Now that Canada has the COVID situation well under control, they have recently removed the travel restrictions around British Columbia – as soon as this was announced Ellen and I booked our leave for 2 weeks to travel around the beautiful northern BC! Below is a lazy map of the route we took around the Province.
Day 1
We left Vancouver at 6am and headed straight up to Prince George. We could feel it, we are freeee! It was a nice cruisy drive all the way to the north, it took us around 8 hours. The highlight of the drive was passing through the town of Quesnel – which has the worlds largest gold pan! Of course we got a photo with it.
Prince George is one of the bigger cities of the north, we were shocked to see on our quick drive around town the amount of homeless around! We were confused because we are not sure how these folk survive during the depths of winter when it gets to -40 degrees Celsius.
There is a nice Brewery in town we had dinner at and then went back to our hotel.
On the way home we witnessed a break and enter – and also a few days ago the hotel across the street where we were staying burnt down killing 3 people, and the police are saying it was foul play. I dug further into the stats and it turns out for the last 5 years Prince George has one of the highest per capita crime rates in the country. We are very eager to get out of here!
Day 2
We left bright and early to the town of Smithers! It is a little ski town in the valley – some of the locals say Smithers is like Whistler 20 years ago, small little close knit community with some amazing ski terrain all around the village!
The highlight of the 4 hour trip there was passing through a small town which has the worlds largest fly fishing rod! Of course we got a photo with it.
We arrived after 4 hours driving and set up our tent at our campsite before heading out to the Babine Provincial Park which is a 30 minute drive from Smithers. We wanted to do a quick hike, but it turned out to be a 5 hour 21km hike in the forest! The views say it all though.
The town on Smithers has a lot of farming on the outskirts of town – some of the paddocks has some lovely wild flowers growing like this. Ellen also picked a bunch!
Day 3
Ellen requested a sleep in as we are supposed to be on holidays! So this morning we slept until 7:30 and then headed up to the Hudson Bay Ski resort which is the main ski hill here in Smithers for a quick little 5.6km hike. Unfortunately the rain and wind had settled in a bit but the views were still lovely!
After this we decided to head into the town and check it out. It is a trendy little place and even has a Louise’s kitchen! I bet they do a good Lasagne and tuna pasta! We had some delicious lunch as well at two sisters (unfortunately Louise’s kitchen has closed due to COVID)
We headed off to the twin falls lookout which is the number 1 thing to do in Smithers! Ellen thought it was fantastic as you can see…
After this we did a big hike up to the top of the mountain, which was a mistake because it was quite steep and it was very difficult to get down! The views were very nice though.
We stayed at a lovely Airbnb in the town of Smithers for the night which had a hot tub facing the mountains! We went to the brewery for dinner and a few beers – they had this hilarious sign for COVID spacing out the front. Ellen was stirring up Sporty again behind his back, quote “If that fish was the size Sporty catches we would be spreading COVID”.
Day 4
We woke to more rain. Boooooo! We had a quick breaky and hit the road – we pulled up in a small town called Moricetown and saw some men with nets in a raging river. Just as we got out of the car we saw one of them catch a huge fish with nothing but the net! There is a video in the link at the bottom of this blog of them using the nets. It looks extremely dangerous but they use ropes to tie themselves to the rockface to stop them getting swallowed down the river! Apparently the First Nations folk have been doing this for generations.
We made it to the Seven Sisters provincial park and went for a hike in the rain. There was some very cool looking mushrooms and a lot of mozzies!
After the hike we ate some noodles at the trail head and then drove north another 2 hours to the Meziadin Provincial park. We camped here the night and the rain really started to sock in once we went to sleep. Oh well – could be worse, we could be at work!
Day 5
It rained all night and continued to rain all morning. We didn’t leave the tent until 11am or so and just read our books for the morning. Once we escaped we went for a drive to the US Border to a small town called Stewart. The town is surrounded by huge mountains but unfortunately we couldn’t see any of them due to the poor weather. Ellen found some berries though in the bushes!
On the way back to our campsite we stopped in at a little lake and found a free row boat! We took it out for a spin and got absolutely soaked with rain!
We went back to the campsite for the night and finally the rain stopped, we enjoyed sitting outside and having some dinner!
