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Good Hope Cannery is a fly-in only fishing resort in British Columbia. Huge salmon, remote wilderness, and a beautiful lodge - does it get any better? I went up in August 2009 with my family and we had the time of our lives. It is a completely unique experience, including a cool float plane ride!
www.goodhopecannery.com. A 90-minute flight north of Vancouver.
Inset is a tiny hamlet in northern Norway, well inside the Arctic Circle, and when I say tiny, the central area has four buildings, and three of them belong to Regina and Bjorn who own and run the Husky Farm.
Go in December and as you touch down in Bardufoss, 60km or so from Inset, you will notice as you leave the plane that you are walking not on tarmac but on a solid sheet of gritted ice. The first thing you feel is the cold, as suddenly the reason so many brightly coloured Puffa jackets peppered the plane becomes clear. Ask a local what the temperature is, "15 C" they will reply - to have to say "minus" every time would just be a waste of breath.
When you turn off the two track road that leads all the way back to Oslo, you leave street lights and civilization behind you, and enter the astonishing black of the arctic night. One hour later and you pull into the Husky Farm, a warming glow permeating through the little windows in the wooden buildings whose roofs are covered with grass; a chorus is there to greet you as the 70 or so husky dogs howl to mark your arrival.
Bjorn and Regina have an amazing log cabin which you can rent by the week. It is entirely made of wood and has a wood burning stove which must be permanently lit as the flue travels through the bedroom and kitchen making sure the heat is distributed around the whole building. It is a picture of comforting isolation, nestled in a valley with hills becoming mountains on either side, snow drifts come up to the windows. There is no sound other than the dogs and the wind, and no light bleeds into the sky, so undisturbed views of the aurora borealis are possible. Indeed on the second night of our visit I opened the front door and saw beams of light coming from behind the mountains and flooding the sky with dancing hues of blue and green. The lights performed for me for 20 minutes and then disappeared, quite suddenly and quite mysteriously.
The few hours of twilight that the sun offers at these latitudes must be used to the full. If you book for the Husky Farm Holiday you will get to experience leading your own team of dogs as you sledge over the frozen lakes into the abyss of the arctic landscape. The sky is one hundred colours at the same time, the light is ethereal, and the seclusion is absolute. You come to trust and rely on your dogs as only they hold the key to unlocking some of the secrets of the scenery and beauty of this most remote of locations.
If you are looking for glorious isolation, and some private time with nature, look no further.
Inset, Bardu, Norway
www.huskyadventure.com
It's a hostel for hiker and climbers near Soto de Sajambre in the Picos de Europa. You can only get there by foot - it's about an hour from the nearest village. Right in the heart of the Picos de Europa National Park with has some of the most stunning views of the surrounding mountains. It's set beside some mountain pastures and in between centuries old beech and oak woodland. The facilities are simple - shared dormitories and probably best to take your own food but definitely worth it as the views are out of this world.
For the location: maps.google.com/?q=43.166046,-5.005045
For the views: www.mallorcaweb.net/estebanmk/SantaCastilla/SantaCastilla002.jpg
Yosemite Valley may have the famous sites - Half Dome, El Capitan, and of course the waterfalls. But it also has the tourist hordes and the intense heat. It shouldn't be missed but once you've been and seen, head out of the valley and then north-east toward Tuolumne Meadows. About an hour's drive through the spectacular Sierra Nevada scenery, the road skims the shores of Lake Tenaya. Instead of passing it by like the majority of the park's visitors, park your car and get out. The clear mountain air and almost complete absence of sound or other human presence, makes this remote, crystalline lake a supremely tranquil location. I visited in late summer, when the valley was suffocating in 100-degree heat, but Lake Tenaya, at a considerably higher altitude, was pleasantly warm, and it's shallow waters cool but not freezing. Standing waist-deep in its waters, surrounded by white-sand beaches, pine forests and silver mountains, I could not imagine anywhere closer to paradise.
Yosemite National Park, ask at the visitor centre for a map and/or directions.
We have trekked twice with Three Sisters. In 2006 they took us to Lo Monthang in Upper Mustang. Earlier this year we trekked the Annapurna Circuit and also Annapurna Base Camp with them. We can highly recommend them and when you use them you are also providing employment and training for female guides. The Three Sisters are helping many very poor Nepali citizens through their training and self-help schemes.
3 Sisters Adventure Trekking
Pokhara
Nepal
My choice for this would be somewhere in northern Finland, somewhere like Utsjoki or even better Ivalo.
In northern Finland, which has very low levels of air pollution, the Lights ( in Finnish "revontulet", which means "fox's fires") are visible up to 200 times a year.
I have seen them as far south as Kirkkonummi, 30 km west of Helsinki, but only very rarely.
I saw the Northern Lights in Svalbard. It’s a wonderful place where you can see many of them. The landscape there is stunning and being over 78°N, you live the experience of the polar night which is perpetual darkness - where else to watch Northern Lights?
Mount Charleston, about an hour north of Vegas, is a slightly ramshackle ski resort in winter. In summer, the higher altitude - about 10,000 ft - means temperatures are more bearable during the day. There are pinewoods, a ski lodge and a hotel with a large dining room.
Take the I-95 out of Vegas then head west on HWY 157
Hidden away among the high Rocky Mountains of southern Colorado, the sand dunes are amazing. Backed into a corner of a huge valley, surrounded by 4,000m snow-capped peaks is an enormous field of dunes, some 200m high.
The scenery is stunning, wildlife (bison, elk, bears) diverse and there's plenty of opportunity for hiking etc. in the surrounding wilderness area.
Although a bit of a backwater, it can be reached quite easily from Denver or Santa Fe. There's accommodation in nearby Alamosa, and camping on site, but the last time I visited on a fall weekend it was crowded with snowboarders getting some pre-season practice.
It is a massive park in northern Ontario - it is absolutely beautiful. My wife and I stayed in a cabin there in 2002 and loved it. Loads of lakes, ecological reserves, birds, fantastic Parks Canada visitor centres.
You go up from Toronto, past Barrie, and just keep going.
This non-profit store sells some of the most stunning greetings cards and posters you will ever find in BC.
During the last months of the year, make sure to pick up their Wildland or Wildlife calendar. All proceeds of sales go to the Wilderness Committee.
For over 25 years this organisation continues to go strong in its efforts to protect wilderness and wildlife in Western Canada.
Store is located in old Gastown. It is just of Water street on 227 Abbott street. A 5 minutes walk from Waterfront station. www.wildernesscommittee.org
Tel. 604-683-8220 (Check for opening days and hours before you go.)
A hidden jewel of a waterfall in the forests of Belasica Mountain, Smolare is not like a thundering Niagara but is a tranquil hiking destination with pure ice-cold waters.
Above the village of Smolare, located just beyond Novo Selo, a 40-minute drive from Strumica.
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