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Come
out O Little Mocassins and frolic on the snow My
vast domain spans half of Canada, the world's
second largest country, with ports facing three
great oceans. I follow the trails of natives and
voyageurs westward from Lake Winnipeg and the forks
of three historic rivers to the misty *Haida
Gwa'ii, where British Columbia meets the North
Pacific. Near majestic Mount Robson, Canada's
highest peak, my second branch meanders south via
Kamloops to Hope, gateway to the Fraser Valley.
Crossing me is a journey into history, with Indian
encampments older than Egypt's great pyramids,
pristine national and provincial parks, ancient
shrines and battle sites. Ethnic dances and
pageants salute every facet of Canada's heritage,
and if you love the magic of serendipity, a new
surprise awaits around each bend.
If you
find some parts of the country a little "behind the
times " ... a popular Saskatchewan Tourism poster
says, "Count yourself lucky. You've discovered the
true Canada." A
Taste of Canada. I appeal to nature lovers and
adventurous souls with a taste for the finer
things. So, get out the fishing rod, thermos jug
and picnic basket! This great drive might easily be
called a Great Canadian Taste Tour. Why? -- the
Yellowhead crosses and parallels famous rivers and
nameless streams, skirts many lakes great and
small, visits orchards, ranches, farmers markets
and unique dining spots. You can feast on Winnipeg
Goldeye, rainbow trout, Pacific salmon, Alaska king
crab, oysters, mussels and clams, prairie chicken,
moose steak, buffalo burgers, award-winning Alberta
beef and Okanagan wines. Add the world's finest
cereal grains and 1001 varieties of ethnic fare --
how near to heaven can you get? And if you like to
sing on long car trips, there's always a
cinemascopic backdrop to enhance the performance;
prairie skies, tumbleweed, moose pastures, rippling
waterfalls and pristine mountain lakes. Can't you
hear Rose Marie's "Indian Love Call" echoing in the
distance? An
Expanding Panorama. To those who cherish
folklore and love to collect anecdotes of Canadian
history, a trip along my ribbon of asphalt is a
veritable feast. Each native or ethnic village,
national park and historic site along my path tells
its own story, of an event, place or special person
who left his or her mark. All contributed to the
fabric of Canada, Often it is the foreigners who
see the treasure most clearly. Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes compared Canada
to an expanding flower; "Wherever you look you see
some fresh petal unfolding." Sir Winston Churchill
spoke of Canadians, "There are no limits to the
majestic future which lies before the mighty
expanse of Canada, with its virile, aspiring,
cultured and generous-hearted people." A Picture
Perfect Tour What People Say
About Yellowhead Next
page:
Manitoba Section Footnotes: When the great
buffalo hunt OF 1840 was organized, no less than
1,210 Red River carts
took the trail
west from Fort Garry onto the southwest plains. It
was truly the beginning of the Trans Canada
Yellowhead Highway as we know it today. Beginning at the
Forks, this trail was, for more than fifty years,
the main artery of all the trails into the West.
Historically speaking, the Trans Canada Yellowhead
Highway is the way of the pioneers. One of the
World's Greatest Drives. It provides access
to five National Parks, three National Historic
Sites, and more than ninety Provincial Parks. No
wonder the Trans Canada Yellowhead is known as the
"Park to Park Highway" The Trans Canada
Yellowhead boasts excellent year-round road
conditions, hundreds of kilometers of four-lane
highway with wide shoulders and gentle mountain
grades and contours. So it's easy to enjoy the
drive, especially since the Yellowhead is the only
highway the travels between the mountains instead
of over them. That means lower fuel bills, less
vehicle wear and tear, and spectacular
scenery Of the five passes
through the Rockies, the Yellowhead Pass is by far
the most gentle. |
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Get
a copy of my official Road Map, or a reasonable
facsimile? Stretch it out on the table or across
the hood or your vehicle. Glancing from east to
west, you'll see that my eastern terminus is
Winnipeg, Manitoba at the foot of two large lakes.
Tracing my path westward, I parallel the North
Saskatchewan River to Edmonton, and follow the
Athabaska River into Jasper National Park, Canada's
Rocky Mountain playground. Further west near Mount
Robson, I give motorists the option of heading
directly west via Prince George, or south via
Kamloops to the town of Hope at the entrance to the
Fraser Valley and port of Vancouver. On these
segments I follow the North Thompson, the Mighty
Fraser and Skeena Rivers.
Canada's
Historic Route. To begin your journey down my
pathway to pleasure, imagine your auto or RV is a
time-capsule, as you cruise along this broad ribbon
of Canadiana, in the wake of nomadic hunters,
voyageurs, missionaries, traders, sodbusters,
fortune-seekers and railroad builders. Before we
dim the lights and start the movie, you're curious
to know how the name Yellowhead was derived --
right? In the 1870s, a roving Iroquois Metis guide,
dubbed Tete Jaune for his golden locks, gave title
to a mountain pass near Jasper House, and gained
instant immortality. Fly-Drive
Holidays are
all the rage, in an age when time has become more
valuable than money. You can fly the "Air Highways"
to dozens of gateway airports from east to west,
then take your pick of ground transport, be it an
automobile, van or RV rental or Via Rail Canada's
Yellowhead- Skeena Route to Prince
Rupert.