June 8, 2023 - Manning Park
Stats: 10.7 km / 412m gain / 1397m high point / 2:45 hours MT
Three of us did the easy Three Falls trail. I'd changed the hike when I saw the "poor air quality" alert on the Weather Network. So we exited the Fraser Valley and headed east, deciding during the drive to head for Manning Park rather than Yale. Once there we inquired at the lodge and no, the Heather trail was not yet open to the public till July 1. Charlotte & Sonia were generous to hike the Three Falls trail, since they'd done it before. But I hadn't and it was one I could knock off in the Destination Hikes book.
We parked at Strawberry Flats.
Violets.
Staying right, in 450m we arrived at the Skyline trail junction where we turned right again. Then in almost 2 km we entered an open slope by the bottom of the downhill-ski bunny slope.
Arnica.
#1 - Shadow Falls; We followed a side trail to the left to get closer to the falls that were 3.1 km from the trailhead.
Red Mt ( 1980m) above the Nepopecum Creek valley -- west.
1) Indian Paintbrush 2) Purple Flox
Not far past the first falls, (at 3.2 km) was the narrow Nepopekum Creek Falls on the opposite side of the valley. We could not see it.
Penstemon
#3 - Derek Falls
We passed two steep sketchy side trails, before taking a more doable one on the talus slope, down to the foot of the falls.
2 ) Bear markings and bear scat put us on the alert.
While crossing over to the Skyline trail on this less used connector trail, we kept singing and talking to let the bears know we were there.
Once at that junction we made another switch in plans. Rather than add another 10 km to the 10 we'd just done by continuing on the Skyline trail to the scenic junction, we opted to beat the heat and have a shorter day, driving to the Cascade Lookout on the north side of Hwy 3 instead. There we set up our lawnchairs, and Charlotte's snacks and gazed at the peaks while tiny squirrels cautiously made their way up to us. One actually ended up sitting right on my lap!
1) Squirrel 2) Nutcracker
A curious little fellow.
Daisies
The drive down was decorated with many roadside blooms; purple lupines, orange Indian Paintbrush and purple penstemon.
The pointed peaks of the Hozameens.
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