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ATNARKO
RETREAT ON CHARLOTTE LAKE
Flightseeing
Explore
the world through the eyes of a bird
As we are located on the lake, the local floatplane picks
you up right in front of your room.
They can show you our great area with the smaller Cessna 185
(up to 3 passengers) or the DHC2 Beaver (up to 6 passengers).
Just to see the plane land in the bay is a spectacle but wait
till you are sitting in it and it takes off. It's amazing
how easy they lift up from the water.
You
choose how long you would like to see the world from the sky.
There is much to explore:
Coast Mountain Range
- Along the west coast from Mexico to Alaska stretches a beautiful
range of mountains. In Bella Coola, just 70 km west of us
as the crows fly, the steep mountains drop into the sea, which
creates extraordinary fjord-like photogenic views. As the
Chilcotin Plateau is already approx. 1200 m (3939 ft) above
sea level, the mountains up here are not as steep but still
magnificent, many of them covered with snow the whole year
round.
The range forms a natural weather shield that results in a
dry climate. It seldom rains in the summer and the snow in
the winter is dry and fluffy like powdered sugar.
The Monarch Icefields
- It is one of a series of large continental icecaps in the
Coast Mountain Range
Hunlen Falls
- Hunlen Falls were originally called Mystery Falls and has
a free fall drop of 396 m (1300 ft.) the second-highest in
BC (after the Della Falls on Vancouver Island) and the third
highest in Canada. The falls empty Turner Lake into Hunlen
Creek, and shortly after it flows into the Atnarko River.
Hunlen Falls and Hunlen Creek were named after an Indian chief
who had a trapline in the area.
Lonesome Lake
- On Lonesome Lake, one of many characters of our area called
the lake his home. Ralph Edwards, known as the Crusoe of Lonesome
Lake, lived many years up on Lonesome Lake in a little homestead
that was destroyed in the 2004 Fire. Ralph Edwards was the
one who fed the Trumpeter Swans for many years during the
winter and helped to save this endangered species and bring
it back to the present day numbers we now enjoy.
Check out the books that were written about this area: (the
list is not complete as there are lots more to read about
the area)
· Ralph Edwards of Lonesome Lake, Ed Gould
· Ruffles on my Longjohns, Isabel Edwards
· Fogswamp: Living with Swans in the Wilderness, Trudy Turner,
Rugh M. McVeigh
· The Crusoe of Lonesome Lake, Leland Stowe
· A Mountain Year: Nature Dairy of a Wilderness Dweller, Chris
Czajkowski
Witton Lake
- In the middle of the Coast Mountains, in the Charlotte Alplands
Protected Area lives Chris Czajkowski the author of various
books about the area. The latest: A Mountain Year: Nature
Dairy of a Wilderness Dweller 
The Rainbow Mountains
- The name comes from its intense varied colours of volcanic
rocks. It is thought to be the result of the North American
Plate passing over a hotspot, similar to the one feeding the
Hawaiian Island.
Anahim Peak is the only separate volcanic peak. Other peaks
in the range are Beef Peak, TaiaTaeszi Peak, Mount MacKenzie
2,143 m (7,031 ft) and Tsitsutl Peak 2,495 m (8,186 ft). The
Range adjoins to the east to the Chilcotin Plateau, to the
south to the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains to the
north to the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains.
The Dean River curves around its north flank and is a splendid
Flyfishing River.
The Itcha Ilgachuz Range Provincial Park
- Far Mountain 2,410 m (7,907 ft) and Mount Downton 2,375
m (7,792 ft) are the most prominent peaks in the Park with
its 111,977 hectares. Since 1995, the Park protects alpine
grasslands, wetlands and a great variety of wildlife, including
the Woodland Caribou.
Tweedsmuir Park
- With over 2.2 million acres (895,000 hectares), Tweedsmuir
Park is the biggest Park in British Columbia and was established
in 1938. The park is named after John Buchan, Baron Tweedsmuir
of Elsfield. He travelled extensively through the park area
in 1937 and was greatly impressed by its magnificence.
You'll find an extraordinary diversity of landscapes and vegetation
in the park. In the north you'll find the Rainbow Mountains
with its beautiful colours, and to the northwest the Dean
River that empties into the Dean Chanel (Pacific Ocean Fjord).
In the south there are the magnificent Coast Mountains with
its Icefields and Glaciers. To the west the park borders the
Bella Coola Valley with a rainforest and Gigantic Red Cedar
trees, and east to the Interior Plateau (which includes the
Fraser, Chilcotin and Nechako Plateaus) with its rolling and
hilly fields, home of all kinds of wildlife, cowboys and cattle.
Mount Waddington
- Mount Waddington, 4019 m (13,186 ft) and once known as Mystery
Mountain, is the highest peak in the Coast Mountains of BC,
that is entirely within BC. It's only a few miles from the
peak to the Bute and Knight Inlets and with its rocky shape
and glaciers it has been compared many times to the Himalayas
and has been used in different movies as background, for example
in "Seven years in Tibet" or "K2".
It is a challenging climb to the top and has been compared
to Mont Blanc's structure.
Don and Phyllis Munday in 1925 spotted the peak first, believed
to be taller than Mount Robson. By triangulation, the then
called Mystery Mountain was measured 1927 at 4041 m (13,260
ft) and they reached the lower summit in 1928. They recommended
the mountain be named Mount Waddington, after Alfred Waddington,
who was the one who surveyed for the Waddington Road and later
the railway via the Homathko River valley and Bute Inlet,
which would have connected the Chilcotin Plateau with Vancouver
Island had it gone through. After some expeditions in 1934
and 35 failed, Fritz Wiessner, Bill House, Elizabeth Woolsey
and Alan Willcox reached the head of the Knight Inlet on July
4th, 1936. On July 20th, after 13 hours of leaving the base
camp at Icefall Point on Dais Glacier, they reached the top,
over the south face.
That is just a little summary about our area around Charlotte
Lake, very easy to explore by a float plane. There is much
more to see and experience. Let us know if you would like
to explore something else or if you would like to know more
detailed information.
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