The Callaghan Valley is located in the Sea to Sky Country of southwestern,

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, in the

Pacific Ranges The Pacific Ranges are the southernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains portion of the Pacific Cordillera. Located entirely within British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada, they run northwest from the lower stretches of the Fraser River to B ...

of the

Coast Mountains The Coast Mountains () 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 British Columbia Coast, Coast of British Columbia sout ...

90 km north of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. It was the home of the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

Whistler Olympic Park The Whistler Olympic Park is the location of the Nordic and Biathlon events facilities for the 2010 Winter Olympics and is located in the Madeley Creek basin in the Callaghan Valley, west of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The facility hosted ...

, the venue for the Nordic events of the Olympics, and adventure tourism operations includin
Canadian Wilderness Adventures

Geography

The valley is the basin of Callaghan Creek, at the head of which is Callaghan Lake and associated

provincial park Ischigualasto Provincial Park A provincial park (or territorial park) is a park administered by one of the provinces of a country, as opposed to a national park. They are similar to state parks in other countries. They are typically open to the ...

. Midway down Callaghan Creek is the confluence of Madeley Creek, just above which on that creek is Alexander Falls, which lies just at a bridge on the road to Callaghan Lake. On its western perimeter is the Powder Mountain Icefield, and the potentially active volcano Mount Cayley, which lies at the valley's southwestern extremity. Mount Callaghan, at the head of the valley, is a dormant volcano because its last eruption was not as recent as Mount Cayley's, nor does it display

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

seismic activity An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

. The valley's eastern wall is the small range formed by Mount Sproatt and Rainbow Mountain, which lies in the angle of the

Cheakamus River The Cheakamus River (pron. CHEEK-a-mus) is a tributary of the Squamish River, beginning at the terminus of McBride Glacier on Mount Sir Richard in Garibaldi Provincial Park upstream from Cheakamus Lake on the southeastern outskirts of the res ...

and Callaghan Creek (which in the past has also been known as the West Fork of the Cheakamus) and east of which is the Resort Municipality of Whistler. The valley's mouth and road access is at McGuire's on BC Highway 99, 14 kilometres south of downtown Whistler, in

. The location is also known as Northair, and the road as the Northair Mine Road, after a mine located a few miles north of the junction, which is marked by a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

pit

columnar basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

lava rock Volcanic rocks (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) are Rock (geology), rocks formed from lava erupted from a volcano. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic rock is artificial, and in nature volcanic rocks grade into Subv ...

on the opposite side of the highway, and which are the northern end of a small

lava plateau A volcanic plateau is a plateau produced by volcanic activity. There are two main types: lava plateaus and pyroclastic plateaus. Lava plateau Lava plateaus are formed by highly fluid basaltic lava during numerous successive eruptions throug ...

between the highway and river south to and including Brandywine Falls. Volcanoes in the Callaghan Valley were erupted between 25,000 and 11,000 years ago whose age is extremely young in the geologic record.Callaghan Lake Provincial Park: Background Report
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Development history

The Callaghan Valley is a unique microclimate surrounded by a circular rampart of five mountains. Recent commercial snow sports developments have completely altered this ecosystem and these changes are increasingly having an impact on it.

Notes

{{Coord, 50, 08, 13, N, 123, 09, 07, W, display=title Valleys of British Columbia Whistler, British Columbia Pacific Ranges

Geography

Development history

See also

Notes