Kelowna Travel Forum

Anyone know if there's an alternate route from princeton to hope that doesn't involve Allison Pass? Mapblast is showing one but it's been known to invent roads. Let me know at xxshinsan1@yahoo.comxx (remove the x's) Thanks!

You can take hwy 5a North from Princeton to 97C then West to Merritt then hwy 5 to Hope. This is about an hour longer than hwy 3 (and hwy 5 is a toll hwy $15/car I think) but it is a very nice drive.

just a correction, the toll fee is $10 for a vehicle (as of last week when i drove it)

Oh the joys of Allison Pass!

Hwy 3 is the only direct highway between Princeton and Hope, otherwise, as previously suggested, take Hwy 5a. The first part of the drive north of Princeton will take you on a 2 line, very narrow, curvy cliff-side road overlooking the Tulameen River. You'll enter the historic mining town of Coalmont and the small lakeside community of Tulameen. Then the road heads along the western shore of Otter Lake before turning into a gravel road at the base of steep mountains whose cliffs are lined with loose rocks - somewhat scary-looking!. The gravel road ends becomes paved again and it ends up taking you through farmland in the Nicola Valley before ending up in Merritt. From Merritt you'd then back down the Coquihalla, climbing hard at first before coasting your way back down to Hope at 110 km/h.

I stayed in Tulameen last summer and Allison Pass was brutal on the minivan that I drove. I contemplated taking the secondary route but it would have wasted more time.

Either route will still take you through the mountains, with the Coquihalla route being less curvy. Hwy 3 is more of really-fast-then-really-slow highway, as it's very twisty.

110 kmh on the Coquihalla? How do you not get run over?

My first trip over the Hope-Princeton Highway was in 1962 when I took my motorcycle over it (actually just a Lambretta scooter!) I've travelled many of the back roads around her in the early 70s as well. At one time, before the Coquihalla Highway was completed, you could travel the Hope-Aspen Grove route over the old Kettle Valley Raiway line, part of which is now the Coquihalla Highway.