Hazelton, British Columbia - September 9th to 10th, 2022
There usually are interesting things to see and do everywhere, but some places require a little more searching to find those things. We originally thought that there wasn’t much in Hazelton, but we were pleasantly surprised.
The drive from Meziadin Lake Provincial Park to Seeley Lake Provincial Park started out foggy on Friday morning. There wasn’t much to see, that we could tell, until we were near the end of the Cassiar Highway. Totem poles seemed to be the theme for the day.
At Gitanyow, we stopped to see the largest concentrations of standing totem poles in northwestern British Columbia. Yes, there were quite a few of them. After picking up a snack inside the Gitanyow Gas Bar, we walked around the totem poles. The Interpretative Center was closed, so we don’t know what it is like inside.
Our next stop was the Gitwangak Battle Hill National Historic Site. There are no totem poles there, but the interpretative signs referenced a totem pole that honored Chief ‘Nekt’s life. Chief ‘Nekt built a fortified village on top of the steep-sided bedrock hill in the late 1700’s and defended it successfully against his enemies.
From top of the hill, you can see the peaks of the Seven Sisters. The view was a little hazy. We were wondering if the haze was from wildfire smoke. Our camp site neighbors back in Meziadin Lake Provincial Park told us about a wildfire north of Jasper, the Chetamon Fire. The power had gone out a few times in Jasper due to the fire. We were a little concerned because our plans have us heading that way in the next week.
Then we stopped again in Gitwangak, just before crossing the Skeena River. Gitwangak has some of the finest, authentic totem poles in the area. Included in the collection is the totem pole referenced at Gitwangak Battle Hill.
We reached Seeley Provincial Park just in time to eat lunch. The campground is first come/first serve, but very small. We had no problem finding an open site. The site we picked had a nice view of a couple of mountain peaks, but, like all the sites, it is very close to the highway and the traffic noise is quite loud.
This was another park where you wait for the park operator to come by to pay. The operator in this case was not staying within the campground. Since we had no idea when they would come by to check us in, we decided to stay and take advantage of the weak cell signal. Originally we planned on heading into the town of Hazelton to do laundry. Laundry can wait until the next day. There isn’t a lot to do in the area, especially since we heard that ‘Ksan, the First Nation village replica, was not open.
As we were catching up on our email, we found out that Jasper National Park had cancelled our reservations at the Whistlers Campground. In order to concentrate on restoring service in the Jasper area, they shutdown most of the campgrounds until September 25th. The Jasper National Park website warned that now is not a good time to visit the park. We considered what alternatives we might have. Jasper National Park is on the north end of the Icefields Parkway, with Banff National Park on the south end. We could not find any campgrounds along the parkway that had vacancies except for Lake Louise Campground. That was our next destination after Whistlers anyway. So we booked an additional three nights in Lake Louise, bringing our total stay there up to six nights. Hopefully we’ll still be able to drive through Jasper and down the Icefields Parkway to get there.
Before dinner, we walked down to the lake. It was not very far. There was a trail along the shore of the lake, but it was rather overgrown and also not very long. However, there was a viewing deck that looked out over the lake.
The park operator showed up in his car around 8 pm. That was fine. We were able to get our fill of the internet all afternoon while we sat outside enjoying the warm sunshine and the view.
It was time to do chores again on Saturday morning. Gas, dumping gray water, laundry, and grocery shopping were on the agenda. We drove into New Hazelton to get everything done. Conveniently, everything we needed was within a couple of blocks from each other. There was a free dump station at the visitor center. The laundromat was right across the street from a nice little grocery store, McDonald’s Store.
The laundromat was OK and got the job done, but not the nicest one we’ve ever been to. They didn’t have a change machine. They had a vending machine instead. The instructions said if you put a $5, $10, or $20 Canadian bill into the vending machine and pressed the gray button, then the machine will give you loonies. If you need Canadian quarters, then you can get quarters in change by purchasing an item from the machine. The washing machine took loonies (5 per load) and the dryers took quarters. We had plenty of loonies, but needed more quarters. We followed the instructions by putting $5 in the vending machine and purchasing a bag of chips. However, we only got one quarter in change and the rest were loonies. That won’t work. We tried putting loonies into the vending machine and hitting the gray button, but that just gave us our loonie back. Luckily, the grocery store across the street let us buy quarters from them so we were able to dry our clothes.
While we were doing laundry, we walked next door to Zelda’s Travel Mug Cafe. The muffins and chai latte we purchased were a nice morning treat. The place was pretty busy. The other food at the cafe looked enticing. So, after all our chores were done, we went back to the cafe for lunch. Ann ordered the jerk chicken quesadilla while Keith had the chicken club panini, both with garden salads. To drink, we both had a bottle of Jones cream soda. All the food and drinks were delicious. If you are driving through the area on the Yellowhead Highway, Zelda’s is definitely the place to stop for breakfast, lunch, or a midday treat.
When we were at the visitor’s center, Ann picked up a brochure on Hazelton. In the afternoon, we visited the highlights of the area.
First on the list was the Hagwilget Canyon Bridge, a high suspension bridge over the Bulkley River. The bridge is only one lane, so traffic has to wait and take turns to cross. There are parking areas at each end of the bridge and walkways along both sides of the bridge. If you are not afraid of heights, you can walk out onto the bridge, with views in both directions as well as through the metal decking to the canyon and river below.
Continuing further on highway 62, we stopped at ‘Ksan. ‘Ksan is a replica of a First Nation village with several long houses, totem poles and a museum. The museum was open to walk through along with a cafe in one of the other long houses. We were a little surprised that they still required masks and signing in with contact information for COVID tracing. To go inside most of the long houses, you needed to go on a guided tour. The signs indicated that they needed a minimum of four people to have a tour. It was about 1:30 pm. The person at the desk said there would be a guided tour at 3 pm, so we decided to check out Old Hazelton in the meantime and come back.
Old Hazelton was just down the road from ‘Ksan. The town was founded in 1866. A walking guide of the historic buildings was in the brochure. The buildings consisted of shops and houses dating from the 1900’s to the 1940’s. There is also a replica of the sternwheeler S.S. Hazelton sitting in the Skeena River. After wandering the handful of blocks of the old town, we drove back to ‘Ksan.
The guided tour cost $15 (Candian) per person. There was a tour group of ten people that showed up at 3 pm. We’re assuming it was the tour group that set the time for the guided tour. Our Gitksan guide took us into three traditional long houses full of authentic artifacts. She gave a detailed description of her people’s traditional way of living. The Gitksan are currently trying to bring back as much of their culture as possible, from hunting and fishing to traditional ceremonies, crafts, and language. There are still several thousand Gitksan living in the surrounding area within four clans. If you are lucky enough to visit ‘Ksan when a guided tour is offered, it is well worth your time and money. Very interesting.
The weather was chilly and foggy in the morning, but the sun came out in the afternoon and temperatures reach 70 by evening. We enjoyed sitting outside again back at our campsite while eating our dinner. The only thing that would have made it better would have been less traffic noise from the highway.
Hazelton is not a destination that we would go out of our way to see, but it made for a nice place to relax and resupply. And don’t always rely on rumors. We heard that ‘Ksan was closed, but it turned out to be open and the tour was the highlight of our visit to Hazelton.
Check out our related video: Hazelton, British Columbia
(Ann)