Hiking Downton Creek Trail to Holly Lake

One of the reasons we like to explore unknown areas is that we like to discover hidden jewels.  Today we found one.

We were looking for a pretty hike near Lillooet, B.C. where we are camped.  An acquaintance from our campground lent us a hiking guide that gave us lots of suggestions.  The one that seemed most interesting was called, "Downton Alpine Lake Trail."  It advertised a steep but medium-length hike to a beautiful alpine tarn.  That sounded like our kind of hike.

We drove 24 km south on Highway 99 to the Downton Forest Service Road, where we crossed beautiful Cayoosh Creek --

-- and then followed pretty Downton Creek --

another 11 km to a junction, where we turned uphill and drove another 3 km to our trailhead.   The drive up to the trailhead boasted stupendous views, such as these peaks and glaciers:

The drive wasn't without it's unexpected twists and turns.  We had to cross a wooden bridge that had been closed due to deterioration.  We were careful to assess the bridge's strength before driving our Jeep across it.  The we found that B.C. and forestry agencies have ceased to maintain the road, so we encountered swales, gullies, rocks and boulders, and sometimes had to do our own road maintenance to get through:

As we approached our trailhead, we spotted this rugged peak that told us, somehow, that it would figure large in our hike (we'll call him, "Mr. Peak"):

As it turned out we would climb up and around that peak to get to our destination.  But not before admiring the beauty of the Downton Creek Canyon as we started the hike:

We left the Jeep and still had not reached our trailhead when we stumbled on these giant mushrooms next to the old forest road!

Finally!  The trailhead!  Now to start the climb.  We started at about 6,000 feet elevation, having climbed over 5,000 feet in our Jeep into the Cayoosh Mountain Range above Lillooet.

Halfway up through the timber cut with young spruce and the mature spruce forest above it, we came upon some remarkable boulders, and Kathy couldn't resist having her photo taken with one of them:

We crossed a meadow sloping up and down the side of the mountain, then descended into a bowl behind Mr. Peak and hiked through an open wetland with one or two streams burbling through it, presenting us with minor stream crossings.

We were to be amply rewarded, because, as Kathy ascended to a minor ridge, she discovered gorgeous little Holly Lake sitting proudly in a cirque, just the cutest glacial tarn you've ever seen, and as pretty a glacial lake as we've ever seen:

Here's another view of Holly Lake --

-- and yet another straight across the tarn toward Mr. Peak:

This is a better view of Mr. Peak behind Holly Lake:

While Kathy finished her lunch, David took a stroll along the lakeshore and, further down the lake, took a photo back up to where we had lunch:

After enjoying our lunch of veggie wraps and some big swigs of water, we turned around and started back down the trail.  We had climbed over 1,000 feet to about 7,000 feet elevation.  It was after 3:00 pm, and the late afternoon sun was easier on some of our photos, such as this one of a stream we crossed heading back across the mountainside meadow:

By about 4:00 pm, we reached our trailhead and started our hour's drive back to our campground in Lillooet.  Our forest road stretched out below us into the Cayoosh Creek Canyon:

We made it back to our campground in Lillooet by dinnertime, and Baxter had a chance to take a campground walk while we enjoyed an early evening campfire.  Across the Fraser River to the east, the descending sun was only lighting the tops of the far peaks, making for a picturesque evening.

We sat, eating our dinner, gazing at the fire, and talking about the day's hike.  We agreed that this area has the potential for many more hikes and adventures.  It's too bad that we only have one more day here before moving on.