Tag 13: Drive to Whistler

Today was a driving day. We still had 360 winding kilometers ahead of us to reach Whistler. So we tried to make the drive more enjoyable with spontaneous stops at scenic spots.

But first, we started sweetly with Banana Bread French Toast. With single-digit temperatures and rain, it was definitely not a bad way to lift our spirits. We filled up the car in Kamloops and then got back on Highway 1 heading west.

The landscape in this area was completely different again: more bushes and grassland than trees, and due to the recent dryness, everything was brown. It reminded us of old Western movies. Nevertheless, the mountains and canyons were gigantic. The pictures unfortunately don’t capture it well, but everything was immense – both in height and depth.

Once we arrived on the somewhat curvier Freeway 99, we made a lunch stop in Lillooet, right in the middle of western Canada's wilderness. The scenery in the Reynolds Hotel & Restaurant could very well have come from an Oliver Stone or Quentin Tarantino film. The food was just as good.

But then it became suddenly greener again, and along Duffey Lake and Lillooet Lake, it was once again beautifully picturesque. At one of its tributaries, we stopped by the Nairn Falls again – and the VauDes were hiking once more, even if this time it was only a total of 3 kilometers.

Then we headed the last 30 kilometers until we arrived in Whistler. Since our room here has a decent kitchen, we visited the supermarket and stocked up for a slightly lighter dinner. That felt good after the rather heavy North American cuisine of the past few days.

The weather was also treating us well again. After the forecast had predicted 13 degrees and rain just a few days ago, it was now 16 degrees and partly cloudy in the evening. Tomorrow, for our gondola ride to the mountains, it is supposed to get even better.