Annual dragon boat festival returns to Nanaimo waters
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CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
Coasts and cliffsides: Enjoy these photos from around New Brunswick
New Brunswick has no shortage of pretty views, and this week's edition of Your Lens is an example of that. If you snap any nice shots, be sure to send them to us at cbcnb@ for a chance to be featured in next week's edition, but don't forget to include your name and the location where the photo was taken. Send us your photos or videos by email to cbcnb@ and put the words Your Lens in the subject line. Please tell us your name and where the photo or video was taken — we won't be able to use the submission otherwise. Keep in mind this feature is all about New Brunswick, so photos have to be of subjects in this province. Please provide a description that tells us what's happening in your submission and feel free to add any other information that would help us tell the audience about your photo or video. If we don't use your photo in the Your Lens closest to when you sent it, it could be used in a future edition as we are experiencing a high volume of submissions. We don't publish black-and-white photos or heavily edited photos, such as anything over-saturated or with filters. Watermarks will be cropped out.
Globe and Mail
6 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
B.C.'s Eleven Revelstoke Lodge is a boutique hotel for adventure seekers in all seasons
Revelstoke is one of my favourite B.C. ski towns. In 2021, I spent a week floating through deep powder and steep treed runs of Revelstoke mountain, an otherwise terrible year marred by pandemic shutdowns. So when I returned to Revy on a sunny June day, I was already half in love with this gritty little town of 8,000, a mecca for skiers and boarders. The other half was slightly bewildered by the mountain bikes, hiking shoes, climbing gear and canoes on display. A summer Revelstoke? This would require some adjustment. The elegant and decidedly upscale Eleven Revelstoke Lodge helped make that painless. Why you should visit Unlike the other heli-skiing adventure lodges owned by Colorado-based tour company Eleven, which are scattered in remote parts of Iceland, Patagonia and New Zealand, the Revelstoke property is on a main street in the middle of a former mining and logging town in the interior of B.C. The 1911 heritage red brick building has been a tobacco shop, a billiard hall, a bowling alley and a dentist's office, among other things, before the latest renovations by design firm Twelve Interiors (yes, you read that right). With 12 bedrooms and space for 24 people, Eleven is a boutique hotel, grand but unassuming from the outside. The magic starts when you enter. The hotel is a feast for the eyes, with vibrant colours, refurbished furniture, varying textures and elegant finishings with a mid-century-modern-meets-boho appeal. Marlin Fontaine, a 53-year-old hotel guest from Regina, was on a road trip with a friend when they stumbled across the lodge. 'I saw the beautiful front doors and the wooden bar and thought that someone had put a lot of thought into this place,' Fontaine said. The rooftop terrace has a fire pit, hot tub, red cedar sauna, steam room and ice plunge. The outdoor seating is casual, with plenty of cushions amid potted plants and stunning views of the surrounding mountains that, yes, did make me momentarily ache for my skis. The cozy third-floor indoor space is where I spent most of my time. A wooden bar stretches across one end, with a Nespresso coffee maker for us early risers, a plush couch and cozy armchairs facing a wood-burning fireplace. There's a record player and a collection of vinyl tucked in the corner. An L-shaped couch facing a large television anchors the adjoining room, with wrap-around window views of the snow-capped Monashee Mountains. The entire space has plush carpets and an array of books on topics from nature to architecture, biographies to fiction and, yes, skiing. My two-storey suite had a main-floor mini-bar fridge stocked with water (in a reusable metal container), a portable radio, a couch, chairs and more books. Upstairs, I was delighted by the reading light and cellphone charging pad by my king-sized bed, which brought new meaning to the word comfortable. Many guests come to Eleven looking for adventure – and the staff takes that seriously. They've partnered with local vendors to book any outdoor activity your heart desires and your legs can handle for an extra fee. I spent an afternoon white-water rafting with Apex Rafting. After a short bus ride and good deal of instruction, our group geared up and set out for a half-day of adrenalin-pumping action. Our guide calmly propelled us 26 kilometres down a glacier-fed river, through churning water, rocks and rapids, and, at moments, gentle waters, all of it framed by jaw-dropping natural beauty. That's the thing about summer Revy: It kept surprising and delighting me. Long seen as a pit stop for travellers winding their way from Vancouver to Jasper, Alta., Revelstoke is quietly emerging as a warm-weather destination, says Nina Frohlicher, general manager of Eleven Canada, a Swiss native who settled in Revy seven years ago. 'This town is up and coming for summer. We're a destination on our own – there's so much to do here and we want people to stay longer,' she said. Breakfast for lodge guests is included in the adjacent restaurant, the Quartermaster Eatery. The shrimp toast with avocado was delicious but the potato rosti that accompanied the eggs was my morning highlight. There's a tiny cocktail bar for guests tucked away in the basement of the lodge, which opens sporadically, as well as a gym and wellness area, where you can book a massage. Room for improvement If you're someone who likes to unpack their clothes, you'll find the layout of the three Eleven suites frustrating – there's a narrow space to hang some clothing on each side of the bed. To reach the one chest of drawers, you'll have to go up and down the stairs. Given that Eleven Revelstoke is surrounded by buildings, there are limited views from the bedrooms. My suite faced a parking lot so I kept the day shades lowered. Similarly, the rooftop lounge overlooks electrical wires, and you can hear and see the train from the hot tub space. I found it charming, but not everyone will. Since you're in the neighbourhood From December to March, only heli-skiers who book with Kingfisher Heli-Skiing can stay at Eleven Revelstoke Lodge. But in the summer months, it's open to all guests. And if extreme outdoor adventure is not your jam, there are scenic walks and light hikes you can undertake in or near the bustling town, home to shops, restaurants and cafés, as well as a growing music and arts scene. The take-away Revelstoke Lodge isn't geared for small children or large families. The rooms are set up for two people, and the vibe in the shared spaces is decidedly adult. Older kids could comfortably stay, since three of the bedrooms offer split king beds. But it's an ideal place for couples with communal or opposing passions; say, one goes hiking while the other fly fishes, then they meet up for dinner and a rooftop soak. Me? I'd happily travel there with my skis or my hikers. The writer was a guest of Eleven Revelstoke Lodge. It did not review or approve the story before publication.
