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 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 southern

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 ...

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 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. 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 par ...

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 abo ...

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 ...

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 (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

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 in area. It is about 95 km downstream from the source of the Lillooet River, which resumes its course after leaving Little Lillooet Lake, aka Tenas Lak ...

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. and is approximately SW to NE and about SE to ...

, a subrange of the Lillooet Ranges. Long known to the St'at'imc and Lil'wat 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 the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

, 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 Plateau, Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cat ...

, 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 among ...

, to the north of Pemberton, and another via Anderson and

Seton Lake Seton Lake is a lake in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. On the northeast side is Mission Ridge. On the southwest is the Cayoosh Range. By road, the eastern end is about southwest of Lillooet. Name origin In 1827, ...

s, the route followed by the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

References

BC Geographical Names entry "Cayoosh Pass"

External links

* Mountain passes of British Columbia Pemberton Valley Lillooet Ranges {{cariboo-geo-stub

See also

References

External links