The deep South Coastals loop, an hour from the city.

Whistler, Lillooet, Seton Portage, D'Arcy, the Birkenhead and back through Pemberton. You leave the Sea to Sky corridor with the tourists in the mirrors, then spend a week in the rain shadow country behind it: canyon roads, bench lands, and lakes that look photoshopped..

Ferries, inlets, and forest roads to Powell River.

Up the coast the slow way. Two ferries, a string of inlets, and mainline networks running behind the whole coastline that the beach traffic never finds.

The three-day escape built for Vancouver locals.

Straight from the city, around the lake, and home changed. The full circuit of Harrison's west and east sides runs rougher than people expect and better than they hope: bluffs over the lake, creek camps, and the 4WD association's maintained rec sites without a reservation system in sight..

Halfway, St. Leon, Ainsworth, soak, drive, repeat.

The Kootenays' worst-kept secret, run properly: Halfway River, St. Leon, Ainsworth, and all the way down to Whiteswan and Lussier.

Revelstoke to Trail and around, at expedition pace.

The classic Kootenay line the ski magazines named, run in the green months when the passes open and the towns exhale. Revelstoke, the Slocan, Nelson, Trail, and back around: ten days of lake ferries, silver-rush ghost towns, and enough mountain culture to make you check real estate listings..

Fernie, Sparwood, and up the Elkford valley to the Whiteswan connection.

From the edge of Frank Slide across to Cranbrook the long way. Up the Elk Valley past the big trucks' bigger cousins, through Elkford, and over the Whiteswan Lake connection where the Rockies stop being scenery and start being terrain.

Banff to Jasper, zero compromise on views.

Booked campgrounds the whole way, national park rules, and the single most famous mountain road on the continent out the windshield. Lake Louise, Yoho, Saskatchewan Crossing, the Cline, up to Edith Cavell.

Coleman to Hinton the long way, a founder favourite.

From the Crowsnest, Highway 40 runs essentially forever: Ram Falls, the wilderness areas, and hundreds of kilometres of almost nobody the whole way to Hinton. This is the front-range Alberta nobody markets: bighorn on the road, brook trout in the creeks, and gravel horizons that reset your sense of scale.