Fraser & Thompson Valleys

Introducing Fraser & Thompson Valleys

Vancouverites looking for an inland escape shoot east on Hwy 1 through the fertile plains of places like Abbotsford. Most just whiz past this farmland and you should too – unless you have a hankering to see a turnip in the rough.

About 150km east of Vancouver, Hope has a good Visitor Centre (604-869-2021; www.desti nationhopeandbeyond.com; 919 Water Ave; 9am-5pm) with plenty of information about the local provincial parks and the region. This is also where the road does a three-way. Hwy 1 continues north literally into the vertical walls of the beautiful Fraser Canyon, tunneling through numerous rocky outcrops. At Lytton, it switches to the Thompson River and the terrain slowly smoothes out and becomes drier, foreshadowing the ranchlands of the Cariboo region to the north beyond Cache Creek. Hwy 5 shoots its multilane splendor 200km northeast to the commercial center of Kamloops. The Crowsnest Hwy (Hwy 3) takes a circuitous course east through rugged Manning Provincial Park and on to Osoyoos and the southern Okanagan Valley.

Note that, on weekends and other busy times, Hwy 1 west of Hope can get traffic-clogged.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009