Railroad Pass, 1385 m (4544 ft), usually known locally as Railway Pass, is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

in 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

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 ...

in southwestern

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 ...

. Traversed by a seasonal dirt road known as the Hurley Main and sometimes also referred to therefore as Hurley Pass, the pass connects the Pemberton Meadows area of the upper valley of the

Lillooet River The Lillooet River is a major river of the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. It begins at Silt Lake, on the southern edge of the Lillooet Crown Icecap about 80 kilometres northwest of Pemberton and about 85 kilometres northwest of W ...

, via Railroad Creek, to the uppermost reaches of 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 ...

, the main south fork 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 the Hurley joins at the settlement of

Gold Bridge Gold Bridge is an unincorporated community in the Bridge River Country of British Columbia, Canada. Although numbering only around 40 inhabitants, Gold Bridge is the service and supply centre for the upper basin of the Bridge River Valley, which i ...

. Railroad Pass gets its name from its potential as a possible route for a railway through the Coast Mountains although no formal record of such a survey exists.BCGNIS entry "Railroad Pass"
/ref> The

Canadian Pacific Survey The Canadian Pacific Survey or Canadian Pacific Railway Survey comprised many distinct geographical surveys conducted during the 1870s and 1880s, designed to determine the ideal route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Although much of the survey's ...

went through this area, but records only exist of survey parties attempting

Ring Pass Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

, at the head of the Lillooet River, and the divide between

Meager Creek Meager Creek is a creek in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. It flows northeast into the Lillooet River approximately northwest of the village of Pemberton and is adjacent to the Upper Lillooet Pro ...

and

Toba Inlet , image = Toba Inlet.jpg , image_size = 280px , alt = , caption = Looking southwest toward the mouth of Toba Inlet , image_bathymetry = Carte baies Desolation et Bute.svg , alt_bathymetry ...

, as well as the southerly route since used by the

Pacific Great Eastern BC Rail is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial government in 1918. In 1972 it was renamed to the Britis ...

, now a part of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

conglomerate. Railroad Pass was investigated in the 1980s as a possible extension route for BC Highway 99 as a "back door" for the Whistler resort in case of geotechnical emergencies that would isolate the resort (a more southerly route used by

Cayoosh Pass Cayoosh Pass (1,275 m / 4,183 ft) is a mountain pass in the Lillooet Ranges of the Pacific Ranges of the southern Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. It lies just west of Duffey Lake on BC Highway 99 between the towns of Lillooet a ...

was chosen). A group of peaks on the north side of the pass is called the

Railroad Group 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 Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

and includes summit-names like

Locomotive Mountain Locomotive Mountain is a mountain summit located in the Railroad Group of the Coast Mountains, in the Pemberton Valley of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is situated northwest of Pemberton, east of Handcar Peak, and south of Face M ...

, Tender, Caboose, and

Handcar Peak Handcar Peak is a mountain summit located in the Railroad Group of the Coast Mountains, in the Pemberton Valley of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is situated northwest of Pemberton and west of Locomotive Mountain. Precipitation run ...

References

National Resources Canada Mapping Services
Mountain passes of British Columbia Bridge River Country Pemberton Valley Pacific Ranges {{cariboo-geo-stub