Camp Howdy was the main filming location for Motherland’s episode 3.07 She Returns. It was one of the sites that I wasn’t able to get to on my first trip and I was very pleased to finally get there. It was one of my top 5 must-visit sites.
Address 3000 Camp Howdy Rd, Belcarra BC, V3H 4S3
It is currently undergoing a reconstruction programme and is not fully open to the public. The owner generously gave us permission to visit and take photos. He also arranged for a member of staff to meet us there and show us around. This was the person who handled filming liaison, including Motherland.
The reconstruction work is creating a new café onsite, repurposing one of the original buildings. I believe it is intended for this to be open next year. It has already created a fine dining experience, which was open in the winter evenings. The globes were used as dining pods and illuminated to give a magical feel to the place.
This magical feel (their words) included tree lighting and a horse and carriage made out of lights. We were there in daylight so didn’t get the full effect. But these were something that I would have really loved to see lit up at night.
It is not easy to get to Camp Howdy. There is no public transport that goes near there. It is accessible by road, but some parts are quite steep and might not be advisable in bad weather. You can also get there by ferry, ferries were laid on especially for the dining evenings.
The renovation work has not significantly affected the parts of the site that we wanted to see. There have been some changes, such as the benches moved to make way for the dining pods.
The benches still exist, but are now in less strategic parts of the grounds.
There had been a wedding at the premises, which is why some of the decorations from the wedding were still in place when we visited. This is a popular site for weddings. And also popular for filming. This was yet another location that had been used to film Yellowjackets as well as Motherland.
Some places were clearly filmed very cleverly to get just the right look. This Tally and Scylla scene was filmed by the chimney.
During filming for Yellowjackets, there was some alteration made to the side window. This was left permanently.
Curtains were used to hide a lot of things. Apparently the curtains had been installed for filming and they proved so useful that they kept them in place. In Motherland, we always see the curtains closed. It hides the fact that the kitchens were directly behind.
We couldn’t go into the kitchen, but could take photos. It looked a lot tidier when they were filming. But that is true of many of the locations that we saw. Strategic clutter only, seems to be normal.
This is where Raelle returned.
The chandelier proved to be quite a feature of the room. It is a very good multi-purpose space.
And when they couldn’t use curtains to cover something up, the banners proved to be very effective covers too. This one is covering up the fire exit. Just taking away from things that would distract the viewer from the scene.
Camp Howdy is an impressive place. It is well worth a visit. I would love to see it in darkness, when it is all lit up for evening dining. It does have a magic of its own.
Very glad I finally got to see it.
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