Hiking Trips

Colossal waves of blue-green ocean hammer black volcanic rocks with plumes of froth. Above, bald and golden eagles soar. Out at sea, killer whales and orcas rise ever so quietly to the surface before sinking back down into the watery depths. Trees are eerily twisted by the wind and just over the rocks, an ancient rainforest of gigantic thousand-year-old cedars dwarfs anyone who walks beneath them. This is the rugged and wild landscape of Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Join your fellow feisty co-adventurists for a powerfully fun-fueled week of discovery before the park’s busy summer season begins. Starting in the folksy fishing village of Ucluelet—an ancient settlement which takes its name from the Nuu-chah-nulth phrase, “the people with a good landing place for canoes”—we’ll stay in ocean-view cabins before hiking the Wild Pacific Trail. This new trail offers spectacular panoramas as it winds through old-growth lush-green rainforests and skirts the rugged rocky shoreline alongside sandy coves of tide pools, bone-white driftwood and the blue Pacific. At Long Beach we’ll explore inter-tidal life on the famed beach’s miles of white sand, rocky headlands and secret coves, before we disappear once again into the mystical thick and mossy rainforest. After all that hiking it’ll be time for our three-day kayaking adventure in the Broken Islands Group with certified female sea-kayaking guides. Accessible only by boat, the Broken Islands Group is a magical paradise for kayakers. This wild and lush chain of islands, made up of over 100 small islands and islets in Barkley Sound, contains hundreds of hidden coves, isolated bays to explore, stone fish traps and other artifacts of aboriginal habitation. Here we’re likely to spot whales, seals, sea lions and porpoises. We’ll camp on sandy beaches beneath the stars and other nights, beneath towering red cedars and sitka spruces. During the day we’ll paddle through the protected passages, warm lagoons, narrow channels, and out to the open coast. Finally, we’ll hang out in funky Tofino, the eccentric hippie haven full of fascinating community-minded folk, where we’ll stay at comfy seaside accommodations above a hip bookstore and cappuccino bar and with one jaw-dropping view of Tofino’s harbour. But still there’s more to this action-packed week. Have you always wanted to learn to surf? Here’s your chance. Women from an all-women surfing school will show you how. Alternatively, you can play in the waves on a boogie board. Waves are a blast no matter how you ride them. We’ll also get a final day in Tofino to relax—ride a bike, beach comb, go gallery hopping—and at night, we’ll eat together at a swanky upscale bistro. Talk about adventure! Request a Detailed Itinerary

Steeped in history, the former French colony that is Québec isn’t only rich in culture with its traditional French lifestyle and unique cuisine, it’s also bursting with scenic wonders—from the fjords of the Saguenay with its beluga whales, to the mighty and awe-inspiring Saint Lawrence River, to the vineyards of the lovely Charlevoix region, to the snow-peaked mountains of the north. Join your fellow female adventurers for an exhilarating, fun, and culturally-stimulating adventure in the province of Quebec. We’ll start by exploring Quebec City. Wandering around the 400-year-old city feels like an amble through old Europe. Once the centre of New France, Quebec City’s stone houses line its narrow winding streets while church spires in almost every direction call to mind 17th century France. The city’s historical and architectural wealth are so rich that the city and its surroundings were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in the 80s, the first such designation on the continent. We’ll go on a fascinating walking tour in the Old City and will be staying near the Plains of Abraham, high up on the famous cliff that swoops down to the Saint Lawrence River. Next we’ll visit the green and scenically sublime Charlevoix region—think sweeping green meadows overlooking an immense right blue river. In Charlevois we’ll stay for three nights in private chalets. Our first day in Charlevoix we’ll go sea kayaking along the Saint Lawrence, paddling to Baie-St Paul. Baie-St Paul is the village where the original Cirque du Soleil troupe began and you’ll see why. This historic village high on a cliff overlooking the Saint Lawrence is full of art galleries, funky cafes, and brightly-painted centuries-old homes converted into eclectic restaurants and artist studios. A very artsy town! The next day we’ll hike in the magnificent park Sentier des Caps on a trail through old-growth forest and leading to magnificent views of the Saint Lawrence. The park is also home to ancient giant yellow birch and since it’s located in the heart of a massive geological fault, its landscape is dramatic and dizzying. Then it’s on to another wildness adventure further down the river, exploring Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Riviere-Malbaie, which translated means “the Great Gorges”. This park is known for its breathtaking scenery, extensive trails system, and its dozens of hanging waterfalls plunging hundreds of feet into Canada’s largest canyon east of the Rockies. A true ecological gem, the park sits in the heart of the Charlevois World Biosphere Reserve. That evening we’ll dine at our inn further down the river, in the historic village of Tadoussac, sitting on what has been named one of the ten most beautiful bays in the world. For many visitors to the province, this is the village they like most outside of Quebec City and Montreal. Why? It’s the whales. Tadoussac sits at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence River and the Saguenay River, at the mouth of the stunning Saguenay Fjord, and the entire area is teeming with belugas, minkes, humpbacks, and sometimes, the largest mammals on the planet, blue whales. We’ll take a zodiac ride along the Saguenay looking for these magnificent creatures who feed in the river every summer. We’ll also take the opportunity to visit the superb interpretation centre of marine animals known as CIMM. Finally we’ll visit one of the most well-known islands in all of Quebec, Île d’Orléans, one of the first regions of the province to be colonized by the French. The lushly green pastoral island is made up of six centuries-old villages, all unique and all replete with red-roofed ancient homes. Join us for our Quebec adventure, each day offering action, fun, inspiration, wild scenery and delicious cuisine. Request a Detailed Itinerary

