Narrow Passage

Dark Clouds

Forest (No. 6)

Moricetown Canyon, BC (four pics)

Terrace, BC (two pics)

Passing Through

Clouds (No. 1111)

Stewart, BC (nine pics)

Witset, BC (No. 3)

Moricetown Canyon in Moricetown, British Columbia, Canada is the home of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation people - one of the five First Nation communities located on or near Hwy 16. The main attraction is the Bulkley River, the Morice Canyon, the fish ladders and the wooden fish huts used by the First Nation people for fishing.

Moricetown is located on Highway 16 between Smithers and Terrace, BC. It is easy to recognize the canyon and village by the pull-out lookout located on the highway looking down into the canyon. On most days there are cars and campers crowding the pull-out for a peek at the canyon and maybe at the First Nation people fishing.

Moricetown Village is located on the shores of the mighty Bulkley River located west of Smithers BC. Here Moricetown Canyon transforms into a chute at one point on the Bulkley River. The rock cliffs of the canyon start to converge, eventually tightening and squeezing the river into a 1/4 mile wide rock crevice creating white water rapids.

Witset, BC (No. 5)

he Bulkley River in British Columbia is a major tributary of the Skeena River. The Bulkley is 257 kilometres (160 mi) long with a drainage basin covering 12,400 square kilometres (4,800 sq mi).

Much of the Bulkey is paralleled by Highway 16. It flows west from Bulkley Lake past Perow and is joined near Houston by the Morice River, its major tributary. The Bulkley continues north past Quick, Telkwa and Smithers. It then meets the Skeena River near Hazelton. The Bulkley River is a major tourist destination for anglers targeting wild steelhead.

The river was originally called Wet'sinkwha ("blue and green river") by the Wet'suwet'en people, the indigenous inhabitants of the Bulkley Valley. The name Bulkley was given for Colonel Charles S. Bulkley, the U.S. Army engineer-in-charge of the survey team who, in 1866, explored the area in preparation for the failed Russian American Telegraph. The project was abandoned because of the success of the trans-Atlantic cable in 1866.

The Little Bulkley, a smaller stream running through Houston, and the Morice join just west of Houston. At the point of their joining they become the Bulkley, not the Morice, although the Morice is larger. This was done by Poudrier, a government cartographer who, it is rumoured, never saw the region.

Witset, BC (No. 4)

The high canyon shoreline of the Bulkley River provides many opportunities to view the Moricetown Canyon from up high and from down low. There is a wooden bridge crossing over the canyon to the opposite shore of the highway. There you will find a viewing bench and short trail leading down to the river.

Some people stay on the highway side of the canyon and walk down to explore the cement fish ladders, fisherman huts by walking the wooden blanks acting as bridges over the river. If the season is right there might be an opportunity to meet and greet with the First Nation fisherman as they catch fish - if they are out on that day.

Time your visit right and view the Moricetown Canyon at its best (during high run off season) when the Bulkley River is all about white water - crashing and smashing its way down into the canyon creating some fantastic kodak moments.