Canada’s Famous Abandoned City. Remote and Untouched. | Ocean Falls | Destination Adventure

I think for most people a dream destination is gonna be something they've seen on Instagram or on Facebook maybe they've heard about it talking around the water cooler at work but for me a dream destination is going to be something that few people have heard of even fewer people have seen and it starts with a six hour drive that takes you about halfway to the middle of nowhere followed by a six hour ferry ride that only runs once a week that completes your journey to well the middle of nowhere [Music] we stay but get down the clock is ticking [Music] Oh of good luck and I got nothing those own if you're the only person I've ever met that used to set it from the bottom to the top we trained you out there's nothing wrong with it it's just straight while the world is we will raise next time you're taking a trip for the middle of nowhere by this before you leave nine bucks that's the end of the pavement we just stopped to get washer fluid and the car is like an icicle the mud cycle we are at the top of the Bella Coola Hill completely walled in with snow and this is the only kind of sketchy part we'll have this trip then everyone who's local you'll know but anyone who's not local Bella Coola Hill is notoriously bad so fingers crossed for a good descent [Music] what do you think in the descent so far it's good it's really good I'm actually not even touching the brake the cars just doing everything everyone told me don't take the Jetta down there this jet is doing great all right we've lost a mud flap but otherwise spectacular wasn't it from at all these practices yeah Noah the radish you wanna rest welcome to Bella Coola one of my favorite places extremely beautiful place this is the first time I've been here in the summer hey this is the first time being here in the wintertime and it is it's just as beautiful in the winter is in the summer time we have a whole bunch of time to kill here now because the fairy doesn't leave until 5 a.m. so I don't know what we're gonna do go to the bar have a beer have a burger so what are we doing sorry waiting for the ferry they said we need to check in a minimum of 90 minutes early sure wish didn't make us wake up at 3 a.m. that I'm here and wait for two hours we were here before the group now for 30 years checking in Oh No we're very lucky to live in a country and a province where we have access to something like this and it's really only a $46.00 ferry ride now I work on cruise ships so I'm very fortunate I've got to travel all over the world and very few places in the world are as beautiful as the ferry ride from Bella Coola to Ocean Falls [Music] [Music] come back tomorrow you know it's not enough that I can make you laugh why try to [Music] even more time you never have during the six hour ferry ride we did not see one single boat we didn't see any other people there is no roads there is no buildings it's just miles and miles of pristine beautiful forests and mountains as far as you can see [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's always some I can try to change but you know why car you change the world just arriving here - oh [ __ ] balls before we start exploring this episode of destination adventure is sponsored by still North Designs company this is a company that I've been a fan of for a long time you've seen lots of their gear in my videos before and I'm very excited to be working with them and proudly supporting their product Falls is extremely remote we're a minimum of a four and a half to five and a half hour ferry ride from Bella Coola it's actually only fifty seven miles by water we're twenty four miles by water from Bella Bella we have no roads here there is no way to drive a vehicle here the only way you get in here is by water by air and if it's by air it has to be a float plane because of course we don't have a runway we just got loaded up with some maps and some information so we're gonna give you guys the Grand Tour of Ocean Falls we're on Front Street right now it's the Main Street wraps around to tenth the street and what you see here most of these are have fallen over but these are the garden apartments then there's up their apex apartments so we'll be exploring those and then where I'm standing right now this used to be a strip of houses and it was kind of like VIP luxury houses this here is the old Bank that's where we're staying it's actually bed-and-breakfast now and then the fancy hotel in the back so really excited to do some exploring there and then on this side we got the fire station just on the other side of these buses we won't be able to get to this other side because everything's locked because there's a business in this building right here but this one used to be part of the the old pulp mill just old derelict building this house that were coming up to right here this used to be the company house so and the VIPs and presidents of the company and stuff would come they could stay here and now it's been restored inside and outside and somebody does live here full-time this is a really cool spot here and probably the only example you'll see most of the roads here were made out of wood and you can actually see remnants here of the old wooden road by these residents here's a better angle of the boardwalk or the road and this was most of the roads in Ocean Falls and then the residents here and a lot of these houses were actually built up on stilts oh good what you got there Kurt this would have been the school this building here and it is privately owned so we are not gonna be going inside that one but then across here is was the playground and up on the hillside would have been more residential but it's hard to map it out because everything is overgrown so quickly this right here quite obviously a church no longer has service Curtis what creme creme some cookies I'm eating this big building that we see here this green one it was originally a woman's dormitorium and they called it the hen house after that it turned into a hospital and now it's had several people purchase it and run it as a lodge but from what I hear the roof has a large leak in it so it's slowly falling again into disrepair so hopefully they can fix it up because it's still in good shape this area that we're at right now there's a big slide that happened here and went across the road many years ago but this used to be what's called [ __ ] town and unfortunately here in Canada we have a bit of a bad history with Japanese internment camps and all the Japanese people that worked here they lived in this whole section that was called [ __ ] town and during the war they were all taken and put into internment camps it's a terrible thing that the government has done but it's part of the history here so I wanted to point it out there's nothing left you can't see anything really just this wall back here and maybe if we hiked all through here you might see something