After closing in the early 1970s, the mine was eventually restored. Today you can get an up-close and personal impression by visiting and exploring the vast mine ruins and creepy ghost towns. There are three routes to get to Gold Bridge:
• One route is accessed through Pemberton. This reasonably well- maintained gravel road climbs steeply into the hills out of Pemberton and runs for miles, north to Bralorne. The scenery is jewel-encrusted with amazing vast forested valleys and mountain-top views; the landscape is carved through in places with intricate river canyons, potent streams and deep blue lakes that beg a stop and a few casts. This is a little-known back-road route so make sure you stop in Pemberton and get road reports and explicit instructions.
• Conversely, you can travel Highway
97, just north of Cache Creek, to the Highway 99 junction where you’ll turn off to Lillooet. Make sure you check out the 1913 wooden suspension bridge perched high above the churning and very serious Fraser River below (I used to drive over this bridge when riding shotgun with my dad in his fully-loaded B-Train tractor trailer). From Lillooet, head west to Gold Bridge.
• The third route from Gold Bridge to Bralorne has been paved recently and is the nicest stretch of road in the valley. Check Drive BC for updates and road conditions. Take the Sea to Sky Highway 99 from Vancouver, through Whistler, Pemberton and on to Lillooet. Travel from Lillooet takes approx. two hours on Hwy 40. The mixed paved and dirt road follows the Bridge River and Carpenter Lake Reservoir and is 112 km long.
Stays of note: you’ll find a hotel, a motel,
and RV parking and campgrounds. The Chilcotin Holidays Resort, Highland Cream Resort, and Morrow Chalets are three locations of note. There are also a number of resorts and guest ranches in the outlying areas that are all well worth the visit.
When in Rome, live as the Romans do:
Things to do while in the Bridge Valley area: Hiking, fishing, horseback riding, back country packing, wildlife viewing, photography, rock hounding, gold panning, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, telemark and heli-skiing, ice-fishing and snow shoeing.
In February, snowmobilers gather to enjoy Bradian Daze and on Canada Day weekend, Bralorne hosts the Bralorne Invitational Ball Tournament.
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