British Columbia: overview

‘Such a land,’ said Rudyard Kipling in 1908, ‘is good for an energetic man. It is also not bad for a loafer.’ That’s still true today. British Columbia, the third largest province, is supremely the land of the wild outdoors, with the constant challenge of rugged mountains, seemingly impenetrable forests, a jagged coastline and fast-moving rivers. Its capital, Victoria, is a lively university town offering cutting-edge theatre, great jazz and a plethora of micro-breweries. Vancouver, with a population of around 600,000, is the principal city of the province. Beautifully situated, it offers easy living, elegant architecture, and all the excitement of an international port.

Long after the Aboriginal Peoples had settled the area, British fur traders discovered and began to exploit this land of plenty, which they named New Caledonia. Gold discovered in 1858 on the Fraser River attracted many adventurers, and Britain decided it was time to take over the land from the Hudson’s Bay Company and create the colony of British Columbia. It joined the Dominion of Canada in 1871, on the understanding that it would be linked to the Canadian Pacific Railway within the next decade (delay nearly caused secession).

The greatest attractions of this province are its incredible natural beauty and its climate: gentle, relatively dry summers and mild (but rainy) winters, at least in the southwest corner, where three-quarters of the population live. When it comes to the economy, about half of all the goods produced here are forestry products. The spruce, fir and cedar provide much of Canada’s construction lumber and considerable quantities of wood pulp and paper. Much to the joy of sports fishermen, salmon remains another great natural resource of the rivers and the Pacific coast. 

Places to visit in British Columbia

Vancouver

The principal city of the province is set in a magnificent bay embraced by soaring green mountains. Read more about Vancouver...

Whistler

A haven for winter sports enthusiasts. Read more about Whistler...

Victoria

The pretty capital of the province is situated on Vancouver Island. Read more about Victoria...

Vancouver Island

The mountainous island, 450km (280 miles) long and averaging 80km (48 miles) wide, is heavily forested, with some of the world’s largest spruce trees, measuring up to 95m (312ft) high. This is a boon to one of the province’s most important industries, but also a magnet for nature-lovers, who hike or flyfish for trout in the interior and then make for the superb sandy beaches along the island’s west coast, to picnic or troll for Pacific salmon. For several thousand years, Vancouver Island has been a favoured spot for First Nations hunters and fishermen living around the sheltered coves and fjords that penetrate deep inland. 

From Vancouver, board the car ferry either at Horseshoe Bay or Tsawwassen for Nanaimo and head north on Highway 19. Turn west at Parksville to cross the island on Highway 4, through fine forestland: the red cedar used for indigenous people’s canoes, totem poles and longhouses; stately Douglas fir, mainstay of colonisers’ bridges, boats, houses and flagstaffs; and Sitka spruce, the local Christmas tree.

Fraser and Thompson Canyons

This stark mountain landscape of pine forest, progressively thinning out to more arid, craggy canyons above the fast-flowing river, is the pioneer country that made British Columbia.

Driving east from Vancouver on the Trans-Canada Highway and following the Fraser River north to its tributary, the Thompson, you are backtracking along the great exploration route traced by intrepid fur traders from the prairies to the Pacific. It is also the route unerringly followed by millions of Pacific salmon between the ocean and their spawning grounds far inland. And, against all the odds of the terrain, it’s the route the railway builders chose to carry the riches of lumber and mining – and the first tourists – across the continent.

First Nations people fish here again nowadays, but their modest catch can’t compete with the millions caught by the commercial fisheries at the Fraser estuary. Take the cable car across the gorge for a close-up view of the rapids. At the restaurant by the cable-car terminal, try a grilled salmon lunch for a taste of what the fuss is all about.

The Thompson River joins the Fraser at Lytton. Before turning east on the Trans-Canada Highway to follow the Thompson, make a detour just north of town (on Highway 12) to see the dramatic effect of the confluence mixing the lime of the tributary with the clearer mountain waters of the Fraser. 

If you are here in October, you may see the spectacular salmon run, when the waters turn scarlet with thousands of sockeye. On the Trans-Canada Highway, take the turn-off at Squilax Bridge to the junction of the Adams River and Shuswap Lake. On the Thompson River, summer visitors can try the bumpy thrills of the sockeye experience for themselves with some whitewater river rafting organised out of Vancouver.