Hiking in Valhalla Provincial Park

One of the reasons we stayed in Slocan, British Columbia was to have a chance to hike in Valhalla Provincial Park.  This section of British Columbia has many provincial parks, and they all have a wealth of opportunities for hiking, backpacking, paddling, fishing.  Studying all of the available information, we found the most interesting hike - a 10-mile out-and back to Drinnan Lake, Drinnan Pass and Upper Gwillim Lake.

The drive to the trailhead was an adventure in itself.  We had 30 km of dirt road that grew rougher and rougher the further we drove.  But the drive had some rewarding views:

When we arrived, two young women who had passed us in a pickup were starting a planned overnight backpack on the same trail we were taking.  We exchanged pleasantries and started on our way, leaving the women to get their gear together.

Our hike crossed several streams.  Here, David show the confident stride that is necessary to keep your balance on unstable primitive wooden bridges:

The trail climbed strenuously, with elevation gain of about 1,600 feet in 2 miles to Drinnan Pass.  On the way, we had grand views of Gregorio Peak on one side --

-- and Drinnan Peak on the other side (here, posing behind Kathy and her rocky friend):

One of the more interesting features of this hike was a long boulder-hop across a rockslide area, which Kathy tackles below:

Here is a look back across the boulder field from midway:

Kathy here is standing at the boundary of Valhalla Provincial Park, happy that she has conquered the rockslide:

Here is another view back along our trail --

-- and forward in the other direction:

As we arrived at Drinnan Lake, David found an eagle feather and had to model it.  We brought it home to Baxter and Flip who, we've found, really enjoy sniffing and playing with bird feathers.

This was our first view of Drinnan Lake:

To get beyond the lake, we had to cross Drinnan Creek on a metal footbridge:

We rested at the lake and had a bite, and, just as we packed to continue, the two young women arrived whom we had left at the trailhead.  They continued ahead of us, but were not hiking fast and, as it turned out, they missed a turn on the trail.

After we passed Drinnan Lake, we reached Drinnan Pass, which was still buried in deep snow.  Luckily, the snow was firm on the surface and we could hike across it in our bare boots.  Of course, every once in a while, we got surprised when we postholed and had to pull our leg up out of a deep hole.

The young women eventually found their way back to the trail at Drinnan Pass and rejoined us, barebooting across and down the snowfield to Upper Gwillim Lake.  Kathy was the first to spot the lake and led the way down to the ice-covered shoreline, where she picked this large boulder for our lunch spot:

Here, Kathy is proclaming ownership of Lunch Boulder:

The melting ice and snow created beautiful, glacial blue icy fingers across the lake surface.  Despite the snow and ice, the weather was so warm that ducks were swimming and feeding in the open water.

Lunch ended, as all good things do, and we started back up the trail to Drinnan Pass, saying goodbye to the young hikers.  When we left them, they were still trying to decide whether to camp overnight in the snow or to treat this as a day hike, camp somewhere below, and do a different hike the next day.

As we started descending again from Drinnan Pass, we caught sight once more of Drinnan Lake in its alpine setting:

Once again, we paused to gaze at this beautiful lake from its outlet in the afternoon light.

Working our way back toward the trailhead, we paused on the rockslide to catch the view down and across to the range of peaks to our south:

As we approached the trailhead and the end of our hike, we were reminiscing about the adventures of the day, when David heard a branch crack and paused, thinking that a hiker was approaching around the corner of the trail.  Instead, a brown grizzly bear lumbered from the left side of the trail and looked at us.  After a moment of panic, David called out, "Hey, Bear!" at which the bear shot off down and across the trail and down a stream drainage.  Kathy was disappointed David didn't get a photo of the bear, but David was just happy the bear ran away.