August 24, 2011 | Tips from Travellers >
Fort Nelson, Camping
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As an intro to my blogs to come on staying up the highway at Stone Mountain Safaris, I thought I would throw together a little pre-trip guide to getting everything you need for camping from the town of Fort Nelson.
So let's start with hunting & fishing licenses, available at both local sporting stores, C.M.P Sports and Wapiti Sporting Goods. C.M.P is on the far side of town as you come in from the Fort St. John end off to the left hand side on the frontage road, right next to the Shannon Motel. Wapiti is in the Fort Hotel Plaza on the corner of 50th Ave N (the frontage road on the right hand side) and 51st Street. Fishing licenses can be bought for 1 day, 8 days, or 1 year. Also note that the prices are different for B.C Residents then International Visitors. Both places carry fishing tackle, line, rods, anything you need for a fishing adventure. For bear safety, you can also pick up bear spray at either location.
Next up food, stock up on groceries at one of the two supermarkets in town, IGA or Overwaitea. Overwaitea is located on airport drive and IGA is just off to your left on the frontage road once again if your coming from the Fort St. John end. There is also quite a few restaurants, mostly located along both sides of the highway on the frontage roads. I always like to grab Subway on my way out of town.
You will want to fill up your mode of transportation here with gas or diesel as prices will, if you can believe it, increase further. There are 5 fuel stations located along the two frontage roads that follow the highway through town. They are Petro Canada, Fort Nelson Husky, Shell Service Station, Fas Gas, and UFA. All rates are fairly similar as we are a small, isolated town. Any prices too significantly cheaper would run all the other stations out of business.
For people with trailers or motorhomes, free Sani-dump and fresh water fill up are available at the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum.
If you want to have some cash on hand when you head out on the highway, stop at one of our three banks: C.I.B.C, Scotia Bank, or North Peace Savings & Credit Union. The Credit Union has a drive through ATM and is located just down the road from the Visitor Information Centre.
Obviously I haven’t covered every single thing you need for a camping trip but definitely touched on some necessities. Always remember warm clothes and rain gear, being cold and wet in the outdoors can be miserable. My mom always says dress with lots of layers, since it is much easier to pull clothes off when your hot and not so easy to put clothes on you don’t have when your cold. Be prepared for the unexpected everyone and most of all enjoy the great outdoors!
August 16, 2011 | Tips from Travellers >
Fort Nelson, Camping
Find more information about Fort Nelson - Camping
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Part #1 –
Finally! My first camping trip of the season, we were headed up to the Liard Hot Springs. It was a beautiful drive, with some rain and some sun as well. We stopped at Testa River Services (120km/75miles from FN) they have a great selection of art work, snacks, and aboriginal crafts. Also be sure to try their cinnamon buns! They are absolutely fabulous! Our next stop was Toad River Lodge (196km/122miles from FN), Toad River was named originally “Towed River” because they used to have to tow supplies on the river. Through the years people assumed it was “Toad” as in the frog. So eventually it was re-named “Toad River.” They offer a full menu of great homemade soups and breads, great food.
We continued our drive north, we ended up driving through rain for about an hour. We arrived at Liard Hot Springs in the early afternoon, we had reserved a site there the week before (which is a good idea if you are planning on staying there close to the weekend). It was still raining when we arrived so instead of setting our tent up in the rain we headed across the highway to the Liard Hot Springs Lodge and had lunch. The restaurant is a laid back, comfortable atmosphere. They have a wide selection of homemade meals to choose from, including everything from Hot Turkey Sandwiches to Buffalo Burgers. Our meals we great, with homemade French fries and homemade gravy!
The rain hadn’t decided to let up much, so we decided we may as well set up our tent so we could have a dry place to lay down and wait out the rain. Upon finishing the set up of our tent we were soaked right through our clothes and cold, but what is a good camping trip without some good ol’ toughing it out? We hid away in our tent for awhile, reading books and deciding what we could do that evening. When the rain finally stopped, we rented towels from the office and headed for the springs. When we got there we found that it wasn’t to busy (which was nice) we soaked up the smell of the forest around us and made conversation with a few other visitors. Mostly tourists headed to Alaska, they raved about the beautiful drive and the perfect relaxing springs.
Later on, we started up a fire and cooked our dinner. Cheddar smokies and vegetables! YUM! The park was nice and quiet as soon at 10pm hit (quiet time) the staff present was great they were helpful and made sure everything was nice and clean. The northern sky was break taking, star decorated it and you could here the squirrels racing through the trees. There we a lot of little friends running around checking us out, they would sit on the edge of our campsite and just stare. HAHA! Then dash off as soon as we saw them.
To Be continued…