Throughout her time in Canada, Hopkins accompanied her husband on many of his voyages, especially after Edward was promoted to Superintendent of the Hudson's Bay Company's Montreal department. In Montreal, Hopkins joined Edward on several of his tours of inspection of his fur-trade posts, which stretched from the Mingan District to Fort Williams, Ontario. Travelling by canoe was becoming less common in Canada as railroads developed and improved, but travel to and from remote trading posts on the Great Lakes was still often by canoe. On these voyages, and on trips she took for pleasure, Hopkins sketched and recorded her experiences and her surroundings. With her husband's support for her and her art, Hopkins was able to independently travel by canoe, which was very rare for women to do at the time. As a result of this, she became one of the only female artists to be directly involved in the canoe voyage scene.