Fall Road Trip – Thompson Plateau and Fraser Canyon

September 28 – October 2, 2025

Our annual (usually) fall road trip was an abbreviated affair this year—just four nights away—but a welcome break from the routine of life at home. I’d been scouting out possibilities on Google Maps and realized that neither my partner nor I had been down the Fraser Canyon on Highway 1 between Lytton and Hope since we were kids, so we mapped out a route that ended up taking us there.

After spending a night in Vernon, we drove north to Westwold, where we branched off on the Douglas Lake Road, a secondary gravel road that traverses grasslands and ranches before joining with Highway 5A at Nicola Lake, just a short distance east of Merritt.

The road starts out in the farmlands of the North Okanagan area, following the Salmon River into forested hills that have seen extensive logging and have been heavily impacted by forest fires.

The Salmon River Valley

Before long, we reached the rolling grasslands of the Thompson Plateau, the southernmost portion of BC’s Interior Plateau geographic region. Somewhere just beyond Salmon Lake, we left the eastward-flowing Salmon River watershed and entered the Nicola basin to the west. The open terrain here is dotted with numerous small lakes, including Chapperon, Rush and Pikehead Lakes.

Grasslands around Chapperon Lake

Most of this land is part of the historic Douglas Lake Ranch that, by virtue of owning or leasing around 1.8 million acres of land, is Canada's largest working cattle ranch.

As we drove by the buildings of the ranch headquarters at the northeast end of Douglas Lake, we were pleasantly surprised to see large flocks of migratory birds, including some snow geese and dozens of sandhill cranes, foraging on a recently-harvested  grain field.

The original site of the Douglas Lake Ranch, with several buildings including a general store and accommodation for up to twenty families working on the ranch. They also offer tourist accommodation.

There were at least 50 sandhill cranes in this field, as well as Canada geese and a few snow geese.

From Douglas Lake, it’s a relatively short drive down to Nicola Lake and then on to Merritt, where we’d booked a motel for a couple of nights.

Douglas Lake

Looking southward into the Nicola valley towards Merritt. There is a sliver of Nicola Lake visible in the top centre of the photo.

The following day, we drove north along 97C, a route neither of us had been on before, past Logan Lake and the massive Highland Copper Mine to Ashcroft, exploring a couple of little side roads along the way.

Big sagebrush and common rabbit-brush seem to be the predominant shrubbery in this dry region.

Barnes Lake is a short drive off the highway, near Ashcroft

From Ashcroft, we drove south on the Trans-Canada along the west side of the Thompson River, and then crossed back to the east side at Spences Bridge. We explored a side road along the east side of the river before heading back to Merritt through the Nicola River valley along Highway 8.

We’d almost forgotten that the destructive flooding caused by the November 2021 “atmospheric river” took out large portions of this road, to the extent that it remained closed for almost an entire year. Remediation and rebuilding is still underway, and we faced delays at numerous sites due to the ongoing construction projects. The repairs to BC highways for damage caused by that flood event are estimated to cost around a billion dollars.

Watching the "Rocky Mountaineer" train heading north along the Thompson River.

Pumpkin harvest time.

Looking southward along the Thompson, with flowering rabbit-brush in the foreground.

Git along, little dogies. Cowboy, cowgirl and dogs moving the herd along in the Nicola Valley.

The next day, after spending a second night in our kitchen unit, we packed up and backtracked on Highway 8 to Spences Bridge, and from there took Highway 1 south to Lytton. This is another place that has suffered catastrophic damage connected to climate change, having been almost completely consumed by a wildfire in 2021. Reconstruction is underway, but they still have a long way to go.

We took a side trip up the Botanie Creek Road, just north of Lytton, before carrying on to our accommodation in Canyon Alpine, a small locality just north of Boston Bar.

A rugged cliff face along Botanie Creek

We encountered California bighorn sheep, including this ewe and lamb, in a few spots. This was along the Botanie Creek Road. California bighorn sheep are native to these drier regions of the province.

Love those hairy ears!

Well, why not? I've always been intrigued by the Hell's Gate canyon, so we stopped to check it out on our way home from Canyon Alpine. We walked down the access trail and across the suspension bridge to the tourist attraction on the west side of the Fraser and wandered through the little museum and gift shop.The canyon itself was less than spectacular because the river was low, but we could imagine the water raging through in May and June during the spring freshet. Rather than hike back up the trail, we decided to pay the reduced fare for the one-way gondola ride back to the parking lot.

This view of the canyon shows some of the fishways that were constructed over the decades following a devastating rockslide that occurred in 1914, significantly impeding spawning salmon.

The white sign on the bridge abutment shows the high water mark in May 1948.

View from the gondola

The remainder of the drive down the Fraser Canyon to Hope and then back home via Highway 3 was pleasant but uneventful. It was a packed five days, but relaxed as well, with nothing to do but admire the countryside and explore some new areas. We are lucky to live in a place where a day's drive will take us to such a variety of landscapes and ecosystems, from grasslands to seashores to rugged mountains and forests. Truly blessed.

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