Categories: Travel

This remote park in northern B.C. has a serene lake for ice skating

Photo via Shutterstock

This outdoor haven is a trek and a half from Vancouver, but it’s a truly picturesque spot for your upcoming winter adventures if you’re looking for a road trip stop. Situated 15 km south of Terrace is Mount Herman Park, open year-round to winter hikers and campers and home to the beautiful Hai Lake.

According to BC Parks, the park was created to protect regionally significant old-growth trees and bogs, which makes camping, fishing, and hiking here all the more enjoyable during the warmer months.

Snowshoeing and ice skating

During the colder months, visitors can snowshoe along the South Thunderbird Forest Service Road and the trail to Hai Lake, weather conditions permitting. All in all, it’s about 2.5 km each way. Winter camping is available at Hai Lake, though the access road is not plowed during winter.

The start of this trail is on the right side of the parking area and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. Once you arrive, you’ll see two campsites, two picnic tables, two fire rings, a pit toilet, and a lake dock.

Prefer a pair of skates to snowshoeing? Hai and Herman Lakes both tend to freeze over, so if they’re cleared of snow, visitors can glide across the ice or try their hand at ice fishing!

Park history

For those curious, Mount Herman and Herman Lake were named after Peter Herman of Port Essington, who was born in Germany in 1862 and immigrated to Canada in 1882. According to BC Parks, he worked at the Port Essington cannery, where he met and married Kate Spence (a native woman from Victoria) and had four children, later settling at Lakelse Lake near Terrace.

In addition to logging and trapping, he eventually became president of the Liberal Association of the North and a Liberal candidate for Skeena in 1903, but lost.

Mount Herman Park, B.C.

How to get there: Drive 15 hours from Vancouver to Terrace via Cariboo Highway/BC-97 N. and Yellowhead Highway W/BC-16 W. Continue 15 km south of Terrace to the west side of Beam Station Road.

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