Indigenous cultural experiences and outdoor adventures

Begin at the Secwépemc Museum & Heritage Park in Kamloops, where visitors can learn about Secwépemc history, culture, language, and connections to the land.

An ethnobotany tour introduces visitors to local plants and their traditional uses in food, medicine, and daily life. Visitors can also learn about Canada’s residential school system that forcibly separated Indigenous children from their families and sought to erase their languages and cultures through the museum’s programming and its tour of the former Kamloops Residential School.

Boston Bar is about a three-hour drive from Kamloops. Take Highway 1 west through Cache Creek, Spences Bridge, and Lytton along the Thompson and Fraser rivers, or take the Coquihalla (Highway 5) south to Hope and follow Highway 1 north through the Fraser Canyon.

North of Lillooet, the Fraser and Bridge rivers meet in a landscape that has sustained St’át’imc communities for generations. At Xwísten Experience Tours, visitors can walk through the Bridge River fishing grounds and an archaeological village.

With a guide, learn how St’át’imc people continue to harvest salmon and preserve it using traditional wind-drying methods. The archaeological village contains dozens of pit-house depressions, traces of homes that once sheltered people through the seasons.

After walking the ancestral fishing rocks, tasting wind-dried ts’wan, and stepping inside a s7ístken (earth lodge) with Xwísten Experience Tours, you can carry that connection into the evening.

At Retasket Lodge, owned by T’it’q’et First Nation and situated on unceded St’át’imc Nation territory, unwind on your cabin deck overlooking Seton Lake, whose waters shift between milky blue and sparkling emerald.

Lillooet is about a 90-minute drive from Boston Bar. Head north on Highway 1 to Lytton, then follow Highway 12 north along the Fraser River to Lillooet.

Nemiah Valley Lodge offers an opportunity to experience the Chilcotin through the knowledge and hospitality of the Xeni Gwet’in community, part of the Tŝilhqot’in Nation.

Spend your days paddling, fishing, hiking, or watching for wildlife, with local hosts sharing stories and knowledge of these Tŝilhqot’in Title Lands.

Combine a guided journey toward Chilko Lake with wild-horse viewing and a visit to a traditional village site. Built by the Xeni Gwet’in to honour ancestors and pass knowledge to younger generations, the village offers visitors a chance to learn about the continuing importance of culture, place, and intergenerational learning.

Guided viewing with Xeni guides or rangers helps visitors observe the wild horses while respecting their space. Give yourself at least two or three nights here to experience the valley and its surrounding lakes, forests, grasslands, and mountains. 

Nemiah Valley is about a four-hour drive from Williams Lake. Head west on Highway 20 to Hanceville, then turn south onto the gravel road into Xeni Gwet’in Territory. Fuel up in Williams Lake and expect limited cell service.