Hiking and Wildlife Viewing in the Rockies

The Canadian Rockies offers amongst the world's finest yet easily accessible wilderness terrain. Fernie, situated in the heart of the Rockies range, has some of the most scenic alpine and sub-alpine terrain awash with flora and fauna.

Fernie, midway down the impressive Elk Valley, offers Mount Fernie Provincial Park with its giant old growth Cedars, whilst to the East are the Wigwam and Flathead Rivers, to the West the Bull River, to the North we have the BC wilderness capital Elkford and to the South we have stunning Lake Kookanuska.

The Rockies around Fernie provide wonderful opportunities for all levels of Hiker

Elk View Lodge's Wildlife

Elk View Lodge is located within its own secluded acreage and offers easy and direct access to a vast network of local hiking trails. With no neighbours to our south east before the Flathead Valley in the USA, the property is frequented by black and sometimes brown bears, cougars can often be heard and tracked, whilst White-tailed, Mule deer, and Elk regularly pass through. Other animals seen visiting our grounds this year have included a Lynx and Pine Marten.

Some of the flora in bloom this Spring and Summer on Elk View Lodge's property will include the diverse mix of plants associated with both the Sub-Alpine and Columbian forest. For trees we have Balsam Poplar, White Birch, Western Cedar, Lodgepole Pine, Alpine Fir, Douglas Fir, White Spruce, Tembling Aspen, Western Hemlock and Western Larch.

Shrubs on the property include Blueberry, Saskatoon, Thimbleberry, Wild Raspberry, Red-osier Dogwood, Willow, Mountain Alder, Soapberry, Rocky Mountain Maple, Mountain Ash, Wild Roses, Twinning Honeysuckle, and False Huckleberry.

For flowers seen so far (as at 25th May 2005) we have Clintonia, dwarf dogwood, wild strawberry, yarrow, twisted stalk, glacier lily, heart-leaved arnica, creeping mahonia, miner's candlestick, red paintbrush, twinflower, red clover, pipsissewa, fireweed, mountain hollyhock, bluebell, and probably 15-30 others not yet identified.

If you want to enjoy the Rockies at their best, you should really make an effort to come to a mountain community such as Fernie.

Guided Trekking and Wilderness Walks

Depending upon your level of experience and planned level of exersion we can plan a suitable event from a short woodland nature walk, through a 3-hour nature trail to a 5-day high level mountain hike.

Some of the best hiking terrain in the Rockies

For those wishing to hike alone, there are plenty of good guide maps available, and we must suggest any keen visitors obtain a copy of The Canadian Rockies Handbook by Ben Gadd - since it offers an unbeatable overview of the geography, geology and ecology of the region.