Smithers, British Columbia, CanadaHOUSTON - SMITHERS
Houston – we have a problem
I mean we don’t have a problem – but
if we are in Houston there must be one correct??? We stopped at the Visitor
Info and I nearly would bet there are not a lot of people stopping here. After
picking up some more Info brochures we went over to visit the world’s largest
Fly fishing rod. Oh and let’s not forget the Grizzly bear.
- Grizzly bear: he is around 18-22 years old, 975 lbs and 11 ft tall when standing, he was like the source that a lot of cattle vanished in Hungry Hill
- Fly fishing rod: it is 6x the length of a normal fly-fishing rod, it weighs 800 lbs – it would be perfect for a 200 lb steely (normally they are 8-10 lb)
Let’s not forget Paul was going under
the truck to check out if all is ok.
We then drove over one corner to visit
the Heritage corner: one guy from town who told us is the only volunteer in the
town is at the moment re-painting the little old 1910 church: as he was here we
could go inside – which was quite of cute, they had three old organs inside and
he said he gives them away as he has two more – sadly we don’t have enough
space in our camper to bring it along. We then glanced through the windows of
the old original schoolhouse which was used until a few years ago (that really
must be a small town).
Behind was a super cute little old
historic fire engine – I didn’t know that they made so small ones. But what was
the absolute best here is the old snow mobile with a huge gigantic engine – Wow
that is so cool.
Thyee Lake PP
We arrived and discovered that none of
the sites are actually on the lake, but they also have electric hookup sites…
we drove down to the day parking lot to have a cup of coffee at the lakefront –
which is nice. But nothing compared to the beautiful drive we had coming into
the Bulkley Valley which was spectacular seeing all the snowcapped mountains.
Not totally convinced if we should
stay here – we drove towards town.
We are in Bulkley Valley:
- The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway came here in 1913: here in smithers was the roundhouse – the devision point between PG and Prince Rupert (by the way we could hear the train last night)
- Smithers is also known as little Switzerland it has Bavarian Charm with the red-bricked Main street and alpine-flavoured architecture and murals
- It is surrounded by the Hudson Bay Mountains which look absolutelty gorgeous
Since when does Paul has a bakery
#1 on our list in Smithers is Paul’s
bakery – seriously they name it after him!!! And they have pretzels (ok not the
cheapest – but then we are on vacation).
Wifi in Smithers
Tomorrow Gine will call Germany that
means we need Wifi – and so we went to check out where the best possibility is
and it is in front of the library… ok that is where we will go tomorrow.
Relaxing at the Campsite
And then we decided it’s time to head
towards the campsite and do nothing – Paul tried to repair our door problem….
We had a shower!!!! Yes it is at the moment so rare that we can have one that
it is worth mentioning. Gine then talked to the nextdoor camper who is from
Nanaimo and on the way back from the Yukon and gave us a lot of tips… and then
it’s time to relax for the day.
Hello McDonalds
Today morning Gine phoned with Germany
and then we discovered that the library is closed. But we did see a McDonalds
and they always have Wifi – we tried it on the outside and the reception was
not the greatest – and then decided to go inside and get a coffee and wifi… ok
it did not work that well on the computer but on the phone. Gine talked and
Paul waited.
A closed road at the Twin Falls
After so much stress we need to walk a
bit and Gine discovered the Twin Falls which look amazing as we arrive, we discovered
that the road there is closed and you have to walk the last 2 km to the rec
site and so we walk up a perfectly paved road to the rec site… nearly there we
met a guy (in a truck!!!!!) he told us, that they closed the road 2 years ago
as they wanted to built a tower and since then the tower is half—made-up
there…. And we have to walk. Once at the rec site we talked with a couple of
people and then went on the walk and it went up further and there they are two
waterfalls one on the left and one on the right side of the mountain – really
gorgeous it is amazing.
Coffee with Glacier View
It is already time for coffee and we
decided to pull out at the next rest stop and how amazing the Glacier View Rest
stop actually has beautiful view on the mountains and glaciers…. Good bye
Smithers.
Moricetown Canyon
As we drive along the Hwy Gine said:
Paul you have to pull out here, there is such a gorgeous canyon we have to see
it, so we did it and then we also drove over the bridge and looked down as well
walked down a bit to have even better views – this is one amazing cool stop.
- The Bulkey River is also called Wet-sinkwa – here is the oldest settlement of the Wet-suwet’en in the Bulkey Valley
2025-05-22