The best road trips have few set plans. They’re about the thrill of discovery, of not knowing what comes next. Forget detailed itineraries that look like a shopping list. As Kerouac said: “There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep rolling under the stars.” That’s my kind of road trip.

This is why I was so excited to find out about overlanding, defined as self-reliant adventure travel, usually in 4x4 vehicles, where the journey is as important as the highlights visited along the way, and the emphasis is on exploration and the freedom of the back roads. It’s been big in Africa for years, but a new company, Hastings Overland, has just launched the concept in western Canada.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Illustration: Bek Cruddace

What is surprising is that this has only just happened. For if ever there was a landscape that cried out for rugged off-road exploration, it’s British Columbia’s vast network of forest roads and old logging tracks. Well-known destinations such as Banff, Jasper, Yoho and the Sea-to-Sky Highway are all stunning, of course, but they get crowded. If you want a really wild road trip, a book that you write yourself rather than a list you simply tick, overlanding through undiscovered parts of the Canadian backcountry is the way to go.

10 great wilderness cabins and campsites in Canada: readers’ tips Read more

Once I’d flown to Vancouver and picked up my vehicle, I couldn’t get the smile off my face. Picture a shiny four-door jeep with pimped-out tyres and a raised chassis, a pop-up tent, which folded into the roof rack and a slide-out kitchen in the boot. It’s like extreme RV-ing – all the adventure of camping, with all the convenience of a motorhome. When folded out, the three-person – or one-family – tent, complete with proper mattress and pillows, sits about eight feet above the ground (a handy height in grizzly country, as I was to find out), with a pull-down ladder for easy access. Even at the big kid age of 40, it felt like the ultimate treehouse fort.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘One of the most spectacular drives of my life’ … the Fraser River Canyon. Photograph: Aaron Millar/The Guardian

The plan was to spend a week following my nose through the Okanagan Valley, Canada’s fruit- and wine-producing region, and into the Kootenays, one of the least-explored but most spectacular corners of British Columbia. Maxwell Webster, a former project manager who founded Hastings at the beginning of last year, equips the vehicles with information packs on locals’ favourite backcountry campsites, fun areas to explore, detailed maps and all the insider information you need to set off into the wild. The rest is up to you.

“These tips are just to get you started,” he says, with the sparkle of someone who knows what’s in store. “This is your adventure … just get lost.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A view to a fry-up … Aaron Millar sorts the sausages. Photograph: Aaron Millar/The Guardian

I left the city the next day and drove 100 miles east to the small town of Hope, before cutting north through the Fraser River Canyon and one of the most spectacular drives of my life: winding roads flanked by 1,000-metre cliffs, with rushing white water below.

I took it easy on the first night, following Maxwell’s suggestion of turning off the main road 20 miles south of the town of Merritt and following a forest trail to camp near Tahla Lake – one of dozens of small, backcountry fishing lakes in the area. Bring your rod and you could catch your dinner at a different one each night: rainbow trout and chinook salmon smoked over an open fire.

The next day began with a hike around Kentucky-Alleyne provincial park a few miles away, where the bright turquoise waters were like jewels embedded in the Earth. I then drove 200 miles and four hours south-east to Pioneer Organic Farm, a new camping site near Grand Forks, in the West Kootenay region. I arrived in the dark and awoke to a perfect sunrise: low clouds hugging the winelands, mountains sweeping in near 360-degree views; pastureland and orchards of apple and peach as far as the eye could see.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Perfect pitch … Little Slocan Lake. Photograph: Aaron Millar/The Guardian

It was time to hit the big stuff, so next day, I turned north into the Kootenay Rockies. It was like arriving at a fairytale mountain: sharp granite peaks, shimmering blue lakes and blankets of lush pine forest. I had heard about a backcountry waterfall near the town of New Denver, so decided to check it out. It was seven miles down a bumpy 4x4 track to the trailhead, and then a two-mile, winding, precarious hike to the water’s roar, but it was worth it. Wilson Creek Falls is one of Canada’s largest waterfalls by volume: a white torrent of noise and energy pouring 63 metres down a mossy break in the mountain. It’s not well known. Niagara may be bigger, but it’s a circus; here, there wasn’t another soul. That’s what overlanding is all about: to be shown a spectacular sight is fun, but to find it myself was inspiring.

