We followed the scenic Pine River...
After travelling 106 kms, we reached the outskirts of Chetwynd. The town, formerly known as Little Prairie, is a division point on the British Columbia Railway. The name was changed to honour the late BC Minister of Railways, Ralph Chetwynd, who was instrumental in the northward extension of the province-owned railway.
Chetwynd has quite a collection of chain saw sculptures...many of which line the highway. There are 123 carvings placed throughout the community, giving it the slogan "Community Carved by Success". The International Chainsaw Carving Championship took place here June 6-9, 2013.
On the eastern outskirts of Chetwynd, is the junction of highway 29 which heads south to the Town of Tumbler Ridge...our destination today...
Twidwell Bend Bridge over the Pine River....
The highway parallels Sukunka River to the west...
A moose sighting along the east side of the highway...
That is Gwillim Lake in the distance...
Another moose...in total, we saw four along the highway...
I believe this is the bridge over Bullmoose Flats River...
We arrived at Tumbler Ridge around 11:30 and stopped at the Visitors Centre. Tumbler Ridge was incorporated April 9, 1981, making it BC's newest community. The town was built in conjunction with development of the Northeast Coal resource. The Quintette Mine south of town was the world's largest computerized open coal pit mine until it was shut down in the fall of 2000. Quintette was on track in 2012 to re-open in 2013.The discovery of dinosaur tracks and later bones in the Tumbler Ridge area led to BC's first dinosaur dig in 2003. Exploration of Tumbler Ridge's canyons and rock exposures has turned up many remarkable discoveries, including dinosaur footprints with skin impressions.
After getting information at the Visitors Centre, we headed to Monkman RV Park, run by the township. It definitely does not have much of an "it" factor but for $27/night, we have full hook-ups. We chose site #9 and after getting all set up, Steve went for a walk and took a few pictures. The sites are very close together...our chairs are actually set up in the site next to us...good thing it's not busy here right now. Those that are here appear to be workers.
The building on the right houses washrooms, showers and the laundry room...
The playground...
One thing I am very happy about is that we have internet...we have Telus service coverage so our MiFi hotspot has a good signal. There is no Rogers service here which means our main cell phone does not work but we do have a secondary "pay-as-you-go" cell with Telus...so we covered!
I love Monkman....getting there is an adventure in itself...the back country is awesome...bears and moose everywhere....when we went by the mine the infrastructure and scale of the mine operation was pretty awesome...just like a ghost town now....one valley to the west is the Wolverine....the road is about 60k's long and we saw lots of wildlife and the scenery especially up in the alpine was awesome....just love that area of BC. If you're heading up to the Yukon the Dempster Highway is worth a visit and Faro is a sweet little town to spend a few days.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are really looking forward to exploring the area. Unfortunately, the weather isn't co-operating, hopefully it changes soon! We are heading up to the Yukon...thanks for the tips!
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