Fraser Canyon - Boston Bar - Hells Gate, BC, Canada

Fraser Canyon - Boston Bar – Hells Gate, BC Canada  August 10-11

There are two primary roads that you can take to get from Kamloops to Vancouver. Route 5 or Route 1.  The first will get you there more quickly, but Route 1 follows the Fraser River Canyon and is the much more scenic route, so we took Route 1.

The road follows the river fairly closely, as do railroad tracks on both sides of the river.

We saw 4 boats of rafters on the river rapids.

We stopped and spent the night near  Boston Bar.

Hells Gate is an area near Boston Bar where the Fraser River Canyon narrows down to only 110 feet wide, with solid rock on both sides. There is an average of 200 million gallons of water flowing through every minute, which is more than twice the volume of Niagara Falls, so there is extreme turbulence going through Hells Gate. We got there in early August - about a month after the really high current had subsided from snow runoff, so the river was a little more tame now with only the 200 million gallons/minute going through.

Here is a picture of a picture showing Hells Gate dimensions, the ‘Air Tram’ and the ‘fishways’ that allow spawning salmon to make it up the river. The fishways were made necessary because as the train bed was being dug, a landslide occurred, closing off the natural salmon spawning run.

And some real pictures from the surface.

Although there is a construction workers dirt road from the road level down to river level about 1/3 mile west of the tram, right at Hells Gate there is no way to get down because it is all solid rock, so they have put in a tram to take you from road level down to the river level. Naturally, Sylvia wanted to get some exercise, wanting to do the dirt road instead of the tram. I agreed to the down part, and withheld a decision on the return trip.

This trail/road is like a normal mountain road traversing down a very steep hill, in that it goes about 100 yards, then does a 180 degree turn and comes 100 yards back, numerous times all the way to the bottom.  Down at train track level on the dirt road you reach a tunnel constructed to protect trains from falling rocks.

On the road side of the river, the trains are traveling West bound, and they go Eastbound on the other side where the tram takes you.  Lessens the chance of accidents, you see… You will see this tunnel in another picture from the opposite side at the tram destination point.

Here you can see the turbulence of the river as it squeezes through Hells Gate, as seen from the bottom of the walking trail.

The walking bridge in the picture is there for emergencies, for bringing in heavy building materials, and to allow those that hiked down the hill to get to the other side…

It may look like a nice stable bridge, but the walking surface is grated metal, which allows the suspension bridge to swing and bounce as people walk across it, or the wind blows.  NOT A COMFORTABLE FEELING while walking across the bridge, particularly with the roar of the water flying by below you. To make an understatement, it is a little difficult to look down through the grating while walking across, with the bridge bouncing and swaying.

On the other side of the bridge is the Hells Gate attraction area where the tram brings you, and includes gift shops, restaurants and other attractions to allow you to spend your money, panning for gold, buying ice cream, buying tram tickets back up, etc.

Sylvia at the Hells Gate sign.

Here is a view of two trams, one going up and one down, taken from just outside the restaurant. You may need to click to enlarge the picture in order to see the trams. They are to the right of the flag, between the two craggy points in the picture. Seeing the terrain you can understand why there is no river access right at the Hells Gate area other than the tram.

Here is another view looking back toward the road side, showing a westbound train coming through that tunnel I discussed earlier. You can also see the suspension bridge with the steep walkway/trail road coming down to the bridge.

This westbound train is the ‘Rocky Mountaineer’ returning to Vancouver, likely from Calgary, Banff, Lake Louise, Kamloops, through the spiral tunnels and Hells Gate, basically the same route we have taken by road. This is a scenic route train trip with cars with roof windows so you can look up at the sides of the canyons/mountains as you ride by.

Here is a view of the river turbulence as viewed from the tram-ride back up to the road.

Yes, I was able to reason with Sylvia to take the tram back, and not walk back up the hill.

Here is another shot taken further up near the road end of the tram, showing an eastbound freight train in the background.

The westbound Rocky Mountaineer train had left Hells gate for Vancouver about 30-45 minutes before we did. When we recommenced our journey from Hells Gate, after driving for a while we ended up catching up with the Rocky Mountaineer again, before getting into Vancouver.

Vancouver is just up the road.....