the canyon. This was a great place to film the Rambo scenes! Raw nature river canyon. took some pix fo T-bird and climbed back up to safety.
Walk out of the tunnels and a few pix of the upper river... This was a good day trip to see.
Hope, BC... spend an extra day there... there are several good things to see.
