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Hope (population: 6,185) is located at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley, a 25-minute drive east from Harrison Hot Springs, where Highways 1,3,5 and 7 all meet. It sits between the Cascade and Coast Mountain Ranges, at the confluence of the Fraser and Coquihalla Rivers. The city began as Fort Hope, a Hudson's Bay fur-trading post. The Gold Rush of 1858 brought thousands of settlers to the area. Today, the city is often referred to as "The Chainsaw Carving Capital of Canada" because of the 30 or more wood sculptures on display, carved by local artist Peter Ryan. Activities in Hope Aside from wood carvings, modern-day Hope is best known for its outdoor recreational opportunities, especially river rafting, hiking, fishing, soaring, horseback riding and cross-country skiing. Visit the Hope Museum for its exhibits on Simon Fraser, the fur-trade and gold rush days of Hope, Sto:lo artifacts and a restored gold concentrator. Further afield, the Yale Museum offers a taste of bygone days in Yale (northeast of Hope). Once a booming gold rush town of 30,000, with 17 saloons and 23 hotels, its population is now 250. St. John the Divine Church was built here in 1859, and is believed to be the oldest church in BC. Or venture into the Othello Quintette Tunnels. One of the world’s greatest engineering feats, this series of tunnels was blasted for the now defunct Kettle Valley Railway. Discover the site where the Rambo-series movie First Blood was filmed, and cross over the two bridges that span the spectacular Coquihalla Gorge. Just east of Hope on Highway 3, the remaining half of Johnson’s Peak, the Hope Land Slide is an irresistible draw. The peak came tumbling down into the valley in January 1965 46 million cubic feet of earth, rock and snow traveling at more than 160km/h (95mph).
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