 Hubby and I have just returned from a wonderful road trip. This time we decided to travel from our home in Edmonton, Alberta to Prince Rupert on the north coast of British Columbia. This was an ambitious trip for us given our time constraints. It’s 1456 km, or nearly 905 miles, one way and according to Google maps takes almost 16 hours. For us, the journey is always the best part of the trip and the chance to drive through the Rockies and across beautiful Northern British Columbia was too good to pass up. The weather was gray and rainy but the mountains are always beautiful.  At a pit stop in the Rockies, I discovered that Highway 16 otherwise known as the Yellowhead Trail was named for a fur trapper known as tete jeune, which translates to yellow head. As a history buff, I find these details fascinating. According to George Siamandas on his Winnipeg Time Machine site: “The name Yellowhead came from an Iroquois Metis guide named Pierre Bostonais who worked for the Hudson Bay Company. The French voyageurs called him tete jeune which translated into yellow head because of his blonde streaked hair. Bostonais came west from Quebec to work for one of the fur trade companies at about 1800. He is first mentioned as "yellow head" in the Hudson Bay Company's 1819 records as working in the area of the Rocky Mountains.” I also discovered that not only does Fort St. James have “World Class Chicken Racing” it also has the best advertising people.
After driving for about eight hours we stopped in Prince George. The city’s origins can be traced to a fur trading post founded in 1807 by Simon Fraser on traditional Lheidli T'enneh territory. Sometime in the future, we will go back and explore the city known as the capital of Northern British Columbia. For more information, you can visit the Get To Know Prince George site Prince Rupert B.C. is probably one of the most remote cities I have ever visited. Despite its isolation, it is a bustling port city. According to the Port Authority, Prince Rupert has the deepest natural harbor in North America. It was fun to watch the cruise ships and smaller vessels from our hotel room window and realize that there are communities along the northern coast that are connected to the outside world by boat. They have no road or rail access and need to sail to Prince Rupert to buy groceries. As well as exploring the harbor we also visited the Museum of Northern BC. This was a beautiful museum. I loved discovering the archeological evidence and learning about the First Nation peoples who have inhabited the region for millennia. I can’t wait to go back to British Columbia for another visit.
Do you have a favorite road trip? I'd love to hear about it :) Comments are closed.
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