Coquihalla Highway Cameras Live: Hwy 5 Hope to Merritt

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The Coquihalla (Highway 5) climbs from Hope to a summit at 1,244 m before it drops to Merritt, and it can be snowing at the top while it rains in Vancouver. These are the province's own DriveBC cameras, in driving order from the Portia chain-up past Zopkios, the summit and the Great Bear Snowshed to Merritt.

Live cameras from Hope to Merritt, south to north

Coming back to Vancouver: southbound views

Live stills from DriveBC, the Province of British Columbia's highway cameras (Open Government Licence – British Columbia). The page requests new stills every two minutes while visible. A successful load does not prove a recent capture: check the timestamp in the image. If DriveBC fails, a backup is shown only when its download was within the last ten minutes. Tap a camera to open it on DriveBC.

All Highway 5 cameras → Closures and delays Winter driving rules

How to read the Coquihalla cameras

• The summit group is the one that matters. Zopkios, the Coquihalla Summit camera and the Great Bear Snowshed sit together near the top. If the road surface is white there, expect snow on the whole climb, whatever the frames near Hope show.
• Portia and Box Canyon are chain-up areas. Their cameras show whether trucks are stopping to chain up, which is usually the first sign the pass is turning.
• Check the time stamped in each image. A frozen or old frame tells you nothing about the road now; open the camera on DriveBC if the time looks wrong.
• Driving back to Vancouver, look at the southbound row: the descent from Zopkios toward Hope is where you need the most room to stop.

Before you drive the Coquihalla in winter

• Winter tires or chains are the law on signed B.C. highways from 1 October, on most routes until 30 April. M+S or three-peak mountain snowflake tires; the details are on driving in Vancouver and B.C.
• Closures: crashes and avalanche control can close Highway 5. The road closures page lists current DriveBC events for the Coquihalla, Highway 1 and the Sea to Sky.
• Fuel: fill the tank before you leave Hope; gaps between stations are long enough to matter if a closure sends you round.
• If the Coquihalla is closed: Highway 3 through Manning Park toward the Okanagan, or Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon toward Kamloops. Check both for closures first; they are mountain roads too.

More road cameras

• All B.C. highway cameras — Hwy 1, 99, 15, the Island and the Interior, grouped by road
• Lions Gate Bridge cameras — the North Shore crossing
• Snow report — local mountains and conditions
• Kamloops — where Highway 5 leads past Merritt

Header photo: “Wintry conditions on the Coquihalla Highway” by Ruth Hartnup, CC BY 2.0, cropped.