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The vast landscape of the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast stretches from the wildness of the Pacific Coast to the rolling Cariboo Mountains, with forests, hidden lakes, craggy peaks and golden plains set in between. This is a region with a past rich in the spirit of adventure, a land settled by entrepreneurs and outdoor enthusiasts, artists and explorers.
Stretching west beyond the Fraser River, a burnished golden plateau meets the peaks of the Coast Mountain Range. In the Chilcotin, visitors can hike beyond the trails, fish in isolated lakes, reach high alpine with a packhorse trek and raft churning whitewater. You won't want to miss the volcanic mountains of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, nor the ancient hoodoos and shifting sand dune of Farwell Canyon.
The Chilcotin is a place where streams and rivers score the land, slashing out amphitheatres filled with fantastic rock formations. Here Mt. Waddington rises 4,016m/13,176ft. The jagged mountain peaks of the Chilcotin are covered in vast ice fields and wide alpine meadows, gradually softening into large valleys, gently rolling foothills, pine-covered forests, lakes and rivers and the grasslands of the Chilcotin Plateau.
This is true backcountry, with some of the best fishing lakes and rivers to be found in North America. The expansive Chilcotin lies between the Fraser River and Coast Mountains, a 5,000 sq km/3,100 sq mi plateau of rangeland, where thousands of cattle roam. Cowboys rope and brand the young in the spring, keeping them from straying in summer, and round them up in the fall.
Chilcotin locals exude a certain independence of spirit - witness the history of the Chilcotin-Freedom Highway. Needing a connection between coastal and interior communities, the citizens themselves decided to build a highway to civilization. And after immense effort, they completed what is now the "Freedom Highway" (Highway 20).
Source: Tourism British Columbia
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