The Painted Chasm - British Columbia's Answer to the Grand Canyon

If you want to see a grand canyon, you need not travel all the way to Arizona when we have one right in our own backyard.  The Painted Chasm in near Clinton is BC’s answer to the Grand Canyon.   At the end of the last ice age, 10,000 years ago, water from the melting glaciers carried so much silt that it carved the 8 km long, 600-metre wide and 300-metre deep Chasm. A ridge of gravel that stretches 40 km upstream was formed by the glacier, northwest from the head of the Chasm. Chasm Provincial Park was formed to protect the unique river canyon of the Chasm Creek Valley and part of the Bonaparte River Valley.   In 1995, the park was enlarged from 141 hectares to 3067 hectares to protect more of the area’s colourful geological formations and ponderosa pine forests.

HOW TO GET THERE - The Painted Chasm is located along Chasm Creek Valley. It can be accessed by taking Highway 97 to 16 km north of Clinton, and then turning right onto Chasm Road and driving 4 km to the park on a paved road.  Just past the lookout is another pullout with an outhouse.  Park there and follow the chain link fence to the trailhead and follow it along the side of the Chasm.

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