Canada Breckenheimer · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 710 m.
The real relief above Charlie Lake Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
710m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
0°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
70m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
0 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 0 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 21 °C at the entrance, 21 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The wettest months are from June to July: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- -10°-18°Jan
- -8°-17°Feb
- -4°-13°Mar
- 5°-4°Apr
- 14°2°May
- 19°8°Jun
- 21°10°Jul
- 20°9°Aug
- 15°3°Sep
- 6°-3°Oct
- -5°-12°Nov
- -10°-18°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave in Canada
Charlie Lake Cave is a cave in Canada. The entrance is at 710 m. It has an underground river and an underground lake.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Fort St. Johnnearest town · 6.2 km in a straight line
- Fort St John / North Peace Regional Airport (YXJ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 13 km in a straight lineCar hire at YXJ airport (Fort Saint John)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
The Fish Creek runs highest from April to June.
The Fish Creek carries about 2.7 m³/s on average here. It runs highest from April to June, fed by melting snow. It is lowest from October to February.
- 1.2 m³/sJan
- 1.1 m³/sFeb
- 2.1 m³/sMar
- 4.4 m³/sApr
- 4.5 m³/sMay
- 3.8 m³/sJun
- 3.0 m³/sJul
- 2.2 m³/sAug
- 1.9 m³/sSep
- 1.5 m³/sOct
- 1.5 m³/sNov
- 1.2 m³/sDec
From about 1.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 4.5 m³/s in the highest. Its basin above this point covers 344 km².
Estimate: long-term flow from the HydroATLAS model (WaterGAP, 1971–2000) shaped by the monthly rain, snow and temperature of the area (NASA POWER). Dams change it. Not a forecast.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmCharlie Lake Cave
- 3car parks within 2 km
- 2information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 5campsites within 8 kmRosco's RV Park, Charlie Lake Campground, Charlie Lake RV & Leisure and 2 more
- 17hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmPomeroy Hotel & Conference Centre Fort St. John, Travelodge, Northern Lights Inn and 14 more
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Fort St. John6.2 km in a straight line
- Taylor21 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Charlie Lake Cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Lakeyas1 lakes within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | -10 | -8 | -4 | 5 | 14 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 15 | 6 | -5 | -10 |
| Afternoon | -10 | -8 | -4 | 5 | 14 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 15 | 6 | -5 | -10 |
| Night | -18 | -17 | -13 | -4 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 3 | -3 | -12 | -18 |
| Rain (mm) | 49 | 31 | 50 | 38 | 56 | 92 | 84 | 56 | 49 | 52 | 54 | 44 |
| Rainy days | 12 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 11 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.4 | 4.9 | 7.1 | 9.0 | 9.1 | 9.9 | 9.8 | 8.5 | 6.6 | 4.1 | 2.4 | 2.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 44 | 51 | 50 | 20 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 21 | 33 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -10 | -10 | -18 | 49 | 2.4 |
| Feb | -8 | -8 | -17 | 31 | 4.9 |
| Mar | -4 | -4 | -13 | 50 | 7.1 |
| Apr | 5 | 5 | -4 | 38 | 9.0 |
| May | 14 | 14 | 2 | 56 | 9.1 |
| Jun | 19 | 19 | 8 | 92 | 9.9 |
| Jul | 21 | 21 | 10 | 84 | 9.8 |
| Aug | 20 | 20 | 9 | 56 | 8.5 |
| Sep | 15 | 15 | 3 | 49 | 6.6 |
| Oct | 6 | 6 | -3 | 52 | 4.1 |
| Nov | -5 | -5 | -12 | 54 | 2.4 |
| Dec | -10 | -10 | -18 | 44 | 2.0 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (710 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 106% | 102% | 103% | 45% | 162% | 199% | 127% | 108% | 80% | 112% | 122% | 118% |
| 2021 | 99% | 131% | 89% | 70% | 98% | 50% | 76% | 99% | 100% | 56% | 138% | 58% |
| 2022 | 170% | 220% | 50% | 195% | 195% | 100% | 54% | 83% | 69% | 50% | 48% | 108% |
| 2023 | 90% | 150% | 57% | 137% | 134% | 51% | 110% | 69% | 72% | 67% | 72% | 47% |
| 2024 | 81% | 106% | 29% | 113% | 40% | 129% | 66% | 51% | 128% | 102% | 160% | 128% |
| 2025 | 82% | 64% | 43% | 52% | 52% | 107% | 98% | 141% | 52% | 76% | 83% | 327% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Charlie Lake Cave
Canada
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 710 mEntrance altitude
- 0 °CInside, all year
Arctomys Cave
Canada · 380 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,873 mEntrance altitude
- -3 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1066926) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| River flow and basin | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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