Moving from Quebec to the west coast and driving from Quebec City to Vancouver from the 22nd to the 28th. We don’t have a huge amount of time for stops, and we definitely want to hit up the Royal Tyrrell museum in Drumheller.
What would you folks suggest as must-see stops along the way? Campsites, lunch stops, places we could spend fifteen minutes or an hour along the way? We’ll be visiting a few friends in Winnipeg and either Calgary or Edmonton; there’s only about an 80km difference between hitting Ottawa (which my daughter has never seen) vs Abitibi (which neither of us has visited). My current thought is to drive hard at the beginning to get through Ontario and the prairies, and take it a bit slower through the west since there’s so much natural beauty to see.
Thanks in advance for ideas!
Are you going through Toronto or taking the 417 around it? If you’re going through TO, hit the Science Centre. It may be your last chance to see it before Ford destroys it - he wants to tear it down and build a smaller version on the waterfront. And there’s also the Big Apple which is a fun little pie-shop with a giant apple-painted water-tower in Colbourne. But that route would only make sense if you’re going through the USA until like Manitoba (in that case: Milennium Park in Chicago).
If you’re taking the 417 through Ontario, I strongly recommend Science North in Sudbury, which is an amazing science museum your kid will love. There’s also the Big Nickel Mine there which is a mine converted into a museum of mining, if you’ve ever wanted to go down into a mine.
But most of these are afternoon activities, not little “20 minute stops”.
Thanks for this! We’re definitely giving Toronto a miss, going down there would add a good 10 hours to the drive (we’re going through Canada, not the states). We’re on the fence about going through Ottawa or crossing the border up near Royn/Temiskaming which would take us way north of Sudbury. My childhood friend who lives in Ottawa just got back to me that he’ll be out of town when where there, and I do know some people in Royn. But you do make a good point about enjoying the Canadian Shield while we can. We can’t draw the trip out too much because the Mrs is flying with the baby and I don’t want to leave her single parenting for too long. But we have left a couple days for sightseeing; Vancouver actually isn’t our final destination, but I have family there so we’ll stop in and spend a day with them.
Ah, right, I hadn’t even thought about going that way around - that’s way north of the parts of Ontario I know. But it makes sense - that’s also part of the Trans Canada, and it’s probably closer to as-the-crow-flies.
Yeah, it’s only about 80km shorter than going through Ottawa, so it’s pretty close either way, but I guess we’d be less likely to hit traffic up north than in the Capital :)
If you do go up by Témiskaming, you might check out Parc National d’Opémican, which is an old lumber site with historic buildings. It’s just outside of the town. There isn’t a huge amount there, but it’s all brand new and makes a decent place to stop, take in the lake, and get out to move around a bit.
Neat, thanks!