For 5,000 years the Stein Valley was like a university, where young natives came to learn the secrets of Mother Earth. When a boy or girl from one of the local native tribes was ready, usually between the ages of ten and fifteen, their puberty training would culminate in a vision quest on the Stein.
Often the training was instructed by a grandfather, a boy’s grandfather, or a girl’s grandmother. Some of the exercises that the young people could perform included prayers, purification rites, fasting, and vigils in places of power. Dreams were an important aspect of these vigils. A novice would expect to have dreams that contained messages from the spirits. In order to preserve and magnify the power of these dreams, they would paint images of their dreams on nearby rocks. These symbolic rock paintings can still be found in Stein Valley, one of the largest known rock art sites in Canada.
In the 1970s, logging threatened to destroy this wilderness, located just four hours from Vancouver, BC. Efforts to protect Stein, led by the Lytton and Mount Currie First Nations and environmentalists, eventually resulted in its designation as a Provincial Park in 1995.
From the trailhead parking lot it’s just a few minutes’ walk up a lightly wooded hillside and across a rustic bridge to the Stein River. Immediately to your left is the first power point, a large rock with two concave holes, big enough for a person to lie on. Known as Asking Rock, this is where visitors traditionally stop and ask the spirits for permission to enter the valley and make good weather. Some very faded rock paintings can be seen here. Asking Rock is also known as Birthing Rock, because the native women used to line the stone ledges with fir branches and have their children at this sacred place, baptizing their newborn babies in the river, just a few feet away from the path. From here to the next significant area of cave paintings it is about a 2-1/2 hour hike.
The Devil’s Staircase ends with a slightly wooded hilly section. After it finally makes its way back to the river, just as the trail turns left, a small fallen tree hides another trail that leads to the right. About 100 feet along this trail is Power Point, a granite cliff that is one of the largest rock writing sites in Canada. More than 160 images have been identified in a section of rock about 50 feet long. Unfortunately most of these images are now badly faded or worn. Still, you may be able to locate the famous “Stein Owl” painting that was used as a symbol for the world famous “Save the Stein” music festivals held in the 1970s and 1980s.
The paint used to create the images was made of powdered hematite or red ochre. It was mixed with burnt larch pitch and saliva, applied by hand. The red color symbolized life, luck and goodness. The paintings are fragile and should not be touched. In the words of local expert Annie York, “the reason the Indians so emphatically demand that they should never be disturbed is because those writings, all those writings on rocks, are there to remind young people that there was a person with knowledge.” . on this earth for thousands of years before people came from Europe.
When anthropologist James Teit wrote a treatise on Aboriginal rock paintings in 1918, he could easily have been describing the Stein Valley: “These paintings are found in places like cliffs, overlooking or near lakes and streams, near waterfalls, in and around caves, on canyon walls, in natural amphitheatres, and on boulders near trails, they are generally found in solitary and out-of-the-way places near where the Indians were in the habit of keeping vigil and training during the period of their puberty ceremonies, when generally acquired their bosses [guardian spirits]. These places were… considered mysterious, and were places frequented by ‘mysteries’ from those who hoped for power.”