Bella Coola Valley Visitor Guide Experience the Adventure! www.bellacoola.ca ® Contents 4 Getting Here Getting Around the Valley 6 Connecting With the Past: Welcome Yaw smatmc A Brief History to the Bella Coola Valley and Hello, my friend 7 Venturing Forth British Columbia’s Central Coast Venturing West out the Channel BCVT/Michael Wigle Hooking the BIG Ones! 10 Experience the Valley Nestled in the heart of the Coast My name is Sixilaaxayc. My smayusta 17 Experience the Wild Side Mountains, the Bella Coola Valley is a (my Creation story) tells of the abundance Eco-tour Drifts remote natural paradise ofering unlimited that came at the time of Creation when the Bear Viewing authentic outdoor adventures in a land tilted toward Chief Sixilaaxayc and spectacular setting. Q’umk’uts on the bank of the river near 20 Arts and Culture where I live now. One hundred years ago, 22 Annual Events he people of the Bella Coola Valley have several long houses stood at that place. Valley Accommodation been welcoming adventurous visitors Long before that, at the time of Creation, 23 since long before Alexander Mackenzie the tilting land brought much abundance James Taylor 24 Bella Coola Valley Map “discovered” the Valley in 1793 on the irst to the Valley of Nuxalk, which means in my recorded crossing of continental North language “becoming one.” I welcome you to America by a European. Today, living our Valley, where all you see is sacred. I hope at the end of the only road access to the you enjoy the scenery, the rich history, and Central Coast, with Tweedsmuir Provincial the abundance. Please enjoy your stay. Park straddling the eastern end and the Sixilaaxayc (Noel Pootlass), Great Bear Rainforest to the west, we are Nuxalk Nation Head Hereditary Chief and Visitor Information Booth located in the Norwegian Heritage House, Hagensborg privileged to join our communities in (summer months only - Phone locally 250-982-0092). Phone toll-free 1-866-799- Artist BCVT/Michael Wigle 5202 for information year round. extending a welcome as you enter a world This Visitor Guide and the Trail Guide on reverse have been produced by Bella Coola steeped in history and culture, rich with Valley Tourism with special thanks to Doug Baker, Ernest Hall, Tom Hermance, Rosemary Smart, Jane Baker, Chris Carlson, Leonard Ellis, Hans Granander, James wildlife, lush lora and lowing rivers. British Columbia Taylor and Michael Wigle. For their invaluable advice and contributions, BCVT is From sea to mountain peak, from valley especially grateful to: Snxakila (Clyde Tallio), Xim-xim-layc (Robert “Skip” Saunders) To Prince George and Sixilaaxayc (Noel Pootlas), Chris Nelson and Karen Anderson. BCVT also loor to glacier, prepare to ‘Experience the Prince Rupert acknowledges the Norwegian Heritage House Society for providing the venue for the Visitor Information Booth. Adventure!’ Hagensborg Hwy 97 © 2014 Bella Coola Valley Tourism – Box 670, Bella Coola, BC V0T 1C0 Bella Member of the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association and BC Wilderness Coola Williams Lake Tourism Association. Cover photos: Michael Wigle/Jumping Mouse Productions Mike Wigle Photography. AIR Hwy 20 CLEAN Hwy 97 Cover design and production: Roger Handling/Terra Firma Digital Arts Printed in Canada, 2014. James Taylor James Taylor CENTRAL COAST REGIONAL DISTRICT Hwy 99 All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. This guide does not constitute and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation. CLEAR Discovery Coast Circle Tour To Whistler Bella Coola Valley Tourism does not assume any responsibility for any carrier, hotel, and Port Hardy ferry route WATER and Vancouver restaurant or any other facility or activity in British Columbia. Errors and omissions excepted. Opposite: Opposite: BCVT/Michael Wigle Call toll free 1-866-799-5202 or visit www.bellacoola.ca | 3 Getting Here: the end of Highway 20 winds with the river Leaving the outer coast islands, the The Bird’s Eye Experience through forests of Douglas-Fir, Western Red adventure continues through narrow By scheduled air service from Vancouver, The Adventure Begins Cedar, Western Hemlock and Sitka Spruce, glacial jords that enter North in little more than an hour, you can descend BCVT/Michael Wigle past settlements and farmlands, down the Bentinck Arm to the mouth of the into the Valley ater an awe-inspiring bird’s ew places in the world combine Plateau, with the white gleaming peaks of “Grease Trail” bearing their precious trading glacier-carved valley with snow-capped Bella Coola River—some 100 km (60 eye adventure. authentic wilderness with comfort, the Coast Mountains drawing the visitor commodity of ish oil. peaks and granite ramparts lining the way. mi) inland. For the meditative traveler Your light soars high over emerald F and remoteness with accessibility the westward into the Great Bear Rainforest