Quesnel, BC
July 7th, 2014
What a night! We seem to have picked the noisiest spot in town as our ‘campsite’ (The Fraser Bridge Inn & RV Park) is right below a very VERY busy road and everyone in town seems to be competing for the noisiest engine/muffler award. Not much sleep! However, it is conveniently located near town!
Fraser Bridge Inn & RV Park – Worst Camp EVER!
We called around town trying to find some place we could get the broken fan belt on the RV replaced and it was pretty difficult … the Ford dealer couldn’t get us in for 3 days!! We finally called a small garage just across the street (Fraser Bridge Automotive) and they said they’d get it done for us in a couple of hours! So we left it with them and wandered around town till around noon.
We walked across the pedestrian only Fraser Walking Bridge into the downtown area. The bridge was built in 1929 across the Fraser River, at 831 feet long, it is the longest wood truss walking bridge in the world. We poked into some shops and stopped for coffee at Granville’s Coffee, a very funky coffee shop on the main drag.
The Fraser Walking Bridge
The Fraser Walking Bridge across the Fraser River
We ended up getting some ‘cowboy’ boots … as we’re going on a trail ride in the next week or so and you’re required to have boots with heels … so we bit the bullet and got some pretty cool ones. We didn’t really anticipate spending so much … but what the hell, right?
Granville’s Coffee
Good Coffee though!
We were off at around 12:30 and heading towards Barkerville.
July 8th, 2014
BARKERVILLE
When Billy Barker ‘struck pay dirt’ on Williams Creek in 1862, Barkerville was born – British Columbia’s Gold Rush town! In it’s heyday, it was the largest city west of Chicago and north of San Francisco. They said Vancouver and Victoria wouldn’t amount to much because they were too far from Barkerville!
In 1923 it was declared a National Historic Site of Canada, and in 1958 a Provincial Heritage Site. Barkerville Historic Town & Park is now the largest authentic heritage attraction in western North America!
Barkerville
Barkerville is about 80km east of Quesnel on Hwy #26. We made it there in about 1 ½ hours … a car could have made it faster but it was a lot of up-hill and our old RV isn’t too keen on long up-hills! We bought our entrance tickets at the Wells Info Booth – it’s discounted there and parked the RV in the RV parking/overnight lot and wandered in.
Main Street Barkerville
Reenacters giving a show at the gold sluice
Time for a beer!
What a cool place! It’s really quite large with over 100 authentic historic buildings and displays. There are ‘characters’ in period clothing giving tours and demonstrations, general stores where you can buy items common in the 1800’s, a few restaurants, stage coach rides, musical reviews … and some neat ‘re-enactments’ of town life throughout the day. We stayed till around 5-ish, then back to the parking lot and dinner!
Beer in a Jar!
The Chinese section of Barkerville
There are other RV parks around – some with hook-ups – but we’re cheap and this was right next to the park. Even in a parking lot tho … with NO services … they still came around and collected $23! Oh well, I guess that’s because they have so many wonderful no-see-um’s to keep you busy! OUCH!!!
July 8, 2014
Up early the next morning and headed into Barkerville for breakfast. When you buy your tickets at Wells, you get the 2nd day admission for free! The restaurant is actually open before the park actually opens so there is no one around. Had a good breakfast at ‘Wake Up Jakes’.
While we were waiting for our coffees, we noticed they had just let out some of the horses. There were 4 huge black Percheron draft horses charging down the streets at full gallop, so Bruce ran out to grab some photos. As soon as they saw him they came charging over to say hello! Or maybe they were looking for some snacks! Who knows, very cool though!
Horses charging around the streets in the morning
Draft horse being harnessed
One of the Barkerville stables
We wandered around taking a few more photos before leaving at around 11:00.
Barkerville
We drove back thru Quesnel, filled up with gas, then on the road south towards Williams Lake looking for a forest rec site where we could stay for a nite or 2.
The first one we found on the map (not a lot in this area) was Blue Lake Rec. site. Down a VERY bumpy active logging road for about 10km only to find … it wasn’t there! Right road … but no rec. site. Closed? Wrong info? Who knows!
Bummer! Back down the rough, very dusty road to the hwy and down further to the next rec. site. Just before Williams Lake is Lyne Creek Rd. which leads to 2 different rec sites. We stopped in at the first one with our fingers crossed – and what luck! What a find! A beautiful empty campground right on a small lake – Forest Lake Recreation Site.
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