General Travel Information

Sampling the delights of the B.C. interior

By Don Wilkes

Photo by Don Wilkes

British Columbia has any number of delightful destinations for the traveller. Recently we decided to visit a few previously unsampled locales in the province’s interior.

We visited friends in Penticton before moving on for two B&B nights in Nelson, a town nestled in the Selkirk Mountains.

Born in gold rush days, Nelson is a destination often praised for its charm. We found that wandering about the city did have its rewards.

We didn’t truly sense the Victorian character as depicted in promotional material but the Library Lounge in the Hume Hotel more than compensated. It featured dark wood panelling, some of it carved, with a beamed ceiling, squared with billowed material, each centring on a lighting fixture.

We certainly enjoyed the park on the shore of the Kootenay River, through which runs the #23 electric streetcar. Riding on this lone survivor of a Nelson tram system operating in the 1920s reminded me of being in Toronto as a youngster.

The room at the B&B here came with private washroom facilities down the hall, accessible by key. This was something new in our travel experience.

On reflection, one night in Nelson would have sufficed, with the other shifted to Kaslo, another 19th century mining settlement that we found more to our liking.

In peaceful Kaslo, now lacking some 27 saloons of yesteryear, we hiked a recently created river trail complete with a covered bridge.

Later we wandered through the now land-bound and restored SS Moyie, the world’s oldest intact sternwheeler and Canada’s last operating one. Launched in 1898 by the CPR, the ship plied the waters of Kootenay Lake until 1957.

To wrap up the visit, a magnificent water and mountain vista, seen from the newly-built Kaslo Hotel’s pub deck. The view, also enjoyed by the rooms and balconies above, proved to be our favourite of the trip.

We then headed northwest to Nakusp. On arrival we settled into booked inn accommodation located along the road up to the Nakusp Hot Springs.

We stayed two nights at Nakusp, which provided ample time for us to make the a windy eight kilometre drive up to the hot springs, at an altitude of 850 metres, for an extended dip.

Having to drive into the village from the inn for everything else, although it wasn’t far, persuaded us that we’d have been better off finding space there.

Two days’ stay also turned out to be too for what we found in the Nakusp. Although the shoreline of Upper Arrow Lake does feature an impressive promenade and waterfront Japanese garden – a much better use of waterfront than we saw at Nelson.

All considered, though, going to the nearby but lesser known Halcyon Hot Springs might have been a better choice for the area.

Our next stop was Salmon Arm. As we prefer to do if we can, we hadn’t booked accommodation, assuming that at the time of year we’d easily find something suitable in the area.

We wound up staying in a newer hotel, more posh than other accommodation on the trip, that was within walking distance of the town centre. Our room looked out onto marshy Nature Bay, a protected area for birds and the largest nesting site for western grebes on the continent.

Last but far from least, was Lillooet, our final destination. We’d stopped for gas there on a previous trip, and reaction to my interest in spending more time in the town reminded me of once debating Melbourne with a travel agent, and then finding the time spent there was our best urban experience in Australia.

Heading west from Kamloops en route, we drove through parched hills covered with sagebrush, a marked contrast to the verdant slopes we’d encountered earlier on the trip.

As we neared our destination the driving became more challenging, with constant downshifting. When we hadn’t done as much down-gearing on a previous drive through the area, the added wear and tear on the car’s brakes created an acrid odour that wafted up into the car.

In the 1860s, at the height of the Cariboo gold rush, Lillooet had a population of 15,000.

During the mid-1900s mines in the area shipped considerable nephrite jade all around the world. Walking about the town we found several pedestals supporting large chunks of the dark-green substance.

The tourist info centre, also a free museum, provided a history of earlier local jade production. After perusing the offerings in the local shops, my wife purchased an elegant pendant of jade mined in northern B.C. Dinner at a Greek restaurant rounded out a fine day.

In Lillooet, now with some 2,300 inhabitants, our room came with a few movie channels, a bonus tempered by a shortage of decent movies to watch.

As for the trip as a whole, we ate the best in Nelson and Lillooet, the worst in Nakusp. Wildlife spotted along the way included a native brown squirrel at Kaslo, a black bear by the road on the way into Pemberton and a coyote somewhere along our route. All considered it was a great trip.