October Road Trip - Part 1: Cache Creek to Gold Bridge to Pemberton

In the fall, my partner and I often go on a road trip somewhere in western Canada to explore and photograph places we haven’t seen before. This October, we checked out the road to Gold Bridge, west of Lillooet, and later went to Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island. Along the way there were many stops to visit friends and family in Vancouver, Victoria and Gabriola Island. 

After spending a night in Kamloops, we meandered along Highway 99 from Cache Creek to Lillooet, passing between the rock walls of Marble Canyon Provincial Park. The fall colours were at their peak in the valley and along the shores of the Pavillion Lakes. Besides being a pretty lake, Pavillion Lake is known for the formation of microbialites (look it up) on the lake floor. The Pavilion Lake Research Project is an international, multi-disciplinary science and exploration effort to explain the origin of freshwater microbialites.

Also overlooking the lake is Chimney Rock which, like the lake and the canyon, has spiritual significance to the adjoining Indigenous communities.  In Secwepemc'tsn (according to Wikipedia) it is known as K'lpalekw, which translates as "Coyote's Penis." (Somehow, we missed it on this trip, but here’s a photo I took in 2011).

Not too far beyond the lakes, the highway emerges into the Fraser River valley, with its rugged canyons carved out over millennia by the muddy waters.

Just north of Lillooet, the clear water of the Bridge River enters the turbid Fraser. The road to the tiny hamlet of Gold Bridge follows this river, passing through the lands of the Xwísten band of the St’át’imc Nation. It’s a paved road, but there are quite a few sections of rough, rutted gravel due to recurring rockslides from the steep valley walls. The river valley has some impressive canyons and erosion features.

Just before it emerges at Carpenter Lake, the road winds through a narrow gorge, where we spotted a mountain goat on the almost-sheer canyon wall.

Carpenter Lake is a reservoir created by the Terzaghi Dam, part of BC Hydro’s Bridge River Power Project which, I discovered later, has an interesting history. Started in the 1920s and completed in the 1960s, the project includes two tunnels, each over four kilometres in length, drilled through Mission Mountain, diverting most of the flow of the Bridge River to two generating stations on Seton Lake.

Carpenter Lake itself has that lovely turquoise hue deriving from the glacial waters that feed it. At the end of the lake, the river meanders through large swaths of wetlands.

We drove through the little village of Gold Bridge but, unfortunately, neglected to take any photos. In its heyday, this was a thriving gold-mining area, with several mines and their associated communities situated in the Bridge River basin. Tourism is the main economic driver here today, with heli-ski operators, fishing lodges and other backcountry recreation outfits established in and around the village.

After returning to Lillooet and spending the night there, we drove the Duffy Lake Road to Pemberton and then on to Vancouver. Just above the Lillooet Dam, we stopped to check out Seton Lake, and then carried on to the Seton Lake lookout, where we were greeted by a curious Steller’s jay while we read about the history of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. The railway, later to become part of BC Rail, follows the shoreline of Seton Lake on its way from Vancouver to northern BC.

The Duffy Lake Road is a scenic route through the Coast Mountains, climbing along the Cayoosh Creek valley from Lillooet to Duffy Lake and continuing to Pemberton. Highlights are the snow-covered peaks, the fall colours along the stream and then Duffy Lake itself, with Joffre Peak and Mount Matier in the backdrop.

From Pemberton onward, we were in Whistler condo land and the busy Sea-to-Sky highway, so we said farewell to our meanderings through the peace and beauty of the mountains and shifted into city mode, gearing up for a few days of visiting and traffic in Vancouver.

Stay tuned for Part 2 - Cowichan Valley, Port Renfrew, Victoria and Gabriola Island.

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