Highway 20, Tweedsmuir Provincial Park & Bella Coola, B.C.
I first became aware of Bella Coola, B.C. in the 1970s when I read the book “Crusoe of Lonesome Lake” (see Ref. 1). It is a remarkable true story of Ralph Edwards, who lived on Lonesome Lake in what is now Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. In the 1980s I had the opportunity to ride in a float plane, and land/camp/hike/fish on a lake in the aforementioned park. At the time, I was unaware that Lonesome L. was w/in this park. After reading the book “Fishing B.C. Rivers” (see Ref. 2), I decided to take a trip to Bella Coola in late July 2009. The road (Highway 20) from Williams Lake to Bella Coola has 40 miles of unpaved road that crosses Tweedsmuir Park via a mountain pass. The descent toward Bella Coola is steep, w/ many hairpin turns; there are some pull outs along this section in case a truck is coming the other way. I saw some black bears and moose along this road. I camped at the Bailey Bridge campground, and I did some salmon fishing in the Bella Coola river. I was too early for the run of pink salmon; nevertheless, I did manage to hook a few large salmon fly fishing. I later found out that a forest fire blocked Hwy 20 later that summer. During the trip, I lucked out and got to see the B.C. Ferry at Bella Coola.
Note: Part 2 of this set of slides can be found at Canada->British Columbia->Bella Coola Trip 1B.
References:
- “Crusoe of Lonesome Lake”, by Leland Stowe, 1957
- “Fishing B.C. Rivers, Big fish and Accessible Waterways”, Gordon Davies, 2004
