Barkerville

Yesterday afternoon we settled the Winnebago into a nice shaded campsite at Robert's Roost RV Park in Quesnel and took the afternoon off to relax.  

This morning, Saturday, August 2nd, we departed the campsite in the Jeep headed for the old mining town of Barkerville.  On the way out of town we made a stop at the local Farmer's Market and picked up a nice wild blueberry pie for dessert tonight. 

Our first stop on the way to Barkerville was at the old Cottonwood Roadhouse established in 1864 to serve the miners heading for gold country in what was to become Barkerville.  

Cottonwood Roadhouse

Barn at Cottonwood Roadhouse

As we walked from the Jeep to the roadhouse we captured some images of the wild flowers growing in the area.  I guess we will need to purchase another wildflower book as the ones we have don't include what we are finding as we move further south.

Lilac Colored Flower

Red Flower

Blue Flower

Orange Flower

Scarlet Paintbrush

Fringed Grass of Parnusus

We did eventually make it to our target destination of Barkerville a gold strike town from 1861 which has been restored to look like it did back then.  It is much larger and more well done than I expected with a lot of interpretive talks and tours.

Main Street Barkerville

Covered Wagon on Main Street

People dressed in period costumes present stories about what happened in Barkerville during the gold rush days.  They are both informative and entertaining.  The miner below explained and demonstrated how they used the Cornish Water Wheel to provide power to pump water for the sluice and to lift buckets from the underground mine.

Miner

Cornish Water Wheel

We decided to drive up to the Bowron Lakes about 18 miles up the road from Barkerville to check out the canoe trip possibilities.  About half way there we came unto a nice Grizzly bear on the road.  

Grizzly on the Road

We also saw five or six dear on this adventure (we are back i the land of sunsets and deer) but I was too slow to get any photographs of any of them.

The Bowron Lakes canoe loop is a rectangular series of lakes that create an 80 mile long canoe trail that takes seven to ten days to complete.  I read about this area years ago and have always wanted to do the loop.  Maybe I still can.

We had some rain during the day but by the time we returned to the motorhome the sun was shining.