Tweedsmuir Provincial Park

Tweedsmuir covered around nine hundred and eighty thousand hectares when it was created in 1938, by far the largest provincial park in British Columbia at the time, and now runs as Tweedsmuir North and South from the Chilcotin plateau over the Coast Mountains towards the sea. Hunlen Falls drops about two hundred and sixty metres in a single free fall from Turner Lake, among the highest in Canada, and there is no road: reaching it means a steep sixteen-kilometre trail with switchbacks or a float plane onto the lake. The Turner Lake chain offers a canoe circuit with boats cached at the lakes. Rainbow Range, an eroded shield volcano, is coloured red, orange and purple by mineralised rock.

History

Alexander Mackenzie crossed the area in 1793 on his way to the Pacific, and in August 1937 the Governor General, John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, travelled through it by float plane and on horseback and was so impressed that he urged the province to protect it. Tweedsmuir Provincial Park was established on 21 May 1938 with 981,000 hectares, by far the largest provincial park in British Columbia at the time; in 1956 the Entiako area was taken out for resource extraction, and the park was later divided into Tweedsmuir North and Tweedsmuir South (Wikipedia, Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park).

What you'll find

• Hunlen Falls - a 260-metre single drop with no road access.
• The Rainbow Range - an eroded volcano coloured by mineralised rock.
• The Turner Lake chain - a canoe circuit with boats cached at the lakes.
• The plateau to coast transect - dry interior to rainforest across one park.

When to go

July to September; snow closes the high country outside that and float planes fly only in open water season. Wildfires have burned parts of the park in recent years.

What to expect

Hunlen Falls is a hard sixteen-kilometre hike with a steep switchback climb, or an expensive flight. There are no services inside the park. Fire closures have affected access repeatedly.

Nearby

Bella Coola lies west; the Chilcotin plateau is east.

Key facts