November 3rd, 2018

My husband, Mark, and I decided to explore a new town today. Travelling northwest on highway 16, it takes about 1 1/2 hours to drive the 143 km to Smithers.  We drove past Topley, Houston, and Telkwa before arriving at Smithers (urban population 5,351 in 2016…but when you add the rural surrounding population Smithers has closer to 10,600 people).

We stopped at Topley to check out the famous Grizzly Jim’s General Store. There is a variety of items in there from food, to jewelry, pottery, and bear theme items. After Topley we did a quick tour through Houston. The giant solar panels and fishing rod were especially prominent. Then it was off to Smithers.

Smithers is a pretty tourist attractive town which has a European look and influence. It is popular for its “world class skiing” at Hudson Bay Mountain and fishing (especially steelhead). It also supports multiple extreme sports, such as, –quadding, snowmobiling, paragliding, mountain biking.

Mark was excited to locate the sausage and specialty meats stores we heard about in Burns Lake. I was really curious to explore the town. Unfortunately, although rain has been rare up here for months, we hit rain today! But coming from Vancouver Island, we have no problem exploring beautiful landscapes in the rain. Actually the fog, mist, and colors offer a new perspective in wet weather.