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Lockhart Creek

If you love long walks in the woods, then you’ll love the Lockhart Creek Trail. You can hike way up the creek drainage for a mighty 22km round trip… or just stretch your campground legs with a quick kilometre out and back.

Summary
Trailhead: Lockhart Beach Provincial Park
Distance, round trip: 2.3km
Elevation: +175m
Season: early April to early November
Difficulty:
Easy

Trailhead & Driving Directions

Drive to Lockhart Beach Provincial Park on Highway 3A, on the East Shore of Kootenay Lake. This park is 40km north of Creston and 19km south of Crawford Bay.

If you’re not camping, you can park in the day use lot just off the highway. This forested trail isn’t really worth the long drive on its own, but it’s a great outing for campers.

Lockhart Beach Provincial Park

From the Beach to the Creek

There are 2 adjacent provincial parks: Lockhart Beach and Lockhart Creek. You’ll need to hike up the campground to the outhouse across from Site #16. Follow the trail behind the outhouse where it will cross a section of private land to access Lockhart Road and Shady Lane campground. All junctions are signed.

Up the Forest

Lockhart Creek Trail crosses the creek and immediately starts to climb through the forest. Reach a junction just after the bridge and turn right to ascend.

Hiking up through the forest

The trail is cut narrowly into the side of a steep slope which may make some hikers uncomfortable. We found in early June that Lockhart Creek was flowing high and the noise hid our calls from a young black bear. He bolted into the bush as soon as we noticed each other, a little too close for comfort all around.

At the 1km marker, the trail switchbacks left and ascends. It was shortly after this point that we turned around. The truly dedicated can hike or trail run all the way up 11 kilometres, though reports are that the trail is increasingly overgrown and full of deadfall the higher up you hike.

The view down on Lockhart Beach Provincial Park
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