These directions start at Campbell River, a small Vancouver Island town on the 50th parallel. Interestingly that's the same latitude as the Wapiti Valley, but unfortunately there's several mountain ranges in the way so you have to drive a long way north and west and then back south to get there. These directions assume you can find Campbell River - if not, consult a map!
From Campbell River take the Island Highway North past Sayward and Woss. Woss is just past the 300KM milepost on the highway. It is just a small camp with a couple of motels and a general store/service station so it's easy to miss, but it is a good place to stop for a meal, fuel up, and prepare yourself for the rest of the drive.
From Woss continue about 20 kilometers, until just past the Steel Creek bridge you reach the turnoff to Zeballos. There is a sign on the right, just before bridge. Turn left onto the Zeballos road. Shortly thereafter the pavement ends and the gravel begins.
This is active logging road and from here on you must be prepared to meet fully loaded logging trucks going fast at any time.It's up to you to get out of their way - they will not, and generally cannot, make way for you.
One kilometer from the roadhead is a short bridge over Camp Creek, then the Canfor mainline comes in from the right. Shortly after this, there's a couple of bends to a long bridge over the Nimpkish River. At the top of the hill after this bridge is the first fork. Go right here - the left fork leads you back to Woss. After about another half kilometer the road branches again - follow the left fork. At about the nine kilometer point, just after a nice view of Pinder Peak, there's another fork. Keep left again, up the hill.
From here the road twists and turns and slowly creeps upward along Pinder Creek until, around at eighteen kilometers you'll pass a small lake on your right. Just past this there's some spectacular rock bluffs and waterfalls visible above the lake. At 30.4 kilometers there's a hairpin turn, which crosses Fault Creek, at the start of a long downward stretch. At the bottom, around 32.3 kilometers, there is a road to the left - the Nomash Mainline, which crosses the Zeballos river and takes off up the Nomash River valley.
If you want to take a look at Zeballos, you can keep going here straight here instead of turning. Zeballos is a nice little town with a hotel and a couple of stores and makes a handy rest day visit from the Wapiti. Good bacon and eggs or burgers at the Hotel, especially if Ray is there to cook! Also of course, like all hotels, there's the bar.
If you have the resources you might consider sleeping in Zeballos and avoid the camping in the woods, not to mention helping the local economy.
If you want get directly to the Wapiti instead of going straight into Zeballos, turn left up the Nomash Mainline and follow this logging road for about 7.3 km from the Zeballos River. The road is very narrow in parts and it often looks like it's about to end in the middle of the bush. Just after you emerge from the second-growth forest and pass a waterfall, a steep heavily eroded spur (N-20) leads up on the left. It goes to the hanging valley immediately beneath Rugged Mountain, and provides climbing and hiking access to the Haihte Range.
For the Wapiti, continue on past the N20 spur over two bridges. Around here you'll catch a glimpse of a white slab on the SE face of Greyback Peak, visible as a dot in the satellite shot. This prominent slab is just southwest of the Watersports area dealt with later in this guide.
The second bridge crosses over the Nomash River at North 50° 0' 1.1". You will know you are on the right bridge when you see some large, steep, mossy slabs ahead and slightly right, as shown in the picture below left.
Just past the bridge, cross the 50th parallel (going south) and turn right at the first logging spur, N35. This is labeled N14 in the Island Alpine guidebook, but logging company maps show that this is in error. In 2002 this road was so overgrown that it looked like you were driving straight into the forest! By June 2003 it had been cleared by the logging company and trees on both sides of the spur banded. In July 2004 the camping area had become quite open, though the banded trees, bare of foliage by now, were still sturdy enough to hold up tarpaulins.
Follow this spur NW, driving past the mossy steep slabs on your left and back north across the 50th parallel again. When you come to a fork at the top a hill, make camp or park on the left fork at the intersection of N35f and N35c at about N 50° 0' 7.8" and W -126° 42' 38.9", altitude circa 300 meters. Don't park on or block the right fork (N35c).
You've arrived!
At right you can see a view of the Nomash and Wapiti valleys from space. The Nomash comes into the picture from the upper left and diagonals down and right in this view. The Wapiti valley branches off left from the Nomash just below center. The bright green indicates the clear cut and replanted areas. Greyback peak is marked by the large snowfield at left, and the Haihte range glaciers can be seen on the upper right of this view. The great slab itself is the brown area at the left tip of the Wapiti valley, just down and right from the snowfields on Greyback. At bottom right you can see the remnants of a huge landslide at the head of the Nomash valley that occurred in May of 1999. Both the Nomash river and Lysanne Creek are clearly visible in this picture.
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