Experience nature on your own terms at this luxurious rainforest hideaway

To shine a light on Canada’s most incredible weekend destinations, we partnered with Chevrolet to create the Blazer Index, an exclusive lineup of our favourite luxury experiences. Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort is just one of these essential excursions for when you’ve regained a sense of freedom in your life and you’re ready to explore the absolute best our country has to offer.

Deborah and Craig Murray opened one of the world’s first eco-lodges in 1981 near a waterfall at the base of Mount Stephens in British Columbia’s southern Great Bear Rainforest. Almost 40 years later, Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort is still family owned and operated, offering one of the most exclusive wilderness experiences in the world.

The service level is exceptional, and the resort’s stunning, remote location in a Pacific Ocean inlet places 50,000 square miles of pristine coastal and mountain wilderness right at your doorstep. In fact, this off-the-grid Broughton Archipelago gem is one of National Geographic’s Unique Lodges of the World.

“When you land there are just so many trees, fjords, and snow-capped mountains around you, and these beautiful inlets and waterways that stretch into the coast,” says Fraser Murray, an owner and team member of Nimmo Bay. “Sometimes you get this beautiful blue-sky day, or sometimes you get the fog settling in the trees, and it can be an emotional experience.”

Initially launched as a fishing lodge, Nimmo Bay now offers a full complement of wilderness adventure pursuits from May 1^st to October 31^st each year, including grizzly bear and black bear viewing, dolphin- and whale-watching, kayaking, tubing, trekking on a 10,000-year-old glacier, heli-hiking, freediving, hikes through old-growth forests, and beachcombing along white-sand shores. You can book a champagne picnic on a secluded island with your partner, charter a helicopter with friends for the day, or go for a solo hike up Mount Stephens. And, no matter your skill level, there are plentiful opportunities to fish in rivers and streams teeming with coho, chinook, pink, and steelhead salmon, and Dolly Varden, rainbow, and cutthroat trout.

In between these exciting excursions, you can retire to one of nine beautiful cabins to enjoy amenities such as B.C. wine, house-made cookies, and specialty tea and coffee. Each spacious four-room cabin is made of local and locally-reclaimed wood and offers a memorable view—there are six Intertidal Cabins on the water and three Forest Cabins beside a stream and near a waterfall.

Alternatively, you could spend time at the new floating sauna raft, the lodge’s full-service bar, or the floating fire dock, or visit the cedar hot tubs, the rainforest rain shower, and the plunge pool at the base of the resort’s cascading waterfall. Finally, the resort also has a dedicated yoga studio and two stunning new massage spaces, at the waterfront and nestled in the trees, where you can enjoy reflexology and therapeutic and relaxation treatments.

Not just an afterthought, the beautifully presented meals by Chef David Hassell are a highlight of any Nimmo Bay visit. Guests are served both à la carte dinners and family-style feasts during each stay, and the modern Pacific Northwest menu strives to be as local and fresh as possible and features foraged plants, organic produce, pasture-raised meats, and locally caught seafood. Even the drinking water is glacier-sourced via a waterfall. Next year, the resort plans to open a tasting-menu restaurant serving only hyperlocal, sustainable ingredients.

That focus on sustainability extends to Nimmo Bay’s impressive conservation initiatives, too. For nine months of the year, a waterfall-powered hydroelectric system provides green energy to the resort. Waste water is treated with a waste-management system, and organic garbage is composted. Your unforgettable excursion won’t encroach on the area’s pristine environment and geography, which is why this off-the-grid Broughton Archipelago gem won a Vancouver Island EcoStar Award last year.

Nimmo Bay’s unique combination of incredible wilderness adventures, elevated cuisine, eco-consciousness, and luxury wellness elements is an unparalleled offering, whether you’re there for a romantic getaway or to connect with nature on a deeper level. “It’s the magical combination of stuff we put together that makes this a profound experience. All the senses are engaged, and we’re there anticipating your every need,” says Murray. “Everything’s done a little differently, with more intention.”