And believe me, there was some praying involved.

In spring and summer or fall, this road is usually pretty good, but even couple of times driving in the summertime can be pretty scary when it is raining or when the fog comes out. In the winter time, there are at least 400-500 accidents and a lot of fatalities.

The dangerous and dramatic Coquihalla Highway is the main reason for the very popular reality series "The Highway Thru Hell" which is about the rescue and heavy towing services of James Davis and his dedicated 40 employees from Hope who uses his rescue services on Coquihalla Highway and many more.

We have always tried to avoid this highway, even when we travel to Vancouver at least 4 times a year, we will use the Highway 3, mainly because the speed limit in the Coquihalla is 120 km/hr and people just drive way over the speed limits and you never know what the weather will be like. The highway climbs up the mountain at an elevation of 1,244m which is (4,081 ft) above the sea level and all you can see from the sides is cliffs, which are pretty scary.

The reason we decided to take this road to Prince George was that we had a family emergency and we wanted to make it on time and all the snow was melted in Penticton and we checked the weather conditions and everything seemed clear and it is a bit faster to travel through Coquihalla. Let's just say we thought we were ready to take on the road and deal with sno fall etc. but what we have experienced was like nothing I have ever seen and we seriously thought we might not make it.

To make things way worse, we had to drive at night time, which we are not very fond of, but we left as soon as we could and it was important for us to get to Prince George on time, which we had not much of.
Everything started just fine, not much snow, on the roads, you can see everything clear and the more we drove up the mountain out of the sudden this huge fog came upon us, which made it impossible to see, so we just drove following the white line on the road. After few minutes it started snowing and then the roads were white covered with snow and we could not see anything at all. We kept on driving very, very slow since we couldn't see anything. I was just watching my right side, making sure that we will not hit the snow wall on the side so that we will not go off the cliff since a good part of the highway is just the road and cliffs.
Nowhere to stop because if there is someone driving behind you, they will not see you and will hit you. There is nowhere to turn around, and the only option you have to keep on moving.
I was never so scared in my life and that was the first and the last time we have driven through the Coquihalla.
After about 30 minutes, the fog cleared up, and we were on our way with no further delays.

We have always heard of how dangerous this highway is, but we just thought it was really because people just drive too fast or because of the snow and we heard about the fog too, but nothing like we have seen. Lesson learned. And I would just like to warn people if you are ever thinking of driving through Coquihalla Highway in wintertime, please don't. This really is Highway Thru Hell and now I know why there are so many accidents and deaths. You don't have to be speeding or driving crazy to get into an accident on this highway, it's mostly the nature and how high and steep this highway is and there is not much if any place to stop and rest.

Please be prepared to drive through this highway which is actually a strong recommendation, not only in the winter time but also in the summertime where the fog is also very active and so are the heavy rains. Make sure you have a reliable vehicle with lots of gas and if you are driving in winter, make sure you have some extra food and water, warm clothes etc. since it gets up to -30°C in the wintertime. There are no gas stations out there, there are no stores, there are no people living up there, it's just you and the mountain and cliffs and ditches.

If you are driving in the summertime your vehicle should be very reliable since because of the steep inclines and declines, the vehicles overheat, or the transmissions get hot and fail sometimes and also make sure your brakes are good to go to. These are the recommendations from James Davis who has experienced all which includes the avalanche that closes the road or vehicle pileup or just the waist deep snow and because there is no help nearby, you have to rely on your own smarts to survive.