Highway 23

Travel Day

• Revelstoke to the Mica Dam and return via BC Highway 23

Another look at the Revelstoke Dam as I head up Highway 23 towards the Mica Dam.

Revelstoke Lake, above the dam. I wanted to stop for a picnic. I had fried chicken at the ready.

Then I saw this section of old road. I realized it was a part of the old Highway 1 section known as the Big Bend Highway. I noticed that it disappeared into the lake at the end.

So I went to the other side of the small creek outlet where it reappeared again. The Forest Service has turned it into a picnic ground!

I got back on the "new" part of Highway 23 and headed up to Mica Creek, or what is now called Mica Village. The old village of Mica Creek was flooded out when the Revelstoke Dam went in.

Mica is not so much a village as it is a lodging site for workers on the Mica Dam. There is an extension project going on right now, so workers are here, housed in these barracks.

This sign is just outside Mica. I drove cautiously. No toads were seen.

The Mica Dam. It's an earthen dam, and the first on on the Columbia River. When built, it created what is now called Kinbasket Lake, a lake which takes in the Big Bend of the Columbia River and goes all the way down to Golden, BC.

One of those "informational" signs. I hope you can read it.

Looking across the road over the top of the dam. You can't go here.

Looking up Kinbasket Lake from the topside of the dam. Or as I like to say, "Here's to looking up your Kinbasket!"

This is where Highway 23 officially ends. The dirt road goes for a long ways, around the Big Bend and down the west side of Kinbasket Lake. Unfortunately much of the further portions of the road have been wiped out by avalanches or destroyed by time.

BC Hydro is pretty sure they don't want anyone driving over their dam.

As I headed back down Highway 23, I saw this sign. More about toads. I hope you can read it. If not, look up Western Toad on the Internet.

That sign was beside another section of the old highway. I drove down to see what was there.

It ended up descending into the lake, submerged as the waters rose from the dam.

So I drove further down the new highway to where the old road emerged from the lake. It's a boat launch now! If you look closely, you can see the lighter portions of lake water where the road runs beneath the water.

Waterfalls, There's lots of 'em. Everywhere.

Those waterfalls bring down the melt water from the high mountains that surround this, and much of the rest, of the lakes up here.

One last look at the topside of the Revelstoke Dam as I head back to my hotel for the night.