Search for B.C.'s best roadside attraction: Southwest B.C. finals

Search for B.C.'s best roadside attraction: Southwest B.C. finals

Shannon Falls meets Othello Tunnels in the Southwest B.C. finals

It's a clash of natural titans. Drama on a geological timescale. Danger at your car door sill. And all sanctioned by the provincial government.

Just two kilometres south of Squamish off the Sea-to-Sky Highway, gushing water thunders down a cliff taller than the Eiffel Tower. Tourists can take it all in while munching a jambon-beurre in the picnic area, if they like.

"You can see the waterfall when you drive past on the highway," said hiking guidebook writer Taryn Eyton of Shannon Falls. "You don't even have to stop if you don't want to."

Meanwhile, at the Othello Tunnels, a 10-minute drive from downtown Hope, danger is defined by the power of the Coquihalla River slicing through solid granite bedrock. Dynamite was used to blast open the five tunnels in 1914.

The Othello Tunnels blend natural and human history. Like Shannon Falls, they're an easy walk from a parking lot. But easy access doesn't make them tame.

"A lot of these landmarks and spaces involve contemplation of perhaps danger, of something falling on you, of you going off the road," said Ben Bradley, author of British Columbia by the Road: Car Culture and the Making of a Modern Landscape. "That sense of the sublime adds an element of danger, of adventure, to every trip."

Together, these two provincial parks represent a second era in B.C.'s roadside attraction evolution.

Search for B.C.'s best roadside attraction: Southwest B.C. semifinals

From private to public roadside attractions

Half of the candidates still in the running fall inside provincial parks or provincial historic sites, most of which emerged after the Second World War with the rise of the middle class, according to Bradley.

They follow in the footsteps of the more firmly established private-enterprise attractions that ushered in the era of auto-tourism at the turn of the 20th century.

For Bradley, the publicly funded attractions have a good chance of outlasting their private cousins. The commercial attractions may be more firmly established, but "they're a bit less durable."

Search for B.C.’s Best Roadside Attraction: Round of 16 Wrap

"They don't have quite as much capacity for persistence as ones that are managed by a government. They have the expertise, they have finances, they have the legal powers to look after a waterfall, to protect a tall stand of timber."

The question now is: Which of these public park attractions will persist beyond the Southwest B.C. finals for a shot at provincial glory?

And now, they're facing off in the Southwest B.C. finals as CBC British Columbia continues a summer tradition — which has previously determined the province's best small town, lake and symbol — in the Search for B.C.'s Best Roadside Attraction, where readers vote in a bracket and weigh in on an aspect of the province's identity.

In today's matchup in the Search for B.C.'s Best Roadside Attraction, Shannon Falls takes on the Othello Tunnels in the Southwest B.C. finals.

Voting takes place every week in August from Monday to Thursday, with one region represented on each voting day.

A champion will be crowned from the final four before Labour Day.

Voting is open until 8 p.m. PT on Tuesday. Cast your ballot — and may the best roadside attraction win.

Sophie Woodrooffe is a journalist and radio producer at CBC Vancouver. Reach her at sophie.woodrooffe@cbc.ca.

With files from CBC's The Early Edition and Justin McElroy