The West Side Trip: Two to Four Days on Bowron

Not everyone has ten days, and not everyone wants the Chute. The West Side is the same park at a gentler pace — two to four days on the quiet western lakes, short flat portages, and a waterfall most people who “do the Bowron” never see.

What the West Side actually is

The Bowron circuit is a loop, and you do not have to close it. The West Side means launching from Bowron Lake and paddling the western arm of the loop out and back — up the Bowron River, through Swan and Spectacle, over to Babcock, and as far as Unna Lake if you want it. Then you turn around and come home the way you came.

It is the same water, the same campsites and the same wildlife as the full circuit. What you miss is Isaac Lake, the Chute and the Cariboo River — which, depending on who you ask, is either the best part of the trip or exactly the part you would rather skip.

How long it takes

Most parties take two to four days. Three is comfortable: a day out, a day at Unna, a day back, with time to stop and swim. You can stretch it or cut it short as you like — because you are retracing your route rather than committing to a loop, you can turn around at any point and still have had a good trip.

Larger parties are the exception: BC Parks runs group bookings on a fixed West Side itinerary rather than letting you set your own pace. See group trips if you are seven or more.

The route, in order

Leaving the Registration Centre you put in on Bowron Lake itself — 7.2 km, and the only lake in the park that allows motorboats, so keep to the eastern shore. Watch for the markers at the far end: the mouth of the Bowron River is easy to miss, and in late summer it gets shallow enough that you may have to step out and pull the canoe in.

The river is about 4 km of slow oxbow through marsh and tall grass, with a gentle current. It is the best wildlife stretch in the park — moose, beaver, otter, and birds everywhere. Follow the markers carefully; other channels branch off and the marsh is big enough to get genuinely lost in.

From there it is Swan Lake (about 8 km, an hour and a half), then Spectacle — two short lakes joined by a narrowing, five or six kilometres end to end. When the water drops later in the season a sandbar surfaces at the narrowing and you may need to tow through.

Between Spectacle and Unna sit the only portages on this side, and they are the easy ones: 400 m from Spectacle to Skoi, 400 m from Skoi to Babcock, and 1.2 km alongside Babcock Creek. All three are short and close to flat. Babcock Creek itself can be shallow enough to wade, and there is usually beaver work to climb over.

Unna Lake and Cariboo Falls

Unna is the reason to come. It is not on the circuit proper — you carry on past the Babcock Creek turnoff for about 400 m and look sharp to your left for a small entrance that is easy to paddle straight past. Three campsites sit on the lake, two of them group sites, and #40 is one of the largest anywhere on the circuit with room for around thirteen tents.

From Unna a short hike — roughly 3 km return — takes you to the top of Cariboo Falls. It is worth the walk. Come at the right time of year and you will pick your way through blueberries getting there, which is a pleasant way to be reminded that this is bear country.

Why it suits families and first-timers

There is no technical paddling on the West Side. No Chute, no rollercoaster, no fast water to read. The portages are short and flat, the lakes are narrow and sheltered, and you are never committed — if the weather turns or the kids have had enough, home is behind you rather than five days ahead.

That makes it the trip we point people at when they tell us they have never done a multi-day canoe trip, or when there are young children in the party. It is also a sensible way to find out whether the full circuit is for you before you book eight days of it.

The one thing you cannot do

You cannot join the West Side to the rest of the circuit by paddling up the Cariboo River from Lanezi Lake. It is fast, shallow in places and simply not paddleable upstream. The West Side is an out-and-back, not a shortcut onto the eastern lakes.

Booking it

Two separate bookings, in this order. First your circuit reservation with BC Parks — they manage the launch dates, the campsites and the fees, and the West Side is priced differently from the full circuit. Their canoe-circuit page has the current rates and the booking window, and you reserve at camping.bcparks.ca.

Then book your canoe with us. We keep a four-day West Side package for exactly this trip, and because our fleet lives at the Registration Centre there is nothing to shuttle — you park, check in, and your canoe is on the water where you start. See canoe rentals for what a rental includes and how booking works.