Over the Gray Pass

The next morning we left our trailer at the provincial park and drove to Kootenay Lake where we'd been invited to stay with friends at their cabin north of Creston.

Unencumbered by our trailer, we decided to take the "shortcut" through the Gray Pass west of Kimberly rather than south through Creston.

Since we found this route through a 15 year-old Backroads Mapbook, we thought we should check in at the Kimberley tourist info to see about the road conditions.  She hadn't ever heard about it, but was able to confirm online via the Forest Service website that it was open. We were a bit worried when the only traffic going by was dirt bikes, but it turned out that though the road was rough and potholes it wasn't very treacherous ( and we did cross paths with several pickups later on.

Heading up the pass

Trusty Ram in the pass

Views from the top

When we got to the top of the pass someone was camped in the forest rec site with a trailer!  We certainly wouldn't have taken ours up there.

In the end it took as long to take the "shortcut" as the long way, but it was an adventure.

When we were almost all the way down we passed a truck and trailer stopped on the road with his hood up (probably overheated).  We suggested he probably didn't want to take his trailer up the pass.  We hope he found a place to turn around.

This road is part of the Trans Canada Trail so it's good we drove it since I wouldn't want to take a bike up those steep grades.