What to See and Do on the Yellowhead Route #16
The Yellowhead Route follows the #16 Highway from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. It covers over a thousand kilomtres of wide open Prairie across three provinces, and then almost a thousand kilometres of mountopus terrain in northen British Columbia. The route ends with a ferry crossing finishes on Haida Gwaii (previously named the “Queen Charlotte Islands”).
In Manitoba the Yellowhead Highway meanders along the northern portions of the prairie grassands and farms, with the southern edge of the Canadian Shield and the Boreal Forest nearby in Riding Mountain National Park. The entire Manitoba stretch of the Yellowhead Route is two-lanes, except for the portion that shares the same route and is dual numbered #1/#16 on the Trans-Canada between Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie.
The Yellowhead Route runs the same route as the #1 main route from Winnipeg west to Portage la Prairie. From there it begins its northwest meander through communities like Gladstone, Neepawa, Minnedosa, Shoal Lake, and Russell just south of Riding Mountain National Park.
The Yellowhead Route then crosses into Saskatchewan through Yorkton, and passes through Saskatoon. In eastern Saskatchewan, the Yellowhead passes by or near a number of large lakes that break up the prairies, which makes smaller communities both charming and liveable. Communities like Wynyard, Simpson, Melville, and Foam Lake.
From Saskatoon, the Yellowhead continues northwest through North Battleford, and the bi-provincial city of Lloydminster. Lloydminster is known for both its heavy oil production (in a profitable region that extends northwest into Alberta up to Cold Lake and to Fort MacMurray) and for straddliong the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. This western part of Saskatchewan’s Yellowhead Route, betwen Saskatoonand the Alberta border at Lloydminsteris twinned.
As it crosses Alberta, the Yellowhed passes through some of Alberta’s most productive farmlands. This area has a lower elevation, and is much wetter, and with better soils than most of the lands along the main route of the Trans-Canada Highway #1. In Alberta, the Yellowhead Route is a 4 lane divided (“twinned”) highway.
The Yellowhead passes through Vermillion, Vegreville (with lots of other interesting towns both north and south of the route). The Yellowhead Route continues west just north of Elk Island National Park and continues through the provincial capital of Edmonton.
Around Edmonton are a cluster of communities, each with an interestiog urban-rural vibe, an unique role in oil & gas production, and each with their own charms: Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc, Wetaskiwin, Ponoka, Redwater, St Albert, Stony Plain, Devon.
West of Edmonton it continues past Wabamun, with rolling foothills starting to grow ever bigger as you approach Hinton and Edson, including the Obed Summit. After leaving the prairies for the Rocky Mountains, you arrive at Jasper. a quaint and quiet tourist town from which you can see various highlights of Jasper National Park.
Yellowhead Highway at Yellowhead Lake, BC
Once the Yellowhead Highway crosses the Yellowhead Pass into British Columbia, you are in mountainous country the rest of the way. The Yellowhead passes by mighty Mount Robson (Canada’s highest peak in the southern Rockies) and then through McBride, Prince George, Fraser Lake, Burns Lake, Smithers, Terrace, and Prince Rupert.
From there, the Yellowhead Route continues on a 9 hour ferry ride to Haida Gwaii (fomerly the “Queen Charlotte Islands”) which is a beautiful island with many sections of old growth Pacific Rainforest still intact. The islands of Haida Gwaii lis 180 kilometres offshore fromPrince Rupert. And you can visit the communities of Skidegate, Port Clements, and Masset and experience Haida culture and lands.
Yellowhead Highway-Obed Summit near Edson
Near the hamlet of Obed, between Hinton and Edson on a summit of one of the foothills east of the Rockies. It is the highest point on the Yellowhead Highway, 33 m (108 ft) higher than Yellowhead Pass on the Continental Divide on the Alberta / British Columbia border at the west edge of Jasper National Park
Yellowhead Pass National Historic Site of Canada is one of the lowest elevation passes across the Continental Divide in the Northern Rockies.
Interestingly, most of the route in BC lies between 600m and 800 m above sea level, roughly between Houston in the West and Tete Jaune Cache in the East, just west of the BC-Alberta border. And After descending the foothills from the Rockies, the route has a gentle slope from Edmonton (800 m) to Yorkton (500 m), and east of Yorkton a swift downhill to Manitoba’s Hudson’s Bay Lowlands.
The Main Trans-Canada Route #1 (in the West) has several high points higher than those along the Yellowhead Route #16, as does the Crownest (Southern) Route #3 through southern Alberta and BC. In fact, the City of Calgary has parts (notably Nose Hill and Broadcast Hill are both over 1200m) that lie higher than Obed Pass.
The highest points of the #1 Main Trans-Canada are: Kicking Horse Pass (1627m), Scott Lake Hill (1440 m), Rogers Pass (1330m)
The highest points of the #3 Crowsnest Route are: Kootenay Pass (1775m), Bonanza Pass (1585m), Allison Pass (1342m), and Crownsest Psss (1310m)
Yellowhead Route #16
NOTE:
While the Yellowhead Route is considered PART of the Trans-Canada Highway network it is not THE Trans-Canada Highway.
