Bannock Point Campground

Very popular hike or boat in campsite located just south of Silverton. Access is not marked from the highway but is 2.4 km from Silverton or .6 km from the top of the Silverton hill lookout. The only turn off on the road heading west and goes down 1km to the gravel pit. Drive through gravel pit into the forest 100m where you will find parking area and map and further information. Trails from here go to Bannock Point campground and Bannock Lookout Trail. 20 or so campgrounds and picnic area. Also accessible from the water by boat. Very popular campsite and picnic area on the shores of slocan lake. 15 minutes or so fairly steep trail to campground and the lake. Awesome spot. No bear proof food storage facilities.

Roseberry Regatta 2012

Billed as the highlight of the Slocan Lake summer social scene. Every Monday of the Labour day weekend in September the young and old get together as the Roseberry beach at attend to the serious matter of pirates and racing home-built boats on the Slocan Lake. There was fundraising, walking the plank, youth races, vegetable boat races, and assorted silliness. I attended although did not bring my camera and although I scoured the web for photos of high society you will have to see the Valley Voice for photos.

Wee Sandy Creek in the Valhalla Provincial Park

A popular rocky beach on the other side of the Slocan Lake in the Valhalla Provincial Park just north of New Denver. A 10 minute power boat ride from New Denver or a 45 minute canoe trip. There is a waterfall right at the campsite beside the beach along with picnic tables, outhouse and bear proof food lockers. A short trail 20-30 minutes on the south side of the beach leads up to a scenic overlook. Another trail continues up the creek valley for 15 km to Wee Sandy Lake. Great beach for skipping rocks, just don't throw them all away we are running out.

Nemo Creek in the Valhalla Provincial Park

Nemo Creek is one of the more popular beaches on the Valhalla Provincial Park side of the Slocan Lake. 20-30 minutes from New Denver by power boat or almost an 1 hour from Silverton by Canoe. The beach is right at the mouth of the creek and is sandy and that water shallow so it gets warmer than many spots. There is a short 5 minute walk up the creek to a small 5m waterfall or a half hour walk along the loop trail which travels through the forest before traversing into a small canyon and a narrow 10 meter waterfall and a descent along the edge of the canyon. There is 3 or 4 campsites with an outhouse and bear proof food storage lockers.

Bannock Point Trail to Lookout

We took advantage of the rare days of sunshine this spring to enjoy the recently improved Bannock Point campsite. The trail through the enchanted forest to the Bannock Point lookout is one of the best early season trails in the Slocan Valley with spectactular views of the lake and a beautiful trail through the forest. There is a good map at the trailhead which is on the gravel pit road 4.5 km south of Silverton.

Valhalla Provincial Park

An incredible assortment of terrain from the valley bottom at the Slocan Lake to the steep peaks and glaciers of the mountains.

Campsites
on the lake from north to south
Wee Sandy Beach
Sharp Creek
Sandy Beach
Nemo Creek
Cove Creek
Evans Beach

Alpine Campsites
Gwillim Lakes
Gimli and Mulvey Basin

Trails
Wee Sandy Lake
Sharp Creek to New Denver Glacier
Nemo Creek
Slocan to Evans Creek
Drinnon Pass to Gwillim Lakes
Gimli and Mulvey Basin

Created in 1983 after lobbying by the Valhalla Society.

BC Parks Page - http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/valhalla/
Trail Report - http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/valhalla/trail_report.pdf

Galena Trail from Roseberry to New Denver

Popular trail following the abandoned CPR railway line from Rosebery to just above New Denver on Hwy 6. The trail takes an hour or two by foot and is a quick but mostly flat bike ride. The railway line is mostly just above the Slocan Lake and so has beautiful views throughout and is very smooth.

Boat Tours on Slocan Lake

Beautiful weather this summer made for awesome boating opportunities. There were people out renting kayaks and paddling the Silvery Slocan and camping in Valhalla Park. I had my tour boat out with guests touring the Slocan Lake. There were people fishing, sightseeing, waterskiing, tubing and the water conditions were typically glassy with the occassional storm just to keep everyone on their toes. As usual it was the kids that enjoy the water the most.

