It’s been a while since I did a “trip report” so this week, I thought I’d share one of the hikes we did last August in Wells Gray Provincial Park, BC.

Wells Gray has become one of our favourite places to go for a long 4-5 day weekend.  The first time we went several years ago, we had a friend who had a house there she wasn’t using and she let us stay in it.  After that trip, we were hooked on this park and area. There’s so much to see and explore, especially if you like waterfalls, which we do, and lots of opportunities to hike into the alpine so we couldn’t wait to return.

If you do decide to visit this park, be sure to stop in at the visitor’s centre right off the highway and pick up a copy of Roland Neave’s book, Exploring Wells Gray Park.  It’s the best guide to the area.  We got a copy of the 5th edition the first time we were there and were so impressed with it that when we went this past summer, we were happy to scoop up the newer 6th edition.  And you can get it before you go, online!

This post I’m just going to focus on one hike that we did, the hike up the East Ridge of Trophy Mt.  Trophy Mt is one of the major mountains in the park and you can come at it from various directions.  Last time we headed onto its West slopes via Sheila lake so this time we wanted to try the other side.

We were not disappointed!  It’s a great hike and you are rewarded with many great panoramic vistas once you actually get into the alpine, which only takes about 90 minutes or so.  On the way up from the trail head, we were rewarded with lovely meadows that still had lots of flowers and stunning views of Raft Mt to the South, another peak we’d like to explore next time we go.

The first part of the trail takes you through some lovely forest with a couple of great scraggly trees.  Here’s one I really liked.

And a bit of wildlife on the way up.  A butterfly perched on an aster.

As I mentioned, you pass through some lovely meadows before the views of Raft Mt start to come into play.

As you gain elevation, you begin to get views of Raft behind you so don’t forget to turn around and look because the light will definitely change on the way down and you don’t want to miss the changes.

A few pics of Raft Mt on the way up into the alpine.

 

 

And then you enter the alpine and things start opening up.

Now we’re really getting into the alpine and things open up with lots of territory to explore.  You come to a cabin and from there you can go several ways.  We stayed East, wandered up that ridge and eventually came to a lovey viewpoint where we had lunch and just chilled out on the rocks enjoying the views for a while.

Our high point and lunch spot.

A bit of a closeup of the what you see past the selfie hat.

I thought about heading up that bump foreground left but we decided we’d had enough elevation gain for the day and after lunch headed back down.  Did a bit of loop to get back to the cabin and then headed back down to the car.

On the way back to the car I took a few more flower pics.  Here’s one of a lousewort species.

We also ran across a bit of wildlife, too.

And then just because I happen to be a fun guy who likes fungi, had to take a quick shot of this one.

Well I took almost 200 pics on this hike so you can see I’ve really held back here and saved you from 40 pics of Raft from different viewpoints and so many flowered meadows.  You just gotta go and see it for yourself!

Keep on ramblin’

Rich