Although we have walked the Othello Tunnels many times over the years, we returned to enjoy the route on a smoky day in August. An image gallery features some of the highlights. Hover your cursor for a caption or click an image for a full-sized view Othello Tunnels images
Continue reading...Before the Kettle Valley Railway was built between 1910 and 1916, there were older trails and routes to the Interior used by First Nations, fur traders, explorers, and gold seekers. From Hope one of the routes went up the Coquihalla River, but there was one difficult area right where the Othello Tunnels were later added, so mule trains and … Continue reading…
When smoky skies blanketed the Interior, the Fraser Valley had far better conditions so we drove to Chilliwack to hike one of the mountains on the south side. Our first choice was Mt.. Cheam, but the smoke had increased overnight and there were no views anywhere up high so a more moderate trail was chosen. The Elk Mountain Trail is … Continue reading…
The San Rafael Reef is the edge of the San Rafael Swell, a 75 mile uplifted, tilted ridge of layers of sandstone in central-eastern Utah. It can be accessed by Highway 70, but for hiking trailheads, Highway 24 is the best route. A number of trailheads start off the roads which go into Goblin Valley State Park. The trails at … Continue reading…
Mount Rose and Mount Swanson are the rounded hills on the west side of Armstrong. The hiking trails climb about 200m to broad hilltops and wind over forested ridges, through wooded valleys, and along sideslopes. The trailhead is found off Chamberlaine Road (Salmon River Road > Hallam road >Chamberlaine Road). From the signed trailhead there are 8 km of trails … Continue reading…
Iago Peak is a seldom-hiked peak in the Coquihalla Summit area. We have twice snowshoed to the top and back and we enjoyed the route and the views from the top. We have also followed the same trail to climb to the top of Zupjok Peak. This last outing was our first time hiking the route and we found … Continue reading…
We drove up rougher backroads as high as we could on Baldy Mountain, then hiked to the top and back. Along the way we passed the abandoned Windpass Mine at about 5000 feet. We stopped to look one of the old buildings and we saw the tailings from the mine entrance, but we had a hike to do so we … Continue reading…
Baldy Mountain is on the east side of the North Thompson River, standing above Dunn Lake and west of Dunn Peak. It is part of the Dunn Range, a series of rocky peaks with Dunn Peak in the center at 2595m (8513 feet), the highest peak of our area. We drove to Little Fort and took the reaction ferry across … Continue reading…
Raft Mountain stands up above Clearwater, a steep pyramid on top of a green plateau. The back side of the mountain is all cliffs and the final section of the hike is on a narrow rocky ridge. There is a long (21 km) gravel road approach on backroads. The road is suitable to most vehicles until the last 2 km. … Continue reading…
For 40+ years we have been hiking in the Trophy Range. We have done one of more than one summit in most years and we will continue to return to the Trophies since it has the best hiking in our area.. KamloopsTrails.net has quite a few articles on various trails and routes and a map with links is provided here … Continue reading…
We have been hiking into the Trophy Mountains for over 40 years and we returned in early July this year to hike to the summit of Long Hill. There are 7 summits in the Trophy Mountains and a few high ridges between. Long Hill is the westernmost summit at 7611 feet. We followed the main Trophy Meadows trail through the … Continue reading…
Gulf islands National Park Reserve has 13 designated trails on several islands. The Mt. Norman and Beaumont Trails are on South Pender Island. Both trails start at the Ainslie Point parking area and climb uphill for 350m to a junction. The trail on the left leads to the top of Mount Norman. the trail on the right goes up … Continue reading…
Wild Horse Ridge has open karst alpine ridges that extend for 5 km in a U shape. Once we have hiked to the saddle area on the ridge, we can bear left to go around the North Ridge or we can bear right to continue up toward Mt. Kerr, the highest peak in the Marble Range. Our goal for this … Continue reading…
Mt. Bowman is in the Marble Range. To get to the trailhead, we drove to Clinton, turned west onto the Kelly Lake Road, then north on the Jesmond Road for about 21 km. . At a double curve in the road (N51° 9.435′ W 121° 55.649′ ) a side road leads off to the right. We followed it to the … Continue reading…
Wallace Island Provincial Park is found in the Gulf Islands between the northern ends of Saltspring and Galiano Islands. It is a marine-only access park with anchorages for larger boats and landings for paddlers. Most paddlers come over from Saltsping where it is only about 2 km from launch to landing. It is possible to paddle from Vancouver Island, Galiano … Continue reading…
The summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii is 4207 m (13 802 feet). A road goes all the way tot he top, but the road past the 9400 foot elevation is gravel and 4WD is recommended. The road is reasonable, but it is steep and rental vehicles may not have the clearance for the way up, … Continue reading…
