The section of The Canadian Hiking Trail that is the Goat River Trail measures 91 kilometers in length, and is located in an area of inland forest, which is a globally rare ecosystem. Most of the trail's length is in pristine wilderness - one of the larger unprotected, underdeveloped watersheds in southern British Columbia. It is used by a variety of wilderness-dependent wildlife, including; endangered mountain caribou, grizzly and black bears, wolverines, moose, Chinook salmon, threatened bull trout and harlequin ducks. Part of the trail passes though an area termed by specialists as 'antique forest'. In addition, an interior Douglas-fir tree adjacent to the trail has just been nominated as British Columbia's largest.

The Goat River Trail was used extensively to travel between Barkerville and McBride, along the north side of the Bowron Lakes in the later days of the gold rush. When the Grand Trunk Railway line was completed through McBride in 1914, use of the trail dropped off considerably, but placer miners, outfitters and big-game hunters continued to use and maintain it.