Kamloops and Quesnel
From the Kettle River Valley we headed north to Kamloops. Just outside of the city, we stayed at the Knutsford RV Campground. The sites were quite packed in, which usually would be okay, except our neighbour had a large dog that lunged and snarled at us when we arrived and were trying to set-up our trailer. Fortunately, we were only there for two nights. In our wanders around Kamloops we came across this interesting flood marker in Riverside Park.
The lines on this monument show the flood levels from (starting at the top) 1894, 1972, 1948 and 1999. From the article linked above, even though it’s not the highest, the 1948 flood was the most destructive. A natural dam at Devick Lake burst, sending a 30-ft (9m) wall of water rushing down the river. It was the most destructive because there were so many more people living in the area in 1948, and since it happened so quickly, that people were caught unprepared. Many homes were destroyed and livestock were killed, but luckily no deaths were reported.
We went to the lovely Rose Hill Disc Golf Course and played a round. It’s south east of the city and has quite amazing views of the city.
We were behind one of the people involved in the local disc golf association and he helped us understand the layout of the course (and the people that designed it had a sense of humour see the next photo).
From Kamloops, we headed north to Quesnel. We took the 1 West from Kamloops to the 97 where we went north. Where we turned north at Cache Creek, we were about 20km away from forest fires.
The sky was a bit apocalyptic, and when we stopped at a turnout to take the above photo, you could smell and taste the fire in the air.
In Quesnel we stayed in the Quesnel Downtown RV Park. It was a nice new park, but we didn’t realize that there was no sewer hookup and no showers (which meant there was some chilly outdoor morning showers because the temperature dropped after some rain came through). On our third day there, they had to evacuate the nearby historic town of Barkerville, and some of the evacuees arrived at our campsite and the recreation center across the river from where we were staying. On the weekend we arrived we caught the tail end of the Billy Barker Days festival. We quickly learned that William Barker was a prospector who was one of the first to find a large amount of gold in the area.
As a result, many things in Quesnel are an homage to Barker, and Quesnel is proudly home to the largest gold pan in the world (which apparently caused some controversy when they relocated it to across the street from the tourist information center).
The RV park is right on the Quesnel River, and has a lovely walking path along it. On one side of the path is the river and on the other is the railroad tracks. In a few places along our trip we have seen tall platforms constructed for birds, and we were happy to see eagles in this one.
The train tracks were quite busy in Quesnel with the track switch right behind the campground. On our first night there we saw the Rocky Mountaineer switching tracks (guests overnight in Quesnel on the Rainforest to Gold Rush route). For pedestrians and cyclists to cross the tracks, the town has built an elaborate spiral ramp and bridge across the tracks.
The campground was quite close to where the Quesnel and Fraser Rivers meet. The Quesnel River moves with quite a current. We did “swim” in it, but it involved bracing our feet against rocks and leaning backwards into the water.
As I mentioned, the tourist information shares a building with the Quesnel Museum, and what a museum it is. Complete with, supposedly, a very haunted doll.
She was gifted to the museum from a woman who had been given the doll by her grandmother. According to the articles we read in the museum, the owner began waking in the middle of the night to the sound of a baby crying, but there was no baby in the house. When she tried to find the source of the sound, she would only ever find an open window. It was unsettling enough for her to donate the doll to the museum, and the museum says that once the doll was no longer in her house the mysterious crying stopped. As we overheard from a museum guide leading some students around the museum, we asked Mandy for her permission to take the above photo.
The museum also had a bathtub that had previously been in the Royal Bank?!
According to the display, when the Royal Bank was constructed in 1928, they also installed a bathtub to be used by their staff and the public. It became so popular, they had to institute a schedule for its use. The tub was used until 1959, and in 1961, it was purchased by the museum.
There was also this beautiful small installation in the museum. It featured two brushes and a mirror that belonged to Helene Baxter Douglas. Both she and her mother were rescued by the Carpathia after the sinking of the Titanic.
Another really interesting gallery in the museum included many images from the photography studio of C. S. Wing.
C.S. Wing was born in 1890, and was a part of the merchant family that ran the Wah Lee Store. He opened a photography studio upstairs and began photographing the town’s people from about 1907 to 1920. It is a fascinating collection of images to see.
On one of our last days there, we decided to check out the walking trail at the Pinnacles Provincial Park and we were thankful that we did. It was only a 10 minute drive from Quesnel, and the path gives you stunning views of the hoodoos overlooking Baker Creek.
It was a lovely stay in Quesnel, and we were quite happy to have several bouts of rain during our time there. We were saddened to hear (and read) about the devastation in Jasper, and on our last day in Quesnel, we were happy to see that the evacuees from Barkerville were able to return home. From Quesnel, we went further north, and further away from the fires, to Smithers.
