Cathedral Park Backpacking Trip: The Lakes

December 13, 2025November 20, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

After an epic day exploring the Rim Trail and a better night’s sleep from repairing Carolyn’s sleeping pad, we were awoken by mountain goats snuffling around the campground near dawn. We both ignored them in our early morning stupor and decided to have a bit of a later start to the day. Since we’d already completed the Rim Trail, our only plan for the day was to visit the rest of the lakes in the core area of the park. We’d already swam in two of them and Carolyn was determined to bag all 5!

The rest of the campground had an earlier start and I assume most of them were hiking the Rim Trail. We left mid-morning and didn’t encounter anyone all day until we returned to the lake in the late afternoon. We decided to visit the lakes in a clockwise direction, with out first stop of the day at Lake-of-the-Woods. This is the smallest lake in the park, but it was quite nice. There used to be a campsite there and you could still see a lot of the remnants. Some of the tent pads seemed untouched, even though the trees were all burned down. One tent post even still had a backcountry permit attached to it!

While we wanted to swim in all 5 lakes, Carolyn’s real goal was to skinny dip in all 5 of the lakes. We’d been hoping to bag Quinescoe on the first day, but the lodge owners had been hanging out at the lake and we never got the chance. We’d already ticked Ladyslipper Lake off the list and Lake-of-the-Woods was our second success. We hoped no one would wander off the trail accidentally, and given we were the last people to leave the campground for the day, we were pretty confident we’d be alone. Lake-of-the-woods was probably the warmest of all the lakes, so I really enjoyed that one. It was sad though to look out at the ring of burned trees around the perimeter of the lake.

We hung out for a little while before continuing on to Pyramid Lake. In my opinion, Pyramid Lake was the worst of the casualties in the fire. Absolutely everything was burned and a lot of the trees had fallen down, leaving a mess of trunks everywhere. The old campground was located on the side of the lake, but it was so burned up, we couldn’t even find the trail. We did a little bit of bush-wacking around the edge of the lake until we found somewhere we could swim, but honestly, it was a real challenge! It’s not a good swimming lake, but we still managed to tick the 3rd lake off our skinny dipping challenge.

Our last objective was to hike up over the ridge to Glacier Lake. The start of the connector trail was burned, but as we approached the meadows around the lake, we left the burn zone behind us and there were still lots of untouched larch trees around the lake. We stumbled upon a few mountain goats in the meadow and then found a nice place to eat our lunch. We could see some hikers up along the ridge of the Rim Trail in the distance.

I mentioned in my last post that Ladyslipper Lake was Carolyn’s favourite lake in the park, but mine was Glacier Lake. Both are very nice, but Glacier lake felt more open with a big grassy meadow extending down to the edge of the lake. Plus, I liked that we could see the Rim Trail around the edge of the bowl. We checked swimming in Glacier Lake off our list and debated whether we might still be able to get Quinescoe Lake. We spent a bit of time playing in the meadow and filming some more of our tiktok dances before starting the hike back down to Quinescoe.

The trail pops out right in the campsite, but there is another trail that goes around to the back of the lake. There were people at the campsite, so we decided to continue on hiking until we found a big rock at the back of Quinescoe Lake. We ticked the last lake off our bucket list and then enjoyed sunbathing on the rocks for an hour before heading back to camp. It was a much more relaxed itinerary than the previous day, but we still managed to spend 5.5 hours hiking only 8km.

We decided to play a few games of crib next to the lake when we got back to camp and Carolyn made us popcorn for dessert. I’d made an apple crumble that we had for dessert after finishing the Rim Trail the previous day, so we definitely ate well on the trip! It was nice to camp at the same spot for 3 nights and not to have to pack up camp and lug around our heavy bags every day. It was a newer experience for Carolyn, as she tends to gravitate to thru hiking more than base camping. As we were lounging around, she did admit that it was pretty enjoyable to have it so easy!

