"Long & Winding Road: Discovering the Pleasures and Treasures of Highway 97"
by Jim Couper
Highway 97 winds from Weed, California, to the Yukon border-a distance of 3,200 kilometres (2,042 miles), making it North America's longest south-north roadway. In Oregon and Washington, it takes you through lava beds and deserts, arid uplands and forests, orchards and vineyards. Above the Canadian border, roadside vegetable and fruit stands abound en route to B.C.'s sunny Okanagan, home to 60 outstanding wineries. Turquoise lakes, mighty rivers and marble canyons can be seen as one moves north to the historic Cariboo region, where endless trout lakes, rolling ranchland, gold-rush lore and friendly people make it a land for all seasons. And then there's the raw, untamed north, a frontier unto itself.