BRITISH COLUMBIA COASTAL RANGE AND THE CHILKOTINS

The Coast Mountains of British Columbia are remote with limited accessibility by float plane, helicopter or boating up its deep inlets along the coast and hiking in. The mountains along British Columbia and SE Alaska intermix with the sea in a complex maze of fjords, with thousands of islands. It is a true wilderness where not exploited by logging and salmon farming pens. But there are some areas accessible from roads that can be explored, including west of Lillooet, the Chilcotins, and the Garibaldi Range. The Coast Mountains extend approximately 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) long from the southeastern boundaries are surrounded by the Fraser River and the Interior Plateau while its far northwestern edge is delimited by the Kelsall and Tatshenshini Rivers at the north end of the Alaska Panhandle, beyond which are the Saint Elias Mountains. The western mountain slopes are covered by dense temperate rainforest with heavily glaciated peaks and icefields that include Mt Waddington and Mt Silverthrone. Mount Waddington is the highest mountain of the Coast Mountains and the highest that lies entirely within British Columbia, located northeast of the head of Knight Inlet with an elevation of 4,019 metres (13,186 ft). The range along its eastern flanks tapers to the dry Interior Plateau and the boreal forests of the southern Chilkotins north to the Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park. The mountain range's name derives from its proximity to the sea coast, and it is often referred to as the Coast Range. The range includes volcanic and non-volcanic mountains and the extensive ice fields of the Pacific and Boundary Ranges, and the northern end of the volcanic system known as the Cascade Volcanoes. The Coast Mountains are part of a larger mountain system called the Pacific Coast Ranges or the Pacific Mountain System, which includes the Cascade Range, the Insular Mountains, the Olympic Mountains, the Oregon Coast Range, the California Coast Ranges, the Saint Elias Mountains and the Chugach Mountains. The Coast Mountains are also part of the American Cordillera—a Spanish term for an extensive chain of mountain ranges—that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western backbone of North America. I began my exploration in college in 1968 hiking in Garibaldi Provincial Park, then subsequently explored parts of of the Coastal mountains west of Lillooet and the Southern Chilkotins, bringing my children. We camped and hiked along the Lillooet River, and Mountain biked the southern Chilkotins, flown in to Spruce Lake and descended the Gunn River. Its beautiful country, still wild with deer, mountain goats, only a few mountain caribou, grizzly, wolf, and wolverine. It is one of our favorite places to explore.

Peaks at the head of the Upper Lillooet River and Provincial Park Athelney Pass from Lillooet river

Athelney Pass north of Lillooet river

Flight with Tyax Air Tyauighton Lake NW of Carpenter lake S Chilkotins into Spruce Lake. 14 mile trail out to Gunn River. Amazing mountain biking and hiking throughout southern Chilkotins

. Pass near Spruce Lake, descent into the Gunn River

Carpenter Lake and the Southern Chilkotins approached from lower right town of Lilooet River, nw to Carpenter Lake road then to Gunn Lake. The area is within the rainshadow of the BC Coastal Range, Mt Waddington is to the north. Bella Coola can be driven from Williams Lake, passing through the northern section of the Chilkotins, with the road intersecting Tweedsmuir Provincial Park

Chilcotins, Dickson peak

Spruce Lake

Windy pass above Spruce Lake

Taylor Pass connects with Slim Creek, a major tributary of Gun Creek

SlimCreek headwaters looking at Dickson range

Rich volcanic soils produce amazing wildflowers including arnica, Indian paintbrush, and lupine

Top: yellow warbler, Rock Ptarmigan , grizzly searching for marmots, mule deer, moose, mounain goat female with young, cougar last photo by G Beyersbergen Top:wolverine, middle: wolverine and hoary marmots, primary prey of denning wolverine, bottom: Bella Coola Dean River eastern Chilkotins near Anihim Lake, BC

Tweedsmuir Provincial park with volcanic formations Tweedsmuir, Hunlen Falls

Atnarko Pk Monarch Mtn distance left

Tweedsmuir S Crazy Bear Lk nr Charlotte Lk

Tweedsmuir S Mt Jacobson and glacier

Rainbow Range, Indian Pipe

Mt Garibaldi and Garibaldi lake