Lee and Karen Duquette,
The Two RV Gypsies: Full-Time RVers
at Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park,
fossil beds and more in
British Columbia, Canada
July 22, 2015

Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park covers part of the Bulkley River Valley on the east side of Driftwood Creek, a tributary of the Bulkley River, 106 km northeast of the town of Smithers. The park is accessible from Driftwood Road from Provincial Highway 16. It was created in 1967 by the donation of the land by the late Gordon Harvey (1913-1976) to protect fossil beds on the east side of Driftwood Creek. The beds were discovered around the beginning of the 20th century. The park lands are part of the asserted traditional territory of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation.

Lee Duquette had trouble finding this park. At first he drove right by it and went a long way on a dirt road before Karen Duquette told him to turn around because they must have driven past the park somehow.

Finally, they came to a small parking lot just off the road access that was full of cars with bicycles on them. So they stopped, and Lee and Karen Duquette walked across a small wooden bridge that crossed Driftwood Creek. The bridge was not in the best of shapes, because the part people walk on had dips that made Karen Duquette trip. But luckily, she did not fall nor get hurt.

Below: A short interpretive trail gave Lee and Karen Duquette glimpses of Driftwood Creek. The trail led to a cliff-face exposure of Eocene shales that were deposited in an inter-montane lake.

Below: After a short walk, Lee and Karen Duquette came to the end of the trail and a big hill that was blocked off. The hill of shales was interbedded with volcanic ash beds, the result of area volcanoes that were erupting throughout the life of the Eocene lake that produced the shales. Preserved within the shale formations were plant, animal and insect species that inhabited the area over 50 million years ago. Pieces were laid out on a railing for examination by visitors.

The BC Parks management plan for Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park lists these conservation attributes: internationally-significant Eocene fossil beds: most northerly site in North America with fossilized Eocene insects; fossils also include ancestral salmon, trout and suckers, including Eosalmo driftwoodens, a site of ongoing paleontological research.

Limited personal fossil collecting was originally permitted in Driftwood Canyon Park, and the site is listed in several tourism and rock collection guides as a place to visit for this activity.
However, this activity is no longer allowed here.

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