Mount Lolo

June 28, 2021

1748m

Kamloops, BC

Mt. Lolo is a decently prominent peak (P600m) in the vicinity of Paul Lake to the north-east of Kamloops. There’s a steep but 2WD gravel that goes all the way to the very top of this mountain and the hillside is famed for the wildflowers and expansive vistas. Quite a few international peak-baggers had gone up here because of the P600m status combined with the fact it’s a drive-up summit. I happened to have driven by Kamloops infinitely many times but in the past I was not aware of that prominence thing so my focus had always been those little hills in the city (which, surprisingly, actually offered more unique views). This time, during the historical heat wave I decided to explore some peaks in the higher elevation, mainly to escape from the heat dome and the smog layer lower down.

Earlier in the day I had bagged Promontory Hills in Merritt and Chuwhels Mtn. on the way to Kamloops. I settled in a hotel with air conditioning and had a nice nap in the afternoon. By 6 pm I decided to drive out embracing the 45 degrees temperature in the city. First I did a stop in Tim Hortons for dinner and then I directly my bearing towards the top of Mt. Lolo. The heat was insane in the city such that I was sure that even walking 1 km in the city would not be possible. I hoped for cooler temperature higher up and I was more-or-less correct. The drive up towards Mt. Lolo was uneventful although there were zillions of washboards that kept me driving at a snail’s pace. The temperature had cooled down to below 35 degrees as I approached the top so I parked at the last spur road junction and decided to walk the final kilometer to the summit.

Mt. Fleet and Mt. Lolo from the start of the drive-up

A cool pond that I drove passed on the lower section of Mt. Lolo Road

My Taco parked at about 1 km from the summit

The part of the walk to get onto the broad NE Ridge of Mt. Lolo was rather boring but at least it wasn’t insanely hot anymore and the mosquitoes were actually tolerable. Once onto the ridge I followed the road traversing towards the summit that was largely occupied by all kinds of ugly man-made structures and building. The true summit was on the south end of the ridge and to get there I had to trespass a “gate” that was clearly not enforced. The wired fence that guarded the true summit area had already by torn down by people so I just easily walked through. The views were also better from the far southern end. At this point I still had about 2 hours of daylight and given the cooler temperature I opted to explore the nearby Mt. Fleet as well.