Yellowhead Highway / Smithers & Kitwanga
Canadian Rockies Road Trip, Day 13 | Sheraton, BC to Kitwanga, BC | Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park | Malkow Lookout Trail | Gitwangak Battle Hill National Historic Site | June 2023
We left our campsite at Co-op Lake early in the morning to continue our drive on the Yellowhead Highway. Today we would be driving another 4 hours heading West, and starting our drive North on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. We had several hikes in mind in the mountain ranges near Smithers, both ambitious and easy, and just planned to go with the flow and see how much we could get done.
As we drove the Yellowhead Highway, we were delighted to find that the beautiful mountain views didn’t stop just because we left the Rockies. The mountains became less rocky or rugged looking, and more covered with pines and smoother snow capped peaks. To me, they looked much easier to try to summit than the peaks in the Rockies, but we were learning that most still didn’t have trails up to the peaks.
When we were approaching Smithers, we found that the taller range with the longer hike we had been thinking of doing was covered by clouds, with the lower elevation receiving rain, which supposedly turned to snow the higher you got. We decided to just stick with our easier options for today, which were still dry and visible at the moment.
Our first stop was at Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park, at the base of the Babine Mountains. Here there was a small parking and day use area, and a short interpretive trail leading back to some significant fossil beds. We crossed over the bridge and took our time on the hike, reading all the informational signs as we walked. Unfortunately, while archaeologically significant, the fossil record here is mostly small animals, invertebrates and plants and located about 20 feet up a scree slope – definitely not as impressive as Dinosaur National Monument, but still interesting. Doubly unfortunately, the living invertebrates (in the form of mosquitoes) were very visible and at ground level forcing a quick departure.
For our next hike, we drove to the trailhead for the Malkow Lookout Trail, a 3.8 mile hike to a short and bald hill in the middle of the valley, promising views of the many mountain ranges to the West. The trail began by going through a cow pasture, then taking us through the woods, gradually gaining elevation. The trees provided us with shade, and the area wasn’t as buggy as the last trail had been. The trail eventually met up with a service road, which we took through other pastures filled with wild flowers. With the break in the trees, we started to see little peeks of the mountains in the distance. The last part of the trail was the steepest and also more exposed to the sun, but we took our time and enjoyed the little views we had on the way, before we finally reached the summit, lookouts, and radio towers.
We all sat down for a rest here, enjoying the view and the breeze, thankful that we were still dry and clear here on this foothill as opposed to under cloud cover like most of the other mountains. We watched as rain showers moved through the valley, guessing if we would end up getting any of that rain.
After Charlotte had woken up from her summit nap, we began our trek back down. I walked slowly with Charlotte through the rocky section, directing her and praising her constantly for how well she was doing. We retraced our steps down the steeper path, through the pasture, along the road, and back down the forested trail.
Throughout our hike down, we had all stayed together, but when we reached the final pasture and the last tenth of a mile, Curtis picked up speed and started heading faster back to the van to make us a snack. I continued at Charlotte’s slow pace, encouraging her, telling her she was almost there. I heard a sound to my left down the hill, which my mind told me it was probably a cow, because we’re in a cow pasture. But then I thought, that didn’t sound like a cow… I looked to my left, and saw a large mammal walking along, but it definitely didn’t walk like a cow either… it was a BEAR! I immediately started yelling for Curtis. “There’s a BEAR!” I don’t think he believed me at first, because why would there be a bear in a pasture? Certainly they would respect the fenced in area. But sure enough, there it was… along with TWO more adolescents bouncing along behind it!
Curtis returned quickly to us and picked up Charlotte to carry her back. I felt bad for her, she had done so well and probably knew she was about to finish the trail, but she was just a little too pokey to be safe. We fast-walked back to the gate and to the parking lot, which gave us a false sense of security since we were now on the other side of the fence. While we were walking, the bears made their way up the hill, crossing the trail where we had just been. It also started raining around this time, though with all the excitement I’m not sure if it was when I first saw the bear or right after we made it back to the car. Anyway, we now were able to enjoy the bear sighting and the rain from the safety of our van, as well as some well-deserved snacks.
From here, we returned to the Yellowhead Highway, drove through Smithers, and kept driving through off and on rain. When we reached Kitwanga, we started going North on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. Even though we weren’t taking it all the way to Big Alaska or Yukon, it was so exciting to be driving on this iconic highway. We made one more stop shortly after turning North, at Gitwangak Battle Hill National Historic Site. When we arrived at the site, we saw that the trail began with a long metal staircase that went downhill to the fort. At first we thought, there’s no way Charlotte will want to do this, it would be better to have me stay in the parking lot with her and let Curtis do the short hike. But she proved us both wrong and walked down the entire staircase on her own, despite us telling her she didn’t have to. At the bottom of the steps, she continued on the trail until she found a nice shady spot in the grass, and from there Curtis and I took turns walking up into the fort.
This site, administered by Parks Canada and the Gitwanga Tribe, preserves the historic stronghold of the Gitwanga. In the mid-1700’s a very strong Gitwanga chief named Nekt coordinated the fortification of a short hill near the historic trade routes between the Skeena and Nass Rivers and then proceeded to raid the neighboring valleys for fish, slaves, and trade. When pursued, the Gitwanga would hide in their hill stronghold, protected by spiked logs that Nekt would roll down against any attackers. Nekt himself was a formidable opponent, possessing a magical Grizzly Bear Coat that made him invisible and an enormous club capable of killing anyone with one hit. Supposedly, the hill was never taken by any enemies, and was instead only abandoned after Nekt was killed in battle.
Not only do the Gitwanga still live near here, but they can trace their ancestry directly to the members of Nekts tribe. But what’s really interesting, is that we know this ancestry and history, not from Anglo-European records, but from the totems and oral history of the Gitwanga themselves. The totems displayed in the village center are some of the oldest totem poles still in existence. Unfortunately, we missed them both times we drove through town. Coincidentally, a book I’m reading discusses the anthropological anomalies of the Pacific Northwest Tribes.
We wrapped up the day by driving up to another recreation site. There was one right along the highway, but since it was a Saturday we thought it’d be better to drive to another one — Derrick Lake Recreation Site — since it was further off the road and harder to reach. The road to get there was one of the roughest we experienced throughout this trip, about 6 miles off the highway, but we took our time and found a site at the end. It was rainy and buggy here, so we didn’t spend much time outside here, but it worked as a free spot to eat and sleep for the night before we planned to cross into Alaska.
