Driving the Fraser Canyon, Lytton to Kanaka Bar
Day 6 (May 1st) was a busy day photographically – after editing, there are 206 photos in the day’s folder. This post takes us the final 15 km or so to our overnight spot across the highway from the abandoned Kanaka Bar Lodge.
The first stop was only a few minutes after leaving Skihist Park. The dogs got to go for another walk while I got some photos of this railway bridge…
…and some flowers at the edge of the pine forest below the highway.
All through the Thompson and Fraser Canyons, once-cultivated, now-wild apple trees hint at the locations of vanished homes and lodges.
A coal train heads north for another load, past an abandoned lumber mill.
The solitary grave of Matilda Florence stands above the highway, with a gate below it. She died on January 31, 12948, at the age of 54.
One of my main targets for this drive through the Fraser Canyon was the railway bridges at Siska, or Cisco. Trees have grown to the point that the view from the highway is rather disappointing.
At the south end of the pullout across the highway from Cisco Siding Road, through, a sheep trail leads steeply up the slope.
A few minutes of effort got me to this much improved view. Because of trees, there was no indication that going even higher would result in any further improvement.
At 4:45, the drive for the day was over. I was happy with the huge level pullout across the highway from the the abandoned Kanaka Bar Lodge, wanted to do some exploring here, and wanted to have morning light for the climb across Jackass Summit just ahead.
Back in the 1960s, our family stopped at the lodge a few times, and liked the name so much that we gave our daschund the registered name Kanaka Chief (we called him Corkie). The lodge seems to have closed fairly recently, as FoodBeyondHope posted a review of it in 2010.
The main Kanaka Bar Lodge sign was once a lovely structure, with distances to destinations near and far.
The “wooden Indian” still stands by the front door to the lodge restaurant.
A few hundred meters/yards back up the highway was an aerial tramway to access this facility on the opposite side of the Fraser River.
I climbed a hill and took a few photos, including a couple that created this panorama of the site. It’s a $180 million, 49.9MW run-of-river hydroelectric project on Kwoiek Creek, a joint venture between the Kanaka Bar Indian Band and Innergex Renewable Energy.
One last photo from this day, a mystery milepost (I think), posted on the side of the highway between the lodge and the power project.
The next day would be another short driving day, with lots more exploring to do down the Fraser Canyon.
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