Marble Canyon is in the south-central Interior of British Columbia, a few kilometres east of the Fraser River and the community of Pavilion,[1] midway between the towns of Lillooet and Cache Creek.

The native name of the canyon in the Shuswap language is, when referring to the whole, sxmeltám, possibly referring to "Indian doctors",[2] while the name for the area of Crown and Turquoise Lakes and the provincial campground and adjoining south wall is getsgátsp, of unknown meaning.

In addition to the steep walls rising from the lake's southeastern end, there is an eroded pinnacle known as Chimney Rock, or in a translation of K'lpalekw, the Secwepemc (Shuswap) name for it, Coyote's Penis.

The largest of these is Pavilion Lake, which is home to a colony of microbialites (also known as stromatolites), unusual carbonate structures built by bacteria which resemble freshwater "coral" and which are the largest freshwater stromatolites in the world.

[4][5] Marble Canyon is popular with climbers, both for its clean rock walls and also for its ice climbs, including one waterfall that freezes solid in midwinter (officially Crown Lake Falls but to climbers, "Icy BC"), and which is immediately opposite the provincial park campground adjacent to Highway 99 from Lillooet to Cache Creek, British Columbia.