Camping In The Chilcotin
September 7, 2016 6:58 pm Leave your thoughts
On one of my last weekends of the summer I went camping. I originally wanted to go to Bella Coola because I’ve never been before. However, my boyfriend, Karl, didn’t want to go that far away. I still wanted to go west to the Coast Mountains so we went half way there and camped at Horn Lake. Horn Lake is just south of Tatla Lake, which is along Highway 20 (also called “Freedom Highway”) from Williams Lake to Bella Coola. I didn’t realize that once we were a bit west of Williams Lake how dry and desert like it is. We drove down a little dirt road to Farwell Canyon, where the Chilcotin and Fraser rivers meet. It was a really hot day and definitely felt a desert canyon.
We drove on through a lot of farms; having to slow down for some cows and horses at times. Karl fell asleep after Farwell Canyon so I put on some music that he doesn’t like (U2) and enjoyed the drive despite having to drive the whole way with my shirt sticking to the seat because of a lack of air conditioning. Even though it was hot, I’m glad it was such a sunny day, because once we got far enough west, the Coast Mountain views were clear and beautiful as I drove towards them. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures because I had to keep my hands on the wheel, but trust me they were amazing.
After about 5 hours of driving with a few stops we got to Tatla Lake. Then, we took a turn south down a dirt road to Horn Lake. Horn Lake was a really pretty lake with some good mountain views too. We picked a campsite but then thought we might like some of the other nearby lakes better, so we left and kept driving a little bit. We drove to Sapeye lake, which was pretty but didn’t have any sites right on the water. Then we drove to Bluff Lake which was one of the most beautiful lakes I’ve ever seen. It didn’t have a campsite but the drive around it was worth while.
We got to the end of the road because of a road block so we drove back to Horn Lake and set up camp there. I went for a swim for about ten minutes but by this time the sun was setting and it was too cold to stay in the water. We built a fire and roasted some marshmallows and then watched the sun go down. After the sun went down, the moon came up from behind the hills and shone on the lake. We heard two wolves howling from either end of the lake across us and it all felt really calming and natural. The next morning wasn’t quite as nice because it was pouring rain. We waiting until it settled down a little before we left and this time Karl drove. Because of the rain and clouds, we didn’t have the mountain views like we did the day before but it was still a nice and scenic drive. The Chilcotin river was so blue along the way and the rain made the temperature cool off. I’d never been to the Chilcotin before so I’m glad I got a chance to make the trip. Next time I’d like to go all the way to Bella Coola and maybe stay for more than one night. I might even stop at Horn Lake again on the way because this was the view from our campsite:
