Editor’s note: This post is the result of an arm’s-length collaboration with the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo.   By Kim Gray I’m standing before the window of a polar bear plunge pool amidst a swirling sea of invited media, including moms with baby strollers and toque-clad children, and I can tell you one thing for certain: this empty nester is missing her little people. My husband and I practically raised our daughter and son at what is now known as the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo. Today, our children are grown, chasing love and careers on Canada’s West Coast, but there was a time when ..read more

Editor’s note: This post is the result of an arm’s-length collaboration with Mount Engadine Lodge.   By Kim Gray No matter what the season, there’s a simplicity and rhythm to backcountry lodge experiences in the Canadian Rockies that I crave. Morning typically launches with a strong cup of coffee, a hearty breakfast on the menu and, if lodge guests are lucky, a stirring mountain sunrise. After invigorating outdoor adventures in the wild, guests commune over dinner and exchange stories about their exploits. And at night, they enjoy blissful sleeps that are only possible after days filled w ..read more

As the sun rises on 2024, we bring you this winter-rich scene courtesy of Canadian landscape artist Stéphanie Gauvin. “Painting snow always excites me,” says the Rossland, B.C.-based artist, who lists the creatives behind the historic Canadian Pacific Railway posters among her influences. “Although snow appears white to most, there are so many colours to play with depending on the light.” If winter isn’t monochromatic, neither is winter travel, which has thrilled us ever since we started publishing Toque & Canoe in 2011. To celebrate the season — and because snow is finally falling in ..read more

If you’ve been following Toque & Canoe’s coverage over the last dozen years, you’ve likely noticed that we get really excited about that place where art meets nature in Canada. For example, we were thrilled to share British Columbia-based landscape painter Charlie Easton’s wondrous “Lake Milky Way” on Earth Day in 2022. Earlier, we posted a rare and intimate image of a satiated polar bear in Nunavut taken by Calgary fine art photographer and wilderness guide Natalie Gillis. And we loved our conversation with Ontario’s Kurt Swinghammer about the forces at play that shaped his unique giclee ..read more

By Carol Patterson Even if you’ve never picked up a pair of binoculars, you can’t help but gush when you see a puffin in the wild. As a nature loving photographer, I confess I’m beyond smitten with these expressive “parrots of the sea” and their charming mannerisms. I’ve crawled to the edge of a rocky cliff in Iceland to survey puffins from high above. I’ve drifted in a boat in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Witless Bay Ecological Reserve to observe North America’s largest Atlantic puffin colony. And today, en route with Sea Watch Tours to New Brunswick’s Machias Seal Island — home to 5 ..read more

This post is the result of an arms length collaboration with The Canadian Canoe Museum.   By Kim Gray If you’re a canoe lover living in Canada, you might agree that one of the most exciting developments in our country’s travel landscape is taking place right now in Peterborough, Ontario. The Canadian Canoe Museum has begun to initiate a move of its legendary collection from the institution’s current land-locked location to its much anticipated new digs, which are under construction across town on the shores of Little Lake and slated to open this fall. But there will be fresh additions to ..read more

By Kim Gray As Toque & Canoe embarks on a new year, we confess we’re feeling restless here in our pint-sized Alberta office. If you, too, have travel on your brain (it’s January in Canada after all), then who better for us to hear from than Calgary-based adventurer Laval St. Germain? A pilot with Arctic specialists Canadian North Airlines, St. Germain is always on the move. He has been since he was a National Geographic magazine-loving kid, and his curiosity for the planet — along with a desire to push his personal boundaries — continues to take him to the wildest of places. We’re grateful ..read more

By Kim Gray In our latest collaboration with the Indigenous Tourism Association of British Columbia, we’re featuring Indigenous tourism enterprises in B.C., seen through the lens of sustainability — with a few thoughts on travel’s latest buzz phrase, “regenerative travel.” Simply put, “regenerative travel” refers to a travel experience that, ideally, enriches the lives of travellers while leaving a place in better condition than it was before. The concept is being touted as more evolved, more reciprocally nourishing if you will, than what we’ve come to associate with green, eco or sustainable ..read more

By Kim Gray When people refer to their “happy place” in the context of global travel, what are they saying exactly? I, for one, am saying there’s somewhere in the world that I long for — a place that, when I’m there, fills me with a profound sense of well-being. That place for me is Maui, Hawaii. And when I consider how this came to be, it’s clearly my mom and dad who are to blame. Mere mention of the archipelago’s second largest island, which has a longstanding history with Western Canadians given its Pacific Ocean location, conjures up images of my parents looking radiant from time in the su ..read more

When we shared this painting by Charlie Easton on Instagram last fall, the British-born creative told us that he is “utterly blown away” by Canada’s scenery — from “the epic coastal battles of rock and water, to the lurch and thrust of the mountains, to the soaring Milky Way that is so visible in remote areas of this country.” Today, on Earth Day 2022 and with special thanks to Canadian fine art specialists Gibson Fine Art who first introduced us, we’ve decided to further share Easton’s painting here, along with a few words from the artist about his creative process. We hope you enjoy! T&C ..read more