Fri. 18th September ’26
Today we have a 6-hour drive from Wells Gray to Whistler mainly along Hwy 99, Duffey Lake Road with spectacular mountain views, So it is a question of balancing driving, sightseeing and getting a walk in. The first part is just a blat to Kamloops, fill up with petrol and coffee before entering Marble Canyon Provincial Park where there is Pavilion lake and Crown lake. It is at the far end of Crown lake Dave finds a trail which begins around the lake and then heads up the side of a waterfall. Sounds good.
Off we set on a narrow uneven path a few metres above water level, so tricky enough to need to concentrate hard as slipping would not be good. Having managed this we then turn inland and scramble up the even narrower, steeper path, past the sign that says “Caution, rock falls”. It is about a mile from car to waterfall top and it takes us an hour. As we reach the top there is not a sound and certainly no waterfall sounds. It turns out the waterfall is dry and there’s not much to see. The only way back to the car is the way we came. One grumpy Janet starts descending, parts of the path are more easily traversed by walking backward. Needless to say we did not see anyone else on the trail. At least it gave us the workout we wanted and my watch says I now need 19 hours to recover.
We st
opped briefly over looking the river at Lillooet, an old gold rush town. On another day we would have explored the museum and the town’s history but we crack on to Whistler. The scenery was more open and less fewer trees for a while but now we are back on windy mountains roads following RVs and occasionally coaches. Our final stop was Duffey Lake Viewpoint which was a pull off from the road and almost filled by a coach and couple of RVs, just room for a few cars. We squeezed the car in and weaved through the people to find a photo spot. Like the rest of the road the scenery is stunning.
The last stretch to Whistler was busy and slow but we were still on schedule checking in to the hotel at 4pm. We had just settled down with a cup of tea when we realised the visitors centre shut at 5pm and we really ought to sort out tickets for the gondola tomorrow. Bother! It was then that we discovered that the Peak 2 Peak gondola had closed for the season so we needed to replan our itinerary for tomorrow – but I won’t get ahead of myself. We were last in Whistler around 2000 with the boys on a skiing trip. We do not recognise any of it but then I expect it has changed a lot and also the place looks quite different without snow.