After the wildfires of 2003, the trail system on Okanagan Mountain Park has been slow to recover. One trail is permanently closed. Several others have been choked with windfall from dead trees or eroded from surface runoff. Black trees cover the hillside, but secondary shrub growth and sun-loving wild flowers have grown up. The trails are no longer a forested … Continue reading…
Wells Gray Corridor hikes start off the main road into Wells Gray. Most follow the Murtle Plateau to waterfalls, along rivers, or to lookouts. They are forest walks, excellent for the early season or late summer. They can be very buggy from June 1st through July 15th (or later). Few of the trails go very far since they are in … Continue reading…
Opax Mountain is a sprawling high plateau sitting northwest of Lac du Bois. The sides are steep and a lava cliff fringes the south, west, and east sides, but there are two routes up and some good hiking, biking, and exploring to do. Earlier articles listed two of these routes: West Opax West Opax approach East Opax (on the snow) … Continue reading…
As we travel northwest along the Tranquille Canyon, we can see a line of rugged mountains/hills overlooking the river. Volcanic cliffs and eroded bluffs loom over the canyon starting with Mount Mara, then Wheeler Mountain, and Opax Mountain. The fourth in this line is Watching Hill. It sits over the confluence of Watching Creek and the Tranquille River. The … Continue reading…
One of the first snow-free backpacking or day-hiking areas of our area is the Stein Valley Heritage Trail. To reach the trailhead, drive two hours to Lytton and take the reaction ferry across the river. Follow the signs north to the trailhead: The trail follows the Stein River as it flows from the headwaters in the Coast Range down to … Continue reading…
The northeast side of Cache Creek rises gently with treeless slopes, then higher to aspen habitat, and forest up high on the way to the Arrowstone Hills. Double tracks lead off through the hills. Drive up Stage Road and turn off any road bearing north. The main route is off Stanley Parke Boulevard. Park at the … Continue reading…
We hiked into Lyons Lake over the winter and provided information on the route and its merits (link). We returned today by another route, climbing over the hills to the northeast. The main route in is easy; the hills are all off-trail and challenging. From the top of a hill to the south, we could see Lyons Lake. With a … Continue reading…
If you just like to explore, the Valleyview Silt Cliffs are rich with ridges, gullies, sinkholes, and spines. The ridges come down from Juniper to the river valley and as they do, they narrow and become narrower as they descend to Valleyview. Some are just a narrow ridgetop, but most have a goat track on top of the spine. Hikers … Continue reading…
The fires of 2003 turned much of Strawberry Hill into a burned landscape. We were crossing the Bonaparte Highlands during the first part of the fire and saw the mushroom cloud on our east horizon. When we got home, we watched it from the south. When you go up to the plateau now, you may be surprised by how many … Continue reading…
Hiking on Kauai has many variations – ridges, beaches, jungle, volcanic cones, sinkholes, pali (cliffs), scrambles, and shoreline walks. There are hundreds of hiking locations and until you do a hike, you can't be sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised by a hike at the end of a minor road down to an idyllic area – Moloa'a Bay. … Continue reading…
On the southeast coast of Kauai is a shelf of lava that reaches out into the windward shores where sand dunes have built up for millions of years. The dunes are lithified and shaped by wind, sun, and surf. Within this sits the Makauwahi Cave, a large sinkhole and tunnel system. The cave is dated to be … Continue reading…
A few years ago, we backpacked to Garibaldi Lake, camping at the Battleship Islands campground and hiking the trails above the meadows. We took a number of photos along the way. Near our campsite, the view was spectacular. Hiking with an artist is a different experience. David Langevin is a well-know painter who lives in Kamloops. From the same view, … Continue reading…
There are many trails between the Coquihalla Highway and Greenstone-Chuwhels Mountains, but there is so much terrain, it is hard to link the trails and routes. The Greater Kamloops Motorcycle Association (GKMA) has explored the area on ATVs and motorcycles and has set up route signs along various trails, but has not provided maps to anyone wanting to ATV, hike, … Continue reading…
The Lyons Lake trail is a pleasant forest walk along a double track on a fairly level route to a grasslands forest at the end of Sullivan Valley. On a winter day, I trudged along this path in wet conditions, enjoying the quiet of a gully track between hills. The trailhead is near the Heffley Dump. Drive east towards Sun … Continue reading…
The Valleyview Silt Cliffs separate Juniper from Valleyview. A number of trails go up the gullies, ridges, and across the treeless benchlands. Hiking or biking across this area means going up and down, and skirting steep silt cliffs to the heads of gullies. A number of narrow clay bridges provide access across the tops of the gullies, and behind the … Continue reading…
There are so many good hikes in the Sedona (Arizona) area, and many of them link together. A number of the trails through passes, going around the steep red sandstone monuments of the area. One such route uses Soldier Pass to go over the top of Bryns Mesa in a loop route. This was the sign at the trailhead: This … Continue reading…