Close-To-The-Edge Park
Feature Type:Provincial Park - Legally defined land area, under provincial jurisdiction, for camping, outdoor recreation, and preservation of wildlife.
Status: Official
Name Authority: BC Geographical Names Office
Relative Location: Just NE of junction of McGregor River and Herrick Creek, W of Kakwa Provincial Park, Cariboo Land District
Latitude-Longitude: 54°03'24"N, 121°00'36"W at the approximate centre of this feature.
Datum: WGS84
NTS Map: 93I/3
Related Maps:
Origin Notes and History:

Established per Bill 17-2000: Protected Areas of British Columbia Act, 29 June 2000; the whole containing 414 ha. more or less.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

Established to protect a 472m-deep cave, known to spelunkers as Close-to-the-Edge Cave because its' entrance is close to the edge of a cliff.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

"The 20m wide entrance to Close To The Edge is located in a cliff near the summit of an unnamed mountain, but is hidden by a natural rampart and thus only visible from the air. The entrance shaft is 255 m deep, by far the deepest in Canada, and often sports a 20m long overhanging icicle. The surveyed length... only totals 967 metres, while its overall depth of 472 m makes it the third deepest cave in Canada. It is believed that the sump water reappears at Twin Falls Resurgence some 600 m below the entrance.
The first recorded entrance sighting was in 1985 by cavers in a helicopter supporting a nearby expedition. The following year the cave was explored to a frozen mud and stone blockage at the base of the second pitch at a depth of 263 m. The blockage was removed in 1994 and exploration continued to a depth of 430m. A final exploration in 2001 discovered the sump at -472 m.
The cave is named for its remarkable cliffside location; a caver standing on the entrance rampart can look down the 255 m entrance shaft on one side and down some 700 metres to the valley floor on the other. This topographic oddity is also reminiscent of the artwork on the 1972 record album Close to the Edge by the band Yes, which featured lakes improbably perched on mountain summits. Local cavers also felt close to the edge of their abilities while exploring the unprecedented deep shaft." (Wikkipedia/ November 2010)

Source: included with note