Dennis Creek Trail

The Dennis Creek Trail leads you up to a spectacular vista of alpine peaks and wildflowers! The trail itself is short, but the options for further ridge-line wandering and exploration are endless!

Summary

Trailhead: Hicks Creek Road
Distance, round trip: 5.6km
Elevation: +535m
Time: 2-4 hours (out and back)
Season: mid-July to late September
Difficulty:  Moderate

Trailhead

From New Denver, head north on Highway 6 for 5.5 km (3.4 mi). Then turn right onto East Wilson Creek Road and reset your odometer.

• At 2.6 km (1.5 mi), turn right onto established Hicks Creek Forest Service Road. Ignore the rougher road just before.
• At 5.3 km (3.3 mi), stay left, signed for Dennis Creek Trail.
• At 9 km (5.6 mi), switchback right on the main road. •At 11.5 km (7.1 mi), fork left on the main road.
• At 12.8 km (8 mi), a signed junction points right to Dennis Creek and left to Alps Alturas. This is often a good place to park, as the final kilometre of road is very steep, rough, and narrow, even for 4WD high clearance vehicles. Drive or hike right.
• At 13.3 km (8.2 mi), reach a fork in the road with the trailhead. Park here if you braved the higher drive, pulling far off the road. Head up the left fork to find the trail.

The junction for Dennis Creek Trail, the last 1km is a rough 4WD road

The official trailhead, no longer accessible by car

Up to the saddle

The actual walk to the saddle of the ridge is short, steep, and specular. The trail winds up through an old cutblock, taking you across streams and meadows and a newly growing forest. Chances are there won’t be many (if any) other hikers on the trail, so making frequent bear calls is a good idea as this is prime grizzly habitat.

Wildflowers along the trail

Looking ahead towards the ridge

The trail leading onwards and upwards

Looking ahead, the trail bends towards a low point on the ridge line, bringing you gently up to a saddle after 2.4km from the trailhead.

End of the trail

The official trail ends at the top of the saddle overlooking Dennis Creek Basin, and that’s okay because it’s choose-your-own-adventure on the ridge!

Heading right (south), there is a very faint trail winding up some smaller peaks. This is probably an easier option for folks who don’t want a lot of elevation gain and want the confidence of a route.

Heading left (north), the ridge line ascends to the summit (unnamed peak of 2298m) and this is by far the more scenic and more challenging route! We went left!

Up on the ridge top

Trying to find a route to the summit, we found the south-east slope of the ridge had better footing and was more gentle to climb. Once we got to the higher ridge, we could look ahead and see the summit in the distance:

Panorama time

It was lunch-time at the summit! And that also meant time to shuck off the boots and the pack and take a million panoramas!

Panorama looking East – Bugaboos and Mt Loki in the far far distance

Looking North- Mt Dolly Varden, Marten Mountain, Inverness Mountain

Looking North-West towards Nakusp

The big picture!

Looking South – Idaho Peak, Valhallas

Although the Dennis Creek Trail is short, there are lots of options to extend the distance with ridge-line exploration! And the trail is in the same area as Alps Alturas and Wilson Creek Falls so it could be a great addition to another trip!

Download KML File – Dennis Creek Trail