Your Guide to Golden, British Columbia
Why this powder hound says this small town in British Columbia is the undercover star of Powder Highway.
Heli Skiing in British Columbia
Photographs and Words by:
Golden, British Columbia
Driving the Trans-Canada Highway east from Revelstoke, over Rogers Pass, Golden, British Columbia, is the first real town you hit. It’s a blur of gas stations and motel signs if you don’t slow down, wedged between the ski town everyone already knows and Banff, just across the Alberta line. In January 2025, on my way to experience Revelstoke’s famous terrain, a few other dedicated skiers and boarders and I added Golden to our itinerary to do a heli-ski day with the town’s outfitter.
Staying here turned out to be the best part of the trip. Golden has the history, the outdoor pedigree, and a food and drink scene most towns its size take decades to develop, yet unless you’re coming to visit the local ski resort, it’s far too easy to drive through without realizing what you’re missing.
Where the river tells the town’s real history
We pulled into town in the middle of the afternoon, the blades of that day’s heli-ski outing whirring over the Purcell range back towards the local CMH Heli-Skiing lodge. The excitement level was high for the following morning, but I fell for Golden the moment we pulled into a snowy parallel parking spot downtown and stepped outside the van.
I’m from Colorado and am partial to mountain towns that let their history tell their present story. Our first stop in town was a walk along the Kicking Horse River as it winds through downtown. Here, QR codes placed strategically along the riverwalk and throughout the town center offer a glimpse into how the area was settled, known collectively as The Golden Stroll.
The town was born as a railway camp in 1882, when Canadian Pacific Railway surveyor Albert Bowman Rogers established a base here as his crews pushed the transcontinental line toward the pass that now bears his name. The CPR’s mainline reached Golden in 1885, and for the next century the town’s fortunes ran on two tracks of rail and timber. The Columbia River Lumber Company built mills here that operated until a fire destroyed much of the surrounding timber in 1926. Sawmills changed hands, burned, and rebuilt for decades after that.
This is not, in other words, a town that was built for tourists.
Yet the easy access to outdoor rec, good food, and Canada’s railway history makes Golden worthy of a far bigger mountain destination. Two stops made the case for me: a brewery where the whole spectrum of Golden, from skiers and climbers to millworkers and ranchers, actually drinks together, and a 30-year-old restaurant so tied to the town’s identity that its owner is rebuilding it from the studs rather than letting it fade.
Where the mountain culture gathers
After the river stroll, our group grabbed barstools at Whitetooth Brewing Company and spent an hour over pints. The beer names here double as local mythology. Blower Pow IPA, Speed Metal Stout (named after nearby mountain bike trails), and Thread the Needle Witbier, named for the whitewater on the Kicking Horse River.
I ordered a beer with a less-exciting name, the Whitetooth Blonde Ale, and, as it so often happens in small mountain towns, we fell into immediate conversation with the bartender and a couple of locals who shared their stories about the place. It opened December 1, 2016, after a three-year push by locals Kent Donaldson and Mark Nagao, who developed their recipes on Donaldson’s garage homebrew system.
The tasting room quickly became the de facto afterwork (or post-activity) gathering spot in town. We needled our new drinking buddies for intel on our imminent heli-ski day as well as a recommendation for the best dinner in town. The response was unanimous: Eleven22, just across the river in the heart of downtown.
Experiencing mountain cuisine in Golden, BC
Eleven22 has run out of the same building on 10 Avenue South for more than three decades. That is, until April 4, 2026, when owner-chef Konan Mar closed for a full renovation, driven by the building’s age. The menu leans heavily on cheese and pasta, with a steak-and-seafood selection that reads more fine-dining than you’d expect from the outside. The Stilton Fondue exemplifies the menu. The setting is cozy, as though you’re in a historic miner’s home, while elegantly backlit in white. The restaurant reopens later in 2026, and I sincerely hope they keep the butternut squash ravioli on the menu. It was fantastic.