CBC
6 hours ago
- CBC
Fundy National Park celebrates 75 years
Social Sharing New Brunswick was one of the first provinces to ask for a national park, and 75 years ago, the province got its wish. Fundy National Park officially opened to the public on July 29, 1950. In what was described by the Saint John Times-Globe as "perfect weather," thousands of people gathered just inside the park on a Saturday to watch the opening ceremony, attend brass band concerts and watch a softball game and a women''s golf tournament. The park was announced in 1948 but had been in the works in one way or another since the 1920s. Becky Graham, the park manager at Fundy National Park says, in a bit of an understatement, that a lot has changed in 75 years. Originally, the park only had one campground, no trails and no interpretation programs. "The real focus of the park was to bring people to the area for tourism and for recreation," Graham said. "Those things are still important to us, but we have also evolved a mandate to really protect and present special places like Fundy National Park." While Parks Canada eventually went with the area of Albert County we now know as Fundy National Park as the location for the park, it was not anyone's first choice. The provincial government always advocated Mount Carlton, in the north, which Parks Canada really disliked for a site. Among the other areas considered were Point Lepreau, also on the Bay of Fundy and now home to a nuclear power plant, and Mount Champlain, in south-central New Brunswick. WATCH | The history of New Brunswick's first national park: Fundy National Park turns 75 1 hour ago In fact, Fundy was chosen in part because of the unofficial and negative description of New Brunswick as the "drive-through province." "What really swung it towards Albert County, frankly, was the fact that you have to drive all the way through New Brunswick to get there," said Alan MacEachern, a Western University historian who wrote a book about the building of Atlantic Canada's first four national parks. "They thought this is a way to bring tourists, central Canadian tourists, but especially American tourists, and force them … to drive all the way across New Brunswick to get to Albert County." Relatively smooth sailing As with many national parks, the founding of Fundy meant moving out residents and shuttering communities. The community of Point Wolfe was wiped off the map, farms and homes were expropriated and churches closed. This had also happened in Cape Breton and P.E.I. when national parks were built there, causing outrage in both provinces. But opposition in New Brunswick was muted. "There were definitely people who were going to be expropriated who were not happy about it, but I think that there was a lot less displeasure in New Brunswick than there had been in P.E.I. and Cape Breton," MacEachern said. What did upset some residents was the feeling that any evidence of their existence in the park was removed, which was in keeping with Parks Canada's philosophy at the time. "The belief [was] national parks should have basically no evidence of prior human existence," MacEachern said. "They wanted to get rid of any kind of evidence that the people of southern Albert County … had ever lived there." Constructing nature For a park whose goal was to present the absence of civilization, a lot of construction went into it The farms and homesteads and churches that were torn down were replaced by welcome centres, golf courses and hotels. "They developed the heck out of it and in, as you say, a very suburban sort of fashion," MacEachern said. In his book, he goes into more detail about the fate of some of the area's original elements: "The new Fundy National Park, populated for almost 150 years, was too wild to be currently acceptable. Roads needed to be straightened, hillocks flattened, ugly and misshapen trees cut down, stones removed, grass planted." MacEachern said Parks Canada immediately had regrets about how Fundy was constructed and viewed it as an example of what not to do at a national park. But he takes an optimistic view of the park. "You could argue that Fundy National Park has had 75 years of getting back to nature, of being about the things it wasn't quite about at its founding," MacEachern said. Seventy-five years later the park has grown to 207 square kilometres, with 20 kilometres along the Bay of Fundy coast. It went from one campground to five and offers back-country camping and several kinds of roofed accommodations such as yurts and rustic cabins. The park has also developed an expansive trail system, more than 100 kilometres in total. Present and future In terms of visitors, Fundy continues to be popular among tourists. Graham said early this season was a little slow because of rain, but June saw an eight per cent increase in visitors over the previous year. This could be attributed to a few factors. More Canadians discovered national parks after the COVID pandemic made outdoor spaces a more popular option, and political turmoil in the United States means more Canadians are looking to vacation closer to home. Finally, entrance fees for all national parks have been waived for the summer. While more people are going to national parks, the parks have to contend with their dual purpose of access and conservation, something that isn't easy. "Parks Canada's mandate is to both protect and present," Graham said.
