Homer to Vancouver

The road trip from Homer, Alaska to Vancouver, BC took longer than anticipated. The daylight hours were short and road conditions were not great. We managed to stay ahead of the worst of the snow through Alaska, but, our luck ran out in Yukon and we had snow covered roads through the Territory and well into northern BC. We'd been wondering whether the winter tires we'd installed earlier, in Whitehorse, would be a waste of money, but, we were very grateful to have them...

These were typical highway conditions southbound through Yukon. Luckily, we didn't see much traffic.

Reports of more impending snow coming behind us spurred us on and we drove continuously through the daylight hours. Temperatures were also dropping. We awoke to -18C and heavy snow cover in Watson Lake, Yukon. It was crisp! We weren't sure how comfortable the van would be as it isn't insulated, but, surprisingly it was fine. Its little propane furnace, along with winter weight goose down duvets, kept us reasonably comfortable.

The weather improved the further south we went. Once we were well into BC, conditions reverted to autumn with colourful leaves and no snow.

Stunning water colour near Lillooet BC, hard to believe it' really looks like this!

Mountain lake near Lillooet BC

Looking at this picture reminds me of the beautiful pine fragrance that was along this footpath, near Lillooet BC

From autumn-like conditions in the middle of BC we then entered the rain forest area near Vancouver with its brilliantly coloured moss and lichens along with green grass, fully-leafed trees, flowers and balmy temperatures around +13C. It took about a week until we finally arrived in Vancouver. We'd seen all four seasons in one week of road travel!

The final part of the drive, down BC Highway 99 from Cache Creek, through Lillooet, Whistler and Vancouver, was also the most scenic of all the miles we traveled this year. This stretch of the 'Sea-to-Sky' highway is absolutely magnificent. Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures as there were very few places to pull over (and I was hanging onto the seat for dear life). The road is narrow, twisty and in many places drops hundreds of metres, without any guard rails, to the floor of steep Fraser River gorges. It's not for the faint of heart. It runs first through desert-like Cariboo country, then the Coast Mountains and eventually you end up along the Pacific shoreline with an easy run down to Vancouver. A spectacular finale to a very long road trip.