The Othello Tunnels - Coquihalla Canyon Park, BC

Have you ever driven a highway so many times that you forget that the signs represent real places? Like, instead they just become goal posts and you kind of never think that they actually signify a geological place on a map versus just a tick on the countdown to your final destination?

This happens to me all the time - and it's usually because we're in a hurry to get somewhere. Logically, I realize that most people wouldn't be stopping at these places either - like why would you stop in the middle of nowhere?

I'll tell you why you sometimes should...

The stretch of Yellowhead Highway 5 between Kamloops and Vancouver is called the Coquihalla and is notoriously dangerous to drive, especially in the winter. It's about a three and a half to four hour drive and it's one that almost everyone in Kamloops does maybe once a year. 

Some of the goal post signs and stops along the way are Comstock Road, Britton Creek, "the snowshed", and finally, the Othello Tunnels. 

When we'd approach this last sign we always knew it signified the bottom of the big ol' hill out of the Cascade mountains, and that you were almost to Hope and the lower mainland. It marked the end of the big scary highway section, but that's it. I didn't think it was anything other than a road in the middle of nowhere. 

My college roommate and I were travelling from Kamloops to Vancouver to look for apartments. We'd just graduated from University and it was time to move to the big city and find a real job. Or whatever it is you're supposed to do as a fully formed adult person. 

After successfully renting a place, on our way back to Kamloops, my roommate made a spontaneous turn off the highway and into a parking lot right at the Tunnels sign. 

"What are we doing here?" I asked

She just smiled and said "I've been dying to see this place."

Puzzled, I cocked an eyebrow and made some kind of "huh?" noise, while looking around a surprisingly busy parking lot. This was not what I was expecting - I thought it would be a service road, or some kind of logging route...

I don't think I've ever been so wrong in my assumptions before in my life. 

First there is a leisurely path walking along a raging river through mossy trees. It was a gorgeous sunny day so you could see the patterns of light dancing off the ferns and the beams of sunlight piercing through the canopy to illuminate all the green. 

Then suddenly you turn a corner and things are different. Rocks suddenly dominate everything

These tunnels are part of an old railway system that used to connect the Kootenays to the Coast, and they've since been converted to a walking path. When you walk through these, I'm telling you, there is nothing closer to what I imagine walking into the Mines of Moria feels like. It smells like deep earth, there are mysterious drips and rivulets of water collecting in random areas, and it echoes. There's a sense of wrongness that a giant hole was drilled through something so permanent. 

At the same time, when you emerge from the tunnels and look into the Coquihalla Canyon, it is some of the most magical views I've ever seen. 

If you ever find yourself on a sunny day, driving down the Coquihalla and you want to get out and stretch your legs - I cannot recommend this enough.