Williams Lake to Ten Mile Lake Provincial Park—June 9, 2010

We didn’t travel far this day. We drove north to Quesnel. Every hostess at the last 2 visitor centers where we stopped said we had to visit Barkerville. Barkerville is 50 miles northeast of Quesnel—one road in, one road out. Bob and I checked the map and decided to spend our first night in a provincial park. 10 Mile Lake Provincial Park was located just north of the turn-off for Barkerville

We parked the rv in a great campsite and headed for Barkerville.

On the way we stopped to view historical markers.

We also saw our first bears. We saw four along the road to Barkerville….

….and one moose.

Before reaching Barkerville, we stopped at Cottonwood House which served travelers going to the gold fields.

Then it was on to Barkerville. The town is a well preserved mining town from the 1862 gold rush. It is named after Billy Barker who found gold on the nearby creek.

Quesnel has a celebration every July to celebrate Billy Barker and his contribution to the area.

In fact, just before you turn on the road to Barkerville from Quesnel, you see the world’s largest gold pan.

Bob and I celebrated our anniversary at Barkerville and Quesnel. We had lunch at the bakery and when we returned to Quesnel, we had A & W rootbeer floats!

Thursday morning we hiked the trails in the park. We found 2 geocaches along the way. The trails in the park are used for hiking in the summer and cross country skiing the rest of the year.

We left the park and headed toward Dawson Creek. We had no plans on where to stop for the night.