Along the Fraser Valley  

 Everyone talks about the famous Fraser River:

• with 1368 km long, it is BC's longest river and the 10^th longest river in Canada
• the river is named after Simon Fraser who led an expedition for the North West Company from today Prince George to the mouth of the river
• The Halqemeylen called it Sto: lo – the Daketh call it Lhtakoh and the Tsihqot’in called it? Elhdaqox
• in Hope the Canyon opens to the Fraser Valley
• Richmond, is the largest island of the Fraser Valley, as well as Lulu Island with Westminster and Sea Island with the Airport
• With 3475 cubic meters per second flowing into the ocean, it is the river with the largest volume flowing into the Pacific Ocean – with the record in June 1894 with roughly 17000 cubic meters
• In June 1792 the Spanish explorer Galliano and Valdes anchored in the Fraser River and were the 1^st European entering the river
• First explored by Alexander McKenzie in 1793 and fully traced by Simon Fraser in 1808
• The Fraser River is closely connected to the History of BC
• The first disastrous flooding was in 1894 – after they started constructing dykes
• 1948 Flood: through the main long weekend the river rose and within the next 3 days 3 dykes broke and flooded the Fraser Valley – at one time 50.000 acres were under water, 16.000 people evacuated

 North Bend Aerial Ferry
In Boston Bar we stopped because we saw a gondola sitting there and it was the ferry to the town of North Bend on the other side of the Fraser River – before 1986 the only way to access this town was the aerial ferry or the train. So a quick stop and learning something about this unique ferry and climbing into the old ferry was a great stop

 The historic Canadian Pacific Railway
You see a train sitting – Paul has to see it and that it was an old historic Canadian Pacific Railway was even better. So we stopped and saw the old luxury train 'the Royal Canadian Pacific’. With several cars from the 1920s: we saw the Sleeping Car NR Crump, the business car Van Horne, at the end the Observation car Mount Stephen and a train from the 1950s: the 4107.
It was super cool to see this historic train – running over one of the cool looking bridges in the Fraser Canyon, especially since this area is so famous for the train lines running along.
 Hells Gate
It’s famous and a most see tourist attraction – so yes we stopped. Ok maybe the best time would be in spring when it has the most water, but it was still a cool play to visit. And since it is cheaper if you walk down, that’s what we did. So on the way down along the steep rock walls… and when we cross the train tracks: sure we had to quick check out how the view down is from the tunnel.
And when we looked up we saw the AirTran above us with all the lazy tourists.
Crossing the nice red bridge gave us great views down into the gorge and up and down the valley to admire the rock walls… and imagine how it was when they came here with their canoe.

The tourist attraction of hells gate: it is cute you find some old artefacts like an old stove, a little place for the squirrels, you can feel like a mountain climber climbing along the Canyon or the ‘let’s take a tourist picture Air Tram’.
On the viewing platform to look over the gorge: which was even more fun when we saw a train going by on the other side: but the most amazing is when you look over to the bridge they build and then you see way up a line and that was the water level in 1948 – wow! And when we looked down even it was not a whole lot of water: we saw it churning down there.
 The Air tram ride
Walking down is ok – but not going up… and that’s when we took the tram, which also is more convenient but gives you some impressing views down into the gorge – it’s one amazing experience

 And why is it called Hells Gate?

• It’s a 34 m narrow gorge
• When Simon Fraser saw it in 1808 he said:
  " we had to travel where no human being should venture, for sure we have encountered the gates of hell"
  “I should consider the passage down to be certain Death in 0 attempts out of 10, I shall therefore no longer talk about is as a navigable stream”
• I guess the name gates of hell stuck
• In 1914 a massive rockslide rocketed down into the gorge blocking it even further
• The air tram was built in the 1970s with help of a Swiss company

 Alexandra Bridge PP
So as a super start: before we can go over the train tracks we see another train!!
We had a lot of fun on the bridge: seeing the old way of suspension bridge – seeing the river through the rusty bridge railings… saw down the river to the current bridge. It’s also cool to look through the metal covering right down to the water. Did I mention that Paul is lucky that we brought a sharpie and hopefully next time we come we can check when we were here last time…?

 Why is this bridge a historic monument?

• The reason to build was because the original trail went along the dangerous banks of the river with was difficult and costly to use with staircases for the mules
• The original bridge built in 1863 as part of the Cariboo Wagon Road was destroyed by the Fraser Flood in 1894
• After WWI a new Cariboo Highway re-opened in the 1920s with a suspension bridge – the current 2^nd bridge built in 1926
• It is not in use for cars since 1964

 Downhill through tunnels
The next stretch of road led downhill and through several tunnels… which was a fun way to drive to:

 Historic Yale
So the museum was closed that means there was not a lot today for us here today in this tiny town… so one time we have to come back and check it all out.