
Author's note: Original map, courtesy of
Our B. C. . Com
Butchered by Lee. A Wood
THIS IS WHAT YOU WOULD SEE WHILE DRIVING ALONG THE TRANS CANADA HIGHWAY, FROM HORSESHOE BAY TO CACHE CREEK.
FOR A SIGN BY SIGN DESCRIPTION OF THE HIGHWAY ITSELF, CHECK THE `1 WEST' LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.
The TCH (Trans Canada Highway) starts, or ends, in British Columbia's provincial Capital city.
From Victoria, the TCH moves North West to the ferry terminal in Nanaimo and then by MV (Motor Vessel) to the ferry terminal in Horseshoe Bay on the B. C. mainland.
Very little of the TCH has been widened to 4 lanes.
Though us truckers, who get paid by the mile, really would love to see the TCH become 4 lanes, for its entire length, so we wouldn't be stuck behind scenery gawking tourists, in the summer, and people who don't know how to drive on ice, in the winter, it really isn't cost effective.
Highways, like everything else that is built by governments, must be paid for out of the general revenue.
General revenue is generated by taxes. Of which we all pay too much already.
So if you want to widen a highway, at a cost of $10,000,000 per Kilometer, and the TCH is the longest highway in the world, 7,821 Km. from Victoria, B. C. to St. John's, Newfoundland, and the population of Canada is only 30 million people, and don't forget the ferry system, across the Georgia Strait, and the bridges across all the rivers, and the other important things that the government must buy, like paying off some ex prime minister because he sued the government for slandering his good name, like he ever had a good name to begin with.
Well, anyway, you can see why we poor taxpayers just can't afford to have our one major highway, widened into a freeway.
These are some of the pictures I took, through the windshield, along B. C.'s Highway 1.
A FERRY LEAVES HORSESHOE BAY BOWEN ISLAND (IN THE BACKGROUND) | ENTRANCE TO FERRY TERMINAL | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
APPROACHING FERRY TERMINAL | LARSON BAY | ||||
EAGLE HARBOUR - A DISTRICT OF WEST VANCOUVER | HOWE SOUND (Fore to rear) WEST VANCOUVER ENGLISH BAY VANCOUVER
| THROUGH THE CITY OF NORTH VANCOUVER THE TCH IS KNOWN AS THE `UPPER LEVELS HIGHWAY' DOWN THROUGH THE MOUTH OF LYNN CANYON |
LOOKING EAST TOWARDS DEEP COVE | (LOOKING WEST) SEABOARD TERMINAL |
|---|---|
BURRARD INLET - INNER HARBOUR | VANCOUVER |
LOOKING NORTH TO GROUSE MOUNTAIN - THE ONION SHAPED DOMES OF A RELIGIOUS CENTER | VANCOUVER FILM STUDIOS HOME OF `BATTLESTAR GALACTICA' AND MANY OTHER PRODUCTIONS |
|---|---|
WILLINGTON ST. OVERPASS |
![]() KENSINGTON ST. OVERPASS | ![]() PASSING THROUGH SOUTHERN BURNABY |
|---|
![]() BRUNETTE JUNCTION EXIT TO NEW WESTMINSTER AND COQUITLAM | ![]() MAILLARDVILLE, ON THE LEFT ONCE A VILLAGE OF FRENCH SPEAKING PEOPLE IT IS, NOW, A PART OF COQUITLAM OFTEN REFERRED TO AS DUCKVILLE `MALLARD VILLE', BY THE LOCALS |
|---|---|
JUNCTION TO COQUITLAM, AND PORT COQUITLAM APPROACHING THE PORT MANN BRIDGE | PORT MANN BRIDGE |
![]() SPANNING THE FRASER RIVER | ![]() |
Just before the exit to the scales is a busy entrance from a side street.
Many accidents have happened here as trucks are slowing down to exit while cars and trucks are speeding up to enter.
I have written to the government suggesting the on ramp go behind the scales and join the highway further East but they just ignore my letters.
TRUCKS REPORTING TO THE PORT MANN SCALES. THEY ARE USUALLY BACK ED UP ONTO THE FREEWAY | ![]() JUNCTION FOR 200 STREET ANOTHER WASTE OF TAXPAYERS MONEY |
|---|
I didn't bother to write to the government about this one.
We have a female minister of highways, who obviously has no idea how to drive, let alone build a highway. She probably doesn't even have a drivers license.
At this junction she has taken a perfectly straight stretch of street and put a jog into it, nearly a quarter of a mile to the West.
Then instead of making a proper cloverleaf she has made several intersections, with lights, on both sides of the freeway.
Talk about a traffic snafu.
From the 200 th St. Junction to Abbotsford there is not much to see.
It is like driving down a long green tunnel.
Very much like the Hwy. 27 in Florida, both sides of the roadway, and the median, are lined with tall trees.
Most people, who are North bound, turn off here, to avoid the town of Hope. Hwy. 7a rejoins Hwy. 1, just North of Hope.
The seven tunnels, between Yale and Boston Bar, from South to North, are; Yale, Saddle Rock, Sailor Bar, Alexandra, Hell's Gate, Ferrabee, and China Bar.
An interesting view of these tunnels can be seen on short videos at `THE FRASER CANYON TUNNELS' Courtesy of `TRAVEL THE CANYON . COM'.
The first time I traversed the Fraser Canyon, I believe, was in 1965.
Donkey, also know as an ass. Jack, the male of the two genders. Consequently, jack ass, or jackass.
In the mid 1800s there was a rush for gold in the Cariboo Valley. The only access to that area was up the Fraser River. However the river is not navigateable past the town of Yale.
Somewhere, after the paddle wheel boats came to a stop, everyone, and everything, had to proceed by horseback, or donkey. There was no road and the trail was often very narrow, often along sheer cliffs.
Some enterprising teamster came up with the brilliant idea that camels could carry more than donkeys, so, he imported some.
It turns out that donkeys do not like the smell of camels.
One day, while a pack train of donkeys were navigating the one-donkey-wide trail around the edge of a steep mountain, they met a pack train of camels moving in the opposite direction.
Much confusion resulted as the donkeys started to kick up a fuss. Braying and bucking, they proceeded to launch; themselves, their packs, and their teamsters, into space, only to crash onto the rocks along the river, hundreds of feet below.
In memory of this event the hill got its name, Jackass Mtn.
Rumour has it that, at that time, or some time later, the entrepreneur who had bought the camels turned them loose into the wilds of B. C. (British Columbia).
Obviously none of them survived. At least no one has ever seen a wild camel in B. C.
Still called, by many, the Fraser Canyon, it isn't. Once you are North of Lytton you are following the Thompson River.
2002 but by 2008, when most of these pictures were taken, the climate had changed so much that snow, and road closures because of snow, is now very common, throughout the canyon.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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Thank you for visiting Bear's `HWY. 1'. Page.
Please come back and visit again!

