Kamloops Parks
Helmcken Falls in Wells Gray Provincial Park, Tourism BC photo
Kamloops' provincial parks – Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park, Wells Grey Provincial Park, and Lac Du Bois Provincial Park – provide incredible opportunity for outdoor recreation and some of the most diverse geography in British Columbia. Hike or mountain bike Roderick Haig-Brown's 26km/16mi trail system, or witness the Adams River salmon run in October. Canoe, raft, kayak, or fish the waterways of Wells Grey Provincial Park, or hike the grasslands of Lac Du Bois.
Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park
Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park, 30 minutes east of Kamloops, is home to a section of the Adams River, where in early October thousands of Sockeye Salmon can be viewed at the beginning their spawning cycle. Every fourth year is a "dominant run" (the next upcoming in 2014), when those thousands of Sockeye become millions.
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The river section of the park's 988ha/2,440ac features an interpretive area explaining the salmon's remarkable spawning cycle. In addition to salmon viewing opportunities, Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park offers a 26km/16mi trail system, excellent for hiking and mountain biking in summer and cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing in winter. To get to the park travel east on Highway 1 from Kamloops, turn off at the Quaaout Resort/Scotch Creek exit, and head 5km/3mi north.
Wells Gray Provincial Park
Wells Gray Provincial Park is a spectacular wilderness area 26km/75mi north of Kamloops along Highway 5A. The park's towering mountains, deep canyons, volcanic cones, ancient old-growth forests, raging white-water rivers, and Helmcken Falls (one of Canada's highest waterfalls at 137m/449ft) provide incredible terrain creating a world-class destination for canoeing, rafting, kayaking, fly-fishing, hiking, camping, and horseback riding.
Lac Du Bois Provincial Park
Located just a few minutes from downtown, Lac Du Bois Provincial Park extends north and west from the hot warm Thompson Valley to hills above, creating a varied landscape of desert grasslands and forests – amazing terrain for hiking. The use of recreational ATVs is strictly prohibited in the park; however there is a designated area located just outside the park's boundary to the south. Lac Du Bois is situated beyond Bachelor Heights on the North Shore, where a gravel road begins. The road is narrow, but well traveled.
Check with the Kamloops Visitor Centre (1290 West Trans Canada Highway) for more information about provincial parks in the area.
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