Description: The Batchelor Hills and Mount Mara stand north of Tranquille Road (and Ord Road in Brocklehurst). There are a few single track trails that climb steeply up into Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected area, off Ord Road, but the main trails are Mara Canyon (sometimes called Cinnamon Ridge Trail or the Hoodoos Trail) and the Mara Hills. Driving Directions: …Continue reading…
The hike up Mara Canyon is one of the best in the region, but we hiked up the loop trail to the summit, then we came down the canyon for this outing. We drove the side road from the CNR level crossing to the end of Ord Road, then followed the trail through the sagebrush toward the mouth of the …Continue reading…
The Batchelor Range is a chain of rocky hills overlooking the North Thompson River from the Deep Lake area to the edge of the City in the Batchelor Hills. The south end of the Range is accessible from the Lac du Bois Road, but the north end is harder to get to. We can drive on rough backroads to get …Continue reading…
The route up to the top of Mara Mountain from the northeast (NE) is our favorite “trail” so we hike it every year in mid-spring. It starts at end of the Pruden Pass Road and immediately climbs through open forest and grassy slopes. There are two steep pitches to the upper part of the mountain and there are no trails …Continue reading…
There are a number of routes to the top of Mt. Mara. We have done 2 of them this year already and we will be doing 2 more of them this year. One of the more difficult ones is up the east slopes of the mountain. Access has become more difficult. The road that went behind the now-empty Agricultural …Continue reading…
The south summit of Mount Mara has one of the best viewpoints in our whole area. The top of the cliffs offer wide vistas south, east, and west. The summit is a worthwhile destination for hikers, but some hard work is needed to get to the top. On this mid-February day, a route up from the west was chosen since …Continue reading…
A little-known route on Mount Mara takes the hiker/scrambler above the main trail past hoodoos and sculpted rocks of the front side up to the base of the cliffs below the summit. From there, several options are available – return by the same route, traverse east over to the main trail, traverse over to the west to come down …Continue reading…
The Mara Canyon Trail (sometimes referred to as the Hoodoos Trail or the Cinnamon Ridge Trail) is one of the favorites of our area. Even though we have hiked this route many times in the past, we went up the route this fall to look at the possibility of improving the trail, to see how much erosion had occurred and …Continue reading…
One of the most interesting hikes/scrambles of our area is to go up the front hill on Mount Mara, above the cliffs. The route is easy at the bottom, a scramble in the middle, and an easy ascent at the end. Along the way, there are hoodoos, sculpted rocks, colored layers, jagged spires and ridges, and much better views than …Continue reading…
quaw currant is a 1m (+/-) high shrub that grows on the lower slopes of the area, in grasslands, ponderosa pine and douglas fir forests, and on rocky open slopes. The green, fan-shaped leaves bud and emerge in early spring. Urn-shaped pink flowers are displayed in late spring. Small red berries appear in summer. We find them bitter and not …Continue reading…
With nature parks closed and smoky conditions in the area, the best bet for hiking was to go to travel to an area that was clearer, or alternately, to watch for a break in the local conditions. On a less-smoky day I hiked the Battle Bluff Trail in the Dewdrop Range. It had rained the day before so conditions were …Continue reading…
In March the south-facing slopes above Sun Rivers were dry so we hiked up the Water Tower Trail to the plateau above, enjoying the views of Sun Rivers below. There is a wide bowl between the minor summit of Mt. Paul and the higher summit of Mt. Peter. Much of the plateau is a grassy meadow with a few pockets …Continue reading…
We hiked from Lac du Bois up onto Opax Mountain, and on to the western side where cliffs overlook the Tranquille River Canyon. Usually we do this as an out-and-back hike, a great 15 km hike. Recently Al Budreau, the author of Kamloops Backcountry Hikes, has developed a trail from the viewpoint down to the end of Hanging Valley. He …Continue reading…
Wheeler Bluffs is prime destination for a hike, but all routes to the top of the cliffs are long. We sometimes come up from the Tranquille area by following the road from the Mara Trailhead to Pruden Pass and then up the Wheeler Mountain Road. We have also come from Lac du Bois and from Mara Mountain, but all of …Continue reading…
Some background: Pruden Pass is the gap between Mara Mountain and Wheeler Mountain. The first homesteader in the area was a man named Wheeler in 1876. Under the Dominion Lands Act of 1872, lands were made available for homesteading. Some of the next homesteaders of the area were the Prudens (1912), the Masseys, the Harris’s, and the Damgaards. A school …Continue reading…
In spring the snow and ice clears off the wide beaches between the Airport and the floodlands areas toward Cooney Bay so we can hike on the Rivers Trail along the dike and pick the junctions that parallel the beach. By staying left, but not going onto the beach, we can follow trails through the cottonwoods and flood channels, bearing …Continue reading…