on At the subalpine Heckman Pass, the moist Of course, as with all highways, caution leaning on the rail, this mountainous alpine tarns surrounded by treeless way the Bella Coola Valley does. British Columbia’s Central Coast. inluence of the Paciic is evident as Highway is in order on Highway 20. Abide by the coastline of stunning granite clifs meadows, where waterfalls gush he glacier-carved valley of the Bella At Anahim Lake, the pavement yields to 20 begins its spectacular descent toward posted speeds, gear down—to irst, not and tumbling waterfalls, misty green far below amid glacial scree, and Coola River winds its way through the an all-season gravel road—with a maximum the sea. second gear—for the steeper sections of dark forests, and deep glacier-fed inlet where volcanic cones and sawtooth mountains to the sea at the head of one of speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). Where the Here the modern adventurer can gaze far “he Hill”, and DON’T ride your brakes!!! In waters dredges up images of tall ships of pinnacles are shouldered by ancient winter, spring, and fall (as with any mountain European explorers or the painted paddles British Columbia’s longest inlets about 450 telephone and electric power lines end a below at the thin ribbon of road ahead. he rivers of ice, unseen by human eye BCVT/Michael Wigle km (270 mi) northwest of Vancouver. short distance later, the true wilderness “highway” winds down the mountainside highway in Western Canada) it is wise to of First Nations peoples in their dugout except by air, winging above and begins. Here in this pristine region the to the valley loor and meanders seaward check the road conditions before heading cedar canoes lashing in the sun since the around the highest mountains in By Land: The Highway 20 chance of spotting moose, wolves, black toward the heart of the Great Bear Rain out. (www.Drivebc.ca) dawn of time. Ferry reservations are strongly British Columbia. Adventure bears, and grizzlies becomes a distinct Forest sweeping beyond the horizon let recommended. www.tweedsmuirtravel.com All who approach the Bella Coola Valley possibility, and the ancient practices of and right. A Seafaring Adventure www.paciiccoastal.com via Highway 20 for the irst time experience hunting, trapping, and ishing remain a vital From the Pass, today’s adventurer A much more serene, but equally spec- Doubling the Adventure the driving adventure of a lifetime. part of the local culture. descends the “Freedom Road”, dubbed such tacular adventure awaits the traveler choosing Experience the Discovery Coast Circle Getting Around in the From its headwaters high on British At the eastern boundary of Tweedsmuir because its construction through the pass in to approach the Bella Coola Valley by sea. Tour, by traveling clockwise from Vancouver Valley Columbia’s central plateau, the river scours its Provincial Park, a glance to the north detects 1953 ended the isolation of the Bella Coola Every summer, between Port Hardy, on to Vancouver Island, up the Island to Port If you don’t have your own vehicle on way down through the Coast the mountain pass where Alexander Valley. “he Hill” is no longer the hair-raising northern Vancouver Island, and various Hardy, ferrying to Bella Coola, and driving your Bella Coola adventure, rentals are Mountains to saltwater at its Highway 20 is the Mackenzie, one of North America’s spectacle that once discouraged faint hearted points on the mid-coast, BC Ferries vessels out across the Chilcotin Plateau, returning available. Inquire at accommodations , the mouth, providing a corridor for only road access irst great adventurers, entered the travelers with its 18% grades and hair-pin cross the open waters of Queen Charlotte south through Whistler and back to airport or visit www.bellacoola.ca. overland access from Williams to the Central history books with his overland switchbacks. Today, tractor trailer rigs, Sound into the islands and jords of the Great Vancouver. Trips on the Community Bus can be Lake via Highway 20. his journey across North America to the supplying the valley merchants, travel the Bear Rainforest. One of the world’s largest his Circle Tour takes the traveler pre-booked at least 24 hours in advance—or highway—paved to Anahim Coast and the waters of the Paciic at the mouth grades and curves regularly. remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rain through a multitude of climate zones and you can simply lag down the driver from Lake (319km/192 mi)—is in heart of the Great of the Bella Coola River. Here the Suddenly—pavement again. At the posted forest, this lush, protected ecosystem is a ecosystems on a trip of four or ive days the roadside. Fare for any distance is a lat itself an unparalleled Bear Rainforest imagination can conjure up parties of speeds, you have covered the 62 km (37 virtually untouched wilderness.