Fernie

We arrive in Fernie on a rainy afternoon and our first stop is the Fernie Taphouse. We duck inside from the rain, and it looks like we’ve come to the right spot. Friends, families and locals are all hanging out at the Fernie Taphouse tonight, and I see that they’re open until “late” instead of having a closing time. This was great for us coming in after a long road trip.

We ask our server for a local beer recommendation and she tells us to try the “P9” or Project 9 by Fernie Brewing Company. We ordered a couple of P9s and our first dinner in Fernie — the blackened chicken burger with fries and the buttermilk fried chicken sandwich with fries. It’s a perfect comfort meal on a rainy day after a long drive. Our beer hits the spot and the chicken had the perfect amount of spice. The laid-back vibes of Fernie are kicking in, and we’re excited to check out more local spots. 

We’re staying right in town, and we check into the Red Tree Lodge. We brought our golden retriever, Rosie, on this ale-venture to Fernie and we’re happy to find plenty of dog-friendly accommodations in town. Our room is in a perfect location in the middle of Fernie, and we’re excited about all of the amenities of this property, like the guest kitchen, bike storage, a large green space for our dog, and a view of the surrounding mountains. We head to bed before an exciting day exploring Fernie tomorrow.

The next morning we head to breakfast at Mugshots, a community favourite with quality breakfasts and lunches. We both order a cappuccino, and I try two different breakfast pastries while Jake enjoys the breakfast burrito. I hear they have a fantastic avocado toast, too. 

After breakfast, it’s time to grab another coffee to go and explore historic downtown Fernie. We opt to walk around this charming mountain town since everything is so accessible and easy to get to. We’re doing a self-guided tour combining the Fernie Art Walk and the Heritage Walking Tour to see some of Fernie’s historic buildings and art displays. Some of our favourite heritage buildings include the church, the CPR station, and the post office. The art walk includes fabulous murals and sculptures, and our favourite: finding the decorated dumpster art boxes scattered around town.

Exploring historic downtown Fernie was fun, so next we decide to book e-bikes to see as much of Fernie as we can. Fernie is great for bike paths and we’re following the Fernie Valley Pathway all the way to Mt Fernie Provincial Park. We pick up our e-bike rentals from Gearhub Adventure Rentals who give us a brief safety meeting and ensure our bikes and helmets fit well before sharing a good route on the map. Almost everyone we see out in Fernie today has a bike, and the e-bikes are an incredibly fun way to get around.

Fernie Valley Pathway is a beautiful, paved pathway, and we start biking through town towards Maiden Lake. This lake is one of the best views in town, and we can’t believe it is located right behind the Canadian Tire! We follow the bike path through town, along the Elk River, under the bridges and through covered bridges, and next to the highway until we reached Mt Fernie Provincial Park. There are plenty of bike paths and hiking trails in this park, and we stop to see a waterfall on our path.

Even though we are using e-bikes, our appetites are worked up on this adventure. Luckily, Fernie has a great selection of food trucks located on the bike path back into town. These food trucks are located next to the highway and we find two trucks today: The Chopstick Truck and Miner’s Mud. I am SO excited to order taro bubble tea, pork spring rolls, and pulled pork bao bun tacos. This was a perfect lunch and I highly recommend a stop here at the food trucks. 

We return our e-bikes and head back to the hotel to get ready for the rest of the night. Our dog, Rosie, is tired out from all of her adventures today and we’re lucky to be able to leave her at the hotel in her crate for the night. We’re heading to a new authentic Mexican restaurant in town called Chilango, and as soon as we arrive we’re impressed by the small, cozy space with a beautifully decorated interior. I order the seasonal cocktail — a pomegranate sour — and Jake orders a Mexican-style beer.

We decide on an order of guacamole, chips, and assorted tacos for the evening, and are excited by the fresh ingredients and promising choices we made. We order the carnitas, birria, and suadero tacos and the flavours we experience are incredible. These are some of the best, authentic tacos we’ve had in a while, and the fresh guac and chips with our drinks are the perfect way to start the night. We leave Chilango with full bellies and big smiles. 

We’re told that Fernie Distillers is the place to be to end the night, and we’re excited by the hidden-gem location. When we walk in the doors, we immediately see the distillery behind a large glass window, and the rest of the interior is beautifully decorated with wood accents giving this place a cozy, intimate vibe. We find a high-top bench seat that is close to the bar with a view of the distillery behind us. 

