August 13, 2011 | Tips from Travellers >
Hudson's Hope, Museums
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The first thing I have to say about is Hudson’s Hope is wow! Hudson’s Hope is old! I grew up in Tumbler Ridge, the youngest town in British Columbia. Tumbler Ridge just had its 30th birthday, while Hudson Hope reached the rip old age of 106 this year. The town has only been incorporated since 1965, but the trading post was established in 1805, making it the third OLDEST town in British Columbia. However, age hasn’t phased this community even one bit. Hudson’s Hope is a beautiful community situated on the edge of the peace river and is decorated with updated infrastructure and plenty of flowers. The visitor centre is a unique log cabin definitely worth noting, and has a quiet park and gazebo located behind it.
You can’t actually tell that Hudson’s Hope is as old as it is until you start looking at the history of the town. The museum is a great place to start, and is exactly where my friend and I decided to begin digging (although the information wasn’t hard to find in the least).
The Hudson’s Hope museum had quite a few displays ranging from first nations artifacts to some of the belongings of the first settlers in the area, but the history of Hudson’s Hope extends past the human history. Hudson’s Hope has dinosaurs!!! Well... at least they used to millions of years ago. Actually, Hudson’s Hope even has it’s own dinosaur, the Hudsonelpidia. This was probably my favourite exhibit in the museum.
After we were finished looking inside there was even more to see outdoors. We took our time goofing around and taking pictures of the old pioneer cabins and machinery, with the Peace River Canyon as our backdrop.
The Hudson’s Hope museum is definitely a worthwhile stop, whether you are going for the pictures, the history, the experience, or all of it!
August 03, 2011 | Tips from Travellers >
Tumbler Ridge, Hiking
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Out of all of the hiking trails in Tumbler Ridge, the Boulder Gardens trail is probably one of the most interesting hikes. The well maintained gravel road the trail is situated on, makes it an accessible and easy destination to reach. As it is a circle route, you’re always bumping into something new along the trail, and the many side routes provide plenty of photo ops.
We rounded up a group that wished to brave the hike to the Boulder Gardens despite the large amounts of rain the area had been receiving. Luckily the rain decided to let up for a couple of hours that evening making for a drier hike than we had anticipated.
The landscape along the trail is quite fascinating. One side trip lead through a narrow chimney to a view site where some of the more adventurous hikers decided to spend some time climbing boulders. The next trip brought us to an area decorated with a number of lichen towers that are so high they are able to meet and even exceed the height of the tallest spruce trees. With towers so tall, it would have been surprising had we not wanted to explore this section of the trail more. As you can guess, more bouldering ensued. While both side trips were quite impressive, a lot of common sense and some careful footing is needed to attempt to scramble up any of the boulder areas.
Walking further down the trail took us to a beautiful tarn surrounded by the same kind of boulder terrain we had been hiking in. Here the trail became difficult to follow, however it is easy to figure out which direction to walk in as the foliage is thin and easy to maneuver around in this area.
Eventually the highest point of the trail is reached, where you are able to overlook Roman Mountain and the coal mine activity in the area. As the day’s light was beginning to fade on us, we were able to take in the artificial lights from the mine contrasted against the natural charm of the mountain.
From here the trail began to descend through a valley that provided us with even more views, caves, and bouldering opportunities. Though we had to pick up our pace to beat the setting sun, the rest of the hike was equally enjoyable.