Road tripping in B.C. with baby
Plenty of hiking trails and resorts along the Golden and Revelstoke corridor welcome parents with baby in tow
GOLDEN, B.C.— The sun was dropping hot and orange behind the mountains just as our car was bouncing to the summit of Mount Seven.
It had taken half an hour of climbing up a bumpy, gravel service road, dodging a family of marmots and navigating narrow switchbacks, all the while hoping we would make it to the windswept peak in time to witness the sunset.
We made it just in time — and were left speechless staring over the smoke-filled Columbia Valley.
For a moment. Suddenly, nature of another kind called. Norah, our eight-month-old daughter, squawked for a new diaper.
My wife swooped her over to a nearby picnic table, and soon Norah was changed and put in fleece jammies — ready for bedtime at 1,942 metres above sea level.
The three of us had set out to explore the Rockies in B.C.’s Golden and Revelstoke corridor through infant-friendly adventures.
Along the way, we discovered blue-collar mountain towns that felt a million miles away from the tour buses and traffic of Whistler and Banff.
Mount Seven is just outside Golden, a former logging community settled by Swiss mountain guides that’s become a magnet for outdoor adventure seekers. From whitewater rafting to mountain biking to rock climbing, it’s the kind of adrenaline-junkie hot spot where 80 per cent of the local airport’s traffic is flights for skydivers.
But what if you have a baby in tow? There’s still plenty to do. After exploring Golden’s riverside trails, including the longest freestanding timber frame bridge in Canada.
We spent the night at Glacier Mountaineer Lodge at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
In the summer, the ski resort gets a little sleepy and gives way to mountain bikers, who rip down twisting mountain trails at a breakneck pace.
Our speed was more suited to the gondola, located just outside the resort doors. It took us up the mountain for a 15-minute ride that provided spectacular views. Tall pines shot up like bristles toward the blue sky, eventually giving way to dwarfed trees and rockslides as we climbed higher and higher.
The gondola took us right over the top of a grizzly bear sanctuary, and we had a great view of Boo, rescued after his mother was killed by poachers, having a late breakfast in a bog. The ride is also long and private enough to nurse an infant, we learned.
At the summit, we strapped Norah into a baby carrier and hiked about half an hour along the knife’s edge of Kicking Horse Mountain. The trail was wide and could be comfortably hiked with the baby in the carrier, although we all were breathing a little heavily from the thin mountain air
We lunched at Eagle’s Eye restaurant, also at the summit — at 2,407 metres, it boasts the most elevated dining experience on the continent. We enjoyed a great meal by the fireplace, while Norah crawled around on the floor, and took advantage of the change tables in the family wash- room before heading back down the mountain. That afternoon, we broke up the drive Revelstoke along the Trans-Canada Highway by stopping at a string of short trails in Glacier and Mount Revelstoke national parks that seemed designed by someone who’s travelled with young kids.
Construction on the two-lane artery connecting the two towns is frequent, too — this is avalanche country, after all — so the chance to change diapers and nurse the baby at Hemlock Grove, Giant Cedars, and Skunk Cabbage trails was appreciated.
Hemlock Grove Trail is a short, stroller-friendly loop through the forest, easily accessible just off the highway. With massive cedars and a carpet of ferns covering the ground, we half expected Ewoks to come swooping down from the canopy.
We put Norah back in the baby carrier at Giant Cedar, for an easy, halfkilometre hike that took us through the park’s old-growth forest, surrounded by majestic cedar trees that are hundreds of years old.
Skunk Cabbage, meanwhile, is a stroller-friendly boardwalk through a unique Rocky Mountain wetland. It takes about 20 minutes to complete the loop. Visitors who come early enough in the summer will smell why the park is named after the pungent plant.
Revelstoke sits in a valley just 20 minutes by car to the west. Work to revive the downtown began about 10 years ago, and today the core hums with free concerts in the evening, and the cyclists outnumber the pick- ups cruising the streets.
It may be a popular ski area in winter with heavy snows and the most vertical drop in North America, but in the summer months Revelstoke feels like the anti-Whistler of interior B.C.
“This is a real town,” said Jeff Arnold, owner of the quaint Monashee Lodge motel, where we spent the night. “People work here and live here by choice.”
We put Norah in the stroller and walked. downtown to the Village Idiot for homemade pizza and pints of local craft beer from Mt. Begbie Brewing. It’s a popular joint, and the pizza was well worth the 45-minute wait.
The next morning, we drove up toward the summit of Mount Revelstoke, and came across a blanket of wildflowers fed by the retreating snow.
There’s a stroller-friendly shuttle at the parking lot that will carry passengers to the summit, but we opted to do the 10-minute hike.
At the peak, visitors can explore the historic fire tower built in 1927, as well as nearby lookouts around a short loop, or take off on one of the more adventurous hikes from the summit.
Looking for a break from hiking, we also checked out Columbia Wetlands Adventures, 25 kilometres south of Golden. Home of the world’s largest paddle, the family-run business offers baby-friendly wetland tours, kayak trips and canoe rentals.
The marshland is home to eagles and blue herons, but half the fun is just getting out to the river channel. Owner Mark Teasdale built a suspension bridge from surplus tall ships equipment, and a replica “pirate ship” where you can lounge around. A floating boardwalk leads guests to his unique, nauticalthemed cabin, and an outhouse that looks up to the towering, snowcapped Rockies.
Arguably, it’s one of the best views in the mountains when nature calls. For you, or the baby. Greg Mercer’s accommodations were provided by Tourism Golden and Tourism Revelstoke, which did not review or approve this story.