Through the Arrowstone Hills – Kamloops Trails
Al Budreau, the author of Kamloops Backcountry Hikes (Vol. II), had developed two trails in Arrowstone Provincial Park and he had been working on a link route to create a loop. We contacted Al and he agreed to take us on a hike up through the hills to the volcanic vent and then down glaciated moraines to the Arrowstone Creek Valley, and back along a bench to the start, a 12.2 km hike. The trailhead is on the Back Valley Road, not far from Cache Creek. We got an early start on a hot summer day.
The route starts on a new single track, but as we climbed he south-facing open slopes, we picked up a double track that we followed to the top.
Some of the route went through blackened forest, damaged by the 2017 Elephant Hill Fire.
On top of the volcanic hill we went out to a viewpoint where we could see down to Cache Creek, 6 km southwest.
A new section of trail is still in progress, winding across the hilltop to a ridge descent, down a long moraine – esker toward Arrowstone Creek.
The trail then follows a bench on the west side of Arrowstone Creek, winding back to Back Valley.
Arrowstone is so-named because of the dacite which can be found in the creek valley. It was used for arrowheads (Arrowstone) by First Nations people.
Our hike was 12.2 km. We climbed 800m over the length of the hike. Al has used flagging tape, cairns, and blazes to mark the route, but care must still be taken to stay on the trail. Over time it will be worn in to be more of an established trail.
Arrowstone Provincial Park was burned in the 2017 fire season and still looks bare for much of the area farther east, but the trail we did still had lots of forest. This is a good hike and it is recommended. More information can be found in Al’s book, pages 70 – 77.
And, a short YouTube video on the hike:
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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