If you did not know better, you could be forgiven for thinking that the arrangement of the lakes in Bowron Lake Provincial Park had been made just for canoeing and kayaking. The park’s 11 lakes are laid out end to end in an almost perfect rectangle, so you paddle right back to where you stated. Rivers and creeks provide mush of what little connection is needed between lakes; the whole 116 kilometers route requires just 11 kilometres of portaging.

These waterways pass through eye-catching wilderness. You paddle in the shadows of the 2,438-metre, glacier-streaked Cariboo Mountains. In the wetter valleys in the south and east, you will canoe along banks overhung by big western red-cedar western hemlock. Some of the forested slopes are striped with avalanche chutes where frequent waves of snow have prevented the establishment of big trees, keeping the chutes clear for a garden of Indian paintbrush, buttercup, columbine, and other wildflowers. You can even hike the trail from Unna Lake to get a glimpse of the 24-metre Cariboo River Falls.