The mountain town of Smithers is the gateway for many northern B.C. visits, as it’s less than two hours by plane or a 13-hour drive from Vancouver.
The downtown Alpen Man statue reflects Smithers’ mid-20th-century Swiss influence. Lovers of the Alps will feel at home when they gaze at the 5,413-foot-tall Mount Hudson.
Hiking, fishing and horseback riding also attract outdoors enthusiasts to the unspoiled Babine Mountains.
You can celebrate your arrival at the 2018-founded Smithers Brewing Company.
The 10-barrel brewhouse features a spacious tasting room with polished wood counters and steelhead logos that incorporate stalks of wheat. Sip tasty beers like Pie Hard, a blonde ale with strawberry and rhubarb, or Coffee Lager Nitro.
Coffee junkies flock to the outdoor Bugwood Bean stand for handcrafted Americanos.
Telly’s Grill delivers mouthwatering Mediterranean dinners from chicken souvlaki to fettucine alfredo.
At day’s end, bunk down at the comfortable Prestige Hudson Bay Lodge, whose amenities include a 24-hour fitness centre, complimentary bikes, and board games.
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During a guided five-hour Skeena River expedition, Northern BC Jet Boat Tours zooms you along in a seven-passenger motorized riverboat.
Veteran pilot Fred Seiler regales you with tales of kermode bears, paddlewheelers, and fortune-seekers as bald eagles soar overhead or watch as a CN train chug along on the Skeena Crossing railway bridge.
Stop at the village of Kitseguecla to witness a First Nations welcome dance and sample dried-sockeye salmon from a traditional smokehouse.
Then enjoy a full picnic lunch, catered by Terrace-based Yellow Cedar Lodge served on the rocky shoreline.
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One of northern B.C.’s most unexpectedly luxurious getaways is Bear Claw Lodge , on the Kispiox River.
The family-run, 15,000-square-foot timber lodge offers eight spacious rooms, themed with Indigenous art and contemporary drawings of fish and bears. It faces the Kispiox River, and guide Kaleigh Allen, who appeared on the wilderness survival reality TV show Mantracker, leads kayak outings that include snorkeling with salmon.
Go for a two-hour group horseback ride through the cedar and hemlock forest, as Willie, the vigilant Karelian bear dog, lopes through the underbrush to ensure there are no grizzly bear intrusions.
(If you just want to indulge your inner child, participate in an inflatable bouncy horse race around the lodge’s main floor, possibly after a few glasses of the B.C.-made 2018 Stag’s Hollow Syrah Rosé.)
You can also take a helicopter tour and hike among mountain goats in their natural habitat.
Or book well in advance for fishing expeditions in the fall or heli-skiing in the winter.
Bear Claw Lodge dishes up sumptuous meals with ingredients from its garden, plus grass-fed beef and pasture-raised chicken from 6S Family Farms in Houston, B.C.
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Inside the skylit Frog House, admire traditional Chilkat blankets, richly woven with mountain goat wool. The cedar longhouse, part of the Ksan Historical Village also has bear and wolf skins hanging on the walls.
Cedar mats, bentwood boxes, and a huge carved feast bowl grace this room, built to accommodate up to 80 people.
Ksan, which opened in 1970 on the site of an ancient village, is located in Hazelton at the confluence of the Bulkley and Skeena Rivers.
Here, the First Nations caught salmon and steelhead and traded seaweed, berries, and oolichan – a greasy, smelt-like fish, used for both medical treatments and candles.
“Longhouses always faced the river so everyone could see who was coming and going,” explains guide Samantha Johnson, who belongs to the Wolf Clan of the local Gitxsan people.
One noteworthy Gitxsan tradition is the shame feast, where singing, dancing, and storytelling provide the backdrop for atoning for a person’s errors.
At the Ksan gift shop, you can buy souvenirs ranging from a $10 mug with a moose logo to a $3,900 hand-carved alder mask entitled “Moon” by artist Barry Sampare.
Hazelton is also home to Roy Henry Vickers . The iconic First Nations artist, who received the Order of Canada in 2006, remains active at age 73.
Most recently, Vickers illustrated Robert Budd’s new book, Voices from the Skeena (October, Harbour Publishing), an oral history of this wild region.
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It’s worth making a day trip to the Nisga’a homeland in the Nass Valley. The Nisga’a Final Agreement, signed in 2,000, was B.C.’s first modern-day land claims treaty, and it instituted First Nations self-government – including forestry, fishing, and mining rights – over nearly 2,000 square km of northern B.C.
Today, you can book a tour of the spectacular Nisga’a Lisims Government Building in the village of Gitlaxt’aamiks. Architecturally, it’s a modern reimagining of a traditional longhouse.
Its noteworthy features include the red-carpeted, elliptical Legislative Chamber, intricately carved cedar masks, and an outdoor totem pole depicting a wolf, beaver, and killer whale.
Natural highlights also abound in Nisga’a territory. The Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed Park – dubbed “Where the Fire Ran Out” in the local language – encompasses nearly 40 square km of land buried during Canada’s last major volcanic eruption in the early 1700’s.
The lichen-encrusted, alkali-basalt rocks resemble something halfway between a moonscape and crumbled blue cheese.
A short drive away on Highway 113 (the Nisga’a Highway), the Drowned Forest features magical, mineral blue waters and a small waterfall amid lush trees. Keep your eyes peeled for black bears, who occasionally skedaddle across the road.
When you arrive in nearby Terrace, the largest city in Northwestern B.C. with more than 11,000 inhabitants, you’ll find the region’s volcanic history is commemorated with food and drink.
Don’t miss Sherwood Mountain , a Robin Hood-inspired craft brewery, where the caramel-tinged Lava Bed Red Ale hits the target.
Blue Fin Sushi Bar ’s Volcano Roll – featuring spicy salmon and green onions covered with lava-like smelt roe – is as scrumptious as it’s gigantic.
The author travelled as a guest of Destination BC, which did not review or approve this article prior to publication.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