The whole trip was a little bittersweet because I’m not sure when we’ll get to do a trip like this together again. Carolyn is moving back to Newfoundland at the end of the year. It’s a hard pill for me to swallow, even though I know it’s the right move for her and I think it will make her happy. But we’ve had 10 years of adventuring together in BC and I always call Carolyn my soul sister because I’ve never met anyone else who thinks so much like me. We are still very different people and we have different personalities, but we are almost always on the same page with how we approach problems. Sometimes I’m convinced we have a telepathic connection because we don’t even need to verbalize something to agree on a course of action. By the time I weigh all my options and decide what to do, Carolyn’s already arrived at the same conclusion.

I feel pretty confident we’ll continue hiking and backpacking together since I still call Newfoundland home and spend 2 weeks there every summer, but I know the opportunities won’t be as frequent in the future. No one else is as excited about making tiktoks with me in the backcountry, willing to be miserable together for days on end, or as tolerant of my (many) bathroom stories as Carolyn. When we hang out together, it feels exactly like what peak female friendship should be. This is getting to be more sentimental than I planned (I didn’t plan to talk about Carolyn leaving at all). The likelihood of her even reading this is pretty low – Carolyn, if you read this, comment “I cry a lot”.

After our last night in the backcountry, we got up early once again and had started hiking before anyone else had even gotten out of their tent. Like I said, we’re always on the same page, and 90% of the time that page says to get up early. We had 15km of hiking along the Lakeview Trail to get back to our car, followed by 5 hours of driving back to Vancouver. We filmed a few more tiktoks shortly after setting off, and then proved to ourselves that even though we were slow as cold molasses at hiking the Rim Trail, we have the capability to be fast when we want.

We ended up doing the entire 15km hike in 4.5 hours, including breaks. We barely stopped, except to film tiktoks, but it caught up with me after 12km and I stopped for a quick lunch break while Carolyn finished the last few kilometres to the car. I am glad that we did not hike in on the Lakeview Trail. It didn’t feel particularly steep on the downhill, but it’s long and it’s almost completely exposed. The Crater Creek fire burned all the trees along the trail, so while you get a good view towards the Rim Trail, it comes at the cost of total sun exposure. The trail crosses the road a few times before heading back into unburned forest before you reach the end. It would be a long slog to hike all the way up on that trail.

The trailhead is located right next to the Ashnola River, so we both took the opportunity to have a nice river bath before getting in the car. I didn’t have my pocket shower, but a good old fashioned cloth bath still does wonders in making you feel refreshed. Overall, I didn’t feel too stinky on this trip because of all the swimming. We made really quick time on the drive back to Vancouver, but of course, we had to stop for ice cream in Princeton, followed by McDonalds in Hope!

I’m not sure if and when I’ll make it back to Cathedral Park. I proud that we hiked in and out of the park, but I’m not super keen to do it again. I think I’d like to take advantage of the shuttle the next time I visit. While so much of the forest in the area did burn, there are still a handful of larch trees standing around the core area of the park, so I think I’d like to go back one day in the Fall to see the larches turn yellow. It is upsetting to see how much of the park was lost, but don’t let it stop you from making a trip there. All of the stone features are still standing, and we really felt that this was a special place. I’m glad I got to experience it, and it’s even more special that it was mine and Carolyn’s last backpacking trip, at least for a little while.

Cathedral Park Backpacking Trip: Rim Trail

December 6, 2025November 20, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

Cathedral Park has been on my bucket list for a long time. I was supposed to visit the park in 2018, but my trip was cancelled due to a nearby forest fire. Fortunately, the fire never did reach the park, but I missed out on the opportunity. Even more unfortunately, another forest fire in 2023 (the Crater Creek fire) did breach the boundary of the park, doing a lot more damage to the area. The fire tore up the valley along Ashnola Road, burning everything in its wake and then continuing up towards the core area of the park.

Fortunately, the fire was contained before it burned everything, but a good chunk of the east part of the park was decimated, including 2 campgrounds and the access road. Parts of the core area of the park were saved, including the lodge (honestly, I think we have the lodge to thank that it didn’t all burn down, as I suspect they water bombed it). The park has been closed, but it was partially re-opened this summer. There used to be 3 campgrounds, but Lake-of-the-Woods and Pyramid Lake both burned down, leaving only the Quinescoe Campground.

