Explore Punchaw, British Columbia, Canada, with this interactive street and satellite map. Use the Map and Satellite buttons above the map to switch views. You can “grab” the map and drag it to re-centre it, or use the + and − buttons to zoom in or out to street-level detail.
This page also offers TOPO MAPS — the Canada Base Map with Toporama contours — plus shaded relief, a labelled UTM grid overlay, a distance and bearing tool, and a GPS grid-reference readout. See How to Use This Map below. You will find live weather, local and world news further down the page.
Imagery © Google · for orientation only, not for navigation
This interactive map shows the street layout and satellite imagery for Punchaw, British Columbia. Use the Map and Satellite buttons above to switch between street map and aerial imagery views. Use the + and − buttons to zoom in or out, or scroll your mouse wheel while holding the Control key to zoom. On a touchscreen, use a two-finger pinch gesture to zoom in and out.
Click ⛶ Fullscreen to expand the map to fill your screen for a larger view. To return to the normal page view, press the Escape key on your keyboard, click the ✕ Exit Fullscreen button that appears above the map, or on a mobile device tap the back button (Android) or the close icon (iOS).
Drag the map to pan to any area of British Columbia or beyond. Switch to Satellite view to see high-resolution aerial photography of Punchaw and surrounding areas, including streets, buildings, parks and waterways.
TOPO MAPS — NEW. Click the green 🔍 Search Maps button below the map to open a second map with a Base map row offering three choices. OSM is the standard OpenStreetMap street map. Topo shows the Canada Base Map from Natural Resources Canada with Toporama contours layered over it — the CanVec topographic data behind the printed NTS sheets, and the mapping used for hiking, hunting, canoe routes and back-country travel. Relief shows shaded relief and hypsometric tints. The search box finds any Canadian town, county or landmark by name, so you are not limited to Punchaw.
Reading the map like a paper NTS sheet. Click Grid to overlay the UTM grid, labelled along the edges exactly as a printed topographic sheet is — at normal zoom the squares are one kilometre across, so you can read a six-figure grid reference by eye and judge distance directly off the map. Click Measure, then tap two points, to get the distance between them together with the grid bearing in degrees and mils, the true bearing, and the magnetic bearing to set on a compass — which matters in Canada, where declination runs from about 20 degrees west in Newfoundland to 20 degrees east in the Yukon.
Click 📍 My position to take a single GPS reading from your device. It marks where you are and reports your position as a UTM/MGRS grid reference as well as plain latitude and longitude — the grid reference being what Canadian search and rescue work from — with a Copy position button so you can paste it straight into a text message. It takes one reading and stops, rather than tracking continuously, to conserve your battery. Note that map tiles need cell coverage, but a GPS reading does not — your coordinates stay correct even where the map itself cannot load.
Map search is available for a limited number of queries per session to manage costs. Be specific — search precisely for best results.
| Place | Punchaw |
| Type | Locality |
| Province / Territory | British Columbia (BC) |
| Location | Cariboo Land District |
| Country | Canada |
| Latitude | 53.433333 |
| Longitude | -123.18333 |
| Postal Code (FSA) | V2N |
| Area Code | 236, 250, 604, 672, 778 |
| Importance | Town |
| CGN ID | JBQXA |
Punchaw is a locality in Cariboo Land District, British Columbia, Canada. It is classified as a town. Punchaw is located at 53.4333°N, 123.1833°W.
Punchaw rests within the Cariboo Land District as a quiet confluence of forest and slow-moving water, defined by the steady presence of the Chilako River. It lies 60.6 km south-south-west of Prince George, BC (from Prince George, BC: bearing 209°T), and is situated 26.2 km south-west of Baldy Hughes. The terrain here holds a subtle tension between the rugged Telegraph Range and the low-lying basins that cradle the riverbanks, where the air often carries a sharp, resinous scent of spruce and cold mud. When the sun retreats behind the distant ridges, the light turns a bruised, metallic violet, casting long shadows across the uneven ground that seem to hold the heat of the day long after the temperature drops. Punchaw sits near the edges of this wilder geography, maintaining a stillness that feels heavy and deliberate, as if the land itself is listening to the occasional snap of a branch or the low, persistent gurgle of the water pushing against the silt. Life in Punchaw follows the demands of the seasons, shaped by a history of land use that prioritizes the deep rhythms of the woods over the frantic pace of the outside world. Punchaw Lake sits nearby, a mirror for the sky that draws the eye toward the horizon, while the distant, hulking silhouette of Bobtail Mountain Park anchors the southern view. The local economy persists in the quiet industry of the bush, where timber and the seasonal labor of the forest define the daily work of those who remain. This is a landscape that demands a certain tenacity, where the traditions of the Cariboo Land District are kept not through grand gestures, but through the simple, repeated acts of maintenance and survival that define a life spent close to the earth.
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Explore Punchaw, British Columbia, Canada, with an embedded street and satellite map — switch between views using the small square in the bottom left-hand corner of the map. Coordinates: 53.433333, -123.18333. Live weather conditions and 7-day forecasts — including hourly outlooks — are provided through Open-Meteo, while real-time local and world news feeds help keep the page current. Editorial summaries provide additional local information and context.
Detailed location data for Punchaw includes the postal code (V2N), telephone area code (236, 250, 604, 672, 778). These are among the most commonly searched location details for any Canadian city or town.
Search Maps opens a second, independent map. It searches OpenStreetMap for any Canadian town, county or landmark by name; offers the Canada Base Map with Toporama contours and shaded relief as base layers; overlays a labelled UTM grid so the map can be read like a printed NTS sheet; measures distance and grid, true and magnetic bearings between any two points; and takes a single GPS fix reporting your position as a UTM/MGRS grid reference and as latitude and longitude. Map tiles require cell coverage, but a GPS position does not, so the coordinates remain correct even where the map cannot load.
Location data for Punchaw is sourced from the Canadian Geographical Names Database (CGN), Natural Resources Canada, and verified by coordinates rather than name matching alone. GPS coordinates, province, administrative location and place type are shown in the information panel above.
| Page generated | September 2026 |
| Location data | Canadian Geographical Names Database (CGN), Natural Resources Canada |
| Map layers | Google Maps; © OpenStreetMap contributors; Canada Base Map, Toporama and CBME © Natural Resources Canada (Open Government Licence — Canada); magnetic declination from NOAA NCEI (World Magnetic Model) |