On a hot summer morning we got an early start to avoid the heat. We parked at the Church and walked down to the Summit Drive entrance into the Peterson Creek Trails. The canyon was dry and all signs of spring were gone as we hiked to the Tom Moore Trail and up to the old reservoir. The water in … Continue reading…
We hike, bike, cross country ski, snowshoe, and paddle in the Stake Lake Trails system. In summer we sometimes paddle around the lake 1-3 times, then we go for a hike on the trails. On this warm summer day, I paddled twice around the lake in calm conditions. Each loop is about 2.25 km. We secured the boat then hiked … Continue reading…
We hiked a combination of trails on the sunny south side in Kenna Cartwright Park and enjoyed the flowering plants, insects, and animals along the way. A new video is now available on YouTube, featuring the Big Pine Nature Hike. Clcik the YouTube link on the menu bar for more KamloopsTrails videos.
Continue reading...One of the premier hikes areas in the Kamloops area is on the Red Plateau – Dewdrop Escarpment. There are several trails that climb from the Dewdrop Range to the top of the escarpment – the Dewdrop Trail, Dead Coyote, Dewdrop Traverse, and Three Amigos (there are articles on all of these trails on the website). There are some informal … Continue reading…
One of our favorite hiking areas is in the Lundbom Grasslands (Commonage). We usually hike a route in June and sometimes return for a different route in the fall. On a fine June morning we drove through Merritt, then up Highway 5A, turning onto the Lundbom FSR. We parked near Lundbom Lake and hiked toward Hamilton Lake. We had hiked … Continue reading…
On an early June weekend morning we hiked the trails near McQueen Lake. The McQueen property is set up as an Environmental Education Center for School District #73, and as such, students are at the Day Center on weekdays, and may be at the Overnight Center during the school week, so staff at the Center ask the public to not … Continue reading…
Every year in June, we hike a different trail in the Wells Gray Park corridor area. We have done them all more than once so we pick ones we haven’t done for a while. I had hiked White Horse Bluff twice before, but not for some years, so we looked forward to our hike this year. On our previous hike … Continue reading…
The hike to the western rim of Opax Mountain is a longer hike (15km return), one we have done many times, but it is a uniquely-Kamloops area hike that we do almost every year. The trail starts in the upper grasslands at Lac du Bois, then goes along the north shore of the lake into Hanging Valley. A grown-over grassy … Continue reading…
There are some old tracks and some new connector sections that can be combined to hike a loop route in the Tranquille Canyon near Watching Creek. We parked at the pullout loop next to the old Watching Creek Rec Site and hiked down through the informal camping area down to the river. The river was at high flow in June … Continue reading…
The trail from the Wells Gray Corridor Road to Bailey’s Chute and beyond to Marcus Falls, Myanth Falls, and back past West Lake is a fine km hike in the forest by the Clearwater River. We hiked the 5.3 km loop route in June when the river was at its fullest. There is a viewing platform at Bailey’s Chute which … Continue reading…
We have hiked up to Red Plateau quite a few times from the Dewdrop Range and from the Pimple area, and we have driven up the Red Plateau Forest Service Road to hike various routes on top, but we had never hiked the area where the High Noon and Superstitious Trails are located. They are really just steep downhill mountain … Continue reading…
I explored the hills above Battle Creek in the Cache Creek Hills, watching for shale slopes (fossils), wildflowers, interesting rocks, and wildlife. There were no trails and I picked an eclectic route. I spotted more hills to explore, so I will return again this year to climb through the hills. The Thompson River wound through the valley bottom towards Ashcroft. … Continue reading…
There are no established trails in the corridor down the Trans Canada Highway, but there are various spots where we can hike up into the dry hills to create our own routes, avoiding fencelines and grazing slopes. It takes some exploration, but over the years we have found some hills to hike, leaving nothing but temporary footprints in our wake. … Continue reading…
The Sunrise Mountain Trail starts at the end of Ronde Lane in Barnhartvale. It is a very steep hike, so we only do this route every 2 -3 years. On a cool, drizzly May day we hiked up to the top, then looped on a route we knew down the back side onto old tracks. On the way up, we … Continue reading…
The Mount Embleton Trails are well-established recreational hiking trails in the hills above Heffley Lake. We have hiked there for decades, doing various loop routes in different seasons, including winter. On this early May day, we drove to the upper parking area (P2) and hiked up the trails in a counter-clockwise loop. In spring the creeks are running and some … Continue reading…
On a cool May morning I hiked in the Middle Grasslands with a goal to go around Island Lake, but also to visit the Grasslands Esker and the Long Lake viewpoint. At about 1.6 km I arrived at the hilltop overlooking Long Lake. A helicopter flew in and filled a bucket of water from the lake, probably to douse a … Continue reading…
