Mt. Nusatsum

Mt. Nusatsum

Sunday, September 19, 2010

456 km to Go!

In my post on the Long Drive to Bella Coola, I failed to mention the actual distance from Bella Coola to Williams Lake which is officially listed at 456 km.  It's a comfortable 5 hour drive in good weather without stopping.  If you want to break it up, then there is a nice new rest stop in Alexis Creek (about 1 1/4 hrs west of Williams Lake), a restaurant in Tatla Lake, gas in Redstone, the Ahahim Reserve, Nimpo Lake and Anahim Lake.  There are two restaurants in Anahim Lake.  There are side trips to along the way to various guest houses, guest ranches and lodges.    If you've never made the drive then in either direction start early and plan to take the day to enjoy it.  Real blacktop pavement with a divided centered lines runs from Williams Lake to Pyper Lake   At Pyper Lake it changes to seal-coat - (a gravel coal tar emulsion which is almost as good as pavement) with no painted lines, then from Nimpo Lake to Anahim it's blacktop. At Anahim Lake it goes to hard gravel for 60 km to the bottom of "The Hill"  This piece can be rough some times, muddy and definitely snowy between late |October and May...there was wet snow falling in Heckman Pass today.  There is a highway web cam at Anahim Lake pointing west which usually gives you a pretty good idea of what you are heading into. I hope that gives you a general idea of what the trip is like.


The weather in the Bella Coola Valley today was a disappointing to say the least.  Cool and rain, at times heavy.  Snow levels are down low maybe to 3000' on the mountains and there was wet snowflakes falling in Heckman Pass today.

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