Sunday, September 11, 2011

Dunvegan Bridge

After a night just out of Grande Prairie, Alberta spent catching up with Mike and Janna’s adventures over the last 6 or so months since we crossed trails it was time to move on down the road. Our destination today was the Dunvegan Provincial Park right on the mighty Peace River. This is the location of a couple of fur trading posts as well as an Oblate Missionary Settlement. It is also the location that the Alberta government chose to install our only suspension bridge spanning the Peace River.

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The bridge was installed in 1960 at the then exorbitant cost of $5 million dollars. It was a way of opening up this Peace River country to the many settlers and resource industries that were arriving at the time. There is a great little Provincial Park here with about 60 odd sites all with electricity but no water or sewer. There is a dump station with potable water at the entrance though. We got a good site, big enough to fit both of our rigs.

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Today we decided that we should take a little tour of the country north of the river and see where a person who was so inclined might end up homesteading if he had made it up here in the 1960’s. The country out of the river valley here is quite flat and pretty consistently rich farmland so there are many large farms in the area with good crops, at least those that weren’t affected by the over abundance of rainfall this spring. We found a nice drive down to Many Islands park along the way that gave us a look into the Peace River Valley.

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Also in our travels we found an interesting church made out of square dovetailed logs that has sure stood the test of time.

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Then it was back to our campground in time to make sure Brenda got her Black Raspberry Cheesecake ice cream. In fact we had desert before supper just to make sure they didn’t close before we got down to the ice cream stand. Another great couple of days with great company.

8 comments:

  1. Such a beautiful area, great photos! Love the church!

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  2. gorgeous pics enjoy your visit together!!!!

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  3. What a wonderful place to camp and so great that you both fit on the same site together.

    That icecream sounds yummy... and why not before supper? That way you are sure to have enough room for dessert!

    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/

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  4. What a gorgeous little church ~ I would have loved that... Glad you guys are having fun together. I see one of the coaches smiling ~ LOL
    Have fun & Travel safe
    Donna

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  5. Yep, it sure does look like your rig is smiling. Great shot looking down the Peace River Valley.

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  6. when we crossed the "mighty" Peace River south of Fort Nelson, my heart yearned to travel east along its path. "Peace River Country" has always held some kind of romantic notions for me. So glad to see your photos and I put that provincial park on my list!

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  7. Yes, it's very pretty country up there. Enjoy the adventure and the company too. Sounds like you are all having a good time.

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  8. Wow, what a great place to camp. Amazing countryside up thar. And amazing ice cream flavors, to boot!

    I like desert before super. Breaking the old routine once and a while clears the head. ;c)

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