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The Nisga'a Highway - Volcanic Beauty


August 12th, 2018

This morning I drove north onto Route 113, Nisgaa Highway. I had received an auto self-guided tour pamphlet that highlighted some key spots. The beginning of this tour is 1 hour north on Highway 113 at a welcome sign that it is the beginning of the Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed National Park. It is believed that lave erupted from the volcano in 1750 and destroyed Nisga’a villages.

It was noticed that not many people stopped at the first Auto Tour Sign that says “Welcome”. There was a small opening through the trees and it was an absolutely beautiful sight … one of my favourites along this stretch.

The second stop was at Lava Lake. This lake was here during the ice age, but when the lava flowed down it dammed the stream that flowed from the lake raising the water level close to 30m.

Crater Creek showed the lava bombs from the volcano flew 5km through the air and landed in this area. Hard to imagine the force of that volcano.

Drowned Forest was the next stop and when water levels are high, the trees are under the water. There were a few trees that you could see the base under water.

Stopped at Beaupre Falls, but the water level was low and very little water was flowing over the rocks.

Vetter Falls was a nice stop. The falls were not high, but a great deal of water flowing over. The interesting feature about this spot is the phantom fish. The fish sometimes get swept over the falls, but the river disappears back under the lava 5km downstream trapping the fish in this part of the river. Apparently, the steelhead fish that are confined to this short stream develop snake-like bodies with large heads and can be seen in the pools. I did not see any … guess that is why they are called the Phantom Fish. LOL

My last stop was at the Tseax River. This was a nice location and you could see the salmon jumping here. I went to an opening and was curious what was white in the water. It turned out to be fish tails and the roe was left on the rocks. This was an area designated as a no fishing zone and that there were bear in this area. Someone was fishing and left the roe for the bears on the rocks. Didn’t see any bear here though.

Went back to the campsite, walked down to the lakefront and watched the sunset.

A lovely day!


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