#chasm park

Chasm Provincial Park, BC (No. 7)

At the close of the Ice Age about 10,000 years ago, a stream fed by melting ice cascaded over a falls forming this chasm by cutting into some of the lava flows that helped to build the Fraser Plateau. Individual lava flows are shown here by the horizontal layering. When the glacial ice finally disappeared the flow of the meltwater stopped.

The Painted Chasm is a brilliant display of bright orange and pink rock and a must see for sight seers.

The 141 ha. Chasm Provincial Park is located 15 km/9mi north of Clinton and 4 km/ 2.5 mi off Hwy 97 in the Cariboo Region of central British Clumbia, Canada. Chasm Provincial Park operates from June to September, and offers eight wilderness walk-in campsites. Picnicing and day use facilities are also available. Pit toilets are provided.

Chasm Provincial Park, BC (No. 1)

Chasm Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located near the town of Clinton. Expanded to 3,067 hectares (7,580 acres) in 1995, the park was originally created in 1940 to preserve and promote a feature known as the Painted Chasm, or simply The Chasm, a gorge created from melting glacial waters eroding a lava plateau over a 10 million year span called the Chilcotin Group.

A Long Way Down

Chasm Provincial Park, BC (No. 4)

Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the ponderosa pine or western yellow pine, is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the most widely distributed pine species in North America.

Pinus ponderosa grows in various erect forms in 16 western U.S. states as well as British Columbia in Canada and has been introduced in temperate regions of Europe and in New Zealand. It was first documented in modern science in 1826 in eastern Washington near present-day Spokane (of which it is the official city tree). On that occasion, David Douglas misidentified it as Pinus resinosa (red pine). In 1829, Douglas concluded that he had a new pine among his specimens and coined the name Pinus ponderosa for its heavy wood. In 1836, it was formally named and described by Charles Lawson, a Scottish nurseryman. It was adopted as the official state tree of Montana in 1949.

Other vernacular names that have been used for the species are "bull pine" and "blackjack pine", but these are general woodsmans terms applied to growth stages of several different pines, rather than specific to Pinus ponderosa.

Deep Cut

Chasm Provincial Park, BC (No. 5)

Pinus ponderosa subsp. ponderosa Douglas ex C. Lawson – North plateau ponderosa pine, Columbia ponderosa pine

This is the autonymic subspecies of the species. Its range depends upon how many other taxa are combined with it. When treated as distinct as in Callaham, GRIN and the Jepson Herbarium, its range is from southeast British Columbia south through Washington and Oregon east of the Cascade Range to northeast California and western Nevada east of the Sierra Nevada, and in Idaho and western Montana. This area has cool, relatively moist summers; very cold, snowy winters (except in the very hot and very dry summers of central Oregon, most notably near Bend, which also has very cold and generally dry winters). As combined with subsp. benthamiana as in FNA it extends further south into California, but their treatment excludes western Montana.

Chasm Provincial Park, BC (No. 6)

Like most western pines, the ponderosa is generally associated with mountainous topography. However, it is found on banks of the Niobrara River in Nebraska. Scattered stands occur in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and in the Okanagan Valley and Puget Sound areas of Washington. Stands occur throughout low level valleys in British Columbia reaching as far north as the Thompson, Fraser and Columbia watersheds. In its Northern limits, it grows only below 1,300 meters (4,300 ft) elevation, but is most common below 800 meters (2,600 ft). Ponderosa covers 4,000 square kilometers (1×106 acres), or 80%, of the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is found on foothills and mid-height peaks of the northern, central, and southern Rocky Mountains, in the Cascade Range, in the Sierra Nevada, and in the maritime-influenced Coast Range. In Arizona, it predominates on the Mogollon Rim and is scattered on the Mogollon Plateau and on mid-height peaks (1,829 to 2,835 meters; 6,000 to 9,300 ft) in Arizona and New Mexico. Arizona pine (P. arizonica), found in the mountains of extreme southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and northern Mexico, is sometimes classified as a variety of ponderosa pine, but is presently recognized as a separate species. Ponderosa pine are also found in the Chisos, Davis, and Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, at elevations between 1,219 and 2,438 meters (4,000 and 8,000 ft).

Chasm Provincial Park, BC (No. 3)

The park conserves forests of ponderosa pine at the northern limit of its range, and diverse low elevation lakes and marshes. The uplands, marshes, and lakes are rich ecosystems supporting abundant wildlife. 

Chasm Park protects the unique river canyon of the Chasm Creek Valley and part of the Bonaparte River Valley. In 1995, the park was recommended for expansion through the Cariboo Chilcotin Land-Use Plan. It was enlarged from 141 hectares to 3,067 hectares to protect more of the area’s colourful geological formations and ponderosa pine forests.