Road Tripping Part 2 - Skywatch Friday

Hello friends & fellow bloggers,

Last week I shared some photos of the drive to Kamloops from Vancouver, BC. In this post we continue our journey with a peek at Kamloops from the lookout.  

The lookout provides a very beautiful view but on this day the smoke from wildfires burning to the west, obscured the city below and across the river.

The smoke on most of the return trip was not as bad but I suspect it's worse now.  More fires are burning and there has been a lot of fire destruction in several places to the west and the east of Kamloops.  It's very sad. Firefighters have arrived from Mexico & I think Australia to help our firefighters fight the blazes.

Near the Fraser River at Hope, BC

Near Chilliwack, BC

Farming fields of Chilliwack, BC

Passing through Surrey, BC on the way to Vancouver

 

Approaching the Port Mann Bridge.

I'm always happy to get back home safe and sound. Thank you for stopping by my Skywatch Friday post.

Update:  On Saturday, Premier David Eby declared a state of emergency in the province due to new, very fast moving wild fire situation.

B.C.'s wildfire service warns the conditions are explosive and unlike anything they've ever seen before.(Yahoo News August 8, 2026)

Road Trip - Part 1

Hello friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas  Day however you spent it.

I love Christmas but I always feel good when the day has passed.  I can take time to relax and catch up on some rest.

These photos are taken on our road trip from Vancouver to Kamloops for a Christmas  visit with a loved one. I thought it would be interesting to share the scenery along the way. 

First up is a map to orient ourselves.

Our drive begins in Vancouver (near the top of the yellow area on the left). We are driving along the 'green line' (Highway 1) past Surrey, Langley and Abbotsford to Chilliwack and beyond.

Here is a map of the entire province British Columbia on the left and Alberta on the right with cities like Grande Prairie, Edmonton, Calgary and world famous parks like Jasper and Banff 

We left around 7 a.m. and it was still dark.

As we reached and passed  Chilliwack, there was a lot of low lying fog.  The entire southern coast and Fraser Valley have been experiencing a lot of heavy rain (atmospheric rivers) in the coastal areas of British Columbia (like the states of Washington and California).   There has also been a lot of flooding and evacuations and you could see that the fields still have a lot of water in them.

I'll be sharing more photos of the scenic drive in future posts. I apologize in advance as I did not get photos of the actual towns and cities for the most part. It's rather hard to do that without stopping and we were trying to beat the bad weather.

Thank you for stopping by my Skywatch Friday post. I hope to visit yours soon.