Fall hiking is a favorite of ours. We set out to hike Monashee Lake. We knew this would be a full day with driving and hiking so aimed to leave the house around 7. We departed at 8 am. We got about 6 km up the South Fork Forest Service Road (FSR) when we came to a halt with a flat deck truck blocking our route. Tyson jumped out to check what was going on. They were replacing the culverts in the road so there was no way to pass, this is were we turned around. We thumbed through our book to find a nearby hike and settled on Mt. Yeoward. We got about 1 km up that FSR and the bridge was pulled out and sitting next to the road. We were now 0 for 2 on our hike picks. We were very bummed and by this time the clock was ticking and we were now needing to find a shorter day hike. We decided to give Denison Lake another try as we had a failed attempt at it just over a year ago.

We drove back towards Vernon and up the Crieghton Valley Road and reached the spur to Denison Lake. We don’t like changing hiking plans while being in the bush but luckily we found some cell phone reception to let others know about our new agenda. Last year we couldn’t even attempt to get over the deactivated road berm, but today we got out, assessed it and it looked passable. The truck made it over with no problems at all. It did only gain us about 2 km one way before the road reaches another berm and narrows to a double wide walking path. So here we parked and geared up to head onwards with hopes of finding the lake.

You start walking up an old road where you come to a sign entering the provincial park. Then you proceed to cross the creek 4 times before heading up the steep trail. Shortly it plateaus off and meanders through the woods until you descend down to another creek crossing with wooden bridge then back up till you reach the lake.

Once we reached the lake we explored the shoreline a bit and then settled in a little spot for lunch. We were the only people there which made for a very quiet, enjoyable time. We spent about an hour or so just relaxing and watching the girls run around and explore.

The time came to head back and so we did dohbljng back on the same trail for about half an hour then taking an alternate trail around to a viewpoint and through a Boulder field. The girls were tuckered out and fell asleep moments from the truck of course and when transferred to the car seats were wired and giggling the rest of the way home.

This hike was around 9 km round trip to the truck. Parking just off the main logging road would add another 2 km. One way hiking to the lake took us 1 hr 25 mins, we enjoyed some lunch and took in the views and headed back down.

Even though we had two failed attempts to hiking at the start of the day we were still able to make the most of it and find an alternate hike. We had perfect weather and the girls were in great spirits. Hiking is really something they look forward to these days.