The lodge did not burn down, but it’s not open due to the loss of the access road bridge. The road closure had a big impact on park usage in 2025. While it is possible to hike into the park, the access trail is 15km long and climbs 1400m in elevation, so it’s a big hike. Historically, most people have paid to use the lodge shuttle to access the park, even if they were camping, in order to avoid the challenging access trail. It appears that the bridge repair is almost complete, so I suspect the road will re-open in 2026, but for 2025, hiking was the only way to access the park.

When I saw the re-opening announcement, I impulsively booked permits for the Labour Day long weekend. Carolyn and I has planned to spend the weekend together and I thought Cathedral would be a nice option. In the past, it’s been hard to get permits for Cathedral because of its popularity, but with the road closure in 2025, it wasn’t a problem. Carolyn wasn’t really sold on the idea, but when she learned park usage was low due to the closed road – and that there were 5 lakes in the core park area – she quickly got on board with the idea. We decided to meet at the trailhead on Thursday night before the long weekend to spend 3 nights camping at Quinescoe Lake.

If you’ve been following along my previous posts, you’ll know that I was already on a road trip with Seth, so we all met up at the Lakeview Trailhead on Thursday evening. Accessing the park is a bit tricky as it’s not close to any cities. From Vancouver, it’s a 5-hour drive through Manning Park until you reach Keremeos. From there, you take Ashnola Road to the Park entrance. Ashnola Road is a gravel road, so it’s a bit slow going, but it’s in good shape and you can drive it in any vehicle. It was humbling to see all the damage from the forest fire on the way. Everything along the road has burned down, leaving many rec sites exposed. It’s a very fresh burn scar and it’s honestly hard to witness.

Once you reach the park entrance, there are two rec sites along the road, one is at the Lakeview Trailhead, and the other is a few kilometres away, called Buckhorn. We camped at Lakeview since that’s where we were leaving Carolyn’s car, but it only has a single walk-in site and no outhouse, so I wouldn’t recommend it. We ended up camping in the parking lot since we were the only ones there. I didn’t drive down to Buckhorn, but from the map, it looks like a more traditional rec site and I would recommend that one if you’re doing a similar trip.

There are actually 3 trails that hike into the core area of the park, but the Ewart Creek trail on the east side of the park is still closed because it completely burned. The most common access to the park (for the limited number of people who actually hike in) is the Lakeview Trail, which runs parallel to the backcountry road. In any other scenario, we would have hiked in and out on that trail. But because Seth was still with us and heading back to Vancouver the next day, we had the unique opportunity to do a thru hike. There’s a third trail, the Centennial Trail, that you can access from the west side of the park. At 16.5km and 1200m gain, it’s slightly longer and has slightly less gain than the Lakeview Trail. It’s another hour of driving to get to the trailhead, but Seth was nice enough to drop us off. So we left Carolyn’s car at Lakeview, with the intent to finish the trail there.

It was calling for a very hot weekend, so we got an early start. It’s a pretty steady incline for the first 8km of the trail. You get a reprieve when you reach the alpine, followed by another climb up to the Rim Trail, before you head down to the Quinescoe Lake Campground. We kept a steady pace on the initial uphill hike, which was forested, but after a few kms, we entered a burn scar. Because we knew the lodge hadn’t burned down, we thought the damage from the Crater Creek fire had been limited to the east half of the park, so we were disappointed to see the burned trunk. It looked like the damage along the Centennial Trail may have been from another fire, because it didn’t seem as recent, but I couldn’t confirm online.

In any case, it was exposed and hot along the trail, with no tree cover. We were wrong in assuming we’d have shade in the morning, so we ended up slogging through the first 8kms. Eventually we reached a plateau and found a small section of unburned forest where we were able to enjoy lunch. We both brought our helinox camping chairs, so we had a really nice break in the shade before setting off again. Fortunately, it got cloudier in the afternoon, so we had some relief from the heat by the time we reached the alpine. We hiked through nice meadows before starting the ascent up to the top of the Rim Trail.

