Imagine a 2,000 mile long telegraph line through an un-tracked wilderness. And imagine putting it in place, and maintaining it, with horse-and-buggy technology. Remember, it’s not “only” an incredibly long piece of wire, it also requires relay stations to capture a distance-weakened signal for local reception, and/or repeat it on down the line. The logistics of construction and maintenance were challenging but not impossible. Such was the state of “hi-tech” in the late 1800’s, and such a line was built, with part of it right through western B.C. One section came to be called Telegraph Creek – and the telegraph was completed, and remained active until the 1930’s. With the advent of reliable radio transmissions, telegraphy fell by the wayside. (For more info, see the placard at the end of this post.)

Telegraph Creek Road was built in 1922, running southwest of the Cassiar Highway. Today, Telegraph Creek itself is a small township on Tahltan land, at the end of the 70-mile still-dirt road. The road alone is worth the drive, changing character, surface, and slope almost continuously. As further incentive, the views along the way are both beautiful and remarkable, some of them right from the driver’s seat.

This road is not a fast drive. There are many 30mph sections, and few 55mph sections, so it’s at least a two-hour trip each way. We spent six hours doing the round trip, and (with Ralph’s sure-footedness) we were scooting along fairly quickly in some areas. But there’s no need to hurry, it’s worth taking some time to enjoy the journey. Andin some places, we sure didn’t want to drag a tire off the edge.

Wildlife is a bit more plentiful here than on the bigger paved highway. Yet another incentive to keep our speed down on the narrow road. We spotted a black bear, a skinny young moose, and a red fox along the way. As with the Cassiar, the critters are a bit shy and don’t hang around for long. The bear was considerably less social than earlier cousins we’d seen, munching salmon-berries at roadside.

A few miles from the town of Telegraph Creek, the road squeezes in between the Stikine and Tahltan Rivers, tighter and tighter on each side until the rivers actually converge. At this point, the road rides a knife-edge between the rivers and then lurches drastically down through switchbacks, to cross the Tahltan before reaching town. Up on the road-knife-edge, it’s possible to park and walk fifty yards back and forth across the road, with a view to a different river canyon on each side. Pretty cool scenic experience.

Scene #1 – the road edges are just to the right of Ralph, and just to the left of Karin.

Scene #2 – Here is what Karin is looking at, the Tahltan River.

Scene #3 – And here is the view off of the right side of Ralph, the Stikine River.

Just behind these three scenes, the two rivers join up (after an exciting joyride down an 18% switchback).

Just to the left in the picture above, a gravelly beach sticks out into the confluence. We took Ralph out for a look (4WD to get us back but we didn’t need it). The small rock mid-stream (above) is at the lower left in the picture below.

Some features of this enjoyable little road are worth noting – on our dry day in June, there was little dust, and the road surface was firm and trouble-free through the entire drive. HOWEVER: with just a little bit of moisture, it was clear that some of the steeper grades (up to 20%!) could easily get slick. In these conditions, only 4WD or AWD would be recommended. Even in the dry conditions, we could feel Ralph’s rear axle struggling for traction on the loose gravelly dirt. There are many, many times when I am thankful for the limited-slip rear differential. Without it, I’d have needed the 4WD.

Apparently, our dust-free experience is not the norm – virtually every vehicle we saw was “decorated” the same as this one.

Just a tad further down from the confluence, the town nestles along the steep river banks. It’s a casual collection of the usual buildings and shacks, with one stand-out charismatic church on a lower road near the river. (Please forgive me for editing out the phone wires, which were a bit of a photographic eyesore.)

For anybody who is really interested in the many details, here is the historical placard in the township. You can click and zoom to read it.

We really like this drive, just a great way to spend the afternoon. Ralph got to slither around some loose-gravel turns, so he was happy too.