Health and Wellness

Healing in the Wild

Health and Wellness Inspiration (2 nights and 3 days)

Spending time in nature is linked to both cognitive benefits and improvements in mood, mental health and emotional well-being. The Harrison River Valley is surrounded by lakes, rivers, and mountains, helping one to re-align mind, body, and soul. Immerse yourself in nature, rejuvenate at the spa, savour farm-to-table cuisine, forest bathe, bike through farmland, or paddle the waters. Being in nature is a natural antidote to stress.

Day 1: Check in to one of our many accommodations and spend the first night simply transitioning. Order in from a local restaurant and cuddle up with a blanket; stream your favourite movie; enjoy a steaming cup of tea and journal; read that book you have been meaning to finish; or enjoy a hot soak in a bubble bath or at the public hot pool. Enjoy some alone time….tomorrow you can explore the area.

Day 2: Awaken to our refreshing mountain air and head into town for a hand-crafted warm beverage and breakfast using fresh ingredients sourced from the surrounding farms. Many restaurants share a similar food philosophy of serving homemade and local ingredients. If they don’t grow or make it on-site, they are sourcing from a nearby farm. So much to choose from….home-baked bread, baked goods, smoked salmon lox, omelets with garden-fresh herbs, and specialty pancakes….to name just a few.

Spend the day at the Healing Springs Spa. Using Harrison Hot Springs’ ancient mineral springs as a source of inspiration and energy, the Healing Springs Spa features a menu of stress-relieving, immune-system-boosting, energy-building, and rebalancing massage and spa treatments that open your eyes to the true bliss that comes from feeling alive and well.

After your spa treatment and a soak in the hot mineral pools, forest bathe in the afternoon! Shinrin-yoku, also known as forest bathing, is a practice of therapeutic relaxation where one spends time in a forest or natural atmosphere, focusing on sensory engagement to connect with nature.  Ya Doma Nature and Forest Therapy offers guided nature walks helping you find peace to listen to your own wisdom in your search for healing trauma, past wounds, illnesses, etc.

End your day with a walk through lavender fields at Harrison Lavender. Besides lavender’s calming aroma, it could help reduce stress levels, improve mental clarity, boost immunity, and even reduce inflammation throughout the body. This small yet mighty lavender farm is home to a beautiful timber-framed barn storefront dedicated to offering nontoxic lavender products for the home, body, mind, and soul.

End your day with your favourite comfort food.

Be sure to post your selfie pic adding #justuptheroad and #breatheinthewild!

Day 3: Find peace on the water….

Coming in the fall or winter? Join a boat tour with Harrison Eco Tours and see the largest concentration of bald eagles in North America! Travel the Harrison River to Harrison Mills in a covered and heated jet boat amid the brilliant fall colors and winter scenes.

View bald eagles by the hundreds perched in the trees and along the shoreline, gathered on the shore feeding on salmon and ducks, or often just soaring above the boat. In October and early November, salmon are often seen splashing and jumping throughout your journey down the river.

View fantastic scenery and bird life, and below water witness the various species of salmon mingling as they select their mates for the upcoming spawn.

Be sure to bring your binoculars to get close-up views. You can also drive to Sandpiper Resort, and experience the eagle trail that will lead you to the eagle-viewing gazebo.

Be sure to post your selfie pic adding #justuptheroad and #breatheinthewild!

Experience the amazing scenery and wildlife of Harrison Lake and the Harrison River with Shoreline Tours. Operating year-round the 62-foot Transport-Canada-certified boat is outfitted with sightseeing decks, a BBQ grill, a full kitchen/dining area, and washroom facilities. Offering various lake cruise options, a favourite is the 2-hour tour which charts a course along the lake’s west side, floating past the green waters of Echo Bay, the towering rock formations of Echo Island, and the cold cascades of Rainbow Falls. The tour concludes with a cruise past Sasquatch Provincial Park and includes light commentary about the lake and the history of the area. Food and beverages are available for purchase onboard.

After a day on the boat head to Spirit Trail for forest bathing! This trail is a short walk through an old-growth cedar forest that is very accessible from the Village of Harrison Hot Springs. What makes this trail so special is that a local resident and artist has decorated many of the cedars along the trail with beautiful masks. Several dozen in fact. The trail is found on McCombs Drive heading south from the lake. It is a 1.1 km loop, or you can add the Bridal Trail and turn this into a 5 km walking loop through the forest.