Rambling through the Frederick Bluffs
Frederick Bluffs are on the Kamloops Lake side of the Dewdrop Range, 4.5 km from the Tranquille- Criss Creek Road. To get to the edge of the hills, take the Fredrick Road, then when the road splits into two, stay on the lower road and pull off at a flat spot 2 km farther along the gravel road. There are no trails to follow. The area is a series of rugged, rocky hills, but we can combine going up and down the hills for a 5.2 km route with some minor challenges to provide some adventure, as well as some great views for much of the route.
While traversing the hills we came past this snag on the hillside, with Red Plateau in the background.
A fire had burned across these hills and had left some blackened stumps, this one beside an erratic, a lava stone deposited by a glacier as it receded.
The folded terrain of the Dewdrop Range has been shaped by lava flows and glaciers. Above the range is the Red Plateau Escarpment, formed from 1 large and 3 smaller volcanoes, composed of breccia, andesite, and solidified mud flows, from the Eocene Epoch (34 to 59 million years ago).
At the west end of the Fredrick Bluffs we have views down to the small community of Frederick on Kamloops Lake and beyond to Red Point, Peregrine Bluffs, and Six Mile Point.
We hiked to a prominent rocky hill overlooking the lake called Bighorn Bluff for the number of bighorn sheep spotted on the upper ridge. The view to the east was up Kamloops Lake to Battle Bluff.
Kamloops Lake lies below the viewpoint stretching west toward Tobiano and Six Mile Point.
Anyone who hikes this area will have to deal with route-finding, but with few trees, it is easy to see the terrain ahead. There is no “right route” so explorers just pick their own path winding around and over hills, past small ponds, out to viewpoints, and with side trips to check out snags, rock outcrops. shaped trees, dryland shrubs and seasonal plants, and any wildlife spotted that day In fall we we don’t have to worry about ticks and biting insects and there will probably be no one around.
The camera picked up a sun halo from atop Frederick Bluffs:
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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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