The weather could not have been better! Mostly clear with a high in the mid 50s. The drive up to Whistler, which I had done before, was lovely, but it got even better past Whistler. The descent into Pemberton from the pass was incredible, with clouds drifting in and out of the trees.
From Pemberton it was a short buzz into Mt. Currie to the in-SHUCK-ch Forest Service Road, which was clearly signed. In fact, there was a sign in Mt. Currie directing you to turn right to stay on 99 for the in-SHUCK-ch FSR, and letting you know it was another 10km to the turnoff.
Just after crossing the Lillooet River, we turned onto the FSR and began a drive of unknown distance to the Sloquet Road. I had stopped to look at the Back Roads map book in Pemberton, which had noted the second bridge over the Lillooet River at KM34, so I was intially expecting a 34km drive before we got close. Boy was I wrong! It's actually about 74km to the second bridge...more on that later.
The drive down Lillooet Lake was really spectacular, especially with the fall colors.
After about 30km the lake turns back into a river and you reach the turnoff for the first bridge, which you ignore. The river valley is still beautiful, but you catch only passing glimpses of the river here and there.
You begin passing signs indicating the distance to Skookumchuck HS, and once you finally pass them (we didn't stop...I prefer my soaking pools made of natural stone) you climb a hill and come to the turnoff for the village of Skatin. One of the Brazilians had a Masters degree in Architecture and so we had to stop for a look at the church.
Even to the uneducated eye, this church is bizarre. It's surrounded by junked-out cars and crumbling buildings with shattered windows.
Ana Flora was so dumbfounded to find Gothic architecture...built out of wood...in this ramshackle Native village in the middle of absolutely nowhere. She just stared at it with her mouth open for ten minutes. Turns out, it's a specific North American style called "Carpenter Gothic" and it's fairly common in western Canada. But it seems so out of place in Skatin.
It was unlocked so we went inside.
The floorboards were creaky and the rusted stove in the middle of the church was interesting. I crept VERY carefully up the back stairs to peer up into the spires.
You can see some modern 2x4s and metal straps, indicating some recent restoration...or at least stabilization...work. The stained glass apparently came all the way from Italy, and is still in good shape.
As we still had no clue how far it was to Sloquet, we continued on at a fairly rapid pace, slowing down only for the school zone just past the village. We'd have slowed down even if the hand-scrawled SLOW DOWN SCHOOL on a piece of cardboard hadn't been attached to a roadside tree, because the school house for the crumbling village of Skatin is dramatically modern, slick, and sleek. Another totally out-of-place structure in the middle of nowhere. (Sorry, no photos.)
Another half-hour of driving past Skatin and I was starting to worry that we had run out of time and might have to turn back. But we passed a construction crew who told us we were only a few km from the second bridge, so we kept going.
Just before the bridge is a major fork in the road. Stay RIGHT for the bridge. The left fork goes to Port Douglas on Harrison Lake, and you don't want to end up there. After staying RIGHT, you come to the second bridge at KM 74.5. (There's an actual marker for it, in fact the entire road is KM marked clearly all the way from Hwy 99.)
Just after the bridge is a 4-way junction (used to be a T junction, apparently, now it's 4-way), turn LEFT for Sloquet. From here it's 4 km to the Sloquet FSR, and on the way you pass a large permanent construction camp. There are a couple of formal signs indicating the distance to Sloquet at this point, but the actual turn itself doesn't have a sign. Two steep roads heading up to the right are the correct turnoff. The one closer to the Sloquet Creek bridge is better. They both meet after 100 yards.
Up to this point, the in_SHUCK-ch FSR has been wide and graded. Some areas have potholes, but it's quite easy to travel at 40-60km/hr in a normal vehicle (we were in a rented Ford Focus), and a high clearance vehicle could blast down the road much faster. (Which is probably the cause of the potholes.)
The Sloquet FSR is much rougher and rockier so you have to take it slower. The road follows the power lines up into the Sloquet Valley. (Where on EARTH are those power lines going to???) This road also has KM markers, and at marker 9 you cross a fork of Sloquet Creek, and 2 more KM later turn LEFT where you see an official-looking sign which indicates you're almost there. This spur goes steeply uphill for half a KM to the campground where there are some bear-proof trash bins. There was one couple camped there, and it looked like a fairly long-term camp so perhaps they are living there. There was trash piled neatly all around the bear bins...which were empty. (???) Perhaps the forest service only empties the bear bins and leaves anything around them alone.
We arrived at 2pm and scrambled down the VERY VERY steep trail from the campground to the creek below. It's short, only a couple of minutes down, but extremely steep.
The trail leveled out on a bench above Sloquet Creek, and steam was rising from the 20-foot cliff where thermal water was dripping down into the creek.
Anxious to get to the pools, we headed a few steps further down to the creek and arrived at the first pool:
This pool is WAYYYY too hot to soak unless you've brought a way to bring water in from the creek. The bottom is covered in a layer of reddish particulate, and it's fed by a dedicated trickle-source about 20 feet uphill from it. But it has a great view! I guess at higher stream levels the temperature is a bit more moderate, but it was easily over 115F when we were there, probably hotter.
At this point the trail splits and you can either follow it up along a huge fallen tree...
...or continue alongside the tree down to the creek and around to the lean-to shelter.
The shelter is too low to be practical for changing, but it would keep your clothes dry if it was raining. It sits next to the optimum-temperature pool, and VERY slick wooden ramp leads down from the lean-to into the pool. There was a LOT of trash and candles about, so we spent 15 minutes picking up before soaking.
The main pool is big enough for about 10 people, is about knee deep or a little deeper, and the perfect temperature for extended soaking.
It's fed by both the upstream waterfall source, and also a separate source that pours into the pool from a small cleft at a temp that's too hot to stand for more than a couple of seconds.
For those who prefer hotter temps, soaking closer to this source will get you much hotter than the temperature in the main area of the pool. There were a couple of floating log tables in this pool, as well.
We were excited to have the whole area to ourselves, but our Brazilian friends were too modest to soak naturally, so we obliged them and soaked in our swimsuits.
After a nice long soak, I explored the other pools. There's a giant pool just below the main pool that is tepid. (80F?)
Below that, there are a couple of creekside pools. The first two are cool, but the last one has a dedicated source that keeps it toasty. It's EXTREMELY shallow, though, and I imagine it's covered by the stream half the year. It's not a practical soak unless the pools above are overrun with people.
Upstream from the main pool is the waterfall. When we were there, it was far too hot to stand under, but I've seen photos of people standing under it, so perhaps during spring melt it runs cooler.
This waterfall feeds a shallow pool which is too hot for soaking except in the farthest corner.
I have a high heat tolerance, but I'd only be able to soak 5-10 minutes at this temp before having to get out.
This is a pic looking at the waterfall, and downstream toward the creek where the main soaking pools are.
The whole area is lush and beautiful, and we were VERY happy soakers after an hour or so of soaking.
We hiked out. (STEEEEEEEP!) And the drive straight back to 99 from the springs took exactly 2 hours for us, but the last hour was in darkness so we were going a bit slower than normal.
Overall, a SPECTACULAR but VERY LONG day trip from Vancouver. Highly recommended, but leave early, don't dawdle until you get to the in-SHUCK-ch FSR, go mid-week when there are no crowds, and take trash bags to pack out what other people don't.
S
