Hart-Peace River Highway

After 143 km (90 mi.), at MacLeod Lake, a narrow, winding paved road branches off westwards to Carp Lake Provincial Park on the Nechako Plateau (32 km (20 mi.)). The lake, full of islands, is very popular with anglers and open-air enthusiasts. In the days of Simon Fraser and the North West Company, the major route connecting Fort St James and Fort MacLeod passed through what is now Carp Lake Provincial Park, and parts of this have been retained at the northern and western ends of the lake. As yet unrestored ruins of the historic Fort MacLeod (Fort MacLeod Provincial Historic Park), in 1805 the first of Simon Fraser's trading posts west of the Rockies, are near the present-day settlement of McLeod Lake, but can only be reached on foot.

Highway 23 leads southwards to Gwillim Lake Provincial Park (56 km (35 mi.)), a beautiful, deep-blue lake in largely untouched surroundings (splendid view of the bare mountain ridges to the northwest of the lake), and to Tumbler Ridge (105 km (65 mi.)), a new mining town, part of the Northeast Coal Project, and currently home to about 2000 workers and their families. There are sightseeing tours from mid-June to mid-September round the mining areas, and the enormous computerized conveyor systems of Quintette Coal Ltd., plus excursions to Monkman Provincial Park with the impressive 70 m (230 ft) Kinuseo Falls (accessible only on foot or by hydroplane).Gwillim Lake Provincial Park offers visitors a variety of water sports and a campground.

Highway 39 branches off to Mackenzie (30 km / 19 mi; 701 m / 2300 ft) at the south end of Lake Williston, an artificial lake which has scarcely been opened up to tourism. Until 1965 the area around the northern Rocky Mountain Trench was still just a wilderness. Since then the town of Mackenzie has grown up, its population here to work in the sawmills and paper factories of the local economic mainstay, the timber industry, although ore deposits have now also been found in the vicinity. At the entrance to the town stands the huge "tree crusher", an enormous, 175-tonne machine, which, when Lake Williston was created, was used to crush the trees which were of no commercial value. Morfee Lake, a nearby resort, has a hydroplane base and swimming, water sports and fishing.

Chetwynd (pop. 3100, 615 m (2018 ft)), already in the foothills of the Rockies, is another young settlement on the northern frontier, on the edge of the untamed wilderness.Chetwynd is a great base from which to explore the surrounding areas and the starting point for wilderness tours (hiking, canoeing, hunting, and fishing trips). It is also considered the gateway to the Peace River.Within the town of Chetwynd there are also some recreational opportunities such as the recreation complex with a wave pool.

Highway 97 crosses Pine Pass, at 935 m (3069 ft), the lowest pass in the Canadian Rockies. Not far from the pass there is Powder King Ski Village, a popular ski resort (640 m (2100 ft) descent, and the Bijoux Falls (about 40 m (131 ft)-high waterfall).