There are a lot of seldom visited provincial parks and Epsom is one of them. Access is off Highway #1, but the track is easy to miss with no signage, a single-lane dirt track on a sharp angle and little evidence of park status. The dirt track angles down a steep slope to a dry benchland. A sign recommends 4×4’s … Continue reading…
I have hiked to the top of Mount Mara about 50 times over 4 decades. The view from the summit is wonderful with vistas of the river valleys and all the hills surrounding them. We vary the route most times to explore, but most often we go to the top from the northeast side, parking at the end of the … Continue reading…
I have been exploring the area around Kamloops for 43 years and each year I look for new routes. Some work out, some lead to new discoveries, some end up as good exercise but nothing to report, and some are just difficult going. I had been up the Connolly Lake Road before and had explored some of the backroads and … Continue reading…
The parkway from Radium Hot Springs through Kootenay National Park extends for 105 km into Banff National Park at Castle Junction. There are a number of excellent hiking trails along the route which we have done – Floe Lake, the Rockwall, Stanley Glacier, Marble Canyon, Ball Pass, Hermit Falls, and Goodsir Pass. But there are also some shorter day hikes … Continue reading…
We got up for sunrise for a photo shoot on the Valleyview Nature Trails. At just past 5 am, the sun’s glow was showing behind the hills to our east. Some video footage and some photos were taken in the golden light, then the first rays broke over the ridge. A drone was also used on this morning shoot, seen … Continue reading…
We drove down to Lytton, crossed the Fraser River on the reaction ferry, then drive up the Spencer Road South Road on the west side of the river to the Stein River Road and parked at the trailhead parking area. We hiked up the Stein Valley Trail for about 10.5 km where we had lunch on the rocky banks of … Continue reading…
While on our way to the East Kootenays, we stopped at the Skunk Cabbage Trail in Revelstoke National Park. The gate was closed but we walked down the roadway to the trailhead, then did the Boardwalk Loop. Although we had done this walk a few times, we had not done it in early May when the skunk cabbage first emerges. … Continue reading…
Not many people know that there are some fine trails between the west end of Valleyview and Rose Hill. A series of single tracks used mostly by mountain bikers and dog walkers provides opportunities for hikers to create a loop route through sagebrush-grassland hills. There are 4 access points to the trails and the one I prefer is off Rose … Continue reading…
We hiked from Tranquille to Savona over 2 days covering about 38 km over the hills on the north side of Kamloops Lake (link to the story). On our first day we hiked all the way to Painted Bluffs Provincial Park, then climbed over the hills to a rustic site near the Carabine Creek Road. On Day 2 we … Continue reading…
There are no trails that go around Kamloops Lake. There are too many bluffs that go right to the lake. There are railway lines on both sides and there are private property sections on the south side. Over the years we have hiked almost every hill and slopes overlooking the lake, we have been to many of the beaches and … Continue reading…
We hiked into Stein Valley from the trailhead near Lytton as a day hike covering about 17.5 km. We enjoyed the river and the trail but also wanted to see the pictographs in this UNESCO Heritage Site. The first pictographs were at Asking Rock, then we spotted some more on large boulders farther up the canyon. There are 13 spots … Continue reading…
Every time we visit or stay at UBC, we try to visit the Botanical Gardens and we also try to walk/hike the trails of Pacific Spirit Park. We enjoy all the trails, but we vary the route each time. Some routes are in the deep hemlock-cedar forest, some are on the more open slopes above Spanish Banks, some wind around … Continue reading…
On a sunny spring day we drove west towards Lillooet, but turned down the Sallus Creek Road to Chimney Corner to hike the trail down to the Fraser River. The Sallus Creek Road was the old road connecting Pavilion to Lillooet but was replaced with what is now Highway 99. The standing chimney is all that is left of … Continue reading…
The Mara Canyon Trail is sometimes called the Cinnamon Ridge Trail or the Hoodoos Trail. the trail is in Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area (BC Parks) but the trailhead is problematic because of the railway line. Many hikers park on the main road then cross the tracks, but this is not a legal crossing and some people have been … Continue reading…
A favorite route which has no trail is a loop over Raptor Ridge and back past the ponds on either side. Almost no one hikes through these hills so its a good place to observe waterfowl, raptors, songbirds, insects, wildflowers, and the middle grasslands environment. I call it Raptor Ridge becuase much of the area is treeless and there are … Continue reading…
We have been exploring all the hills around Kamloops Lake for a few years now, but access can be difficult and any effort to hike usually involves a lot of climbing up and down bluffs. We try to avoid private property and respect signage and just go around things, but we also have two railway lines and some grazing fences, … Continue reading…
