Carnes Creek Recreation Site
Carnes Creek Campground, one of the prettiest in the Columbia Forest
District, is also becoming one of the most popular - and for good reason.
The beginnings of this campground were
inadvertently developed upon the construction of Highway 23N, built to
accommodate the creation of the Revelstoke Reservoir. The old highway and the
surrounding shoreline began to be used by Revelstoke residents as an access
point to the new lake.
In 1991, through volunteer efforts, a local
society constructed a rough version of the sites in the immediate area, and by
1992, the BC Forest Service had formally established the area as a Recreation
Site, developed a new site plan, and supplied campsite facilities.
In the summer of 1999, a severe storm passed over
the area, sending an unusually large debris flow down Holdich Creek, just above
the site, blocking the existing drainage system beneath the highway. Sacrificing
a section of highway in an effort to avoid a much larger catastrophic event,
Ministry of Transportation and Highways officials severed the highway grade to
allow a now small lake, the result of the plugged drainage system, to flow over
the highway in to the Reservoir. In virtually minutes, the thundering waters
created a chasm over 30m deep and 50m wide, effectively cutting off all highway
access between Revelstoke and Mica.
Construction of a new drainage system was
underway immediately, and to accommodate traffic, the highway was re-routed
through the existing campground (the road directly behind you) and a ferry
system was enabled to transport vehicles across the bay.
In the summer of 2000, with the new
"arch" now complete, Carnes Creek Recreation Site underwent an
extensive rehabilitation, with the generous contributions of the Ministry of
Transportation and Highways, the Provincial Emergency Program, and the hard
working crews from the BC Forest Service Revelstoke Primary Attack Base.
In 2004 the northern part of the site was
developed adding another 6 sites. Carnes Creek north (also known as Hobo
Island) is access by driving 3 km north past the main site.
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