Smithers, BC

Today was another day of mostly travel. We did a five-hour drive and covered about 270 miles. We are now 1/3 of the way to Anchorage. These are not Charlie or Karen’s favorite days, mostly driving with no exploring or interesting stops. Charlie seems a bit spooked by the smells in this area. Maybe the bears, moose, elk or deer. We left around 8:00 this morning and passed thru Prince George, the 4^th biggest city in BC. Too much traffic for our enjoyment. After only one U-turn, we were soon on the open road and driving became easier. The roads are only two lanes but they provide passing lanes ever few miles so we didn’t hold up traffic too much. Canadian drivers are courteous and wait for the passing lanes in most cases.

The last 40 miles into Smithers were very scenic - to the southwest are the Hudson Bay Mountains, to the northeast are the Babine Mountains, and toward the coast are the Skeena Mountain range. All of these are still snowcapped and beautiful. Hudson Bay Mountain is known as one of the best ski areas in British Columbia.

We arrived in Smithers in the early afternoon and found three campgrounds in town. The first one is a city owned park and opens in mid-May. We are too early. The second was five miles west of town, near the main highway and to dirty. The third was on a Par 3 Golf Course/RV Park and was just right. We felt like the Three Bears. We had planned on staying here for a couple of days for rest and laundry but decided to move down the road a few miles tomorrow and try another park. Tomorrow we will get to the beginning of the Cassiar Highway, which we will follow to Alaska.

The beautiful views from our campsite: