When my favourite photographer pals, Adam and Alexandra, posted on Instagram Stories about their stay at an adorable cabin in Sicamous, British Columbia (Shuswap Lake area, just over a 5 hour drive from home in Calgary), I knew Holden and I had to go. I reached out to Alex and she sent me the Airbnb listing, and we had our trip booked within the next week. We scheduled a two-night stay in mid-August, from Friday to Sunday, and decided to make lots of stops on our road trip, both out there and back home. I surrendered control of planning (for once) and let Holden take over choosing most of the highlights and attractions along our route.
We left bright and early on Friday morning, and made our first stop 2 and a half hours from Calgary, at the iconic Emerald Lake Lodge (near Field, British Columbia). This is quite the Instagram-famous location these days, as well as somewhere my parents had stayed a few times pre-kids, and I’d wanted to visit for years.
We took tons of photos, did a short hike around part of the lake, and explored the resort area. I would absolutely love to go and stay overnight here one day, and do some more hiking.
Our next destination was Golden, British Columbia, 45 minutes away, and we were intending to grab coffee at Bacchus Books & Cafe, however sadly it wasn’t open that day. (This is a classic Elle and Holden situation – not checking in advance and arriving to find things closed. Oops.)
Instead, we enjoyed quite a lovely walk around downtown Golden and across the Kicking Horse Pedestrian Bridge, and ended up grabbing coffee + tea from Big Bend Cafe, before carrying on our way. (Heads up, although this was advertised as a cafe, it was really more of a restaurant and I think the staff found it a little odd that we walked up to the counter and just ordered drinks to go…)
Golden is one of those places that I hadn’t given much thought to before, but I ended up being absolutely enchanted by it. Such a pretty little town, with lots of public art and neat looking local restaurants, bars and shops! I hope to go back soon and stay overnight for a few days to explore more.
After that, we drove another hour and 40 minutes to Revelstoke, BC. We visited Mt. Begbie Brewing Co. (named after the mountain peak you can see from their patio) for some beer flights and lunch. Afterwards, we had planned head over to Revelstoke Mountain Resort to ride their Pipe Mountain Coaster (if you’ve never heard of this before, check it out – it looks SO. FUN.) However, they have a “current wait time” counter on their website, and it was at FOUR AND A HALF HOURS when we were ready to leave the brewery, so we decided to opt out and try again on our drive home on Sunday.
We arrived in Sicamous (50 minutes from Revelstoke) about an hour and a half before we were supposed to check into our Airbnb, so we carried on another 25 minutes past the town to nearby Salmon Arm. Here, we visited De Mille’s Farm Market, which was so fun, and right up my alley! De Mille’s is a working farm, but they also have a petting zoo, a market/grocery store/deli (there were a ton of food items for sale in there – I’m really not sure how to describe it, other than to say that you’ve gotta experience it for yourself!), a few mercantile shops with gifts and antique, a corn maze, historic farm equipment and much more.
We drove back to Sicamous, and checked into the Airbnb. It was a charming, rustic one-room cabin on a large acreage 5 minutes outside of town. The property included several small barns and workshops, animal enclosures, and a large main house with a full-service bed & breakfast inside.
There were lots of farm animals around, including cows, hens and roosters (and some adorable baby chicks who were just a few days old!), bunnies, bee hive boxes and a couple of friendly dogs. I think there was a cat wandering around somewhere too. The hosts were welcoming and helpful, supplying us with local milk, farm fresh eggs, firewood, tea + coffee, and all the essentials needed for a comfortable and relaxing stay.
We spent our first evening exploring the property – wandering around the farm, visiting with animals, and doing a short hike to a waterfall! When it got dark, we returned to our cabin and lit a bonfire, enjoying the peace and quiet outside with some beers.
On Saturday morning, we were woken up early by a real live rooster crowing, but luckily we were able to fall back to sleep amidst the lack of city noise. Holden made coffee and a 100% local breakfast with the eggs we’d been supplied with and some berries and apples that we’d picked up at De Mille’s the day before. After tidying up, we spent some time reading and relaxing on our cabin’s front porch, enjoying the stillness and the fresh air.
Holden’s sister happened to be staying at her boyfriend’s family cabin nearby at the same time, so we drove into town and met up with her at D Dutchmen Dairy for ice cream. The massive line up demonstrated the popularity of the place, but the ice cream and cheese curds we picked up were well worth the wait. After hurriedly eating our melting ice cream in the hot sun, we spent some time petting cows and feeding leaves to the goats before going our separate ways.
Holden and I packed up our swimsuits and towels and headed to the Sicamous Public Beach. For those of us from Alberta, lakes with beaches are somewhat of a novelty, and we had so much fun laying in the sand in the sun, swimming in the warm water, and jumping off the floating dock. For dinner we checked out a restaurant in town, G&G Kitchen and Tap, for some pasta, salad and beers (/White Claw). The food wasn’t anything special, but the service was good and the menu had something for everyone! This would be a great spot for families.
We got back to the farm and enjoyed a sunset dip in the hot tub, overlooking Sicamous, the valley, and the lake. Exhausted from the heat (it was about 37 degrees Celsius all weekend – the hot tub was not needed!) and the busy day, we spent a quiet night in the cabin reading and went to bed pretty early.
We checked out of the cabin at 11am on Sunday and began our journey home, first stopping at the Enchanted Forest (25 minutes east of Sica, towards Revelstoke), which became somewhat Insta-famous over the summer for their eclectic, weird, and wonderful fairy tale figurines and structures. We had a such a fun time walking through the forest, taking photos, and marvelling at the unique statues.
We drove another 10 minutes down the highway before pulling into Three Valley Gap, known for its stunning vistas, chateau hotel, and heritage “ghost town” experience. Sadly, the ghost town was a little out of our measly budget this time around, but I hope to go back and do this one day! We strolled around the outside of the chateau, past the gardens and along the beach. We even got lucky enough to see a train pass by while we were there! (If you didn’t already know – Holden LOVES trains. You can read about our overnight stay in a train caboose here.) Guests were enjoying the sandy beach and blue water, and kayak and paddle boat rentals were available as well. I’d love to get out on (or in) Three Valley Lake one day! { Wow, it really seems like I can’t visit anywhere without wanting to go back and stay longer and explore more… Hmm… }
Next, we stopped in Golden, BC (1 hour and 50 minutes from Three Valley Gap) to try some beers at Whitetooth Brewing and stock up on some road trip snacks, in lieu of dinner.
After driving another forty minutes, we paused at Natural Bridge in Yoho National Park (near Field, BC) for a quick stop and some photos. After seeing so many pictures of Natural Bridge online, I’ve gotta say, I was a little disappointed with it in person. That being said, it was still a gorgeous area and it might have just been the light at that time of day – I’m certainly open to going back and checking it out again!
Our final highlight of the road trip was Takakkaw Falls, also in Yoho (about 35 minutes from Natural Bridge) for a short hike and some stunning waterfall photos during golden hour (I swear we didn’t plan that, we just happened to show up at the right time). { PS. I still cannot pronounce ‘Takakkaw’ correctly… I get mixed up with all the ‘k’s in there. }
From Yoho National Park, we carried on home, with the last 2 hours and 15 minutes passing by slowly after a weekend of long drives – it was absolutely worth it though. And we practically fell into bed already asleep when we finally got home, so that was a fun bonus for two semi-insomniacs!
No surprise, but I’d love to stay at this perfect little cabin again someday (hit me up if you need a rustic, charming and peaceful place to stay in the Shuswap area), but I’m also realizing how many equally awesome + unique accommodations there are in new areas that I haven’t explored yet… So much to do (+ see), so little time!
