Pemberton, B.C.

July 2019

Beautiful, sparsely populated and geothermally active, British Columbia’s mountain ranges are a hot spring paradise. Access and distance are the only crux. Fortunately, Canadians have a reputation for managing their forest roads with the same care as their highway system. In July Carly and I staked a weekend on it during a trip to Sloquet Hot Springs near Pemberton B.C.

Sloquet is deep off the grid a four and a half hour drive north of Vancouver. I didn’t know much about Sloquet other than it was undeveloped and remote. Neither of us had been there and we didn’t know anyone who had.

My research told me the most reliable route was to go an hour past Pemberton and then backtrack on gravel south for another two hours along the shore of Lillooet Lake. Every downed tree and rockfall in the roadway triggered a silent panic that the trip would be for nothing. Just as I started to wonder if we should turn around, we were there.

The hot spring is on tribal land and totally undeveloped outside a changing area and a primitive campground. Camping is first come, first serve and only costs a few bucks per night payable to the seasonal caretakers.

I found out later that the river crossings on the slightly faster route from the south I’d been considering we’re almost completely impassible.

A short walk down a steep hillside from the campground, the water boils from a mossy waterfall into a series of sandy granite pools. Seeing it for the first time felt like we’d discovered a fairytale. A fern wall borders the far side and a vine maple makes a delicate canopy over the spring. The pools get larger and more comfortable as they form a terraced tributary to the river thirty meters below.

At night, tea lights shone out of alcoves in the fern wall and from inside small lanterns hung from the maple. Small sticks tied into Wiccan symbols cast steamy shadows. A few mugs of wine and laughter from other campers had us feeling like we’d entered a tropical pirate hideout. There’ve been a few perfect moments in my life and one of them is from that weekend, blissed out next to Carly between hot water and warm granite.