Snow and Trees at Lodgepole Lake
We snowshoe at Lodgepole Lake because it is high enough (4655 feet) for the snow to be reliable and at the same time, the Chuwhels Mountain Road is kept plowed, including a good parking area at the end of the lake. Most of the people who snowshoe there head downslope to a series of ponds and creeks that head southwest in the Walloper Creek drainage.
These frozen ponds make fine snowshoe routes, just flat. snowy open areas surrounded by trees.
Our favorite route is to snowshoe down the creek, then over a replanted hill to another pond to the west.
More open snowy spaces surrounded by spruce, fir, and pines.
Old logging skid roads make snowshoe routes, but we may have to break trail to connect them up.
There are no trails in the area, but snowshoers set out routes which we can follow, and we always add some of our own. When the Kamloops River Valley is grey with low-lying cloud, we drive up above to find some sunshine on the snow and trees in the high country.