Imagine Yosemite’s peaks and the Pacific Northwest’s misty forests spread across an area larger than California. The air is crisp, carrying the scent of pine and freshness from glacial melt, and the landscape stretches beyond the horizon. This is The Great Wilderness, a region of British Columbia where wildlife roams, Indigenous Peoples have stewarded the land for millennia, and there’s a lifetime’s worth of nature to explore.
For outdoor-loving Californians, The Great Wilderness is a dream trip that can easily be made a reality. Getting off-grid here means experiencing the terrain at its most dramatic while being welcomed by the communities that call it home. It’s the perfect soulful hideout — and it’s all just a flight (or exciting road trip) away.
Setting out into the vastness
Salmon Glacier. Photo: Northern BC Tourism/Andrew Strain
In northern BC, The Great Wilderness is a patchwork of ancient and protected lands crowned by a sky so expansive it resets your sense of scale. Whether you’re summiting alpine peaks, swimming in turquoise lakes, or meandering through scenic forests, you can hike, drive, or ride on horseback for days on end without seeing another person. The silence here is deeper than solitude — it’s the breath of the land itself.
One memorable way to revel in the wilderness is to drive the Stewart-Cassiar Highway from Meziadin Junction to Stewart, a former gold rush town on the Alaska border. Bear Glacier and Salmon Glacier — which is road-accessible — are two of the big names on the route, but they’re in good company with around 20 glaciers in total.
You’ll see all kinds of untouched natural areas as you drive this stretch. Before you reach Meziadin Junction, set up camp in Meziadin Lake Provincial Park for a gateway to Bear Glacier and a waterside perch where you can fish for your food, just like the province’s grizzlies and black bears do when they scoop up salmon for lunch. Moments like these are a reminder of our place in nature and the meaningful ways we share The Great Wilderness with all of its creatures.
Experiencing incredible parks
Stone’s Sheep crossing the Alaska Highway. Photo: Northern BC Tourism/Andrew Strain
The Great Wilderness isn’t just a destination. It’s a place with the power to transform. Every path followed, every lake paddled, and every quiet moment in the area’s spectacular parks yields more than just exploration — it sparks renewal.
Starting near the southern boundary of The Great Wilderness, Tumbler Ridge UNESCO Global Geopark offers a journey into the past, both geologically and historically. Home to a prehistoric reef that’s been transformed into rock formations over time, the site gives a rare glimpse into ancient marine environments and creatures — oh, and it also features 97-million-year-old dinosaur tracks. Hike the Shipyard-Titanic Trail to experience a series of gravity-defying rock towers, including the Titanic formation that resembles the iconic sinking ship, and be sure to have your camera ready.
From Dawson Creek, about 1.5 hours north of Tumbler Ridge, the striking Alaska Highway will lead you toward the Yukon border. This leg of the journey is where some of the region’s provincial parks start to shine, namely Charlie Lake and Pink Mountain, where you can fish, canoe, hike forested trails, and become part of nature’s rhythm.
At the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area, wildlife like black bears, bison, moose, caribou, wolves, mountain goats, and wolverines coexist. To see more animals in their natural habitat — not to mention boating and a long list of other activities centered around its eponymous jade-green lake — continue on to Muncho Lake Provincial Park. As you do so, prepare for more awe-inspiring sights, such as Liard River Hot Springs (one of the largest in Canada), hidden amid boreal spruce forest as you near the Yukon border.
Blending wilderness and humanity
The Gitmaxmak’ay Nisga’a Dancers and the Wii Gisigwilgwelk Dancers in Port Edward. Photo: Destination BC/Dave Silver
By this point, The Great Wilderness has already lived up to its name, but there’s plenty more to experience. Northern BC Route 16 runs east to west through the entire region and connects the Canadian Rockies and the Pacific Ocean. When you hit the Great Bear Rainforest, you’ll find the world’s largest coastal temperate rainforest and the home of the Kermode (or spirit) bear, a black bear that actually exhibits white fur due to a recessive gene. As with many of the wonders you’ll come across as you venture into The Great Wilderness, the spirit bear is revered by First Nations in the area as a symbol of the deep connection between human and nature.
To get in touch with that connection, tackle one of the multi-day trails in Mount Robson Provincial Park (the Berg Lake Trail is one of the most spectacular in all of Canada). Elsewhere, pay your respects at Nisg̱a’a Memorial Lava Bed Park, whose otherworldly formations were created by a series of eruptions from Mount Tseax around 250 years ago. For the Nisg̱a’a Nation, this land is more than a testament to nature’s power — it’s a sacred memorial preserving the memory of the villages and lives lost to the natural disaster, a place where stories of resilience and remembrance endure. At the Nisg̱a’a Museum, you can hire an Indigenous guide to explore and explain the terrain.
It’s the presence of Indigenous communities in The Great Wilderness — the Tlingit, Gitxsan, Nisg̱a’a, Wet’suwet’en, Tahltan, Lheidli T’enneh, and Carrier Sekani, to name a few — that lends the region such significance. To set foot on this land is to step into living history, where geography backdrops time-honored stewardship and deep spiritual and cultural ties. Within these territories, you’ll also find abundant wildlife, from bears, wolves, moose, elk, and deer to eagles and the occasional lynx and cougar. To understand the tenet of coexistence that defines The Great Wilderness, visit the village of Witset on the banks of the Bulkley River to see members of the Wet’suwet’en Nation demonstrating traditional salmon-fishing techniques.
Taking advantage of the seasons
Northern lights neat Fort Nelson. Photo: Northern BC Tourism/Chris Gale
The Great Wilderness is great year-round, but if you visit in winter, you’ll get to experience an extra degree of quietude and magical snow coverage. You’ll also greatly increase your chances of seeing the northern lights. The Alaska Highway — notably the sections around Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, and Muncho Lake — has the requisite wide-open landscapes, minimal light pollution, and stunning backdrops to reveal nature’s greatest light show.
Much as the aurora borealis transforms the already breathtaking BC sky into something unforgettable, The Great Wilderness invites transformation — not just in the way you travel but in the way you see the world. Perspective awaits in its vastness, clarity awaits in its silence, humanity awaits in its communities, and the thrill of adventure awaits in its beauty. Put simply, The Great Wilderness is a “once-in-a-lifetime” trip that’s so accessible to Californians that you can take it repeatedly — learning more about the area, and yourself, every time.
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