Cariboo: Experience Gold Rush History and Trails

The trail network in the Cariboo Regional District includes 22 wheelchair-accessible trails spread throughout the region. Individual trails also offer different highlights: they lead to Gold Rush sites, river views, waterfalls, or wetlands. When planning your trip, you can focus on the themes that interest you most.

Trails between rivers, forests, and wetlands

The Bullion Pit Low Mobility Trail offers a view of a man-made canyon from the Gold Rush era. The Horsefly Wheelchair Accessible Salmon Habitat Viewing Trail has a different focus: it follows the Horsefly River and offers views of the salmon spawning channel. Both routes show how nature and history can be experienced on different trails.

Trail lengths also offer a useful comparison. The trail network of the Quesnelle Forks Low Mobility Trail covers about 860 metres; at 1.7 kilometres, the Ninety-Nine Mile Low Mobility Trail is about twice as long. In Quesnelle Forks, viewpoints overlook a Gold Rush-era ghost town and the confluence of the Quesnel River and the Cariboo River. The longer Ninety-Nine Mile Trail passes through lush mountain forest and has four viewpoints, including one overlooking a wetland.

Other viewpoints showcase their own distinct landscapes. The Mountain Spruce Low Mobility Trail passes through a spruce and fir forest to a platform overlooking Heron Lake and the surrounding wetlands. A viewpoint beside a wetland on the Interlakes Pioneer Heritage Trail features an information kiosk introducing the birds and animals found there. There are also different options for taking in rivers and waterfalls along the way: the Bull Canyon Provincial Park Low Mobility Trail offers views of the blue Chilcotin River, shaped by glaciers, and passes Indigenous pit houses. The Hendrix Falls Low Mobility Trail passes through a forest to a viewpoint overlooking the waterfalls.

The Hotnarko Falls Low Mobility Trail offers views of Hotnarko Falls and “the Precipice.” The surrounding area includes an unguarded drop-off. For a different perspective on water and wetlands, the Mountain Spruce Trail leads to the viewing platform at Heron Lake. The different trail descriptions can help you choose the landscape features that match your travel interests, without reducing the routes to a single theme.

Traces of the Cariboo Gold Rush

Gold Rush history can be found not only at Bullion Pit and in Quesnelle Forks. The Telegraph Trail is the approximately 275-kilometre section of the Collins Overland Telegraph Trail and its successor, the Yukon Telegraph Trail, located in the Cariboo Regional District. The remaining sections are used as recreational trails by hikers and people interested in the province’s history. Both walking the route and exploring its history are therefore among its highlights.

Barkerville is considered the best-preserved example of the types of communities and buildings established during the Cariboo Gold Rush. Felker Homestead currently serves as a community gathering place and venue for celebrations. Together with the viewpoints at historic sites, it offers a variety of ways to explore regional history: through landscapes, former settlements, and community life today.

Exploring the 108 Mile area

One of the two trailheads for the 108 Lake and Sepa Lake Accessible Trails is at the 108 Mile Heritage Site and can be reached directly from Highway 97. Walking and cycling are permitted in the 108 Mile Greenbelt. At this named location, both the Heritage Site and the trail network for walking or cycling are highlights.

For the broader travel guide: British Columbia.