Endless Days of Summer

The beautiful days of Slocan Lake are here again. The lake is a mirror and the temperature is hot. Kids are swimming in the lake. Boats are out on the water. Campers are filling the New Denver campsite and the Valhalla Provincial Park.

Small Things

It is the beauty of the simple things in life that remind us that the world is incredible. I was admiring the Nori LakeShore walk in New Denver the other day and took a few more pictures of the mountains and the lake in the beautiful still morning. How much pleasure on these stretches of beach - throwing rocks, swimming, reading on the beach, sunbathing, watching the kids, boating, fishing and building rock piles. The list goes on forever. Enjoy the summer.

The Last Big Boat on Slocan Lake

The New West tugboat that has served Slocan Lake as a log boom hauler is being pulled out of the lake and put to service somewhere on the west coast. This boat replaced the paddlewheeler S.S. Roseberry as the biggest boat on the lake. The tugboat used to collect logs from the sorting yard at Roseberry and over a long day pull them to the mill at Slocan City. Things are getting pretty quiet at the mill. It will be interesting to see what happens to Slocan if the mill were to be closed down.

New Denver to Slocan City

We took advantage of the warm weather and smooth water on Slocan Lake and took the boat down to Slocan City. The fish were jumping but not onto my hook.

First Summer Storm on Slocan Lake

The day started off glassy calm on Slocan Lake. Sunday was a real hot one and I spent most of the day on the water checking out Osprey nests over by Wee Sandy Creek. Monday morning I did my usual bike ride up the Galena Trail to Three Forks and then down the Old Sandon Rd. Sara and I then rode the very relaxing lower section of the Galena trail from New Denver to Roseberry and return. Back before noon and the heat build up. By 5pm it was obvious we were going to have a storm blow through. Check out the video for some nice waves. The wind was howling dropping a couple of trees on the road in New Denver.

Water Transportation on Slocan Lake

If you are looking for transportation across Slocan Lake to the Valhalla Provincial Park then call Trevor at 358-7277 or email trevor@kootenayexperience.com. Popular trips include day trips to the beaches, hiking trails or fishing adventures. The boat has a capacity of 12 people plus gear or 5000 lbs of equipment. All safety equipment and fish finder included.

Fire on the Mountain

Springer Creek Fire. This is the view from the New Denver Dock down the lake towards Slocan City. The fire started picking up on Saturday. I was sailing on the lake and could see the smoke coming out of the heli logging clearcuts where they did some slash pile burning this spring. Perhaps the hot weather picked up some old burns that were still smoldering. On Saturday evening we were up on Idaho Peak doing a little paragliding and there was a smoke inferno billowing up. By Sunday night the flames were visible from New Denver.

Colleen McCrory

Interview with Colleen McCrory. Colleen was part of the Valhalla Wilderness Society. Instrumental in the creation of the Valhalla Park and much more. A Tribute.

Payne Mine

The Kootenay Rockies Bike Guide has a map describing a mountain bike trail called the Payne Mine Trail. I explored this trail in early June as I had never really heard of it. Leaving New Denver it is a good 30 minutes up to the Three Forks junction on the highway and then another 30 minutes of pedalling on the dirt road to Sandon. At Sandon stay on the left side of the creek on the Cody Road to the start of the K&S Railway trail. The K&S railway grade back to Three Forks is also a good bike ride - about an hour. After about 200m take the first right hand trail - an old wagon road - from the K&S trail. This trail is a little rough and winds continuously upwards traversing Payne Mountain. I think I passed one descending trail, probably to another mine and then came to a junction with a traverse road and a switchback road that continued to climb. I was at about 5,500 ft at this point and entering the snowline. I decided the traverse trail was the right trail and walked on snow for a couple hundred meters and the trail started to descend gradually into the Payne Mine Bowl. The mine was built into the middle of avalanche slide path. This was the largest mine in the area and the largest silver producer in Canada. Interesting spot. The wagon trail continues down continously steep all the way to Highway 31A. It looks like people ATV up the trail but there are parts of the trail entering Payne bowl where the wagon road is washed out. Have fun.