Discover the Chilcotin

Discover Canada's best kept secret - the Chilcotin. Explore secluded lakes of brilliant blue, glaciers old as time, vast evergreen forests and sprawling meadows filled with wildflowers.

This is British Columbia as you've always dreamed it.

“On a dark October night in 1934, two men pored over a series of maps on the floor of a bunkhouse at a Wyoming ranch, the darkness punctuated only by the light from a single flickering lamp. Rich Hobson, who had lost all his savings in the financial crash of 1929 and had decided to pursue his long-held dream of becoming a cowboy, and his friend ‘Panhandle Phillips’, who was an excellent horseman and an infamous prankster. In the dim light Pan pointed out to Rich a huge expanse of .... nothing. A completely unknown area in central British Columbia stretching from the Fraser River to the ocean, a wide open, mysterious, untamed wilderness. Legend had it that this place held the largest untracked grasslands anywhere. Fascinated, the two cowboys would eventually pack up and head for this place called Chilcotin, and against all odds eventually build the largest cattle ranch in North America. (Their story is recounted by Rich Hobson in his excellent and timeless book “Grass Beyond the Mountains”.)”

-West Chilcotin Tourism Association.

Strangely, that old map hasn’t changed much. Chilcotin remains one of the most untouched, pristine and lesser populated regions in North America, preserving this beautiful, raw wilderness for a precious few to enjoy. The Chilcotin is a land of unique beauty and diverse ecosystems, one of the most dramatic expanses of wilderness to be found anywhere in North America. A thousand hearty residents inhabit its 32M acres equating to one resident every 50 square miles. That vastness is why the region supports 17 unique ecosystems in its borders. Mountains, glaciers, rushing rivers and alpine lakes abound here. So does the wildlife. Bears, cougars, wolves, mountain goats, eagles and salmon call the Chilcotin home.

Once encountered, it’s never forgotten.