Fernie Distillers is a local craft spirit distillery that focuses on small-batch, locally inspired spirits with a passion for high-quality ingredients and age-old techniques. The friendly bartenders introduce us to their spirits with a complimentary tasting of our choice — we heard that the Fernie Fog Liqueur is well known in town and are excited to try more. We ask to sample the Fernie Fog, Lavender Fog, Cinder Liqueur, No.9 Mine vodka, and the seasonal spirit: a pear and plum gin. 

The spirits are unique and reminiscent of Fernie’s history, and after our tasting, we’re invited to order a cocktail from their menu inspired by their spirits. I order the Fog Lemonade, and Jake orders the El Cubano and we can immediately taste the unique flavours of Fernie Distillers spirits. The cinder liqueur has a smoky aftertaste and the Fernie fog liqueur adds a hint of vanilla to my cocktail. This is a lovely way for us to end the night, and we head back to our hotel after a fantastic full day in Fernie. 

We’re moving just outside of the town towards the ski resort to stay at Fernie Lodging Company in their beautiful property at the Timberline Lodges. We find out we’re staying in a two-bed, two-bath lodge, and we notice the hot tub and pool as we’re checking in and make a note to visit later tonight.

Before we head to our activity of the day we make sure to stop into town to get one of the best breakfasts in Fernie. I’m talking about Big Bang Bagels — a small bakery that bakes incredible bagels and can make them into any kind of breakfast sandwich or bagel sandwich that you’d like. Jake orders The Big Banger (fried egg, cheddar, and bacon) on a jalapeno cheddar bagel and I’m ordering the cinnamon raisin bagel with butter and strawberry cream cheese. These are both INCREDIBLE options for breakfast that fuel us for an exciting day on the water.

As we drive over to Tunnel49’s new office in town we are excited about our white-water rafting tour. Today we’re heading down the Elk River exploring Phillip’s Canyon and going through some epic class 3 and 4 rapids. We learn that rafting is one of the most popular outdoor activities in Fernie and we’re meeting up with a group of four others plus our guide to spend a couple of hours on the river. 

Tunnel49 gets us geared up in our wetsuits and water shoes, and we all load up onto the bus where they drive us to the drop-in spot. We’re hiking down 300+ steps to the canyon where we’re greeted by all of our guides on the adventure today. The crew is training so we feel extra safe knowing that there is a safety raft following us all day. We have a quick safety meeting where our guides tell us all of the commands we’ll be using today along with safety information in case one of us (or all of us) falls out of the raft. We all feel confident and load into our raft before heading out for three hours on the river.

On the river, we start slowly with some easy class-2 rapids to get used to what’s in store for us. We soon get the hang of rafting together and then start to encounter some exciting class-3 rapids. Our group does an amazing job navigating the fast-moving rapids with the help of our guide. Down in the canyon, you can see incredible mountain views and large, towering cliff walls above us. We stop for lunch beside the river and the crew keeps us all entertained with the corniest jokes they’ve got. 

Before heading back onto the river, our guide gives us another safety briefing and warns us that we’re getting ready to hit the class-4 rapid. He tells us that only eight groups have made it through this rapid without losing a rafter. We still feel confident going into the toughest rapid of the entire trip, but as we hit the rapid we go too far to the left and I end up being bucked out of the raft! Luckily, our safety raft spots me in the water quickly and throws a rope directly at me for rescue. They pull me into their raft with ease and now I can officially say I’ve swum in class-4 rapids.

We stop for a break to do some cliff-jumping in the canyon and the sun finally starts to come out for the rest of our trip on the water. We all take turns steering the boat and have a lot of fun navigating Elk River by raft together. We make it to our pick-up spot, take off our wetsuits, and load back onto the bus after a long day on the river. It was a fantastic adventure in Fernie with Tunnel49 white water rafting tours.

We’re feeling great after spending so much time outside today, and we head over to Fernie Brewing Company for post-adventure brews. Since we’re on the BC Ale Trail, we’re excited to finally check out what Fernie Brewing has to offer. As soon as we arrive we notice the incredible patio that’s busy with groups of friends, families and locals. This must be the place to be! 

Jake orders us both a flight so we can try out multiple brews. We already know we like their Project 9, so Jake orders the Headwall Hazy Pale Ale, Hit The Deck Hazy IPA, What The Huck berry Ale, and the Campout West Coast Pale. Fernie Brewing has some seriously tasty beers — and we really enjoy the berry ale and hazy IPA. We spend some time on the patio together and let the bartender know our favourites before heading to dinner.

