Cayoosh Creek, Mountain brook in Fraser Valley, Canada
Cayoosh Creek is a mountain brook in British Columbia, Canada, that rises in the Cayoosh Range and flows northeast through a steep, narrow canyon before reaching the Seton River near Lillooet. The canyon walls rise sharply on both sides, and the water runs fast and cold through much of its course.
A gold rush in the 1850s brought miners from many countries into this valley to search the creek and its tributaries. The activity that followed helped establish the town of Lillooet as one of the first organized communities in the interior of British Columbia.
The name Cayoosh comes from an Indigenous word meaning mountain ponies, a detail that reflects how closely the land and its animals were observed by the people who lived here. The Sekwelwas First Nation has long maintained a connection to this waterway that visitors can sense when walking along its banks.
The creek can be reached by road from Lillooet, and there are camping spots along the water with basic facilities. Trails tend to be drier and more manageable from late spring through fall, which makes those months the better time to visit.
In its lower section, the creek flows into the Seton Canal, a man-made channel that was built to link several waterways in the region and is still in use today. This means the water from the creek eventually travels through an engineered system before reaching the Fraser River.
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