Grading Our Hiking Trails
We are often asked about the “best” hiking trails of our area and we are happy to recommend trails, but there are a few factors to consider:
- ease of finding the parking area, the trailhead, and if there are trail signs
- difficulty of the trail – fitness requirements and experience needed on harder terrain
- seasonal appropriateness
- risks – including footing, exposure, ticks, snakes, falling rocks, etc.
- off-trail and on trail sections
- scenery
- motorized access (motorcycles, quads, and 4 x 4’s)
- human-caused problems – litter, damage, noise pollution, etc.
- uniqueness of the route
The bias of Kamloopstrails is to hiking unique areas far from motorized traffic with good scenery and a demanding workout. With this in mind, and using letter grades, here is a partial list, as a starting point:
| A | B | C+ | C |
| Dewdrop Trail | Wheeler Mountain | Lower Rose Trails | Moonscape Trail |
| Skoatl Point | Mara Mountain | Peterson Creek trails | Uplands Trails |
| Dewdrop Escarpment | Opax Mountain | Adams River | Harper Mountain |
| Dewdrop Range Hills | Battle Bluff | Dallas- Barnhartvale trails | Logan Lake trails |
| Tod Mountain | Sunrise Mountain | Isobel Lake | Tunkwa trails |
| Mara Canyon | Valleyview Silt Cliffs | Orchard Lake trails | Skmana Trails |
| Lac du Bois Grasslands | Kenna Cartwright trails | Paul Lake trails | |
| Trophy Mountain | Pineview Trails | Roche Lake trails | |
| Estekwalan Mountain | Barnes Lake Trails | Lac le Jeune trails | |
| the Marble Range hikes | Embleton Mountain trails | McConnell Lake Trails | |
| Stake Lake Trails | Outer Inks Trails | ||
| Tranquille Slot Canyons | Rivers Trail (west) | ||
| Batchelor Hills | Tranquille Creek | ||
| Grasslands Community Trail | Deep Lake | ||
| Painted Bluffs | Buse Hill | ||
| Lundbom Commonage trails | Watching Creek | ||
| Wells Gray trails | Savona Caves | ||
| Bearcat Caves | most Shuswap Trails | ||
| Red Plateau trails | Kentucky- Alleyne trails | ||
| Six Mile Hills | Monck Park trails | ||
| Tuktakamin Mountain | Pratt Hills | ||
| Neskonlith Meadows |
The list is based on personal biases and the experiences of having done all these trails many times. Someone else’s list would rate the trails differently.