Day 6
We woke to blue skies! Hooooorayyyy! We decided to head off to Stewart again to see the mountains with better views, and man, was it worth it!
We also pulled in to the same little lake as yesterday and had a little row in the boat we found. What we didn’t realize it that the boat has a hole in it – no wonder it is free! We didn’t notice the hole yesterday because of the rain.
After our little paddle we started driving north again to our next campsite at Kinaskan Lake provincial park. Here is one of the many spectacular untouched scenery we could see from the highway.
We saw a total of 11 bears on the way there, they all have such different personalities. Some bears see the car and immediately drop their ears in fright and run away and watch from the bushes until you are gone. Others will just pretend you aren’t even there and continue eating. Like this big black bear we saw, there is a video in the photo link at the bottom of him laying in the sun scratching his belly. No worries in the world.
We made it to the campsite at around 5pm, and you bet, it started raining again! Ellen was very eager though to start a fire. Look at the commitment here with the umbrella – copping smoke in the face and all!
We had a top afternoon drinking beers and dancing in the rain. I think we are getting too much fresh air, things are getting a little strange…
Day 7
We woke to blue skies again! Yay. We headed further north today to our next stop at the Boya Lake Provincial Park. Unfortunately all the bears were having a lazy day today, we didn’t see any!
This is the view of Boya Lake on the drive in. It is just spectacular and in the middle of nowhere, so not many tourists!
We went and set up camp before having a bit more of a walk around and a swim. It is just beautiful. Like the Whitsundays except with fresh water!
We got chatting to an older Canadian couple back near our campsite, turns out they have been staying at the same campgrounds as us the last few nights. They saw us in our tent and felt sorry for us! We are the only people staying in tents, everyone else is in great big caravans and buses. They offered for us to use their kayaks for tomorrow though, love the friendly Canadian’s!
Day 8
We woke up to a lovely sunrise and blue skies. This faded as the clouds soon rolled in – Ellen was upset because she couldn’t wear her sundress. I laughed because we live in Canada! But we have been talking to some locals and they think this is so far the wettest summer they have ever seen.
We sat around camp and then went on a short hike to see a beaver dam. It is incredible they can build things like this.
After this we borrowed a canoe from the rangers and went on a paddle around Boya lake. It is so big! We stopped along the way on a little island to have some lunch.
Once we got back to camp we hung out for the afternoon reading books and hanging out. Ellen lit a fire and continues to refer to herself the Fire Master! Definitely getting too much air!
Day 9
Sadly today was the day we left the beautiful blue Boya Lake. We headed off to Muncho lake and reached the very top of the circuit we are doing. We even had to go through the Yukon border and back to BC in the same day to complete the loop! There is border control at Yukon and luckily we are BC residents so we were allowed to drive straight on through. In Watson Lake there is a huge forest that is fully of number plates and signs, today it has over 77,000 signs! A little weird but interesting.
The drive to Muncho Lake was very entertaining once we hit the Alaskan highway. We saw over 40 bison, 8 bears, 1 eagle eating a dead bear, 2 lynx and goats! Woah – what a few hours of driving that was. Fun fact – Bison can grow to up to 900kgs in weight – that is one big animal!
Also on the way we passed a large memorial on the side of the road – I had a feeling it was for the Aussie and American backpackers who were shot dead this time last year by those young Canadian kids from Port Hardy. It was a very sad, empty feeling being at this location where they were killed, this is where they were broken down in their van waiting for the tow truck, happy as larry basking in the sun. Ellen and I have been in that situation a few times here in Canada – this location isn’t even too remote, there is a car or truck that drives past at least every 5 minutes. We left the site feeling a little strange for sure.
We found camp at Muncho lake and then went for a little short, but steep hike to overlook the lake. I even took the Sally socks for a spin!
For the night we laid up, cooked some dinner, drank some hot chocky overlooking the late. Very at peace. Ellen was in the raptors hoodie and all!
Day 10
Today is shower day! Ellen is very excited because we have gone almost a week without a shower – we are both a bit smelly! But first we went for a hike up a valley to check out a waterfall.