The Rim Trail is one of many defining features in the park. There’s a cluster of lakes that are surrounded by a towering alpine ridge. It’s a very rocky park and it’s aptly named “Cathedral” because of all the stone monuments found along the Rim Trail, which encircles the core area in a 16km loop. We had to hike up to the ridge to connect with the Rim Trail at Scout Mountain before heading down to the lakes. It’s very exposed along the ridge and some dark clouds rolled in while we were hiking up to the pass. We were a little bit concerned about possible thundershowers while we were exposed, but fortunately the rain held off until we got to camp.

As we started hiking down, we could see a few larch trees that hadn’t burned, but we very quickly entered a complete burn zone. It was very eerie and sad to experience. It felt like there was a heaviness over the park the entire time we were there to the extent that I felt like we were almost grieving with the park. There’s a thick layer of black ash over everything and it was really dusty to hike through the burn scar. There’s absolutely no shelter and the only sign of life was the fireweed that had started to pop up. I lament the fact that we’ll never get to experience the park pre-fire. There are still some sections of unburned larch forest that were beautiful to witness – I can only imagine what it was like before.

It was a Friday night, so we didn’t expect the campsite to be very busy, but we were surprised to discover that we were the only people there, leaving 29 campsites empty. 2 girls did show up just before dark, so a total of 2 groups at this once popular site. More groups showed up on Saturday, but I think there were probably a total of only ~8 sites in use the entire long weekend.

We enjoyed the solitude on our first evening and went for a swim in the lake before watching the sunset. It’s an interesting campsite because, while bears are always a concern, mountain goats seem to be the bigger issue. Signs advise not to leave anything out that might entice the goats, and to only pee in the outhouse, as they are attracted to salt (so they will lick your pee off the ground). There are cages where you can put things you don’t want the goats to get, and of course, still a traditional bear hang (don’t use the goat cages for food!). We did see a mama and baby goat hanging around the campsite, which made a reappearance every day that we were there, as well as a few deer.

Carolyn had a very rough first night in the tent. Immediately after lying down, she commented that her sleeping pad had a leak. She found it very quickly and patched it up with tenacious tape, only to lie down again and immediately put another hole in it. We found a very sharp rock under the tent that had clearly put both holes in her pad. She patched that one up with tape too, but it caused her trouble all night. She’d get an hour of sleep, only for the tape to give out. We dug out some duct tape to try and fix it up and she had so many layers of tape on it. We didn’t want to waste our patch kit on a mediocre fix in the dark, so she suffered through the night on minimal sleep. The next day we fixed it with the patch kit, and fortunately, that solved the problem.

We got up early again to hike the Rim Trail. There’s lot of ways to customize this hike as there are several connector trails that come down at each lake. But I recommend just doing the whole thing because the connector trails are very steep and exposed. The highlight of the park is seeing Smokey the Bear (pictured above) and the Giant Cleft (pictured below), so we decided to do the trail clockwise to hit these highlights first. We ended up hiking the entire day without seeing a single other person, so it was a pretty special experience.

We started by hiking to Pyramid Lake and then climbed up through the trees to Ladyslipper Lake. Everything is burned to Pyramid Lake, but there’s still a small larch forest between Pyramid and Ladyslipper. It was early when we arrived at Ladyslipper, but we wanted to swim in all 5 lakes, so we stopped for a quick skinny dip. Ladyslipper Lake is really beautiful and I recommend hiking there even if you’re not doing the Rim Trail. At the end of the trip, Carolyn decided Ladyslipper Lake was her favourite lake in the park, but it was second on my list.

Once you leave Ladyslipper, be prepared to be in exposed terrain for the rest of the day. There’s a big climb after you leave the lake and the trail is not easy to follow (though it’s still hard to get lost). It’s obvious where you’re headed and it’s open terrain, so it’s a bit of a choose your own adventure up to the first plateau. You get a great view of the Giant Cleft as you hike up, and eventually the trail levels out briefly before you start a second steep climb to the top. This was probably the worst part of the hike, it’s a narrow exposed trail with lots of scree, so choose your path carefully. You’ll know you’re at the top when you see the junction and the sign for stone city.

