The Royal BC Museum, Thunderbird Park Totem Poles & 1852 Helmcken House

Occupying the entire city block immediately east of the BC Parliament Buildings on Belleville Street, the Royal British Columbia Museum (founded 1886) and its surrounding outdoor cultural precinct of Thunderbird Park and Helmcken House showcase the natural ecosystems and First Nations heritage of the Pacific Northwest.

1. Thunderbird Park & Mungo Martin's 1953 'Wawadit'la' Big House (Free 24/7 Outdoors!)

Before even stepping inside the museum ticket lobby, walk around the corner of Belleville and Douglas Streets into Thunderbird Park (free outdoor entry 24/7!):

• Ten Monumental Northwest Coast Totem Poles: standing on the plaza are towering red-cedar totem poles, house frontal poles and mortuary poles representing the Haida, Kwakwaka'wakw, Gitxsan, Nuxalk and Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations of coastal British Columbia.
• Wawadit'la (Mungo Martin House — Built 1953): in 1952, the museum hired legendary Kwakwaka'wakw Chief and master carver Mungo Martin to restore deteriorating 19th-century poles and carve replicas in an open-air studio where the public could watch. In 1953, he constructed Wawadit'la—a traditional Kwakwaka'wakw ceremonial cedar Big House guarded by giant carved heraldic poles—and hosted the first legal public Potlatch ceremony in BC after Canada lifted its 67-year ban on Indigenous potlatches!
• 1852 Helmcken House & 1865 St. Ann's Schoolhouse (Right Next Door!): standing right beside the Big House is Helmcken House (built 1852)—the oldest house in British Columbia still standing on its original site, home to pioneer Hudson's Bay Company physician Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken (who helped negotiate BC's entry into Canada in 1871 and whose original 1850s medical kit is still inside!).

2. Inside the Royal BC Museum & The Giant-Screen IMAX Victoria Theatre

Inside the museum, explore the second-floor Natural History Galleries—famous for its full-size, furry Ice Age Woolly Mammoth walking across a rocky tundra, interactive tide pools, and walk-through Coastal Forest & Seashore dioramas teeming with taxidermy grizzly bears, cougars, Steller sea lions and sea otters—plus rotating blockbuster international exhibitions and the 6-storey-tall IMAX Victoria 4K Laser Theatre (offering combo tickets with museum entry!). (Also walk 1 block south along Belleville Street to see Emily Carr House, the 1863 Italianate childhood home of Canada's greatest modernist painter!).