JUNCTION FOR ABBOTSFORD AND
THE SUMAS BORDER CROSSING INTO THE U. S. A.
Continuing East will give you more miles of freeway but then you have to traverse the streets and light-controlled intersections of Hope.
This isn't a big deal but it can be confusing finding the turnoff from the freeway before Hope as the freeway continues East to become Highway 3.
Going North, on Hwy. 9, though not freeway, is mostly high speed highway with only a couple of minor hills.

APPROACHING TURN OFF TO ROSEDALE AND
THE WORLDS STUPIDEST TRAFFIC CIRCLE



FRASER RIVER - LOOKING EAST
FRASER RIVER - LOOKING WEST

EASTERN EDGE OF AGASSIZ

SEABIRD ISLAND
WHEN I CAME BACK, IN THE EVENING,
I COULDN'T SEE THE ROAD FOR THE FALLING SNOW

BRIDAL FALLS
JUNCTION TO LAIDLAW

APPROACHING THE `HUNTER CREEK SCALE', EAST BOUND
COMMONLY CALLED THE `FLOOD SCALE'
FRASER RIVER - APPROACHING FLOOD
FLOOD TRUCK STOP (HUSKY)

JUNCTION - HIGHWAY 1 SEPARATES
FREEWAY BECOMES HIGHWAY 3

APPROACHING DOGWOOD
DOGWOOD

HOPE RIVER - OPEN DESPITE THE SNOW
APPROACHING YALE
CLOSED FOR THE SEASON
YALE




LEAVING YALE
ENTERING THE FRASER CANYON - YALE TUNNEL
THE FIRST OF SEVEN TUNNELS


NOTE THE ICE ON THE CLIFFSIDE

SADDLE ROCK TUNNEL

SAILOR BAR TUNNEL
SPUZZUM - FORMER SITE OF A TRUCK STOP CAFE
THERE IS MORE TO SPUZZUM
BELOW THE BANK, BESIDE THE RAILWAY TRACK
At that time, they were still paving many sections.
Some of the tunnels were still under construction and the new Alexandra bridge wasn't open.
We had to work our way down the side of the cliff to the old bridge, then back up the other side.
`VANISHING BRITISH COLUMBIA' has an interesting page `ALEXANDRA BRIDGE'.