On the drive back from the trail head to the lodge we saw a huge moose! It was coming so close to the car and really checking us out. I got scared after it was a little too close and drove off! Very cool though – moose with the rack is finally ticked off! We can come home now 🙂
After that exhilarating experience, our heart hates got down low enough for us to check in to our cabin. Ellen had a 3 hour bath! That girl is bonkers – I didn’t know I proposed to a girly girl?
Once Ellen got out of the bath we went and had a few beers and some dinner at the lodge. Top night, we feel ready to take on another week of camping!
Day 11
Today we headed over to Stone Mountain Provincial park. We saw another Moose on the way – look at this guys feet though! Notice anything?
We showed this to a ranger and found out this is called “Sleigh Hoof”. And it is caused by a lack of copper in the moose’s diet. Sleigh hoof will only slow the moose down but other than that the ranger said the moose with have a healthy life. I bet he will be a good skiier!
We made it to the campsite at the Stone Mountain Provincial Park, set up our tent and went for an afternoon hike to a lovely meadow walk to the lake.
On the way back, guess what!? It started raining again! Very hard this time too – we were completely soaked. But at least we saw a moose and a calf in the distance. Four moose in 2 days! Woah we need to buy a lotto ticket I think.
Day 12
It was raining again this morning. We packed up the tent in the rain before heading off to Fort Nelson for some indoor breakfast – then we kept going south to Hudson’s Hope. On the way there in the Peace river valley, there was so much construction! Turns out they are building another huge dam and are going to flood the entire valley, so they need to move all the roads up to higher ground. Super impressive engineering!
We arrived in Hudson’s hope, I turned the car off at the Visitor’s centre to go look at something, then when I came back, uh oh… the car had a bunch of fault lights flashing and the power steering stopped working. Dang! We are stranded again, even in our brand new hire car! We must just be bad luck.
We checked in to a hotel for the night, while I struggled to try get some assistance from the rental company. I mistakenly told them we are staying in Hudson’s hope for the night so they didn’t seem to stress about getting it all solved straight away. Lesson learned!!!
Here is a pretty rainbow anyway in Hudson’s hope.
Day 13
I was on the phone to the rental company all morning and finally we came up with a solution. They organised a tow truck to come and pick up the car, unfortunately due to COVID, we cannot also get a lift with the tow truck driver, so we had to organised a taxi to come get us from Fort St John and drive us to Fort St John to pick up a replacement hire car. The taxi cost us almost $300 dollars! But the hire company will reimburse us once the dealer of the car confirms it was not drivers fault. Fingers crossed!
We arrived in Fort St John picked up our new hire car at around 3pm! Yahoo we are free again. We drove 4-5 hours further south to Bear lake which is just north of Prince George and camped for the night. No moose or bears spotted today.
Day 14
Guess what? When we woke in the morning, it was raining again! Wow – I think we have had more rainy days than clear days! Oh well. We packed up in the rain and decided to drive all the way back to Pemberton, which is a lovely area north of Whistler. A bunch of our friends are hiking there on the weekend at a mountain called Locomotive mountain, so we thought we should join them.
On the drive there we went through a very small town I can’t even remember the name of and saw around 100 chainsaw carvings. I thought this one was the coolest! Impressive skills. All carved with a chainsaw.
We arrived at around 5:30pm and hiked the 2km uphill to the campsite by the lake. It was very beautiful.
Day 15
We woke to clear blue skies and views of the mountain we will be attempting to climb.
View at our campsite
After a quick breaky we headed up with the crew!
I must admit, due to the snow, it was a little tricky in some places but we made it to the top after 4 or so hours! I was extremely dead, but the views were incredible.
Ellen and I thought about staying another night here, but to be honest we had enough of sleeping in a tent so we decided to hike all the way back down to the car and drive back to Vancouver. We arrived home at around 10pm – Ellen was pleased to find a birthday present from Louise had arrived! Someone was very excited with the shapes and Tim Tams
We had an absolute blast in the northern part of BC, even with all the rain it was still amazing. The trip has made us feel very small, so much untouched wilderness up there in the north! I think we drove over 5000kms. We are very grateful to still be able to travel during these very strange times of COVID.
More photos are located here
Justin & Ellen's travels 