Bowron Lake Provincial Park is a wilderness provincial park located in east-central British Columbia, Canada, near the border with Alberta. It is east of the city of Quesnel. Other nearby towns include Wells and the historic destination of Barkerville. Once a popular hunting and fishing destination, today the park is protected and known for its abundant wildlife, rugged glaciated mountains, and freshwater lakes.
The park's standout attraction is the recreational paddling circuit through the Cariboo Mountains, which connects a majority of the park's lakes via waterways and short portages, and has been named by Outside magazine as one of the top ten canoe trips in the world. The park is open to a limited number of canoes and kayaks each year from May 15 to September 29. By that time the village was uninhabited. It is likely that its prior inhabitants had been wiped out by disease, as the First Nations of the area were deeply impacted by the smallpox epidemics of the 1860s. The loss of the site prevented any form of carbon-dating to determine its true age.
While very little formal archaeological work has been done, a large number of indigenous artifacts have been seen in the park, including clam middens, old campfires, arrowheads, and cache pits. The park later took his name the same name as the lake.
Settlement and establishment
While the bulk of the initial non-native population arrived with the gold rush, the area enjoyed a modest but steady influx of settlers throughout the late 19th to early 20th centuries, even as the gold rush ended. Land grants were given to soldiers returning from the First World War, and many families arrived to start farms. and built a home on the shores of Bowron Lake in 1907. He was the longest-operating and most renowned guide in the region, and one of the lakes in the chain – Kibbee Lake – is today named after him.
In the 1920s, as concerns were raised about stress on the wildlife population in the Cariboo Mountains, the idea was proposed to turn the area within the Bowron lake quadrangle into a game reserve, citing the success of Yellowstone in the United States. The proposed reserve would be a hunting-free sanctuary where animals could breed without human interference, allowing the population to stabilize. This was widely supported by naturalists such as Thomas and Elinor McCabe, who had arrived in 1922 and built a home on Indian Point Lake, and Allan Brooks, as well as wilderness guides like the aforementioned Frank Kibbee and Joe Wendle. Despite some initial resistance from residents of Barkerville, the case was made that the establishment of the reserve would have lasting economic benefits, through the management of the game to sustain the hunting industry. The Bowron Lakes Game Reserve was established by the provincial government in 1925 and Frank Kibbee was named the reserve's first game warden shortly afterward. This protected area is further expanded to the south, as the park shares a border with Cariboo Mountains Provincial Park, which itself shares a border with Wells Gray Provincial Park. Together, the three parks protect over of wilderness.
Bowron Lake Park contains three main groups of rock. The oldest is known as the Kaza Group, which is made up of mud and sand deposits that formed during the Precambrian period 600 million years ago, in a sea at the continental margin of what is now the Canadian Shield. The second group of rock, known today as the Cariboo Group, was formed 440 to 600 million years ago in the Cambrian period, when materials from the continental landmass were eroded by changing conditions in the sea. The third and youngest group, formed about 250 million years ago, is made up of sedimentary volcanic rocks, parts of which today are exposed in various parts of the park. This third group is known as the Slide Mountain Group.
thumb|The [[Cariboo Mountains, in the southeast of the park, is made up of rugged, pointed peaks.|300x300px]]
Most of the visible geological features of the park were formed during mountain-building processes that started about 100 million years after the sedimentary and volcanic material was deposited. This process formed the Quesnel highlands, to the northwest of the park, and the more rugged Cariboo Mountains to the southeast of the park.
12,000 years ago, the glaciers in the area retreated, forming the park as it exists today. Glacial till remains visible in many areas of the park, and some small glaciers still exist on its higher slopes. The retreat of the glaciers formed the park's main sequence of lakes in a roughly quadrilateral arrangement, as viewed from space. Some examples include Indianpoint lake, formed when water from the Cariboo river was diverted by a blockage into the Indianpoint Valley, Unna Lake, which was formed from a melting kettle, and Sandy Lake and Spectacle lake, which were formed partially by meltwater streams.
