The wild Fraser Canyon, a drive of no more than three hours east of Vancouver, is one of Canada's most impressive gorges. Here the raging torrents of the Fraser force their way through a narrow pass between rocky walls towering almost vertically above the river. In days gone by the Indians found a perilous way across by using ladders. The first things to take the eye are the narrowness and rough-hewn walls of the Fraser Canyon and the difficulties involved in laying a road at the narrowest spot, known as Hell's Gate. A funicular railway, giving a view of the wild gorge below, leads down to the other bank which is 150 m (490 ft) lower.
Down here the tourist will find souvenir shops, a restaurant and a small center providing information, by means of films, models of the "fish-ladders", etc., about the four-yearly migration cycle of the salmon. It is a climb of a few minutes down a reasonable path to the white, foaming river below. The opposite bank can be reached by means of a swaying suspension bridge.
On average, 200 million gallons of water per minute shoot through the canyon which is only 34 m (112 ft) wide at this point. Normally the river here is about 40 m (130 ft) deep, but when the snow thaws it can rise by more than 20 m (65 ft) within a very short time.
When dynamite was used to provide a way through for the railroad in 1914 a massive rock-fall resulted, thus narrowing the river-bed still further. The estimated 5 million salmon swimming upstream were now no longer able to battle against a river flowing at 37 kmph (23 mph) and so found themselves cut off from their spawning grounds. This resulted in a catastrophic reduction in the numbers of salmon caught in the Fraser River. Therefore from 1944 "fish-ladders" were built, long stepped concrete tunnels through which the water flows comparatively slowly, thus enabling the salmon to pass through Hell's Gate once again. Today more than two million salmon a year successfully negotiate the canyon.
The Hell's Gate Airtram is the best way to view this part of Fraser Canyon.
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