Tag Archives: Barnhartvale

Buse Hill Hike

Kamloops Trails Posted on by  

On a mid-May morning we drove to Barnhartvale, then out the Robbins Range Road to the trailhead to Buse Hill.   Buse Hill has volcanic ridges with steep north-facing cliffs overlooking Buse Lake.  There is a BC Parks Protected Area for the ridge and the cliffs down to the lake.   A double track climbs the grassland slopes to a series of viewpoints.    Most visitors go to the viewpoint and back, but we wanted to hike over to the Buse Pillar and then loop back.

We hiked a steep single track down into the forest, then followed an unsigned trail to the west end of the ridge to a spot directly above the pillar.   On the return hike, we followed an old double track which angled down through the forest to meet the main track near Buse Pond.   The whole hike was about 5 km.   There were a few birds out (chipping sparrows and a Clark’s nutcracker) and lots of wildflowers.    Spring is the best season to hike Buse Hill, but the views from the top of the cliffs are worth the climb in any season

Shared here are a few photos from the hike, embedded as a Google Photos slideshow:

More Information:

Barnes Lake Trails Hike

Kamloops Trails Posted on by  

In early May we hiked the horse-and-hiker trails in Barnhartvale.    We started at the Gardiner Road entrance off Barnhartvale Road and we hiked a 9.5 km loop route through the grasslands and the open forest on both double track and single track trails.     Trail maps and signs help anyone new to the trails.   We usually choose the outside loop, combining several trails inside the fenced area.    For this day we saw a couple of other hikers and no horseback riders on the trails. The route starts and finishes traversing open grassland sloes, then goes through open ponderosa pine forest then as it climbs through douglas fir forest on glaciated terrain. Much of the area is surrounded by … Continue reading →

Twilight Hill Loop

Kamloops Trails Posted on by  

There are a number of steep hills and there are a few trails up through them which can be combined from the trailhead at the end of Uplands/McLeod Drive in Barnhartvale.   For a moderate hike, we sometimes hike a series of single tracks through the grasslands benchlands (Uplands Trails Ramble).   The routes into the hills require some steep climbs on single tracks.    To the east is the Sunrise Mountain Trail which follows the ridge to the top.   West of Sunrise is a mountain/hill of the same elevation which I have been calling Sunset Mountain for many years.    It can be accessed from various directions using old double tracks and newer single tracks.     North of Sunset Mountain are … Continue reading →

Buse Hill Hike

Kamloops Trails Posted on by  

On a sunny June weekday morning I drove through Barnhartvale and up the Robbins Range Road to the Buse Hill trailhead.    I hiked up the steep double track to a small lake under Buse Hill, then went off track over the east shoulder to the rim, then continued west along the rim, down through gullies on single tracks, then back up the rim, all the way to the end of the hill overlooking the Buse Pinnacle.    On the way back, I looped through the forest and joined the main track on the south-facing grassland slopes. At about 1.2 kilometers up the track,  a small lake sits in a low spot between the hills.    The actual summit of … Continue reading →

Barnes Lake Trails Hike

Kamloops Trails Posted on by  

We hiked the Barnes Lake horse-and-hiker-trails in Barnhartvale on a mid-April sunny day.    We started at the Gardiner Road entrance and went through the gate and onto the trails in the sagebrush grasslands, hiking a counter-clockwise 9.25 km loop on double and single tracks.   The trails were quiet but we watched for signs of spring, spotting wildflowers and birds along the way. The lower elevation areas have open grasslands and open forests. We went past Killdeer Pond, reduced in size after another drought year.    From there, we followed the trails on a moderate climb into the douglas fir forests. Half of the hike was in glaciated (undulating) terrain through douglas fir and lodgepole pine forests on the upper … Continue reading →

Uplands Trails Ramble

Kamloops Trails Posted on by  

On the first of April I started a 6.25 km hike from the end of McLeod Drive (at the junction of McLeod Rd. and Uplands Rd. in Barnhartvale).    Trails start at the gas pipeline track and they fan out across the sagebrush grassland benchland, through gullies, and up into the hills.    For this day, the hike was a series of single track trails through the grasslands above the gullies, out to viewpoints,  and then back to cross the heads of gullies for more loops.    The final loop went down one of the larger gullies, then back up onto another benchland.    The solo hike took about 1.75 hours.   The hike started through a north-slope open forest … Continue reading →