It’s not Paris, but a Skeena Adventure is just as much fun.

.

When my friends asked where I was going on vacation, I told them I’d be flying into Terrace.

.

“Paris?” several of them asked.

“No, Terrace, British Columbia,” I said. “Quite different.”

Coincidentally, Paris, France was one of the last trips I took before COVID-19, and since I wasn’t quite ready for international travel yet, my trip that started at the Terrace last June was my first since then.

I was one of 20 on the eight-day Skeena Adventure tour organized by Victoria-based Mile Zero Tours, a journey that took us from Terrace in North Central BC to four nearby First Nations villages, to Prince Rupert on the west of the Pacific, and then east through the Rocky Mountains to Jasper, Alberta. My fellow travelers were a friendly bunch of seasoned travelers; one had been to more than 80 countries.

The view from Vancouver to Terrace was a 700 km panorama of snow-capped peaks on green swathes, including an ice formation I named “Fried Egg Lake”.

.

I stepped off the plane into a picturesque valley surrounded by mountains on all four sides. The terrace was quiet. Apparently, during the height of the pandemic it had been a ghost town with the occasional moose strolling the empty streets.

Our guide, Terrace City Councilor Brian Downie, shared the history of Skeena and how for centuries it had been a vital trade route between the coast and the interior. The Tsimshian in the lower section and the Gitxsan in the upper section were known as the “guardians of the canyon.” To pass through the river canyons, merchants had to pay a toll to chiefs, usually furs, salmon, berries, seaweed, or herring roe. When train service arrived in 1914, the way of life for the local tribes changed significantly as trade was diverted to the rails.

.

At Kitselas Canyon, a National Historic Site, we met enthusiastic guide Darren Bolton and his two granddaughters. Darren, a prolific carver, is a graduate of Freda Dieseng’s Northwest Coast School of Art, the only one of its kind in Canada.

In addition to a dune buggy ride to see the original trade route canyon, we toured four longhouses filled with artifacts, including an elaborately carved canoe that Darren had worked on. Also on the site are four well-preserved 19th-century totem poles, representing each of the four clans; Eagle, Orca, Wolf and Raven.

At the Nisga’a Museum in Laxgalts’ap, 150km northwest of Terrace, we had the place to ourselves for a private tour. The 300-piece Ancestor Collection, described as “one of the finest collections of North West Coast Aboriginal art in existence,” includes exquisitely carved masks, bentwood boxes, headdresses, soulcatchers and other Nisga’ art. a. The museum, completed a year after the signing of the historic 2010 Nisga’a Treaty, includes treasures from museums in Ottawa and Victoria that were returned to be exhibited together for the first time in their place of origin.

.

To get to the museum we cross the Nass Valley, a landscape marked by a 300-year-old volcanic eruption. Stories passed down among the Nisga’a tell of villagers fleeing a river of lava in which thousands died and two Nisga’a villages were destroyed. Today the gray and black lava is covered with moss and footholds of vegetation.

We also passed swollen rivers and waterfalls, the result of a late spring flood. I heard that the Skeena River can rise two meters in 24 hours, which is not encouraging news when at various points a few meters from the road, the river seemed to be on the verge of overflowing.

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the Khutezeymateen grizzly bear sanctuary, home to the largest concentration of grizzly bears in North America in a natural environment. We spent the day aboard Prince Rupert Adventures Tours’ 100-person covered boat sailing north to the Sanctuary. It wasn’t long before we came across grizzly bears eating clams, mussels, and reeds along the shoreline. On the return cruise, humpback whales leaped and eagles flew in a show, the end of a spectacular wildlife viewing adventure.

.

From Prince Rupert to Jasper we traveled on a Via Rail train, a journey of 1,160 km with a stopover in Prince George for the night. In addition to our reserved seats, we had the use of a comfortable lounge with books, tea and coffee, conversation – even with a gregarious man from Paris – and a domed observation car.

Looking out the window as we circled lakes and mountains, crossed rivers lined with skinny, scary bridges, and passed train stations reminiscent of old westerns was meditative bliss. Unfortunately, our train journey was cut short by a freight train derailment a few hours earlier, which caused us to spend four hours on a bus instead of the train.

After the tranquility of previous cities and towns, Jasper, Alberta was teeming with tourists. The reason: the Rocky Mountains are spectacular. Athabasca Falls was a shimmering spectacle of thunderous ice blue. Although the Columbia Icefield has shrunk considerably since I was there forty years ago, there is still more than a hundred feet of ice at the top and more behind than we could see from the bottom.

.

I enjoyed the local generosity of the North as much as the good food in Paris. For dinner on our first night at Don Diego’s Restaurant on the Terrace, I had a fusion dish of Mexican and local food, pumpkin seeds and cilantro-crusted sockeye salmon.

In the small, remote seaside town of Gingolx (population 500), we passed just two cars on the thirty minute drive there, our lunch was a tasty halibut and fries at U Seefood U Eat it! The owner was excited to see us and took photos as we filled the little cafe.

It was great to see more of western Canada, and it was as interesting a trip as many other places I’ve traveled.