From the pullout on Six Mile Hill there are fine views down Kamloops Lake toward Kamloops.   The cliffs there drop down toward the CPR line.   At Six Mile Point near the lake  there is some private land and a few lakeside cottages, but the area to the east is Crown Land all the way to Tobiano, much of it part of Six Mile Hill Protected Area.   By carefully working our way down steep ridges, we would our way along the gullies, ridges, and sidehills to the hoodoos west of Tobiano and back, a loop of about 3.5 km, with some exploration of a number of side routes, taking pictures along the way.   The area could also be accessed from the Tobiano side.

We came down a series of ridges from the Viewpoint and worked our way over to the hoodoos.

The eroded ridges above Kamloops Lake are covered with sagebrush and grasses with a few trees in the gullies.   At the end of June the hills were fading from green to brown.

The colorful hills of the Rousseau wildlife Management Area and of Painted Bluffs Provincial Park are across the lake five km NNW.

Six Mile Hill itself has a number of steep rocky bluffs.   The Parks website suggests that it can be used for climbing, but we have never seen anyone actually climbing there.   People do hike over the hilltop from the parking area though.

Along our route there were a number of wildflowers, some deer, two eagles, and lots of animal tracks and scats.

At the northeast end of the area are a number of silt cliffs and hoodoos.   We tried some interesting routes, exploring up and down the hills overlooking the lake.

An eagle kept an eye on us as followed ridges back up to our vehicle.   We enjoyed finding routes through the western side of this area.   There were some single tracks on the Tobiano side, probably used by locals on their way to viewpoints of the hoodoos, the silt cliffs, and Kamloops Lake.   We will return to explore from the Tobiano side next time.

More information:

• Six Mile Hill Protected Area