Canada’s Rockies are among the most famous mountain landscapes on the planet. When you first spot them rising up from the prairies and filling the horizon they seem to be an illusion, immense natural wonders standing like fortresses. The glaciers, snowy peaks, teal-green lakes and mighty rivers have all posed for millions of postcards and no wonder. This rare national wilderness is a last refuge for whole mountain ecosystems including old-growth forests, pure glacier-fed lakes and abundant wildlife: moose, caribou, bear and big-horned sheep, to name a few. These are the mountains where the Stoney Indians went on visions quests for days, waiting for a vision of the eagle’s view of what lay below, a dizzying oasis of pure wilderness. Thanks to the preservation of this vast sweeping land of mountains and valleys in the form of national parks, this primeval experience can be repeated today. Join your fellow women adventurists to experience the raw and wild power of the Canadian Rockies. Starting with easy hikes we’ll slowly acclimatize ourselves to the elevation before setting off into Banff National Park, entering the wildlife haven of the Bow Valley on our way to Lake Louise. Stopping to hike at Johnston’s Canyon on the way, we’ll take a trail that begins gently through mossy lush forest alongside Johnston Creek. When the trail enters a canyon that’s cut into 300 million-year-old limestone, the world suddenly consists only of rock and the swirling sounds of rushing water. In some places the canyon walls are 100 feet high and less than 20 feet across. The trail also passes seven waterfalls, the Upper Falls the most dramatic with water plunging down almost 100 feet. When the trail leaves the crystal waters of the creek, it leads to the geologically exquisite Indo Pots, six clear green pools filled with pure spring water. At Lake Louise we’ll do a full day of hiking, taking a trail to the historic Lake Agnes Tea House for lunch before climbing further up the Big Beehive with its indescribable views of the valley and the shimmering blue-green Lake Louise below, one of the most dramatically scenic sights in the Western Hemisphere. We’ll also hike up the remote Castle Mountain Lookout Trail, a short steep path that ascends to a panoramic lookout of the Bow Valley, limitless majesty in all directions. On another day we’ll hike from Emerald Lake to Yoho Lake in Yoho National Park on a trail of towering fir trees in a park of towering rock walls, wide calm rivers of jade, cascading waterfalls and 28 peaks over 10,000 feet high. After hiking up a mountain and gazing out in wonder at the other mountains surrounding you, you feel that’s all there is in the world and civilization is only a hazy dream. But we’ll get back to civilization in the pretty little mountain village of Banff where we’ll have time to visit the Whyte Museum, Bow Falls, shop the bustling main street, and soothe our hiked-out muscles in the hot springs before a final celebratory dinner. What an exhilarating week! . Request a Detailed Itinerary

