Hamilton Corrals Hike - Kamloops Trails

Hamilton Corrals Hike – Kamloops Trails

Doug Smith  June 17, 2022 at 8:38 am

The Hamilton Corrals Commonage can be found at the upper area of the Quilchena Plateau.    The Commonage area is public land, that may also have grazing cattle.   Access within the Commonage is fine, but there may be gates to open and close behind you.      The access road is the Pennask Lake Road which goes up from Nicola Lake at Quilchena.   At about 11.5 km up the hill (and 4376 m of elevation gain) there is an unsigned side road that bears north.    We usually park there, then hike along double tracks north toward Hamilton Mountain (see the map in the gallery below).   The double track passes a series of small lakes and ponds in a rolling grassland area, 

The hike was on a mild, grey spring day when rains had fallen the previous day and rains would fall later in the day. 

In a wet spring, the ponds and marshes were full as were tiny streams and seepage areas.   We encountered no mosquitoes but there were hatches of caddisflies and chironomids on some of the lakes. 

The hike was about 12.6 km.   We stopped at one of the lakes for lunch on our loop route. 

We followed double tracks for about 3/4 of the route, but we went cross country for the final section, going around forests sections and wet spots, walking across the open grasslands hills. 

Although the day was grey, it is still a scenic route with open grasslands, pocket forests, ponds, wildflowers, and long views.   

Click an image for a lightbox view and a caption. 

Some video footage provides a stronger visual sense of a hike in the Hamilton Corrals Commonage.

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Doug Smith

Doug writes for Kamloops Trails, a not-for-profit (and ad free) website, offering information on trails, waterways, routes, featured spots, viewpoints, and explorations in the outdoors in the Kamloops area (and beyond).

Doug started exploring this area in 1976 and continues to follow tracks and routes wherever they lead, with the aid of map, compass, GPSr and camera. After many dead-ends, but also many discoveries, he chose to share this information.

The Kamloops Trails website has a massive number of interesting posts and would be of interest to anyone in Kamloops who enjoys the outdoors. Visit the Kamloops Trails website at: http://www.kamloopstrails.ca/

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