After our day of heli-skiing in British Columbia, our crew grabbed a corner table at the Wolf’s Den. Also located downtown, the spot is perfect after a day outdoors. The place had strong cabin vibes, which paired well with the local cold beers and a menu of simple yet expertly crafted comfort food (think burgers, steaks, and hearty appetizers), plus a section devoted entirely to poutine—a nod to its Canadian roots.
All the nature, none of the crowds
Of course, this is the high country, and one must earn that pint and plate of pasta. In winter, there’s the day-trip heli-ski operation running guests into the Purcell and Selkirk ranges, and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, 15 minutes from downtown, offers the fourth-highest vertical drop in North America at 4,314 feet.
Close to half the runs at Kicking Horse are rated black or double-black, and the resort has built its reputation on steep, chute-heavy expert terrain and the dry, consistent snow locals call champagne powder. I have been snowboarding for nearly 30 years and can say without a doubt that this is my favorite ski resort. My riding buddy and I spent the morning following a good snowfall, tackling as many steep chutes as we could fit in. After lunch at the surprisingly chic on-mountain restaurant, Eagle’s Eye, we met up with the rest of our group and spent the afternoon on mellower terrain. You can actually book one of two rental units above the restaurant and stay on the mountain overnight. I didn’t do this, but if I return, I will be sure to.
Golden’s claim to the sport goes deeper than one resort, though. Heli-skiing was born in the Bugaboo range of the Purcells, not far from town, and Golden has been a base for it since the late 1960s. Today, CMH Purcell, formerly Purcell Heli-Skiing, runs day trips out of Golden to peaks just outside town. Colorado’s Alterra Mountain Company acquired the operation in 2018, so if you have an Ikon Pass, you can get up to a $400 daily credit.
Dawn Mountain Nordic Centre sits less than a mile from Kicking Horse Resort and features roughly 20 miles of groomed classic and skate trails plus a dedicated snowshoe loop, all maintained by the volunteer-run Golden Nordic Ski Club. Golden’s cultural life runs through the Golden Museum and Archives, operated by the Golden & District Historical Society, where exhibits cover everything from the Swiss guides the CPR imported in the 1890s to how the Kicking Horse River got its name. The Art Gallery of Golden, a nonprofit exhibition space and gift shop, showcases work from more than 100 regional artists and mounts a year-round program of solo and group shows.
Travelers also find plenty to do here in warmer months. The Columbia River runs the length of town, and it’s as suited to a slow afternoon paddle as the mountains above it are to skiing. Golden is near six national parks—Yoho, Glacier, Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, and Mount Revelstoke—plus the Purcell and Selkirk mountain ranges, giving it one of the widest hiking ranges in the Canadian Rockies from a single base. Mount 7, the ridge just east of town, is the local rite of passage, a five-mile round trip with more than 1,200 feet of elevation gain ending in a full view over the Columbia Valley, with a decent chance of watching paragliders and downhill bikers launch off the summit on the way up. The Golden Rotary Trail, a flat loop that’s just over four miles long along the south side of the Kicking Horse River, is an easy in-town add-on with access to the scenic Kicking Horse Pedestrian Bridge
Frenchman’s Ridge, just 1.6 miles out and back but relentlessly steep, rewards a short, hard climb with a wide view over the Columbia Valley. And the Moonraker Trails Recreation Site, less than 30 minutes from town, offers everything from an easy stroll past the Cedar Lakes to the 9-mile Canyon Creek Loop, giving hikers a full network to choose from without leaving the Golden side of the highway.
By the time we pulled back onto the highway toward Banff, I was already plotting my return. Golden isn’t a warm-up for Revelstoke or a detour from Banff. It’s the undercover star of the Powder Highway, a true-to-its-soul mountain town where renting a cabin isn’t synonymous with booking a luxury lodge. If only Colorado’s Interstate 70 resort hubs had remained as in character.