Imagine standing high on a mountain on a billion-year-old rock while gazing out at a navy-blue sea, or exploring a freshwater fiord amongst cliffs carved by massive glaciers. Wild, remote and staggering only begin to describe Newfoundland, a place of ancient stark beauty where the ground beneath your feet tells the story of deep rumblings in the earth’s geological history, where boulders all around you were once powerfully thrust up from the earth’s inner core. Imagine long golden beaches dotted with brightly-painted fishing villages full of friendly folk – where you are treated to the infamous hospitality of Newfoundlanders.(You might even get ‘screeched in’, a hilarious ritual reserved for special guests!) Join Wild Women Expeditions on our adventure to Newfoundland’s sensational west coast and the internationally renowned Gros Morne National Park on the western shore of the province’s Great Northern Peninsula. Gros Morne’s visually spectacular scenery, exceptional geological events, Arctic alpine environment, and its towering landlocked fiords compelled the United Nations to declare it a World Heritage Site, joining such other world-classy sites as Ecuador’s Galapagos Archipelago, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, France’s Palace of Versailles and the Egyptian Pyramids. This isn’t just any national park. This is where some of the continent’s highest waterfalls along the edges of great glacial troughs plummet over cliffs and fragment into mists and wisps as wind vaporizes the plunging water columns. This is a park where rare vegetation clings to a landscape full of an even rarer mix of arctic, boreal and temperate species. Here you are likely to catch sight of moose, ptarmigan, caribou, the shy Arctic hare, eagles, terns, mink, mergansers, kingfishers, minke and humpback whales. On our expedition we’ll spend full days hiking the wild uninhabited alpine regions of the rugged Long Range Mountains —the most northern tip of the Appalachians . Rising abruptly from the narrow coastal plain, these ancient mountains dominate the park. At their top is a vast alpine plateau of wildflowers, tundra, bogs and the eerie ‘tuckamore’—weirdly twisted tangled thickets of stunted fir and spruce trees eroded by centuries of wild winds. On this hike we’ll be sure to lie down on our backs to imagine how vegetation endures the stabbing and ferocious winters of Newfoundland . We’ll also hike through the Tablelands. Resembling more Arizona than green forested Newfoundland , the hauntingly beautiful Tablelands are barren, unable to support vegetation because the rocks, forced up from deep inside the earth, lack nutrients for plant life. On another day, the Green Gardens Trail will take us from a starkly evocative desolate landscape down into a lush wooded valley and out to meadows that end dramatically at cliffs overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Here we’ll see the famed pillow rocks on the wind-swept coast. We’ll also spend an afternoon on a boat tour of the magnificent Western Brook Pond Fjord. We’ll also spend a day cycling through fishing villages, getting to meet locals, perusing pubs, cafés and restaurants, and also, have a laidback touristy day. Discover Newfoundland. A joyous, wild, rugged and fascinating land welcomes you! Request a Detailed Itinerary

Renowned for the world’s largest tides, Fundy is also coveted one of the last wild coastlines in Eastern North America. Combined with daily yoga practice, we will explore this eco-adventure paradise through phenomenal hiking, beach combing, sea kayaking, and biking. Marvel at Fundy’s multi-coloured capes and headlands, as well as its giant tides; peruse vast tidal flats, salt marshes and seaside cliffs; ramble its rolling highlands and deep river valleys. Fundy National Park offers a variety of hiking trails- 100 km in all. We shall approach the best coastal vistas and secret waterfalls on foot by remote path. We shall fill our lungs with sea air, biking either Irving Nature Park or the Fundy Trail: both offer stunning views of the Bay. By day we adventure, by night we relax in a private luxury mountain chalet. Request a Detailed Itinerary

An empowering wilderness adventure for women infused with ‘off the mat’ yoga practice deep in the heart of the Pacific Coast Mountains. This wonderful journey of adventure and discovery will be split between a spectacular alpine camp and a luxury wilderness lodge in the beautifully wild Bella Coola Valley. Hiking and canoeing through this spectacular alpine wilderness, our journey will be infused with yoga practice exploring playfulness, courage, patience, acceptance, stillness, freedom, will power and celebration through kriyas, asanas and and meditations.Our retreat is based in a camp beautifully situated in remote alpine wilderness with access to a solid trail network. Our journey will continue overland into the wild and beautifully lush Bella Coola Valley on the edge of the Great Bear Rainforest. The coastal mountains, river valleys and dense forests provide an unparalleled sanctuary for nature, providing opportunities of intimate wildlife encounters amidst utterly breathtaking natural splendour. The alpine trails in this area are numerous and the scenery dramatic. In this valley you will see jaw-dropping waterfalls, ancient rock carvings, and a vast range of mountains still to be explored. The temperate rainforest covering the lower slopes and valleys is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet, rivaling even that of the Amazon rainforest. Request a Detailed Itinerary