Hope: Trails, Carving and Film Locations

Hope brings together a range of interests for a stay: a section of trail in a regional park, a memorial site, carvings scattered throughout the town, a self-guided film-location tour and mountain biking options. If you’re looking for a hotel in Hope, it helps to decide what you want to focus on during your trip first. The activities vary in type and difficulty: you can see the carvings on a walking tour or choose an easy loop trail; for biking, there are options for different experience levels as well as a descent for advanced riders. This makes it easier to plan your stay around the activities that genuinely interest you.

Trails and Walking Tours

A section of the Trans Canada Trail runs through Thacker Regional Park in Hope. North of Hope, Coquihalla Canyon Park is home to an easy 3.5 km loop trail through the Othello Tunnels. This gives you two different types of outing to choose from: a section of trail in a regional park and a clearly measured loop route rated as easy. If you’d like to compare distance and route type as you plan, the details for the Othello Tunnels loop are especially specific. For the Trans Canada Trail, the key reference point is the section’s location in Thacker Regional Park.

Carvings, Remembrance and Film Locations

More than 80 chainsaw carvings are scattered throughout Hope, and you can see them on a walking tour. The tour makes the walk through town part of the art experience: the focus is not just on one work, but on a series of carvings in different locations. For those who enjoy incorporating art into a walk through town, this tour offers a distinctive cultural focus.

The Tashme Camp Memorial Garden in Hope commemorates the Japanese Canadians who were interned at Tashme Camp during the Second World War. The garden offers a historical focus on remembrance, clearly distinct from the carvings throughout the town. If you’re interested in the history of internment, you can include this memorial site as a separate focus of your stay.

Film history is another possible interest: the self-guided Rambo: First Blood film location tour begins at the Hope, Cascades & Canyons Visitor Centre. If film locations are a priority for you, you can consider this tour alongside the art walk and memorial site as another distinct focus.

Mountain Biking in Hope

Hope Bike Park and the First Blood Trail offer very different biking experiences. The bike park features pump tracks, dirt jumps and other features for beginners, intermediate riders and experienced riders. The First Blood Trail, by contrast, is a 5 km descent for advanced mountain bikers. Its features include rock slabs, boulders, exposed sections, and handcrafted ladders and bridges. You can choose between a bike park with options for different experience levels and a descent specifically intended for advanced riders.

Facilities and conditions at Hope Bike Park may change, so check the current situation before your visit. The stated experience levels and described trail features are useful points of comparison when choosing between the two options.

Discover more destinations: Mission, Agassiz, Fraser Valley A, Abbotsford, Harrison Hot Springs, Kent, Yale, Chilliwack

For the broader travel overview: Fraser Valley.