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Riding out of Prince George you're confronted quickly with the relentless monotony of the Interior Plateau's rolling forests, an arboreal grind broken only by the occasional lake and the grey silhouettes of distant low-hilled horizons. At VANDERHOOF , 98km down the highway, gentler patches of pasture begin to poke through the tree cover, but these do little to soften the impact of the town itself. An abrupt grid of garages and motels, it's best known for its July airshow and the more graceful aerial dynamics of thousands of Canadian geese at the nearby Nechako Bird Sanctuary . Before pushing on, grab a coffee at the OK Cafe , part of a fine collection of half-timbered heritage houses at the town's western end. If you get stuck, or would prefer to stay in the village rather than Prince George, there are cheap motels : the largest of them is the Grand Trunk Inn , 2351 Church Ave (tel 567-3188 or 1-877/567-3188; $40-60); or you could try the slightly more expensive Siesta Motel downtown on Hwy 16 (tel 567-2365 or 1-800/914-3388, tlobelle@yahoo.com ; $60-80). For camping , there's the Riverside Park Campground , overlooking the bird sanctuary at 3100 Burrard Ave (tel 567-4710; $14; May-Sept). The infocentre is at 2353 Burrard Ave (year-round; tel 567-2124 or 1-800/752-4094, chamber@hwy16.com ). Beyond here the ride becomes more verdant towards FORT FRASER , 50km beyond, a more attractive spot than Vanderhoof itself. If you're camping , hold out for the provincial site at Beaumont Provincial Park (tel 565-6340; $15), 3.5km to the west, whose meadow site falls away gently to Fraser Lake. The lake has a seasonal infobooth on Hwy 16 at Empire Street (late June to early Sept daily 9am-7pm; tel 690-7733, ffcc@hwy16.com ). Beyond Burn's Lake the scenery picks up still more, as if preparing for the mountains in the distance, though the run of villages continues to offer little but places to fill either the tank or the stomach. If you're going as far as to stay in this region, aim for the Douglas Motel (tel 846-5679, www.monday.com/douglasmotel ; $80-100), on the banks of the Bulkley River, just 150m out of the unspoilt hamlet of TELKWA , 10km east of Smithers. If you do stay, be sure to take a few minutes to stroll up the riverfront street of heritage buildings and its handsome brown-and-white, wood-planked pioneer museum . SMITHERS , the largest place after Prince George (370km to the east), is focused on a single main crossroads on Hwy 16, with an infocentre nearby at 1411 Court St (year-round; tel 847-5072 or 1-800/542-6673, www.bulkley.net/~smichan ) and a big Super-Valu supermarket for supplies on the junction itself. If you're overnighting here - and there's plenty of accommodation - ignore the brace of motels on the road and settle for the big white-timbered Hudson Bay Lodge (tel 847-4581 or 1-800/663-5040, www.hudsonbaylodge.com ; $80-100) outside the village as you enter from the east. If this is out of your budget, try the Florence Motel (tel 847-2678; $40-60) on the west side of town - it's half the price - or the Sandman Inn Smithers on Hwy 16, a block from Main Street, part of an invariably trustworthy chain (tel 847-2637 or 1-800/726-3626, www.sandman.ca ; $60-80).
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