We haven’t been up to the Cornwall Lookout for a couple of years so Saturday looked like a perfect day for a drive. If you have a 4X4 and a bit of time, I highly recommend the drive to the top. If you are energetic, you can park at the turn off and walk the 5 mile track to the top but I definitely lack the enthusiasm to pack 40 lb.s of camera gear on my back when there is an almost usable road. The lookout is a site that is maintained by the Four Wheel Drive Association of BC and the track has been completely cleared of blow down although it still requires some serious ground clearance on your vehicle to get through without dragging an oil pan or transmission. Several years back Gold Country Tourism released their second Geocaching book and a friend and I decided to do a run up Cornwall only to follow a stream of transmission fluid for over a mile before coming across a mini van of intrepid Geocachers rabid for a first to find cache hidden at the top of the mountain. It took several minutes to convince them they needed to turn around and make their way back to the bottom of the hill as no tow truck would be coming to rescue them on this track. Only after we promised not to scoop their cache did they agree to turn around. Geocachers can be a bit of a different breed but once you get the bug, it’s an incredible family activity and part of the reason we do it.
Cornwall Hills Provincial Park is famous for fields of wildflowers and is the subject of many local photographers and artists. I took a couple of flower photos but my subject for the day was landscapes and points of interest.
After coming back down the track, we carried on over into the Upper Hatcreek valley and then returned back to Cache Creek via the Medicine Creek 4X4 track through to Macleans lake.
I believe this is Siwhe Mountain on the left with the Hatcreek hills in the foreground.
Mt. Brew.
Looking Southwest from the rolling Cornwall hills.
Overlooking Venables lake in the Venables valley.
Looking Southeast towards the tails impoundment of Highland Valley Copper mine which spans several kilometres and is clearly visible on Google Earth. HVC is the largest copper mine in Canada and one of the highest through put low grade mines in the world, milling about 160,000 tons of ore and producing over a million pounds of copper concentrate a day.
View South from the lookout.
The obligatory lookout shot along with a thank you to the Four Wheel Drive Association for maintaining the lookout for the enjoyment of all. We passed 6 4X4s as we drove down the track who appeared to be club members from the coast.
This shot was taken with a 70-200mm lens which creates an amazing compression that makes the tails pond appear to be only a couple miles distant but it’s probably closer 10 miles away. The white stretch on the right side of the photo is the LL Dam which is one of the largest sand dams in the world spanning over 3 km.s across and you can get a much better view of it by driving Hwy. 97c between Ashcroft and Logan Lake.
To the Northeast in the centre of the photo is Kamloops lake and in the lower right you can see IG Granule which mines and processes aggregate for making shingles.
Another shot of Mt. Siwhe taken from the lookout.
Wild Tiger lily. There are several different colours along the track but these caught my eye.
And lots of Paintbrush.
Rock faces above the ranch.
Amazing colours in the rock faces.
Langley Lake looking full to capacity.
Langley Lake image 2
The rock face along Langley Lake oil painted.
Cliff face above the road.
Aspen tree along the roadside.
Roadside cliff face.
Upper Hatcreek roadside pond.
Volcanic rock formations in Upper Hatcreek.
Looking towards Marble Canyon from Upper Hatcreek road.
Looking into the Marble Canyon from well above the valley floor. You can see the benches of the Pavilion Lime Plant that is no longer operational.