but when this were up here there was a lot of buildings out that we're on stilts and over the years once everything started to fall into the ocean divers have gone through and found medicine bottles and stuff like that with Japanese writing on it so that's a pretty neat piece of history here so ocean Falls gets a tremendous amount of rainfall and anything here that is made out of wood is pretty much completely destroyed now even people that own houses here apparently within three years if they're not really kept up well they get completely destroyed just because of the rainfall but we're lucky a lot of these buildings were built out of brick and cement and they've held up quite well so that's mostly we'll be checking out today Ocean Falls is a town that has a huge history it was a company town lost company that owned it was crown Zellerbach they sold it to the BC government and the BC government finally had to shut it down for economic reasons well shortly after the shutdown they decided to as they call it normalized the town which basically meant that the government did not want the liability of all of the houses they didn't want the upkeep of it all of the infrastructure that was here so although there were still a lot of people who lived here and wanted to continue to live here in the belief that there was no way that the paper mill wasn't ever going to run again the government decided to bulldoze and burn everything we'll go in and check out room oh there's an old vacuum in here that's cool love that paint color oh and the wallpaper too amazing quite dated fleurs in good shape that's pretty cool you know what I expected this to be much worse wow this is very cool look at this just living room I love this layout amazing view and there's a whole row of these houses so one looks like it might have some stuff in it oh we got an upstairs to this little Harry Potter closet cool and these stairs look to be in good condition so head up and take a look see you know what say a bad looking place this house this quite possibly could be one of those scenarios where somebody does own it it bought it as like a vacation place or or something like that but then they haven't been coming often enough for the upkeep and then unfortunately it just falls into disrepair like this because of the amount of rain that they have because this is in better shape than I thought but it's it's far past ever being salvageable again unfortunately they basically came in with a fleet of excavators ripped everything down piled it up and burned it the few buildings that were left or were privately owned or were sold by the government to private investor investors at the time coming up here this is one of the government buildings I was talking about will of our post office at the end and then courthouse and jail in the middle and they're no longer functional but you can see still very well maintained servers waiting for meal at the post office your cats here Ocean Falls basically became a paper town because of the two reasons is one is the quality of the water coming out of link lake is just incredible it's so pure that they did not have to filter it to make white paper which is unheard of it's it's phenomenal and the others was quite literally was the Falls afforded the opportunity to generate electricity being able to generate electricity here themselves made it possible for the paper mill to to to exist originally there was several penstocks there's only one of them that is actually used for generating power right now they are original from the 1926 is when they were installed I understand and other than digitalising all of the controls on it it's it's exactly as it was when it was built in the 1920s pretty phenomenal technology that's still very functional and very very applicable to today's standards I'm in this building down below the waterfall here look at this this is really cool it's old telephone this actually used to be the pump house that pumped water down to Ocean Falls and there's pretty much everything is still left in here this old gas engine the pumps and the piping everything it's really really cool all the breakers switches everything really cool there's a couple buildings in behind me here that we'd really like to check out but as you can see it's gated that's because this big blue building directly in behind me the second floor of that building is a giant Bitcoin mining operation really fascinating story that's happening here at hoshin Falls because this powerhouse puts out so much power they can do this remotely so the whole the second floor supposed to be like 500 computer units or something we were hoping to actually get in and check that out but the guy who runs that he left on the last ferry that went out of here so we won't be able to check that out but still super fascinating the Bitcoin operation that came in which is blockchain technology has bought rights to a lot of the power generation and that's really helped out for Borel X I'm sure it's going to make more elects substantially more economically feasible to continue to run the the down on the hydroelectric generation here here we are the apartment complex no I think use and apartment complexes along its most intact yep going in hold on here there we go so take the elevator or the stairs who that floor is spongy so I guess this would have been one apartment here door coming in here would have in the kitchen step on a nail there's not gonna be a tetanus shot within a hundred miles of here and I would guess maybe a living room view would have been great actually very nice back in the day down the hallway here would be bathroom see the tub until it would have been over here and then I guess probably this has been a two bedroom one and two very cool downstairs yeah sure is beautiful here all right like to all the way to the top Oh d'Or wow I can't believe that some of these rooms still have doors on a mine and this one is still locked with the room number that is amazing so this will be the top floor and a lot of water coming through here I don't want to spend a ton of time in here this building is cement but this is cool the old exit sign very cool any back down one of the coolest parts about Ocean Falls still has road signs love that this court isn't very level anymore this is pretty neat you can still see the lines on the tarmac of this court here it's very cool thank you to the folks that commented on my vernonia video I now know this is a holly tree thank you this here is the most famous building in Ocean Falls this is the big fancy hotel and back in the day used to be very very fancy it's has a warning in front of it not to go in we've also been warned by people are staying with not to go in there but we're gonna try our best to poke around a little bit I don't think we'll climb too high too many floors up but definitely we'll be going in to check it out I'm going to go in here as much as I can it's very dark but I know there used to be a