White Horse Bluff Loop – Kamloops Trails
Every year in June, we hike a different trail in the Wells Gray Park corridor area. We have done them all more than once so we pick ones we haven’t done for a while. I had hiked White Horse Bluff twice before, but not for some years, so we looked forward to our hike this year. On our previous hike on the trail, we had found the route to be a bit wet and very “buggy” so we were prepared with mosquito spray and our bug shirts. We needed both.
We left one vehicle at the bottom of the Green Mountain Road and loaded into one vehicle to the upper trailhead. We visited the Green Mountain Tower for the views then drove back down to the trailhead parking area.
The trail to White Horse Bluff is a double track through the forest, mostly downhill.
The forest is mostly cedar – hemlock with stands of birch and a varied understory of ferns and shrubs.
After 5 km of hiking we arrived on White Horse Bluff, 309 vertical metres above the Clearwater River.
We hiked along the upper ridge of the bluff, then along the trail bearing south for a side route too, stopping for lunch along the way.
We hiked back up the hill to a trail junction, then turned left onto the Placid Lake Trail. This was a beautiful section of trail through the forest.
There were wet sections, birch groves, and some older trees along the way. We will be back to hike this trail again, just to enjoy the quiet mature forest.
We hiked a side trail out to the shores of Placid Lake, another quiet spot to visit again.
This hike was about 13.5 km, a longer hike through the forest. The views are great at White Horse Bluff but almost all of the trail is in the forest. For those of us who enjoy the green shades of varied forest environments, the loop hike is a good one. We will be returning to hike through the subalpine forests of Wells Gray this summer.
- My rating for this hike –
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
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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