Below the tree canopy, the park is home to numerous shrubs and berry plants, which include but are not limited to twinberry, false box, bearberry, Labrador tea, cranberry, huckleberry, mountain ash, red-osier dogwood, soopolallie, white rhododendron, and sticky currant, among others. The park is also host to a very wide array of flowers.
Fauna
alt=A cow moose and her calf feed among reeds at the edge of a lake|thumb|Moose are very common throughout the park, often seen feeding at the water's edge.|386x386px
Having started as a game reserve, the park is frequented by a diverse selection of animals. Moose are very common in the aquatic environments around the lakes, and mule deer are often seen in the area around Unna Lake in particular. Other large mammals such as mountain goats and caribou inhabit the park's alpine regions. The park's population of smaller mammals include semiaquatic mammals like beaver, muskrat, and river otter, as well as members of the weasel family including mink, fisher, marten, stoat, least weasel, and long-tailed weasel. Small land-dwelling mammals in the park include various voles and mice, foxes, hares, coyotes, porcupines, skunks, and squirrels.
Bears are quite common in the park – black bears are numerous in the lower altitudes around the lake, and grizzly bears frequent the alpine areas. In addition to its bears, Bowron Lake Park is home to predators like cougars, wolves, wolverines, and lynx.
Due to its size, the park covers several habitats and therefore contains an immense variety of birds. Notable examples include Canada jays and ravens, which have adapted to human presence and often approach campsites in search of food, and waterfowl such as the loon, whose calls are commonly heard throughout the park. Swans winter on Sandy Lake, and both Canada geese and snow geese stop in the park during their migrations. Various predatory birds, such as osprey, can often be seen fishing in the lake's waters.
Many species of fish swim in the lakes themselves. Rainbow trout, dolly varden, kokanee, and rocky mountain whitefish inhabit most of the lakes year-round. Sockeye and chinook migrate through the Bowron Lake and River during their spawning runs. Sockeye typically arrive to spawn in the upper Bowron River around August, peaking during the start of September, while chinook spawn outside the park's grounds, in the lower Bowron River.
Conservation
Fire
As in many BC parks, forest fires in Bowron Lake Park are treated as a natural process of forest rejuvenation. As such, natural fires that start in the park are generally allowed to burn, provided that they do not pose a risk to the safety of the park's users and facilities. The climate of the park can vary significantly throughout its various biogeoclimatic zones, and some areas can be significantly warmer and drier than others (for example, the Northwest portions of the park). Since they are more difficult to control, fires that start in those areas are typically not allowed to burn. which can kill large areas of tree forest if not controlled. Steps are being taken to control the spread of the beetle in Bowron Lake Park, using strategies such as the burning of affected trees, using trap trees (which are later felled and burned) to attract beetles, pheromone baiting (attractant pheromones for trap trees, or anti-aggregation pheromones for healthy trees), and biocontrol sprays. These control strategies are only used in zones of the park where beetle impact is expected to be severe; otherwise, the natural processes involving the beetles are allowed to continue unimpeded. Popular Science, Field & Stream, and others.
The circuit spans a total of 116 km and connects almost all of the park's lakes via waterways or short portages on man-made trails. In addition to views of the surrounding mountains and lakes, the circuit provides excellent wildlife viewing opportunities: moose, deer, bear, coyote, fox, beaver, songbirds, waterfowl, and small mammals are all commonly seen by paddlers.
Typical paddling time for the full circuit ranges from 6 to 10 days. Alternatively, the west side of the circuit, between Bowron Lake and Unna Lake, can be paddled on its own in 2 to 4 days. The full circuit can only be paddled in one direction, starting with a portage to Kibee Lake, and ending at the northeast shore of Bowron Lake. Paddlers camp at designated campsites along the circuit, typically in tents - some campsites have cabins, but they are intended for drying wet gear or for sleeping in emergencies.
Winter use
The lakes can be crossed when frozen during the winter months. There are no set tracks, but the portage trails can be used to complete the whole circuit in skis or snowshoes.