Othello Tunnels

Five railway tunnels blasted through sheer granite in Coquihalla Canyon — now one of BC's most dramatic short hikes

The Kettle Valley Railway needed to get through the Coquihalla Canyon, and the only way to do it was to drill five tunnels through the canyon walls while suspended above a river that cuts through some of the most unyielding granite in the Coast Mountains. The result is a 500-metre walk through tunnels and wooden bridges — you step through a cliff face, cross a bridge over the river gorge, enter another tunnel, emerge into daylight for a few seconds, and disappear into rock again. In summer the canyon stays cool; the tunnels are cold year-round, so bring a layer.

The full out-and-back through all five tunnels is about 4 kilometres and takes under two hours. The trailhead is in Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park, a short drive from Hope's town centre. The path is paved and accessible for most of its length. Go early on summer weekends — it's well known, and the parking area fills by midmorning. In winter the bridges are removed and the tunnels close.

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A story
The tunnels were engineered by Andrew McCulloch for the Kettle Valley Railway, which opened through here in 1916. McCulloch was a Shakespeare obsessive — he named many of the local sidings after characters in Othello, which is how the canyon got its nickname. The railway itself never turned a profit and was abandoned in the 1950s, but the tunnels he blasted through solid granite have outlasted the line by decades.