really big fancy hall here even the stairs really nice I don't know what kind of rock this is it's very nice just try not to get my feet too wet I think this may have been the bowling alley it's hard to tell and now this roof is caved and unfortunately see if I can get over there okay so yes where I'm at here I'm pretty sure is the old bowling alley it could have been the hall oh wow this is very cool little bar setup here yeah so still not sure if this was a hall with a bowling alley but it's really cool let's see if we can make it to the other side just so you guys kind of understand what's happening here very rotten and don't really feel like falling through not sure what that was nice big doorway there greetings very very cool so I've gone about as far in here as I'm comfortable going the floor is really really soft underneath me and I'm usually pretty brave with this stuff but we are so far in the middle of nowhere if anything happens over here there is no help so I don't want to push it too much so unfortunate I'm not gonna be able to go up to too high in this building unfortunately because I was really excited about this one it's supposed to be the the main thing here I don't flip this over to infrared you guys might be able to see a little bit better there we go old cash register it's pitch black in here so I'm not able to see anything but the camera on infrared picks up pretty well that's cool see and see more down here not much going on in here ah the old elevator that's really cool what up yeah this is a baby building yeah I think I can get over there whoa great big kitchen here mm-hmm not sure what this building is maybe this is the old co-op that they were talking about not to go is that what the plates are for this looks just like an old UPS truck there are a lot of problems we've got some derelict buildings that absolutely need to be torn down and cleaned up some of them have some environmental hazards some of them have some serious health hazards like asbestos and lead and various other you know hazards along those lines we have we've got some absentee owners who really are not doing anything with their properties and they're allowing nature to take its course and the buildings are collapsing and you know allowing some of that some of those toxins to to basically still exist here I would really like to see a lot of that cleaned up just looked up at the hotel and this was blowing in the window and it looked just like a woman in a dress staring out at me back at the hotel here and OH bowling shoes that is so cool but there is another entrance oh wow this seems like it's in a little bit better shape not great but better so we'll see if I can find anything here some stairs or something dang I flipped you guys over to infrared so it'll be black and white but be able to see lot better anyway and that's down and nothing up okay so I'm not sure how to go up here hmm I don't know you guys I try my best to make this work for you but I don't know if I'm gonna be able to go up so there's been gentlemen's restroom the urinal there and toilet stalls sink here hmm I don't know what's going on here this carpet ends and then has this square of tile and then back to carpet I don't know and also on the roof here there was some something different there's a lot of hype with this hotel when I was reading about this place when people are telling me about it not that cool I don't know I mean the bowling alley and banquet hall and that stuff was really neat but other than that it's this hotel is completely destroyed there's hardly anything to see at all I'm sure back in the day it would have been very nice and fancy but no it's definitely not what I would call the highlight [Music] when you visit a place as remote as Ocean Falls you kind of expect the locals to be a bit odd well this might be true the one thing that I found in Ocean Falls that you don't find in most places is kindness and a real sense of community you need to understand this is a place where money doesn't really have much value because you can't buy anything there are no stores there the only thing you can actually buy in Ocean Falls is ice cream that's the only thing other than that if the community needs something the the residents they're the ones that do it going forward I would like to see Ocean Falls grow to a level that is sustainable to buy real estate here is the cheapest Oceanside real estate you can buy anywhere for a livable house but every one of them is going to need some renovation somebody who's going to come here has to be able to do that sort of stuff I'd like I'd like to see more people who are capable and willing to integrate into this into the the community and contribute to the community if we have a water main break they're out there digging it up and fixing it I know because I run the excavator this sort of lifestyle this really remote lifestyle seems very strange to most people especially you can't buy anything it's it's very abnormal but I think if you just sit back and study it you'd be pretty hard pressed to find something as reliable with as much potential in I guess for a lack of a better term the real world it's really hard to put into words what Ocean Falls is really like and until somebody comes here and experiences it it's been described as addictive if you come here you'll either really really love it and it's a high percentage chance that you'll really really love it or if you're a city type person you're gonna hate it because there's no stars here there's no liquor store there's no amenities whatsoever if you're not comfortable in your own skin if you're not comfortable with your own company or very limited company as a need a great place for you but if you really love the outdoors if you love the fresh air and the clean water and quiet and the solitude man there's nowhere like this it's it's it's paradise sup hey we up to you let's playing puddle rock it's not much to do here this is what's happening in Ocean Falls little Poe Rock one place in puddle Rock yeah alright what if I get glass well you can use whatever you want then you play a bottle rock I want to thank you guys all for tuning in to another episode of destination adventure don't forget you can now win all kinds of great destination adventure swag you just got to check out the link in the description and while you're down there I have a link to our sponsor still north design code so go over there and check their stuff out too and make sure you tell them that Dustin sent you as always take nothing but pictures leave nothing but footprints and I'll catch you on the next one [Music]

Channel: Destination Adventure

Views: 1,597,199

Rating: 4.6558685 out of 5

Keywords: abandoned, urbex, urban exploration, lost, forgotten, found, discovered, discovery, history, historical, adventure, explore, BC, Canada, city, cruise, travel, beautiful

Id: Sqn-QmoXK4M

Length: 37min 7sec (2227 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 15 2020