We’re going to Bridge Bistro for dinner, and we know from talking to people that this is an awesome spot on the weekends. They also have a large patio where we sit down with mountain views alongside the Elk River and order another Project 9 from Fernie Brewing. It’s a beautiful night in Fernie and we order jerk chicken quesadillas and a pork tenderloin vermicelli bowl. The sun starts to go down as we finish our delicious meal with a view, and we head back to our hotel to watch the sunset. We’re tired, cozy, and happy from a long day adventuring in Fernie. 

We’re on our way to Blue Toque Diner and we recognize the historic building from our tour on our first day in Fernie. Blue Toque has an incredible, dog-friendly patio so we bring Rosie with us for breakfast before a hike. 

I start by ordering cappuccinos and a flight of mimosas — Blue Toque Diner offers a variety of delicious juices for their mimosas so I order a classic orange, grapefruit, lavender lime, and guava-pineapple. The mimosas come out first and they are SO beautifully refreshing. Jake and I sipped our mimosas before switching to our coffees and ordering from their amazing menu. 

We’re here early enough for brunch, so Jake decides on his favourite: eggs benedict. Except they call it “the Canadian” here at the Blue Toque Diner, and Jake’s “Canadian” comes with pulled pork and jalapenos. Our server tells me about their special this morning, a puff pastry with poached eggs, mushrooms, onions, bacon, and a list of other ingredients that all sound fantastic so I trust her advice and order it. The special is AMAZING and the flavours are just what I need before my hike. We love this spot for breakfast and highly recommend stopping here while in Fernie, BC.

We’re close to the trailhead for our adventure today, so we lace up our hiking boots, check the map, and get started on our quick 4-km hike to Montane Hut. The Montane area has a network of trails for hikers, bikers and skiers in the winter. Everybody shares these trails and looks after them, and it’s the largest trail system in Fernie. The trail is enjoyable, with a little elevation, and we’re really enjoying being outside.

When we make it to Montane Hut we are so surprised. The clouds have rolled in, and they decided to cover up the beautiful mountain range that surrounds Fernie. This hike is one of the best views you can get above Fernie and we can see the town from above. We take some photos, enjoy a snack and water, and know that this view is usually an incredible mountain scene that locals get to enjoy. This hike would be beautiful on a sunny day and we also note that it would be stunning in the fall. We hike back down and pass by a large class of kindergarteners with their teachers, and it reminds us how lucky these kids are to live in Fernie, BC. 

This trail continues past the hut and turns into the Nordic Loop for 8 km and will lead you toward Viewpoint Beach. This hike is a fantastic way to see Fernie and appreciate the outdoor adventures that are accessible in Fernie. The rain starts to pick up as the dark clouds roll in closer towards us, so we cut our hike short and head back to our hotel to enjoy the rain from our cozy lodge. 

The rest of the evening calls for rain, so we order a couple of pizzas from Elk Valley Pizza Shoppe and grab some P9s from Fernie Brewing before staying in for the rest of the night — the perfect laid-back night after our adventurous several days spent in Fernie.

We have had so much fun in this small mountain town, and learned that Fernie has the most adventurous spirit. The locals come here from all over the world and find Fernie to be the perfect mix of laid-back, outdoorsy and social. We can definitely see why Fernie is growing in popularity — Fernie’s prime location in the Canadian Rockies has its perks.

We spend some time at the hotel pool and hot tub before checking out of our lovely lodge, and before we hit the road we drive over to a new Traditional French bakery called Le Bon Pain – C’est La Vie.

This turns out to be one of our favourite stops on the entire trip — we are excited to grab bakery-fresh breakfast before our long drive home. The owners are friendly despite being so busy with their morning rush.

We choose so many great treats, including croissants, cookies, buns, and more. My favourite is the chocolate croissant (it was truly the best and most buttery croissant I’ve ever had), the caramel pecan cookies and the raisin roll. I can definitely see why this bakery is so busy in the mornings. 

Before hitting the road we have one last stop for our dog, Rosie. We’re visiting Railyard dog park, one of the most beautiful dog parks I have ever seen. This 10-acre off-leash dog park has plenty of room for everyone, and the paved trail brings you through a forested area with plenty of green space to play. Fernie is so dog-friendly and we loved bringing our dog with us on this adventure. We play and get all of her energy out before hitting the road back home.

We had an epic week of adventures while visiting Fernie, BC and got to see some of the best views around town, do some of the coolest outdoor activities, hike local trails, and taste the best brews and restaurants that Fernie has to offer. Fernie is hands-down one of the best mountain towns we’ve ever visited in the Canadian Rockies and we can see why so many people love Fernie and call it home.