After a quick stop at Hat Creek Ranch, a historic gold rush era stop to buy M some gold, we followed perhaps the most beautiful piece of road on the trip. Running between the Fraser river and the Coast mountains, the road along the Marble Canyon passes the romantically named villages of Pavilion and Fountain. There are several little lakes the colour of Thailand's seas - tourquise, malachite, azure. Rocky hills rise in steep cliffs that display their own part of the rainbow's spectrum - rust, ochre, pewter - with dark green conifers dotted here and there where they can form a root system and take hold. A cats cradle of electric cables perform a feat of daring in their quest to turn on lights along the valley. 
The only time I ever hear the name "Lillooet" is when the nation's hot spots are read out on the weather report in mid-July or so. In actual fact, Lillooet is another surprisingly impressive little town with friendly people, umpteen restaurants and a honey empire of all things.
Stuck behind RVs while waiting for the ashphalt truck to move on (summer in B.C. - it's all about roadworks!) we had ample time to get a good look at the Cayoosh creek gurgling past time after time as the road looped over it (or the creek looped under it), lupins and wild tiger lilies blooming up a storm and black mountains with their shock of white glacier peeking in between the dry, pine strewm hills in the foreground. We ate mountain mix and played our last game of the Jelly Bean Travel Game (Dad won 3 games to 2 - he truly is the Jelly Bean King)
But we really felt we were on the way home when we stopped in Pemburton for lunch. I had a chi-chi warm potato salad with heritage greens and asparagus, overseen by brand new condos sporting wellness centres and cappuccino bars. There was nothing for it but to declare the roatrip done and join the hordes on the road past Whistler, past Squamish, past Horseshoe Bay and over the bridge into the city we both know so well.
No comments:
Post a Comment