About Quesnel
Quesnel grew up in the 1860s as a supply town for the Cariboo Gold Rush, when tens of thousands of fortune-seekers poured up the Fraser River toward the goldfields of Barkerville. Today it's a warm, unhurried riverside town — log-truck country with hanging flower baskets — and for Rocky Mountaineer guests on the Rainforest to Gold Rush route, the overnight stop that gives the journey its name.
The town greets the train's arrival like an event (locals often turn out to wave it in), and its riverfront walk, pioneer museum, and gold-pan-shaped welcome sign lean happily into the heritage. History buffs with time to spare can venture to Barkerville, the remarkably preserved gold-rush boomtown an hour east, where costumed interpreters keep the 1860s alive on the original main street.
Pavlus Recommendations
How our planners would spend a day in Quesnel.
Walk the Riverfront Trail
An easy loop along the Fraser and Quesnel Rivers crosses one of the world's longest wooden-truss footbridges — evening light on the water is the town at its best.
Meet the gold-rush past
The Quesnel & District Museum's Cariboo Gold Rush collection — and the giant gold pan by the highway — tell the story of the stampede that built the Cariboo.
Cheer the train in
Quesnel is famous among Rocky Mountaineer guests for its welcome — locals waving the train into town. Wave back; you're part of a tradition.