Another day of discovery leads us to Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park near Hope BC (I love the name), and about a 40 minute drive from Chilliwack. BC parks are all free which is soooo nice. The park is only open May to October each year because of unstable conditions so good timing for us.
As with many rail routes in Canada, the Kettle Valley Railway (a CP line) has long since been dismantled and is now a hiking trail. The route, built in the early 1900’s linked the Kootenay Region to the BC coast and went over three mountain ranges. The Othello Tunnels was an engineering feat of its time. A straight line of 5 tunnels and bridges built above the Coquilhalla Gorge.
This tree fell overtop where the tracks would have been – imagine the challenges and dangers of driving the trains through here!
The trail to the tunnels is an easy walk of 1.5 km to the end of the tunnels and then back to the parking lot, where there are pit toilets and picnic tables available (there were people with walkers and strollers). The tunnels are impressive to say the least – how they cut into the mountain to level the ground and blast the rock to make sheer edges to form the tunnels’ and then the bridges of steel and wood over the gorge. There are signs along the way describing some of the engineering that went into building the tunnels and bridges. Walking along you can certainly get a sense of the challenges they must have faced. If you continue on, as we did, the trail continues onward and goes all the way to the town of Hope, or branches off, where there is a circular route back to the parking lot. This is another 3 km hike with some vertical climb and has great views over the surrounding areas, and as we discovered on a sign it was an ‘engineers mule road to Similkameen built in 1860’. We are walking on some long established routes. (if you want an easier hike, do this route in reverse which after the initial climb would be mostly downhill, then to the tunnels and gorge after).
After our trek, we leave the park and as we drive back we take note of the “Othello Campground & RV Park” just down the road. It is a short walk to the tunnels and looks nice and in a quiet area. I did a search and they have hook-ups and good rates.
A fun fact: The tunnels have been used in many films. Best known is the filming of First Blood, Sylvester Stallone’s first Rambo movie.