It is a big day to do the entire Rim Trail. It took us almost 10 hours, but one of mine and Carolyn’s favourite things to do in the wilderness is film tiktok dances, so we stopped a lot to eat, film, and dance! Some people will just hike up to see the stone city and Smokey the Bear, returning the way they came. We had a quick break in the shade at the junction and then decided to do the 1km detour to see the rock features before lunch. I’m not really sure about the geological history of the park and how all of these stone formations came to be, but they have made it a special place for indigenous peoples and modern day visitors.

The first highlight is the stone city, which is a compilation of large scattered rocks, after which you arrive at Smokey the Bear. You can climb up to the top of Smokey, which we did, and then continue onto the Giant Cleft. This is exactly what it sounds like – a big gap in the cliffside. More adventurous hikers will scramble up Grimface Mountain, but we opted to turn around after the Giant Cleft, returning to the junction to eat lunch.

The rest of the hike is pretty straightforward as you circle around the top of the rim, but it is still surprisingly challenging. Like any ridge walk, while the net gain around the rim is minimal, there is a lot of up and downhill from peak to peak. Our first ascent was up to the Devils Woodpile, next to Pyramid Mountain, which has a great view of Ladyslipper Lake. The terrain is still really interesting because there’s a lot of rock, but over time, its become arranged into what looks like big waves of rock. I don’t know how this happens, but guessed it might be related to snowmelt, creating riverlike features. If I have any geologist readers, I’d love an opinion!

Our next milestone was hiking down to a lookout over Glacier Lake, before hiking up to the top of Quinescoe Mountain. Like I said, the trail isn’t always easy to follow and we got off it a few times throughout the day, but it’s always very obvious where you’re going, so we didn’t worry. The climb up Quinescoe Mountain wasn’t too bad, but we had one more ascent left on Red Mountain. It looked like a shorter and easier climb than Quinescoe, so we weren’t too worried about it, but it ended up being the worst one of the day.

The trail was the hardest to follow as Red Mountain was one big boulder field. You have to hop your way around the giant rocks up to the top, and then once there, the descent is even worse. My GPS track looks like we more or less followed the trail back down the mountain, but it sure didn’t feel like it! It was very steep and I felt unsure of myself in several areas because the boulders were so large. I was concerned about taking a wrong step and kicking up loose rocks. Fortunately, we made it to the bottom almost without incident, except that Carolyn’s bottle of electrolytes opened in her bag and coated everything in sticky, sugary liquid. Not her finest moment!

Eventually we reconnected with the Centennial Trail to follow our path from yesterday. We saw a few more deer on the way down, but were happy when we finally stumbled back to the campsite. There were a few more groups when we arrived, but overall, not very busy. We went for another swim before making supper for the evening. Tune back in next week to hear about the second half of the trip!

A Road Trip through BC’s Interior

November 29, 2025November 20, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

Similar to my trip to Berg Lake, Seth and I took a whole week off when we visited South Chilcotin Provincial Park, with our backpacking trip to Taylor Creek only being one part of the trip. After we finished the hike, we returned to Lillooet and then had two days of road tripping to get from Lillooet to Keremeos, where I’d be meeting Carolyn to hike in Cathedral Provincial Park. We spent the first night at Seton Dam Campsite outside Lillooet. It’s a first-come-first-serve campground that’s managed by BC Hydro. It was surprisingly busy considering it was a Tuesday night, but it’s a nice site.

We made hash browns and eggs at the campsite and then packed up to go adventuring for the day. Our first stop was just up the road to do the Seton Lake Viewpoint Trail. It’s a short trail, less than 1km round trip, that goes up to a viewpoint that overlooks the road and Seton Lake. It’s weirdly popular on instagram because there’s an cool curve on Duffey Lake Road that people like to photograph. Personally, I don’t really get the attraction, but we were close to it, and it’s so short, I figured, why not. Maybe I’m wrong though because Sadie seemed really into it! She seemed to like watching all the cars zoom by, so we hung around for a bit, heading back to the car before it got too hot.