THE NEW ALEXANDRA BRIDGE
THE OLD ALEXANDRA BRIDGE
ALEXANDRA TUNNEL
NOTE THE NETTING THAT KEEPS ROCK FROM FALLING ON THE ROAD

ALEXANDRA MOUNTAIN

ALEXANDRA MOUNTAIN SUMMIT
APPROACHING HELL'S GATE TUNNEL
ELVIS ROCKS TRUCK STOP
THE ONLY TUNNEL WITHOUT LIGHTS
THROUGH THE TUNNEL YOU CAN SEE THE LIGHTS OF THE NEXT TUNNEL
FERRABEE TUNNEL - AT 100 METERS EACH, THESE ARE THE TWO SHORTEST TUNNELS

APPROACHING HELL'S GATE
HELL'S GATE AIR TRAM WILL CARRY YOU, DOWN, TO THE FRASER RIVER, WHERE YOU CAN VIEW HELL'S GATE

MY `83 PETE BECOMES A MODEL'S PROPSTOPPED ON THE HIGHWAY, FOR CONSTRUCTION,
I CLIMBED DOWN THE CLIFF, ABOUT 10 METERS
TO GET A PICTURE OF HELL'S GATE
I GOT THE PICTURE BUT I DROPPED MY $1,000 NIKON
I JUST ABOUT WENT DOWN THE CLIFF WITH IT.
AFTER RECOVERING MY NERVES
I CLIMBED DOWN THE CLIFF, ANOTHER 60 METERS
THE CAMERA BODY WAS SHOT
THE $500 LENS COST $100 TO REPAIR
BUT THE FILM WAS STILL GOOD
I MADE IT BACK TO MY TRUCK
JUST AS THE FLAG GIRL RELEASED TRAFFIC.
Nikon body, Tamron zoom - 1990 
THIS IS HELL'S GATE
YOU CAN'T SEE IT FROM THE HIGHWAY
A VERY EXPENSIVE PICTURE
CHINA BAR - WORLD'S LONGEST CURVING TUNNEL, WHEN IT WAS BUILT
BOSTON BAR

JACKASS MOUNTAIN
JACKASS MOUNTAIN SUMMIT

KANAKA BAR TRUCK STOP
JUST SOUTH OF LYTTON - A LOAD OF LUMBER BURNS
APPROACHING LYTTON
LYTTON JUNCTION, AND THE ROAD TO LILLOET

THOMPSON RIVER LOOKING NORTH
THOMPSON RIVER LOOKING SOUTH
ENTERING SPENCES BRIDGE
SPENCES BRIDGE
BIG HORN SHEEP
A VERY COMMON SIGHT
THEY SHOULD PAINT A CROSSWALK FOR THEM
DESPITE ALL THE WARNING SIGNS THESE FELLOWS ARE COMMONLY KILLED BY MOTORISTS WHO DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO THEIR DRIVING

HIGHWAY 8 - TO MERRITT

A RARE SIGHT, `02/10, SNOW IN THE CANYON
AT THIS POINT THE CPR FOLLOWS THE EAST BANK
OF THE THOMPSON RIVER

THE, ONCE, DRY CLIMATE MADE THIS THE PERFECT AREA TO GROW FRUIT


BIG BUTE WAS BUILT WITH THE ORIGINAL ROAD IN 1860
THE ROAD WAS WIDENED IN 1960


CATTLE REPLACED THE FRUIT TREES AND NOW FEEDER PENS REPLACE THE OPEN RANGE
SPRINKLER SYSTEMS ALLOW THE DRY LAND TO PRODUCE HAY FOR THE CATTLE
APPROACHING ASHCROFT MANOR
OLD MILITARY BUILDINGS FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR
OLD BUILDINGS RESTORED TO A MANOR HOUSE AND MOTEL
JUST SOUTH OF THE SOUTHERLY JUNCTION TO ASHCROFT

SOUTHERN JUNCTION TO ASHCROFT
Nl'AKAPXM EAGLE MOTORPLEX RACE TRACK


APPROACHING ASHCROFT JUNCTION
ASHCROFT JUNCTION
APPROACHING CACHE CREEK
ENTERING CACHE CREEK

JUNCTION OF HIGHWAYS 1 AND 97
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ENVIRONMENT CANADA
B. C. Weather

B. C. HIGHWAYS
Trans Canada Highway
Cache Cr. to Boston Bar

B. C. HIGHWAYS
Trans Canada Highway
Boston Bar to Hope

B. C. HIGHWAYS
Trans Canada Highway
Hope to Abbotsford

B. C. HIGHWAYS
Trans Canada Highway
Abbotsford to Bradner

B. C. HIGHWAYS
Trans Canada Highway
Bradner to Langley

B. C. HIGHWAYS
Trans Canada Highway
Langley to Vancouver

B. C. HIGHWAYS
Trans Canada Highway
Vancouver to Horseshoe Bay

FRASER VALLEY GUIDE
Fraser Valley
B. C.
SEE THE
FRASER VALLEY
Fraser Valley
B. C.
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