I first heard of Tumbler Ridge as a kid (I think a friend’s father was working up there) and for some reason the name intrigued me.  The town was built to support the mining operations in the area in the 70s and 80s but has more recently floundered with the closing of the mines and decline of the industry.  About 20 years ago though, a couple of young lads out for a day of fun on the river inadvertently discovered some of the most complete and impressive dinosaur tracks in the world.  Since then, many more discoveries of tracks, bones and fossils have been made and the area has now been designated a UNESCO Global Geopark.  We made the short jaunt to the river bank and walked along real dinosaur tracks.  How awesome is that?!?

The other cool thing about the Tumbler Ridge area is the profusion of impressive waterfalls.  We hiked to quite a number of them but the highlights would definitely be the beautiful Kinuseo Falls in Monkman Provincial Park and Bergeron Falls north of town.  Bergeron Falls is the highest accessible waterfall in Northern B.C. at 100 metres tall. And you have to work some to get to it – the trail has many ups and downs and several creek crossings that require a little fancy footwork but it was well worth it to take in the falls from both the bottom and the top.  And yes, we both managed to keep our feet dry – but just barely!

While we were in the area, we decided to check out the two hydro electric dams on the Peace River that supply a sizeable chunk of our energy here in B.C.  Unfortunately the WAC Bennett Dam visitor centre was closed due to Covid, but we were able to drive across the top of it.  It is the largest earthen dam in the world and holds back a massive reservoir in Williston Lake.  As a rare treat, they had the spillway open so we could witness the huge torrent of water jetting out of the spillway and into the Dinosaur Reservoir below.  Apparently the mist could be felt miles down the lake.  It was pretty impressive….definitely made up for missing the visitor centre.