We set off hiking at around 1340 on a crisp fall day. There were some clouds in the sky, but a bit of blue poking through. The trail started off crossing a creek and then following an old road for a short period. Eventually the trail became single track and followed the left side of a creek up to the base of some shaley mountains. Here the trail was fairly booted and well flagged. We clambered over a few newer mud slides that would have probably been alarming if one was around when they came down. |
I have heard from many Lillooet locals about how beautiful and accessible the lakes, trails, and mountains of Downton FSR are. Last weekend Darryl, some Lillooet pals Jen and Mike, and I set off for Viola Lake as an easy day hike. This is a fairly simple hike off of a branch of Downton FSR that climbs through a valley along a creek about 560m in elevation and 3.5kms (one way) distance to a beautiful alpine lake. We left Lillooet at a leisurely time of around 1130. We followed the instructions in the Canyon to Alpine guide, which told us to drive 24 kms south on the Duffey Lake Rd from downtown Lillooet and turn right on Downton FSR. We then followed this fairly decent gravel road for around 11kms and then kept left (there are more hikes on the right fork as well). We parked 3.5kms down from this fork in the road at a yellow sign pointing towards Viola Lake. The hike up the valley was stunning. The leaves had begun to change colour brightening up the landscape. We approached a very neat jagged peak with a unique looking glacier. At first it just looked like weirdly accumulated snow, but when we arrived at the viewpoint for the lake we saw huge boulders crash and bounce off of the solid ice of the glacier. The route we took perched us quite high above the lake, which was a deep blue/green in colour. Above the west side of the lake there is a shaley ridge that leads to Melvin Peak. This looks like a fairly straightforward ridge walk we could do in a future trip. We sat and ate lunch taking the in the view for some time, but eventually made our way back down. The trip down was much faster than the trip up and we arrived back at the truck in one piece around 1700.
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Author: Tiffany CI am a registered nurse currently living in Lillooet, BC, but originally from Gold River, BC on Vancouver Island. I enjoy hiking, biking, kayaking, walking, running, surfing, climbing and racing! Categories |