Our next stop was to visit the lake itself. I’d been to Lillooet once before in the winter, but I didn’t stop at the lake. It’s a dammed lake and BC Hydro has developed it into a really nice rec site. You can paddle on the lake, but it does appear to get quite windy, even early in the day. Lillooet was forecasting to reach temperatures of 35 degrees celsius, so our plan was to enjoy a nice little swim. It was early in the day and we had the beach mostly to ourselves. We didn’t find the water too cold, even though it was early. We ended up having the nicest swim and lounged on the beach for a while before continuing on to our next destination for the day.

I have this book at home called “125 hot spots in British Columbia”. I had a look at it before the trip and was intrigued by Marble Canyon Provincial Park. It wasn’t on the most direct route, but it was close enough to Lillooet, that I decided it was a worthy detour, especially since I was travelling with Seth (a biologist). It ended up being the highlight of our two day road trip, so I’m glad we added it to the itinerary.

Marble Canyon Provincial Park is located north of Lillooet on Highway 99. It’s a series of lakes and has a frountcountry campground. But what really makes this park popular is what’s below the surface of the lakes. Pavilion Lake is home to microbialites, a type of sedimentary deposit that bands together overtime to create freshwater stromatolites. These are underwater structures that solidify into formations, similar to stalagmites, and it’s one of the few places in the world where you can find them. There are best viewed using scuba diving equipment, but it is possible to see them with a snorkel.

Seth remembered learning about the lake in university and was excited about the prospect of visiting. However, our first stop was to Crown Lake, which is where the campground and day use area are located. There’s a few picnic tables located down by the beach, so we cooked up some pesto pasta for lunch while taking turns swimming in the lake. It’s a small lake, with a waterfall located on the opposite shore. I’d planned to swim over there to see it, but while we were eating, we noticed a black bear hanging out on the other side eating berries, so I scrapped that plan.

After lunch, we drove back to Pavilion Lake to look for stromatolites. There’s a few pull outs along the road where you can walk down to the water. We found a nice spot and did a little bit of snorkeling. Regardless of whether we saw stromatolites or not, it was a nice place to snorkel. We took turns swimming while someone hung out with Sadie on the shore. We didn’t see any large stromatolites and we’re honestly not sure if we saw them at all, but Seth thinks we were still able to see the deposits along the rocks in the area, even if they weren’t large structures. We’re not scuba divers, so we were happy with the experience regardless.

After we’d had our fill of the lake, we continued towards Cache Creek, stopping at Horsting’s Farm Market along the way. It’s a huge market with fresh lemonade, ice cream, an apple orchard, and lots of treats. We had the fresh lemonade, which was delicious, as well as a few snacks. I learned after the fact that Cache Creek is also home to the famous Desert Hills Taco Stand. We did see it, and now regret not stopping for it, so hopefully next time!

We drove Highway 97C to Merritt, which I’d never driven before, and discovered the existence of a huge copper mine off the highway. If you’ve ever driven this highway, you’ll know what I’m talking about it. It basically looks like a giant salt flat. It’s cool to see, but it was so unexpected that it really took us by surprise. With the introduction of tariffs this year, I’ve been learning more about our exports and found it interesting to learn that almost half of Canada’s copper is produced in BC and that the mine we passed, Highland Valley, is actually the largest copper mine in Canada.

Our final stop for the night was Lundbom Lake Rec Site, located just outside of Merritt. There’s a bunch of rec sites in the area and they’re all first-come-first-serve, but have full time BC Parks Staff on site. It’s a couple kilometres of driving on gravel road to access the site, but it’s well maintained. Bring cash to pay for your site if you visit. It’s quite a nice site and has more than 100 campsites, but apparently it fills up quickly on the weekends, so plan accordingly. The highlight for me was sitting on the dock and watching the sun set over the lake.

