Fall Time 2022 in the Tahltan Highlands was Spectacular
Fall time in the Tahltan Highlands, as it is listed in official documents, is spectacular. This is accessible via Highway 51, historically known as the Telegraph Creek Road. Connecting tlēgohīn (Telegraph Creek, BC), the head of navigation on the Stikine River to tātl’ā (Dease Lake), a community at the south end of Dease Lake, itself. This was the route that brought supplies from the Pacific Coast via Wrangell, Alaska, to the goldfields of northwestern BC and the Yukon.
- Note: Much is to be gained by learning the original place names with their meanings. Properly learned and understood, they are an indelible map to the entire region, superior in so many ways to the flat, two-dimensional charts imported from Europe. For example, tātl’ā means the source – of the river that is now called the Dease River. Knowing the big lake that sits atop the continental divide as Dease Lake might help you realize there was probably some colonial official named Dease in the region at one time whose name was placed on the 40 km long body of water as some kind of royal reward. But knowing that it is tātl’ā, the source of the river whose water eventually reaches the Arctic Ocean via the MacKenzie River provides so much more information!
Access to the Telegraph Creek road from Highway 37 is at Dease Lake. Turn west at the sign, right between the big gas station and the RCMP station. There is a gas station in Telegraph Creek, but check your fuel before proceeding and if you plan on filling up in tlēgohīn, make sure it will be open at the time you expect to be there! But you will definitely enjoy your visit if you do buy fuel there – there’s also a well-stocked grocery store, including some great clothing.
Also be sure to take the fully upgraded, if very narrow and steep road down into the old ghost town of downtown Telegraph Creek. It’s a good place to visit early on a nice day, so that you can park down by the Stikine River and walk around.
The Tahltan Highlands
But getting back to topic, a visit to the Tahltan Highland in the fall time is even more breathtaking than in summer. Added to the incredibly rugged scenery is the spectacular colour changes as the leaves begin to turn to gold, orange, and even red.
A massive wildfire went through the region in 2018, which burned vast areas of forest. It was so hot that in places, the bark literally exploded off the aspens, and the topsoil was burned right off down to mineral soil. Very few evergreens survived, and many of the aspens were also killed.
But already just one year later, in 2019, new growth was beginning. Although this is the first time in living memory that a fire went through and destroyed homes and landmarks like it did, fire is a normal part of the cycle in these subarctic boreal forests. The trees that are native here return very quickly. The conifers even require fire for the seeds to be released. And the aspens never fully die. The part you see above the ground may die, but the roots continue below the surface, sending up new shoots wherever the sunlight reaches and warms the ground.
The Tahltan Highlands don’t generally get a lot of heavy rainfall, the terrain tends to be very steep, and the ground wherever it is level has excellent drainage. Winters are long and can be bitterly cold. So it’s not often that you will find large trees, and sometimes there are very few trees and little brush. But there is enough healthy growth every year to support a good ungulate population, as well as provide grazing land for horses, which are still a very important component of the local economy.
Horses and Wildlife
Watch out for horses when traveling through the Tahltan Highlands in the fall time. It’s easy to be distracted by the spectacular scenery, but there could be horses, even an entire herd, on the road at any time, as the many dropping along the road attest to.
The horses are free range horses, but not wild. They do belong to real people and are used to access the very challenging area for hunting and camping at various times of the year. A good horse will still go where no four-wheeler or even a dirt bike has a chance!
Horses are not the only creatures to keep an eye out for, though. It’s also possible to see both grizzlies and blackbears, as well as moose and caribou, as you travel along this rugged and wild mountain highway.
Not your average southern style highway
Highway 51 is not for the faint of heart, nor is it a good highway to travel regularly with a small car or a motorhome. The road is often very good for most of the way, but it is very narrow and steep as it traverses the ridges and then plunges into the deep river valley bottoms, only to climb steeply to the next ridge.
Be aware that the road gets very narrow in some pretty inconvenient and precarious places. You need to be alert, not just watching for wildlife and horses, but also for other vehicles approaching. There are places where two vehicles simply can’t pass each other, meaning one of you has to find one of the many pullovers to wait for the other to pass.
Locals who know the road tend to travel very quickly, as they travel the road often and it’s a long way from one place to another. If you’re visiting, remember that YOU are not a local, so you must drive with extreme caution. If you’re going to fast and need to stop suddenly, you might not be able to on the kind of surface you will find yourself on.
Locals don’t mind visitors and are often happy to give directions, talk about history, or tell you about how the people live. But be respectful when you’re traveling, and pull over if someone comes up behind you, as they are probably a local who knows the road very well and has some place important to get to. Many of the vehicles you will meet will be people who are constantly working on the road so that visitors can safely enjoy a great visit.
Enjoy
Above all, come to the Tahltan Highlands in the fall time to enjoy a place like no other place you have ever been. Make sure your camera is charged up and you have plenty of storage capacity. You will never run out of unique and spectacular photos to capture!
Being well-prepared is one of the best ways to enjoy any adventure. As someone told us not long ago, “Nothing you could have told me could have prepared me for that road!” So make sure your driver and your vehicle is up to this kind of trip. But above all, come to enjoy something few people eve get to see – the endlessly spectacular Tahltan Highlands in the fall time!
