We Love You, Tumbler Ridge
A love letter to a beautiful outdoorsy BC destination that suffered a horrendous tragedy.
Last summer, my husband and I fell in love with Tumbler Ridge after spending three glorious days in the town and surrounding wilderness. Most of our friends and family asked us, “Where’s that?” They had never heard of the small community in northeastern British Columbia.
After the mass shooting on February 10, the world now knows Tumbler Ridge. Tragedy has a way of shining a harsh light on the place where it happened, but Tumbler Ridge shouldn’t be defined by a devastating memory. It’s so much more than that.
I pitched a story about Tumbler Ridge as a growing outdoor adventure hub a few days before the shooting. In light of the events, explore’s editor and I decided to reframe this story in a way that highlights the area’s uniqueness and beauty, while also sending support, love and encouragement to the town. That’s my aim with this love letter.
In July 2025, my husband and I chose to visit the remote BC town because it embodies everything we look for in an adventure destination: Tumbler Ridge has natural beauty, abundant wildlife and access to outdoor activities, and its location has kept it well off the province’s traditional tourist trail. In the peak of summer, only about 100 people a day drop into the town’s visitors’ centre, compared to tens of thousands who visit some of Canada’s national parks.
Tumbler Ridge is a UNESCO Global Geopark, a mountainous region of geological significance that spans nearly 8,500 square kilometres (an area larger than Banff National Park). It gained the designation in 2014, 14 years after two local boys tubing down Flatbed Creek discovered dinosaur tracks in the sandstone bedrock. More discoveries of tracks, fossils and dinosaur bonebeds followed. As coal mining in the area waned, the town saw an alternate path forward with tourism.
The town has a strong, community-minded heart, but we didn’t yet know that when we flew to Prince George, rented a vehicle and then drove four and a half hours to Tumbler Ridge.
The feeling that I was in a special place grew over my time there, starting with the smiles, hellos and offers of help from hotel and restaurant workers, tour guides and Geopark staff. Everyone was excited about the town’s tourism potential and wanted to share it with us. The energy was contagious.
There are 34 Geosites in the park, including mountain peaks, alpine lakes, canyons, waterfalls and fossil sites that, between them, showcase 500 million years of the planet’s geological history. Most visitors use the town as a base and plan day trips to drive, hike or boat to different natural attractions. Unlike in Canada’s more well-known national parks, we were nearly alone on trails and tours, which lent a sense of discovery to every outing.
On the three-kilometre out-and-back hike to see the Shipyard and Titanic, a jumble of giant boulders that resembles an armada of sinking ships, we encountered only a handful of other hikers. The trailhead is just a 30-minute drive south of town, and the dramatic formation is considered one of the Geopark’s top attractions, so we were surprised to have the meandering path mostly to ourselves.
We climbed past rockfalls of lichen-covered sandstone boulders and through an alpine meadow flowering with paintbrushes, lupines and daisies to the hike’s main attraction: a monolithic doppelganger of the ill-fated ocean liner. Below the Titanic’s “prow,” a lone mountain goat approached our group of four and spent a half hour eating spruce tips and scrambling up rocks, seemingly oblivious to us as we enjoyed lunch with a private wildlife audience. Our hiking guide swore he’d never seen one come so close.
The next day, another mostly blue-sky scorcher, we took a jetboat tour up the Murray River to Kinuseo Falls, a cascade taller than Niagara Falls. We had the crashing spectacle to ourselves for an hour before another boat showed up. We enjoyed its cooling spray and marvelled at the power and roar of water tumbling down 61 metres (about as tall as a 20-storey building!) into the pool below. Considering I had never even heard of Kinuseo Falls until we started researching the trip, I was surprised and humbled by its size and beauty. On the return ride, a bald eagle sped overhead keeping pace with the boat, as if racing us back to town.
When You Go: Support Local in Tumbler Ridge
Stay: Trend Mountain Hotel & Conference Centre offers a variety of guest rooms and suites, and includes a continental breakfast.
Breakfast: Grab coffee and an avocado toast or eggs at Twisted Seasons Bistro.
Lunch: NorthStar Kitchen & Catering makes delicious to-go sandwiches for your adventure.
Dinner: Pair beer and cocktails with handhelds, pasta and steak at the Western Steakhouse.
Later, we drove to Bullmoose Marshes to walk along trails and over an elevated boardwalk for about 1.5 kilometres to look for wetland birds. Instead, we spent the evening watching a lone beaver swim through a pond, periodically slapping its tail on the water to scare us away. I had never been that close to Canada’s national animal, and the time spent observing its antics in a natural environment was a gift.
These experiences felt as intimate as they did surreal. Here, we were outnumbered by wildlife; tiny humans in a giant’s world of ship-rocks and thundering waterfalls. Here, there are actual tyrannosaur tracks stamped onto rocks, the prehistoric graffiti equivalent of carving, “Albertosaurus was here” into sandstone. Here, city sounds and smells are replaced by the calm cadence of birdsong and wind, and the grounding, earthy aromas of yarrow, arnica and moss. It’s a place to slow down, breathe in fresh air and surrender to the healing power of nature.
There’s no other place quite like it, which is why it speaks to people. Let the guestbook in the visitors’ centre speak instead, as it is filled with inscriptions from travellers from as far away as Colombia, Finland and Singapore. “Tumbler Ridge is wild, keep it that way!” they say. “The people here are kind,” they say.
Tumbler Ridge also calls people back, like a summer student who went away to university, but returned to work at the visitors’ centre. “The community is great,” she said. “I want people to realize this is a great place to work and live.”
She suggested we head down to Flatbed Falls to cool off after a hot day of exploration. There, local youth had gathered to sunbathe, swim and dare one another to jump into the refreshing pool beneath the falls. They were carefree, in a way only kids on summer break are.
It’s a memory I cherish, and a reminder that Tumbler Ridge is so much more than a town where tragedy struck. Even in the light of recent events, it’s impossible to see it as anything but what it is: a place full of life.
Consider taking a moment of silence in nature to honour the victims of the shooting: Abel Mwansa, Ezekiel Schofield, Kylie Smith, Zoey Benoit, Ticaria Lampert, Shannda Aviugana-Durand, Emmett Jacobs and Jennifer Jacobs.
a late friend of ours was the geologist that discovered the met coal there and suggested the town be built that close to reduce commutes and have complete families live there with out the stigma of a pure mining town
he was proud of the town and the later transitions after coal was not sustainable
a great place off the normal path although sad with the latest tragedy