Holloway Bar Placer Mine - Picture of the Week

The Cirque of the Unclimbables and Mount Harrison Smith rise from the shores of Glacier Lake near the Nahanni National Park in the Northwest Territories. A long-time destination for climbers looking for a wilderness climbing experience, it doesn't get much more remote than this! Climbers looking to experience the Lotus Flower Tower and other climbs must plan their trips carefully and arrange for airborne transportation or count on a four-day hike and paddle expedition from the nearest road access at Cantung - there are no buses or taxicabs running here!

There's an old saying among gold miners: "Gold is where you find it." Some find gold in the land, some find gold in the people around them, and others look for their gold at the end of a rainbow. While it's unlikely that these two rainbows over Lakelse Lake pointed to the motherlode, the Terrace area hosted gold seekers in its early days - and in fact, Henry McDame, the discoverer of gold on McDame Creek, was last seen in 1884 on the Skeena River's richest placer claim at Lorne Creek, just upstream from Terrace, not far from these present-day rainbows.

The Blue River Hot Springs, located about 50 km directly north of Holloway Bar, is a great spot for a picnic, although it's best accessed by helicopter. The warm waters flowing out of the ground are heated by the lava of the Stikine Volcanic Belt, which runs from the Tseax River Cones just north of Terrace past the Tuya Volcanic Field at the headwaters of the Blue River. Many of the area's rich mineral deposits were influenced by recent volcanic activity since the last ice age - the Tseax Volcano last erupted some 240 years ago. There are over 100 volcanoes in the Stikine Belt, making it the most active volcanic region in Canada. A major part of the ring of fire, you have to wonder where the next volcano will erupt without warning...

Northern BC is one of Canada's volcanic hotspots. Eve Cone, located in the Mount Edziza Provincial Park and Recreation Area just west of Iskut, is about 200 km south of Holloway Bar on the other side of the spectacular Grand Canyon of the Stikine. Mount Edziza, the main volcano in this area, last erupted about 10,000 years ago, but Eve Cone and the other 30 or so surrounding cinder cones erupted as recently as 1,300 years ago and are mostly unchanged by erosion and other natural processes. The old Yukon Telegraph line that once connected Dawson City to the outside world during the gold rush of 1898 runs just to the south through the Raspberry Pass, separating the Edziza area from the beautiful and colourful Spectrum Range, aptly named for its brilliant red, yellow, white and purple rock formations.