VN #035: Forest Fires
Posted August 2, 2024

 

Farwell Canyon

Special Edition:  It’s in the national news!

Farwell Canyon, through which the Chilcotin River flows, has been one of my favourite local places to photograph for the past 40 years.

I see this place as a sacred place; where indigenous peoples have lived for generations, where major rivers join both upstream and downstream, and where ‘super-salmon’ migrate. It is a place of significance.

This week, a major landslide, 600 meters long and 30 meters high, blocked the entire Chilcotin River. The dam has entirely blocked the river flow, creating an upstream lake which at the time of posting this Visual Narrative, is 8 km long.

The river is expected to break through the barrier in the coming hours. Depending how quickly the barrier collapses, the pulse of water that will quickly move downstream, might be felt as far south as Hope, several hundred kms away.

Here are a few images of Farwell Canyon as I have always known it.

The warm light of sunrise lights up the hoodoo cliffs above the Chilcotin River at Farwell Canyon.

In 2015, I rafted down the Chilcotin River, enjoying the remarkable perspective of looking upwards at the artistically carved canyon walls.

The iconic Farwell homestead stands at a sharp corner of the river where water and debris could now dramatically change the landscape.

The fascinating question is; what will this spectacular landscape look like next week?

I will travel this road in the coming days to see what Mother Earth has newly created.

Sense of Place; Place of Spirit

 

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