July 11, 2011 | Tips from Travellers >
New Hazelton, Sightseeing Tours
View a larger image on flickr.com
Last Wednesday me and my fellow Visitor Information Counceller from here in Smithers went on a FAM tour with the Hazelton & Terrace visitors centers to the historic town of Hazelton.
We took part in a spectacular walking tour of the historic town of Old Hazelton. Our tour guide was awesome and she definaly knew her stuff. On our tour we saw many different sights such as the war vetrines memorial sight, the home of the very first multi-cultural highschool in BC, the Old Paddle Boat. We even got luck enough to take a look in the museum/Library and the newly opened art gallery; which is located right inside of the Paddle Boat. We even got to check out the extra large Chesse & Checkers board painted right onto the basketball court, comes fully equipt with knee high rooks, pons, knights and the rest of the crew as well!
We found great things to see and do all over the place in Hazelton not to mention the weather was great and we all learned alot about the great history of the Hazelton Area; even got a bit of a tan doing it. Absolutly something everyone should take the time to check out!!!
July 11, 2011 | Tips from Travellers >
New Hazelton, Sightseeing Tours
View a larger image on flickr.com
We finished up at the
K’san Historical Village & Museum then continued on the beautiful Pioneer style Village of Hazelton. The first thing we did was eat! We had to meet our tour guide at 1 and it was 12:30 so we had to eat fast. Some of us went to the cozy coffee shop of Mercedes Beans and Model Teas and got some good food and drinks, while the remaining people went to the BC Café that has been taken over by new owners and has had a ‘face lift’ the food was great and hospitality was even better.
Once we enjoyed our wonderful lunches we went down the River Boat where we met Carmen, our tour guide. She led us around Old Hazelton and told us some of the great history of the area. We saw the old Anglican Church that was built in the 1900’s and is still used for services today. We saw a building that looks like a River Boat. It is a replica of the original S.S Essington paddlewheel, which use to travel up the Bulkley River from Prince Rupert, delivering Hudson Bay merchandise to Hazelton. After we walked all around Old Hazelton we went into the Library that has a museum in it. In there they have information on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, medical history of all the Wrinch Memorial Hospitals we have had, logging and mining information. So many things to see!
The tour of Old Hazelton is free and only takes an hour and you will learn so much about the area and how little old Hazelton came to be. After the tour we went into the River Boat which is now an art gallery. Many locals have their art on display in the gallery, it is so nice to see local art on display and ready for anyone who wants to go and see it. After seeing the sights of Old Hazelton we drove back up towards New Hazelton but, before we got to New Hazelton we stopped and walked along an apart of the Eagle Down Trail that goes all the way from Hagwilget Bridge to Old Hazelton. About 200m from the bridge there is a stop with picnic tables and benches and you can sit and look at the beautiful Hagwilget Canyon. We continued along the trail for a ways and ended up at the bridge, we walked across this massive bridge then we walked all the way down the trail to the water. It is wonderful under the bridge and you can just sit and watch the water flow by, it is so calm and serene. After hanging out for a while we headed back up the trail. Going down is just fine, it is always going back up that gets you though. It is a pretty steep trail but it is totally worth it. It was a great day to see the Hazelton’s and meet the people from the other Visitor Centres.