Pavilion Off The Beaten Path Tips by Darby2

Red Rock Canyon (Slok Creek)

As you drive up the road near Fountain, you immediately notice this gash in the landscape across the Fraser River.
The pictures below do not even come close to the deep red-purple of the Red Creek Canyon, which sits directly across the Fraser Canyon from Pavilion, slicing the broad benchlands on either side apart.  Like all the rock and sand in the Lillooet Country, the canyon's colour changes with the angle and quality of the light.  It is a dark red-purple, maybe described as vermilion but somehow almost shifting right outside our usual spectrum; subtly purple and not-purple at the same time.  I've seen other vermilion-coloured cliffs and canyons in BC, but Red Creek's is really odd; I don't know if Pavilion locals have ever noticed this and it may sound strange, but I invite you to have a look if you're in the area.  It may just be the effect of the canyon's deep shadow or the brightness of the light against the north wall, but I've always been struck by it on drives and walks along Highway 99 (in my day Highway 12) just as you come out of the Pavilion Valley.  These views are looking nearly due west - the creek comes down from the fight and has its source in the outer ridges of the Camelsfoot Range; the Slok Creek Forest Road has a main spur that runs up into there, onto a broad, high and very flat plateau that is a yet higher benchland from those of the West.

Moran canyon, Fraser River

At one time ther were plans to put a huge dam on the Fraser at Moran. It would have wiped out the salmon that migrate up the river as far as Mt. Robson...700 miles upstream.

The ranches at Pavilion are among the oldest spreads in BC.  The upper ranch on the high benchland was founded by Richard Hoey (?) but was bought and developed by Carson in 1866 and stayed in that family until 1942 when it was bought by Spencer.  In 1949 Spencer bought up the Bryson Ranch, which is the lower benchland and the lands in the valley of Pavilion Creek farther above.  26 Mile House was the old Carson ranch house, built in 1867, and was located on the upper part of Pavilion, located on the broad high benchland that stretches to the road summit of Pavilion Mountain (the actual mountain summit is some miles SE of the pass); the Carsons were known for their hospitality and their ranchhouse was one of the favourite stopping-places along the long journey from Lillooet to Barkerville. From the higher edge of this plateau, the Cariboo Wagon Road made a staggering switchback descent to the valley of Kelly Lake, which leads towards Clinton where it meets the newer Cariboo Wagon Road (and today's Highway (97) from Yale via Spences Bridge and Ashcroft-Cache Creek. A picture of Kelly Lake and its valley can be found just below, possibly taken from the Cariboo Wagon Road