RVing the
DEH CHO Route, with a side trip to Yellowknife
By Wilbur Collin, Edmonton AB Between August 3rd
and 15th , my wife Edith
and I traveled the DEH CHO Route with our RV rig. T e DEH CHO (which means Big River) is
properly named in that it transverses several of the largest rivers in Western Canada, including the Peace River, the Mackenzie River and the Laird River, all considerably
bigger than the North Saskatchewan River which runs through Edmonton. T e DEH CHO is a circular route through
North Western Alberta, the NWT, and North Eastern BC. Some of the main towns along the route are: Grande Prairie, Fairview, Valleyview, Peace River, Grimshaw and High Level in Alberta, plus Enterprise, Hay River, Fort Providence, Fort Simpson and Fort Laird in the North West Territories, and Fort Nelson, Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Hudson’s Hope and Chetwynd in British Columbia. Edith and I began our tour in Edmonton on Sunday, August 3rd
. Our rig consisted of a 30 RKS
Holiday Rambler Savoy fi ſt h wheel and a 2500 Dodge Ram truck and our fi rst stop was in the Lions RV Park in Peace River. T is park is run by a very friendly retired RCMP who taught me two new card games! T e following day (Monday) we traveled north
from Grimshaw to High Level, AB, where we stayed in the excellent Aspen Ridge Campground, and later drove to Fort Vermilion which has the distinction of being “where Alberta began in 1788” with the establishment of a trading post. Fort Vermilion is surrounded by good farmland and excellent crops, which are a joy to see by an old farmer like me. From High Level we traveled north stopping at the well-stocked 60th
Parallel Visitor’s Centre,
and then north toward Enterprise, stopping at
the Twin Falls Gorge Park. T e Twin Falls
Gorge contains two spectacular falls, slightly over one km apart. Our fi rst sop was a viewpoint overlooking the three-tiered Louise Falls. From the viewpoint we took a metal spiral staircase 100 steps down and a wooden staircase 135 steps down to the crest of the falls where the Slave River drops 50 feet into the gorge. From there we proceeded along a path to Alexandra Falls, which is even more spectacular than Louise Falls – which drops another 50+ feet into the gorge. Next we drove on into Hay River where we
stayed in the Hay River Territorial Park, which is one of four Territorial Parks in which we stayed during our trip. We stayed in them more or less because there is almost nowhere else to camp, except in very primitive campgrounds. We had made a reservation via the Internet, a month earlier. From Hay River we backtracked to Enterprise.
Just north of Enterprise we stopped to view the spectacular Lady Evelyn Falls near Kakisa River. T e falls can be viewed by walking down a staircase to a platform just above the falls.
26 RVT 156 • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
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