Wheeler Bluffs Ramble - Kamloops Trails

Wheeler Bluffs Ramble – Kamloops Trails

Doug Smith  December 11, 2019 at 4:03 pm

We hiked from the Mara Trailhead near Tranquille up the old double track to Pruden Pass, then turned north onto the Wheeler Mountain Road.   The road climbs steeply then at about 1 km up, an older-yet hard-to-see double track angles west and after about one more kilometer arrives near the top of Wheeler Bluffs.   We stopped there for lunch and explored along the ridges overlooking Tranquille Canyon.   All in, this was a 14 km hike on a sunny November day.

 

The route starts with a gradual 4.7 km climb through the Tranquille – Mara Hills.

 

 

Near the top of the trek up the old road, we can see the Wheeler Bluffs across the deep gully.

 

 

At Pruden Pass, Massey Lake is due east, a track going up Mara Mountain is to the south, and the Wheeler Mountain Road bears north.

 

 

We followed the old track to the rim of the bluffs, looking back to the route we had just hiked.

 

 

The bluffs are lava flows and conglomerated rock, carved by erosion into gullies and ridges on the flank of the mountain.

 

 

From the west end of the bluffs, we can look up Tranquille Canyon toward the Tranquille Slot Canyons area.   We spotted another off-trail route for some future exploration, below the bluffs, but above the canyon.

 

We returned the way we came, descending 500 vertical meters over 7 km to the Mara Trailhead, just off the Tranquille – Criss Creek Road

 

The Wheeler Bluffs area is a rugged and remote area, but we can get the vicinity on double tracks as long as we are willing to hike the 6 km route on foot or mountain bike.   We are planning to return to hike from Lac du Bois to Tranquille in late spring, a 15 km one way route.

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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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