BC Pelicans: advice on highway 6?

[oldE]

Hey BC Pelicans!

I'll be in the mountains of beautiful British Columbia again this summer, (sadly, not in the old E). I am slowly covering a few of the roads through the mountains on my trips from Calgary to Victoria. I've been down 23 & 6 from Revelstoke to South Slocan about 5 years ago, but this summer have been thinking of going west at Nakusp through 6 to Vernon.

Has anyone any advice about this road in terms of condition, scenery, unique spots? I'll have folks with me in a rented Toyota, so any 'canyon carving' will be at a whittling pace.

I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks

Les

[oldE]

Five months later, the answer is: WOW, what a road!

From Nakusp, south along the upper Arrow lake (part of the Columbia river), the road starts out ho-hum, then has to grab onto the side of the mountain to get to lower Arrow lake. The first clue of what awaited on the other side of the lake should have been the 6 motorcycles parked on the deck of the cable-ferry to Needles. They let them off first.

I was lucky most of the traffic was easily dispatched or stopped in the small valley a couple of miles in. Then the road, fairly new and graced with passing lanes, started climbing the pass. 3/4 of the way up, I met a camper towing a small car and had a sympathetic thought for the driver, who had had an hour or so of this. Hah! I didn't know the half of it!

Less than a minute later, the road was no longer new. It was in good condition, but I don't think a highway engineer in the Western Hemisphere has carved out anything like that in 50 years. Imagine taking a topo-map and a template that looks like a small letter 'U' and, flipping it over and over using that to scribe a road along the shoulder of the mountain. For fifteen minutes after that, there was no traffic, just me and the mountain and my wife, bravely hanging on through a tight winding series of corners. A Lotus would have been an appropriate tool. She wimpered once, as we zipped by a spot where the only thing beyond the gap in the guardrail were the tops of some trees hanging on to the slope below. Twice, past the summit, she pointed out the downhill-right-hand hairpin coming up (quickly) was posted at 20 kph.

As you come out of the pass, the road runs through farming country and about a half-dozen golf courses before it gets to the Okanogan Valley at Vernon.

The town of Vernon publishes a map book, in which they suggest a 'Sunday Drive' which starts on this road and goes East. If you do it, Go West, Young Man.

Les

[jeffgrant]

Yes, that is a phenomenal road. A few of us make yearly treks to them there parts to have some fun.

[notfarnow]

Nice to hear from you Les, hope you're having a good visit out west.