Red Cariboo Resort – a year in review

As is tradition, we summarize the events and developments in the resort over the past year below.
 
Guests in the resort
We can look back on a good year with many satisfied guests. Word has now spread that we have state-of-the-art accommodations to offer in the middle of the wilderness.
Since we switched to a more modern online booking system at the beginning of 2024, our guests can conveniently book their stay online up to one day before arrival. Even packages and corporate rates can now be booked via our website.
To better inform our guests about the conditions in the resort, we have also expanded our website to provide more information about the region, potential excursion destinations, and even shopping opportunities.
 
Weather review
Extreme weather events have shaped the year 2024. Across Canada, there have been floods, destructive hail, several cyclones, extreme temperatures, both cold and heat, and devastating forest fires.
Fortunately, we were spared mainly in Anahim Lake.
We also experienced a brutal cold wave at the beginning of the year. Temperatures dropped to minus 40 degrees for days. The coldest temperatures in all of British Columbia were measured on Puntzi Mountain, just about 150 km from the resort. A new daily record of -48.4 °C was set there. Luckily, the stove heaters in the resort work well.
Summer was slow to arrive. It even snowed again in June, and July was cold and wet.
It wasn't until August that summer became summer in Anahim Lake. Then, it was almost too hot, and several heat thunderstorms formed. The team and our guests were delighted to have many opportunities to take advantage of the great weather for swimming trips to Charlotte Lake or the South Bentinck Arm in Bella Coola.
At the end of October, the resort experienced the first onset of winter with snow. This autumn, however, our team was particularly busy because all the wood stores were already full by that time. Before everything was completely snowed in, we continued to diligently stack logs at the forest's edge to ensure we would be stocked up for at least the next winter. At the resort and in the apartments, we primarily heat with our own wood, while only the small cabins are heated with propane gas.

Fire on the neighbouring property
In August, lightning from a heat storm struck a nearby property very close to the resort. A loud bang was heard, and our team was immediately alerted. A fire broke out on the land, which had dried out due to the heat. Axel quickly notified the fire department. Shortly after, we observed a reconnaissance aircraft, and minutes later, the first water cannon aircraft arrived to extinguish the fire. A ground team finally moved out and put out the last fires.
We were amazed at how well the firefighting worked on-site. We have a firebreak around our property to protect the resort, but the professional and effective work of the fire department gives us an additional good and safe feeling that we would like to pass on.
We sometimes receive inquiries from guests concerned about their trips due to the forest fires in Canada. But this "wildfire" has always existed. Canada and the province of British Columbia are so large that it is easy to adapt your route to local conditions if there is a fire. Monitoring is excellent, warnings are given in good time, and the fire service does an outstanding job.

Start of renting our small cabins
This summer, the time had finally come. Two of the three small cabins in the resort had been completed and could be rented for the first time. The small maisonette-style cabins have a comfortable living area with a sofa and a huge flat-screen TV, a bathroom downstairs, and two comfortable queen-size beds. A steep staircase leads upstairs, where there is a small work area with a desk and chair. The small cabins have bright red refrigerators and microwaves as color accents.
 
New equipment for the community kitchen
This year, we have enhanced the outdoor area of our community kitchen with a new smoker grill and a Gozney Dome, an outdoor pizza oven that reaches 500°C. Axel has become an absolute pizza pro, and our pizza party team events have become legendary. Both devices are also available for our guests to use. Some guests have already prepared their freshly caught trout in the smoker, enjoying delightful evenings outdoors. We have now set up outdoor seating areas, both covered and in the open air.
 
Outlook 2025
In winter, we will continue to work on the interior of the third small cabin so that we can rent it out starting in spring. Otherwise, the main focus on the agenda is landscaping our outdoor area. We will properly lay out the paths and enhance our property with plants. We also plan to build a small jetty on the Dean River, like our boat dock at the apartments on Anahim Lake.
So, we have a lot planned and will continue to post all the latest news.
Stay tuned!