Hicks Lake

The hiking trail around Hicks Lake in Sasquatch Provincial Park offers a nice, peaceful loop that passes along the lake shores, over several small streams, and returns via a gravel road. The route offers a few scenic viewpoints of the lake and joins several of the picnic, beach, and campsite areas.

From the boat launch in the day-use area, the trail starts on the right from the sandy beach. Follow the trail as it weaves along the shoreline. A short distance along the route, the trail opens next to a rocky outcrop that overlooks a scenic view of the lake. After a quick stop, walk back onto the trail and continue as it makes its way down to one of the picnic beach area.

After passing over a metal bridge, immediately go left and follow the route along the lake beach. It may look like the trail goes to the right but that route just goes to the campsite area. Continue along the trail as it weaves through the forest and arrives at another picnic area. This time, the trail enters back into the forest just up from the beach area. This is the last picnic area as you begin to walk away from the camping area.

The next section of trail makes its way through the forest, with short uphill and downhill sections, small bridges crossing streams, and the occasional glimpses of Hicks Lake. It's a scenic section of trail that can often be a bit muddy during the winter months. There are more than a dozen small wooden bridges and in the late spring, most of these creeks are rushing with water from the melting snow on the nearby mountains.

The trail eventually ends up joining a gravel road. At this point, the decision can be made to walk along the gravel road to loop back to the start or return to the day-use area along the same trail you arrived by. The gravel road does not offer many scenic points but is a quicker route due to its flatness, despite having to loop around more than half the lake still. If returning via the gravel road, note that the kilometre markers refer to the turnoff to Hicks Lake and not to the start of the hiking trail. You can expect that the parking lot will end up around the 2.5km mark at the day-use area where you started.