That was just the start. Over the next few days I made my way north along the eastern edge of the Arrow Lakes, then back west via Okanagan Lake. At Little Slocan Lake, 15 miles into the backcountry, I camped by an early 20th-century homestead, whose log cabins were slowly returning to the Earth. At Halfway Hot Springs, I pitched beside natural soaking pools where steaming water, pouring into the icy river, created eddies of perfect warmth – like an extreme outdoor spa. I watched the sun rise over mirror-still water, saw deer ghost through the forest around me and the stars deepen in the swirling arms of the Milky Way.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vineyards in the Okanagan Valley. Photograph: Claude Robidoux/Getty Images

Then, alone, in the middle of the dark night, I had an encounter: something big enough to rock the jeep walked underneath the ladder and sent my tent bouncing up and down like a boat in a storm. The next morning, when I was brave enough to peer out of the flap, what it was had gone, but had left behind a paw print bigger than both my feet, with sharp, pointy claws at the front.

Camp life fell into an easy pattern. The pop-up tent proved quick and easy – even for a man who struggles to put up shelves. And travelling with a kitchen in the boot meant being able to dine well: I grilled salmon, steak and fresh trout, and roasted marshmallows under the stars until my fingers were dripping in goo.

Overlanding may not be for everyone. Putting up and packing away the tent requires some agility and, unlike with car camping, you’ll break and make camp most days if you want to keep exploring. No off-roading experience is required, but there will be a few bumpy rides.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rough it on the roof … the tent is high enough to prevent inquisitive bears from interfering too much with a good night’s sleep

But it’s worth all that. On my final night, now circling back to Hope, I turned off the main road on to an unsigned forest track and drove 11 steep miles to Jones Lake. There were some backcountry campsites by its north shore, but I followed a logging road to a sandy beach on the eastern bank. Then I saw it: the perfect wild campsite. A sheltered piece of forest with a path leading to my own private, deserted beach. I sat by my fire pit of stones on the sand, glass of wine in hand as the enormous face of Knight Peak shouldered in snow and mist, drifted through the pink light of the setting sun. There wasn’t a soul around. There wouldn’t be: few know this place exists.

The ultimate hike: three tasters of Canada’s Great Trail Read more

That’s what makes road trips like this so special. No list to tick; just follow your nose to nowhere and everywhere, rolling under the stars. It’s your adventure.



• The trip was provided by Destination British Columbia. For more details visit hellobc.co.uk. Hastings Overland provides overland touring experiences in fully equipped Jeeps Summer rental (based on 2-3 people sharing a rooftop tent) from £164 a night, winter from £112 a night. Pioneer Organic Farm has sites for overlanding jeeps and tents from $49 (£28) a night including breakfast; cabins and glamping tents from £57 a night.



More overland adventures in Canada

Vancouver Island

This is one of Canada’s most popular seaside destinations, and perfect for a summer road trip. From the ferry port of Nanaimo head west to thesurf beach of Tofino, passing Port Alberni and Ucluelet, two of the island’s most popular resorts. Then turn south-east to the rainforests of the Pacific Rim national park reserve, home of black bears, wide sandy beaches and the hip city of Victoria.

• 450 miles/7 days

The Sea-to-Sky Highway



Facebook Twitter Pinterest vancouver alamy sea to sky Photograph: Edgar Bullon / Alamy Stock Photo

One of North America’s most famous road trips, the Sea-to-Sky Highway runs for 101 spectacular miles from the Vancouver shore to the heart of the Coast Mountains in Pemberton, passing Whistler and Squamish along the way. See it in a new way, and avoid the crowds, in an overland jeep, taking backcountry roads to remote campsites, hot springs and out-of-the-way hikes.

• 202 miles/6 days

Route 97

Route 97 is the longest continuous north-south highway in North America, and this 180-mile southern BC section, from the desert region of Osoyoos to Kamloops, is one of the best, offering a range of adventures. Highlights include wine tasting in the Okanagan Valley and the chance to spot bears, moose and wolves in Wells Gray provincial park.

• 180 miles + detours/5 days

Cariboo Mountains

For a proper adventure, head north to the Cariboo Mountains, a true wilderness of jagged peaks and glacial valleys, perfect for overlanding. Start in Vancouver Island, exploring the Gulf Islands in the north, before taking the overnight ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert, not far from the Alaska border. Then loop back to Vancouver, via the gold rush town of Barkerville and superb hiking and kayaking in Bowron Lake.

• 1,650 miles’ driving + 300 miles on the ferry/18 days



Aaron Millar is author of 50 Greatest National Parks of the World (£8.99, Icon Books), which features British Columbia, (available for £7.64 at guardianbookshop.com)