HIGHWAY HIGHLIGHTS
Sights along the Trans-Canada
The Trans-Canada Highway is an awesome drive, filled with both wonderful and slightly odd sights. Here’s a look at a few places where you should stop.
Newfoundland: The eastern end (or beginning) of the TCH starts in St. John’s, where you’ll find colourful houses lining the rocky coast of the harbour. You can take a great walk from there to the top of Signal Hill, where a couple years ago I spotted a military guy firing off a symbolic round of blanks in recognition of the city’s first cruise ship of the year.
Nova Scotia: Just a few miles off the TCH near Baddeck is a pretty community called Plaster Cove. You reach it by the Little Narrows Ferry and then make a leisurely drive past small farms overlooking massive Bras d’Or Lake. Once you reach Plaster Cove you’ll find a pretty bay with a large, sandy headland off to one side. More intriguing is a small model of a church, with tiny cemetery crosses and a picket fence.
New Brunswick: Potato World (potatoworld.ca/home.html) is a funky roadside attraction just a few seconds off the TCH in New Brunswick. You’ll find displays on the importance of the potato to the New Brunswick economy, as well as hands-on bits where you can try hand-cutting potatoes for french fries or moving a massive, 75-kg barrel filled with spuds.
Quebec: Pull off the TCH at Quebec City and take time to enjoy the most charming city in North America. Stop in at the new 1608 Wine and Cheese bar at the Fairmont Château Frontenac (fairmont.com/frontenac-quebec) for a drink and some Quebec treats, then check out Rue du Petit Champlain, perhaps the most scenic street in the city. For something different, try a ghost tour. A city that’s more than 400 years old should have a few.
Ontario: Two hugely popular roadside attractions loom in northern Ontario. One is the famous Wawa Goose, a bountiful bird who’s been undergoing restoration due to rust and a leaking underbelly. She’s still on display as locals seek to raise money for a new one. A few kilometres along the road is the town of White River, where you’ll find a statue of Winnie the Pooh. The real Winnie was a black bear cub orphaned when her mother was killed by a hunter in the area in 1914. She ended up at the London Zoo, where she inspired a boy named Christopher Robin Milne to name his toy bear Winnie. Christopher’s father, A.A. Milne, then wrote his famous Winnie the Pooh stories. Manitoba: The Bridge Drive-In (BDI) ( bridgedrivein.com) is a Winnipeg institution, a place where they make a dish called Goog, which features ice cream, blueberries and more. Folks take their ice cream and stroll across the nearby bridge over the Red River. When I was there I asked folks what the name of the bridge was. They all told me it’s simply called the BDI Bridge. “But the Bridge Drive-In is named after the bridge,” I said. “What’s the name of the bridge?” Again, all I got was “The BDI Bridge,” which would mean the bridge is named after an ice cream shop that’s named after a bridge whose name nobody knows. (I later found out it’s called the Elm Park Bridge.) Saskatchewan: The waterfront on Saskatoon’s South Saskatchewan River has been revitalized and there are cool restaurants and galleries in the Riversdale area. On the south side of the river near the Broadway Bridge you’ll find a series of rocks painted by locals with everything from Mickey Mouse faces to testaments of never-ending love. Alberta: Small town museums in Canada are delightful. That certainly holds true for the small one in Canmore. One of the top displays focuses on Mary Rodda, a tiny woman who ran the rough and tumble Canmore Hotel for 16 years, often preventing drunk customers from starting a brawl by standing on a chair and keeping them at bay. Once you’ve explored the museum, head out and admire the stunning local scenery. British Columbia: An artist in Revelstoke began making fairy tale figures out of cement back in the 1950s. More than a halfcentury later, visitors to what’s now called the Enchanted Forest (enchantedforestbc.com) take great delight in the colourful tree houses, castles and statues based on everything from Humpty Dumpty to the cow who jumped over the moon.