Driving Route 3 from Vancouver to the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

This article is part of the one-month road trip series, The Great Northwest North American Wine Road Trip, during which we'll visit wine countries in Oregon, British Columbia, and Washington. Follow along in real time on Twitter with the hashtag, #NWRoadTrip.

Wow: They tell you that British Columbia is incredibly beautiful, but you can't really fathom the snow-peaked mountains, rippling rivers, stunning rock formations, and picturesque farming towns until you've visited. From Vancouver, Power Strip, Sicko, and I, the Pillsbury Dutch Boy, took Route 1 to Route 3 and drive through the simply stunning countryside of northern Cascadia. The Cascade Mountains connect Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, and man are they pretty: 

Hope Slide: a huge portion of this mountain simply fell off in 1965

And if you look a little closer, you'll see the beautiful locals:

Typical British Columbia Folk

 
Seriously, the Cascade Mountain Ranges is the heart and soul that connects us in the Northwest, and the mountains play a key defining role in our wine and food culture. Here are a few more photos to inspire you to visit this part of the world. They begin in Vancouver and Richmond British Columbia and continue on along Route 3 through Manning Provincial Park to the Okanagan Valley. The next series of posts will be all about the amazing wine, food, and hotels in the Okanagan Valley:

Downtown Vancouver BC baby!

We lucked out with excellent weather

All food lovers must check out Granville Public Market when in Vancouver

Sadly, local cherries were still a couple weeks away

Where else other than Vancouver do you get a tree-topped buildings, sunny beaches, and snow-capped mountains?

Granville Public Market

These mountains surrounded us everywhere in the Richmond neighborhood

Then we took off on Route 3...

with pure, awesome scenery the entire way...

to arrive to Tinhorn Winery in the Okanagan Valley!

Potentially, some of the information in this article may have been obtained during a press trip funded by a Canadian tourism board, either the Richmond or Okanagan tourism boards, in particular.