| In support of my webspace rental fees plleasedonate generously at GoFundMe or Patreon |
Thank your for visiting. If
you enjoy this site please make a donation if you can afford to. |
|
This page has pics of some of the main
vistas of Seton Lake; plus links to subpages concerning the lake's communities
and its history. The picture at left is of Seton Lake from the Mission Mtn Road above Shalalth, which is in the near foreground. Cayoosh Canyon lies between the saddle-ridge at rear right and the snow-clad buttress of Mt. Brew behind it. |
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
|
| These two views are the ones most travellers through the Lillooet Country get to see - the vista up the lake from Highway 99 as it descends from Cayoosh Canyon approaching Lillooet. on Hwy 99 from Whistler The peak in the distance is Whitecap Peak, one of the highest in the Bendor Range - behind it are the goldfield towns of the upper Bridge River basin. The Lake - Tsalalh (roughly pron. Chelath) in the St'at'imcets language - makes a sinous bend through high mountains, moving from a more temperate climate at Seton Portage and Shalalth at the farther end to the intense desert-like semi-arid climate of the area of the town of Lillooet. | ||
| Details visible here are relatively few
- the BCR rail line on the right-hand (north) shore, and the tracery of the
powerline cut on the right - the slender s-shape on the darker mountainside
at mid picture, plus the clearing on the same mountain's shore on the farthest
visible part of the lake. The snow-covered cleaing at left (on the same
mountainside) is that of the Machute Creek forest fire, c. 1979. The
grandeur of the immediate setting of this viewpoint is hard to grasp from
these pictures; to the immediate right are the alluvial
cliff-fan of McNeils and the towering Seton Bluffs, up and to the immediate
right the towering flank of Mt. Brew, behind the viewpoint the staggering
gorge of Nkoomptch which leads through to the Fraser Canyon and the town of
Lillooet. |
||
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
This is a lakeside view from just below
the Hwy 99 viewpoint above; not much different except that it shows the alluvial
fan that is McNeils at right, plus the very base
of the Seton Bluffs. The difference with
this photo, also, is that it was taken with a wide-angle lens, whereas the
ones above were taken with a 210 mm telephoto, which magnifies distant landscapes
considerably, while a wide-angle shrinks it considerably. Whitecap Peak
is in the centre-background of this image as well. |
|
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
Seton Lake is only 800 feet above sea
level, although the ranges walling it in soar to seven and eight thousand
on the north and up to nine on the south. The dim snowy peak in the right
background of the picture at left is 9890 ft Mt. Brew, which tower over the
Fraser beyond as well as the deep gorge of Cayoosh
Canyon, which is the far side of the forested ridge visible below Mt.
Brew. The lake twists to the left at the centre of the photo and then slightly
to the right as it comes to its outlet near Lillooet,
where the gorges of Seton Lake and the Cayoosh Canyon merge between the looming
flanks of Mt. Brew and Mission Ridge's Mt. McLean into a greater gorge called
Nkoopmtch that forms an open maw in the
sidewall of the Fraser Canyon. Over those
twenty miles the climate has radically shifted from the Portage's benign
temperate orchard country to the severe desert and dry rangeland of Lillooet
and the Fraser Canyon. In the old days, a succession of small steam ferries
served the original rush of gold-crazed adventurers en route to Lillooet
and the Cariboo as well as generations of the residents of Shalalth and the Portage; there are said to be
eight of these vessels lost to the waters of the lake, as well as a number
of PGE/BCR locomotives. Seton is one of the
deepest lakes in the province, the deepest sounding so far being 1500 feet.
Scheduled water ferry service on the lake is supposed to resume soon for
resident and tourist use; the lake is famed today for its spectacular water-skiing.
As with the Bridge Canyon, I'll be working at
photodocumenting Seton and its flanking ranges and gorges, and trying to
find archival and private photos by which to illustrate the valley's astonishing
scenery and climate. Seton also has some of the most interesting history
in the region, so in time there will be a good amount of pics and other
information here. The name "Shalalth" (properly Ts'alalh in the new St'at'imcets
spelling system) means simply "the lake", and is the proper name for Seton
Lake; the actual specific locality meant by the name today os the lands
surrounding the point on the left in the picture above, and illustrated close-up
below: |
|
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
||
|
|
||
| The grandeur of mountainside views from
the flank of Mission Mountain was famous in its day, and photographed endlessly
by my father and other visitors to the valley. Other views are in fact
hard to come by short of an arduous hike or an aerial flight over the area
(see subpages). |
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
|
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
This lakeside
view is from, I think, Slosh, which is the native community the farthest western
end of the lake; the bluffs at centre-right are immediately opposite
Shalalth and Ohin. A similar view is
at below left, and if I recall correctly I took it near the old PGE tunnel
next to today's BCR tunnel, on the rocky point of Mt. Skeil, the low headland
that formed the Totem Pole, an old reflective feature
of the local landscape. |
|
Photo: Mike Cleven |
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
|
|
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
||
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
||
Photo: E. (Andy) Cleven |
||
| These are two of the most classic views of the Seton Valley. The one at left is taken looking east towards Lillooet from about a third of the way up the mountain above the BC Hydro townsite at Shalalth, probably from the head of the penstocks; the other taken looking westward from about the Mission Mtn Road, a bit higher up, with a view of the Portage and Anderson Lake beyond. | ||