Big Creek is a roughly long tributary of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

's Chilcotin River. Its source is remote Lorna Lake, located deep in the midst of the

Chilcotin Ranges The Chilcotin Ranges are a subdivision of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains (in some classifications they are a separate subdivision). They lie on the inland lea of the Pacific Ranges, abutting the Interior Plateau of British Columbia. T ...

, near the vertex of the boundaries of

Big Creek Provincial Park Big Creek Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. It is adjoined on the south by the Spruce Lake Protected Area (a.k.a. the South Chilcotin or Southern Chilcotins, though in the Bridge River Country) and on the west by ...

, the valley of the Taseko River and Taseko Lakes, which lies to its west, and the

Spruce Lake Protected Area The Spruce Lake Protected Area, formerly known variously as the Southern Chilcotin Mountains Provincial Park, Southern Chilcotins, and also as South Chilcotin Provincial Park, is a 71,347-hectare Protected Area in the British Columbia provincial ...

to its south (aka the "South Chilcotin" even though it is in the

Bridge River Country The Bridge River Country is a historic geographic region and mining district in the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, lying between the Fraser Canyon and the valley of the Lillooet River, south of the Chilcotin Plateau and north of the Lilloo ...

, part of the

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abo ...

region). Near Lorna Lake is a location known as Graveyard Valley, believed to be the site of the final battle of a 19th-century war between the Tsilhqot'in and St'at'imc peoples over control of the upper basin of the

Bridge River The Bridge River is an approximately long river in southern British Columbia. It flows south-east from the Coast Mountains. Until 1961, it was a major tributary of the Fraser River, entering that stream about six miles upstream from the town of ...

, which lies over the mountains to the south of Big Creek. The Big Creek basin is the easternmost of three southern tributary basins of the Chilcotin, the others to its west being the Taseko River basin and, west of it, the

Chilko River The Chilko River is a river in the Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, flowing northeast from Chilko Lake to the Chilcotin River. Its main tributary is the Taseko River. The Chilko is the Chilcotin River's ma ...

basin. The largest stream to its east is

Churn Creek Churn Creek is a tributary of the Fraser River in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Course Churn Creek flows generally north before turning northeast on its final leg through grasslands, joining the Fraser River just south of the headquar ...

, whose headwater creeks share a divide with the Big Creek basin, and which drains directly to the Fraser River. Only the uppermost reaches of Big Creek are in mountain country, however. About from its source the creek emerges onto the

Chilcotin Plateau The Chilcotin Plateau is part of the Fraser Plateau, a major subdivision of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia. The Chilcotin Plateau is physically near-identical with the region of the same name, i.e. "the Chilcotin", which lies between t ...

, which lines the lea of the Coast Mountains, and for most of its length it meanders across a mix of rangeland and subalpine forest and swamp.

References

Rivers of the Chilcotin Lillooet Land District {{BritishColumbiaInterior-river-stub