On the last day of our road trip, we drove from Lundbom to Cathedral Provincial Park. It’s not a long drive, so we took our time with lots of stops. We made a quick visit to Kentucky-Alleyne Provincial Park, which is a very popular frontcountry site. Honestly, I thought Lundbom was nicer, but it’s cool having 2 lakes back to back at Kentucky-Alleyne. We also stopped at Allison Lake, which was an interesting lake. It’s a sandy beach lake, but the sand is very silty, almost like clay, so you sink down into it and it stirs up a lot of sediment with every step. I kind of got the feeling that Allison Lake used to be a lot nicer. The water level of the lake has clearly receded a lot in recent years, and it had the vibe of a washed up beach town. It was nice, but not super memorable.

We had lunch in Princeton and then spent a few hours exploring some of the attractions. It was disappointing to discover that very few small towns have any dog friendly restaurants. We had a similar experience in both Lillooet and Princeton – there were restaurants with patios, but none of them were dog friendly, so it was a struggle with Sadie. We ended up eating at a taco restaurant that had a table and some chairs outside.

In the afternoon, we did a short walk along the Kettle Valley Rail Trail, which is an iconic trail that extends hundreds of kilometres along the old railway track. This section of trail has an old tunnel and you used to be able to hike to the Red Ochre Bluffs, but the bridge was washed out in 2021 and it hasn’t been replaced yet. It was cool to visit the tunnel, but it is a little eerie. We also walked over to Swan Lake Wildlife Refuge, which is a protected area that’s supposed to be good for birdwatching, but it’s pretty underwhelming in the middle of a hot day (unsurprisingly).

From there, our only plan was to drive to the trailhead for Cathedral, but I was really keen to take a river bath before starting my next hike, since we’d been camping for 5 nights at this point. This trip was a bit different than my normal summer trips in that I didn’t book any campsites and we planned to just hit up first-come-first-serve campgrounds along the way. So our plan was pretty fluid. This is easy to do during the weekdays, but I still recommend booking campsites where possible on the weekends, or planning to arrive early to campgrounds. Some areas of the province have more rec site options than others and the area around Princeton had tons of options! So if you’re ever looking to do some leisurely camping, Highway 3 between Princeton and Keremeos is a great location.

All this is to say that I decided to target Bromley Rock Provincial Park as a good location for my river bath. It’s located right off the highway outside of Princeton and it has a frontcountry campground and a day use area. It’s a really nice river pool for swimming and it was surprisingly busy for a Thursday afternoon. If you go to the far end of the parking lot where the outhouses are, you can walk down another trail towards the river (away from the pool). It’s not as nice for swimming, but it’s more private, though people do fish along the river. We found a more secluded spot and took the opportunity to use my pocket shower to clean up a bit. Smelling much better than before, we continued on to Keremeos to pick up some Thai food for supper.

The final part of our route was to take Ashnola Road down to the Cathedral Park entrance. Cathedral is a remote park that is most well known for the Rim Trail. It’s an alpine, desert-like environment filled with lots of mountain goats and breathtaking stone structures and monuments. When I told the park operator at Lundbom that I was going to Cathedral Park, he described his experience there as “spiritual”. It’s a somewhat popular park, but not crowded because of the limited access. It’s ~15km to hike into the core area of the park, which used to be home to 3 campgrounds and a lodge. In the past, most people would access the park core area by shuttle bus through the lodge, avoiding over 1000m of elevation gain.

Unfortunately, half of the park burned down in 2023 when a forest fire tore up the valley all the way to the lodge before they were able to contain it. The lodge is still standing, but 2 of the campgrounds burned down, along with the bridge that connected the lodge to Ashnola Road. The park re-opened this past summer to hikers, but the lodge is still closed until the bridge is repaired, so your only option is to hike into the park.

Two back-to-back hiking trips did not interest Seth, so he was dropping me in Cathedral and Carolyn would be joining me to hike for 4 more days. There are two rec sites along the road, one is right at the Lakeview Trailhead, and the other is a few kilometres away, called Buckhorn. We camped at Lakeview, but it only has a single walk-in site and no outhouse, so I wouldn’t recommend it. We ended up just camping in the parking lot since we were the only ones there. I didn’t drive down to Buckhorn, but from the map, it looks like a more traditional rec site. It was a bit of an anti-climatic end to our road trip, but we had one night along the river before starting our hike the following day. Stay tuned to hear about my experience in Cathedral Provincial Park!