Cayoosh Pass (1,275 m / 4,183 ft) is a mountain pass in the

Lillooet Ranges The Lillooet Ranges are the southeasternmost subdivision of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains of British Columbia. They are located between the drainage of the Lillooet River and Harrison Lake on the west and the canyon of the Fraser Rive ...

of the

Pacific Ranges , photo = Mount Garibaldi (50997016501).jpg , photo_size = 280px , photo_caption = Mount Garibaldi massif as seen from Squamish , map = , map_image = South BC-NW USA-relief PacificRanges.png , m ...

of the southern

Coast Mountains The Coast Mountains (french: La chaîne Côtière) are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia ...

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, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It lies just west of

Duffey Lake Duffey Lake Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located at the lake of the same name, which lies along BC Highway 99 just east of the summit of Cayoosh Pass. The lake's inflow and outflow are Cayoosh Creek. The park ...

on BC Highway 99 between the towns of

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 abou ...

and Pemberton, formed by the headwaters of

Cayoosh Creek Cayoosh Creek is a northeast-flowing tributary of the Seton River in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The name Cayoosh Creek remains on the bridge-sign crossing the stream on BC Highway 99 and continues in use locally to refer to the f ...

to the east, flowing to the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

at Lillooet, and Joffre Creek to the west, flowing steeply downhill to

Lillooet Lake Lillooet Lake is a lake in British Columbia, Canada about 25 km in length and about 33.5 square kilometres (22 mi²) in area. It is about 95 km downstream from the source of the Lillooet River, which resumes its course after leavi ...

just southeast of the Mount Currie Indian Reserve. Cayoosh Pass and the valleys of Cayoosh and Joffre Creeks form the southern boundary of the

Cayoosh Range The Cayoosh Range is the northernmost section of the Lillooet Ranges, which are a subrange of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. The range covers an area of c. 3770 km² (1455 sq mi) and is approximately 65 ...

, a subrange of the Lillooet Ranges. Long known to the St'at'imc and

Lil'wat The Lil'wat First Nation ( lil, líl̓watǝmx), a.k.a. the Lil'wat Nation or the Mount Currie Indian Band, is a First Nations in Canada, First Nation band government located in the southern Coast Mountains region of the British Columbia Interio ...

peoples whose territories include it, the pass was first traversed by a non-indigenous person when James Duffey, a.k.a. "Sapper Duffy" of the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

, investigated the route in 1859–1860 during a resurvey and reconstruction of the

Douglas Road The Douglas Road, a.k.a. the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cattle Trail, which ...

, the route of which passed the Joffre Creek foot of the pass and followed the northern perimeter of the Cayoosh Range. Cayoosh Pass was reported by Sapper Duffey to be too steep for wagons and any thought of a road by that route was shelved until the later 20th Century. Newer engineering techniques in the 1970s saw a surge in logging road construction in the Pemberton area, which came over the summit of the pass into valleys south of Duffey Lake. Logging roads from the Lillooet side eventually linked up with the Pemberton-side roads by the late 1970s and this route was ultimately chosen for the extension of Highway 99 northwards from Pemberton, over the other available routes were one via Railroad Pass and the

Hurley River The Hurley River is a major tributary of the Bridge River of west-central British Columbia that was earlier known as the South Fork of that larger river. It was for a while known as "Hamilton's River" after Danny Hamilton, an American who was amon ...

, to the north of Pemberton, and another via

Anderson Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson Ra ...

and

Seton Lake Seton Lake is a freshwater fjord draining east via the Seton River into the Fraser River at the town of Lillooet, about long, in area and lies at an elevation of . Its depth is . The lake is natural in origin but was raised slightly as part of ...

s, the route followed by the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

References

BCGNIS entry "Cayoosh Pass"
Mountain passes of British Columbia Pemberton Valley Lillooet Ranges {{cariboo-geo-stub

See also

References