Prince Rupert, Cancelled Ferry, and BC Wildfires (August 2018)

It is a 16 hour drive in the car without stopping to get to Prince Rupert, British Columbia from Edmonton, Alberta.  I've never driven that way before, but I wanted take the car ferry from there down to Vancouver Island.  This ferry travels along the Inside Passage, a beautiful trip with islands and pristine forests right down to the sea.  The ferry trip itself takes like 18 hours.  It starts at like 7 AM and arrives at 11 PM that same day.  We broke the drive up into two 8 hour driving days, stopping in Prince George for a night.  On the drive out we did see plenty of wildlife.  There were bighorn sheep, deer, elk, saw black bears twice, and the scenery was pretty.  Northern BC has more farmland than I realized, and it would be a great place to ride out the zombie apocalypse due to the isolation.

Mount Robson.

Elk

Black bear peaking head up to see the road.  It is in the middle of the shot.

That was the plan, but the ferry broke down with engine problems.  We were told there would be a delay and then they cancelled the ferry around 10 PM, the night before it was scheduled to leave the next morning.  There was room on the next ferry in two days for foot passengers, but not vehicles.  So, basically my trip itinerary to Victoria and Vancouver was completely messed up.  These ferries book up months in advance.  So guess what?  The ferries were all booked up.  This meant I would have to drive back out.
My advice to anyone wanting to try this trip is to take it from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert, rather than the way I went.  This way, if the ferry breaks down (there are no spare ships), it is only a 5 hour drive south to Victoria.  To get to Vancouver from Prince Rupert, it is a 17 hour non-stop drive in a big loop.  By the way, Prince Rupert is pretty close to Alaska to give you an idea of the vast distances involved.  I might try this trip again another year, but I might also take a cruise ship instead - might be way more reliable than the aging ferries on this route.

Bay on the way to Prince Rupert

Whale statue, Prince Rupert

Coal ship.  Prince Rupert is a busy container and coal port.

Restaurant, Prince Rupert

Prince Rupert, Cow Bay

Cruise ship docked in Prince Rupert

Statue, Mariner Park

Cow Bay Harbour

Prince Rupert is a nice little city.  We stayed at the Prestige Prince Rupert Hotel which had some very nice staff.  The hotel in Port Hardy was also very nice to allow us to cancel our stay at the last minute due to the ferry cancellation.  We stayed an extra day in Prince Rupert to tour the North Pacific Cannery, see the Museum of Northen British Columbia, and enjoy the tasty seafood here.  The fish and chips at Dolly's Fish Market and the original sushi at Fukusaku were excellent.  While we were having sushi, some fishermen arrived with some freshly caught fish for the chef who was happy to show us his new acquisitions.

Dolly's halibut and chips.

Fresh halibut was so moist and tasty.  Great fish and chips!

Fukusaku churashi

Avocado rolls with real crab and forest mushroom roll with torched mushrooms.  Both yummy.

We also visited the North Pacific Cannery historic site.  I've been to an old fish cannery before, but this one was kind of cool due to the isolated location on a river, and the history behind the place.  The multi-racial nature of the work staff was very interesting.  They employed Chinese, Japanese, and aboriginal workers for processing the fish, crewing fishing boats, maintenance of boats and nets, etc.

North Pacific Cannery

North Pacific Cannery - low tide.  The plant was right on the river as it provided both cooling and waste disposal when processing the fish.

Plenty of racism, but also more cooperation between the groups than you would expect.  Chinese food is still popular with the aboriginals and there was intermarriage between the groups. Management staff was of course European.

There is also a really nice little trail in Prince Rupert that runs along an old abandoned rail line.  You can still see tracks and the old track bed too. I highly recommend an evening walk on this trail as it is quite picturesque and it starts at the fishing harbour.  It follows the shoreline with views of the water.

Rushbrook Trail

Trail

Scenic views out.

Fishing harbour

One of several bridges.

Another fishing harbour.

On the way back out to Vancouver, the wildfires in BC started to take off.  This is the second worst fire season in BC since last year which was also bad.  The smoke from it is drifting all over western Canada.  While we were in Vancouver, the air was pretty good, but we drove by many forest fires this trip.

Driving into Prince George.  The big cloud of smoke we entered.

Red sun in Prince George.  The air was bad, but it got worse later.

We missed the day where the morning sky was pitch black in Prince George from all the smoke, but I'm just happy we made it through all of the fires without mishap to get to Vancouver.  Road reports are great and we were never in any real danger, but boy was it ever smokey.

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