A couple of weeks ago, Catherine decided that we had time between my mountaineering trips to manage a quick backpacking excursion in to Gwillim Lakes in the southern part of Valhalla Provincial Park. She managed to coax a few friends along too, so on Monday, we set off.
In typical Kootenays style, we drove over to the next valley west of us, where Slocan Lake lives, followed a couple of Forest Service Roads about 40 km from the highway and arrived at the trailhead a short time before lunch.
After packing up and having a mid-day snack, we set off. The hike in was fairly steep, but very scenic, up to Drinnon Lake on the Park boundary, up to Drinnon Pass, down into a deep valley and finishing off with a steep climb in to the large cirque that contains the Gwillim Lakes.
The lakes are almost more like apline tarns with the "campground" consisting of a few tent pads scattered around in the meadows and boulders surrounding the lakes.
The next day we decided to scramble up to higher ground surrounding the Lakes and follow along below Lucifer Peak and a few other hills in the Devil's Range. Great views down into the Gwillim Basin and to peaks beyond our location. Back to the campground for a snack and a snooze. The weather was signalling change, so we had our supper, packed up and headed back to the trailhead, taking just over 2 hours to return. A leisurely drive back home with a brief introduction to another small gem in our hiking area.
Pictures can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/ValhallaProvincialPark
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