July Mountain is a remote peak on the north end of the Coquihalla Summit area.  It is accessed off the Coquihalla Highway at the Juliet Creek exit.   A narrow gravel road goes uo the valley for 4 km before crossing the creek.   Over the next 4 km, the road becomes rougher, more grown-in with alder, and there are a number of challenging waterbars to get through.  A high clearance vehicle can make it all the way to the end of the road, but many others will have to park and walk the road.   We had to add 2 km to our hike because of one difficult waterbar on a steep section of the road.   The trail then follows an old double track paralleling South July Creek.

The double track becomes a single track, then the trail becomes steeper through the forest.  The next section runs through a wet meadow, lush with wildflowers.   At the end of the meadow, the trail curves out to the foot of a boulder slope under an arm of the mountain, then up thorugh steep meadows, following the stream.

At the base of a ring of cliffs is Drum Lake, a shallow tarn under snow slopes.

A steep climb up a talus slope is required to get onto the upper ridge.   The final section of the hike is a traverse along the ridge to the summit.   We spotted ptarmigan, camouflaged in mottled black and white summer  colors in the granites of the Coquihalla Summit peaks.

The upper ridge was snow-free in early July, but mists covered the ridge.  We stopped for lunch at the summit cairn.

The route down was a slow one, picking our way down rocky slopes.   Snow chutes ran from the top all the way to Drum Lake.   We glisssaded some of the lower slopes to the lake’s edge.

The clouds started to lift off once we were down by the lakeshore.   There are some nice spots on the east and south sides to pitch a tent (after the mosquitoes dwindle).   This would be a drier hike in late August or September.

In early July there were lots of wildflowers in the forest, through the wet meadows, and in the alpine.

The 12.85 km (return) hike took us about 5 hours.   The steep downhill is unforgiving on the knees, but overall we liked the July Mountain hike.   When we return to do it again, we will pick a late summer date when the meadows are drier, the snowslopes have melted, and the mosquitoes are gone.