Allstones Lake, David Thompson Highway

Date: July 1, 2011 (long weekend)

With: Ian, Thomas, Daisy and Russell

Trail Description: About 10-12 kms round trip - tough, steep climb to the lake

Access: Across Hwy 11 just after the brown sign for the Kooteney wilderness area (very close to our camp)

Time: Approx 2-3 hours up and 2 down

Comments: Most things we read about this trail were deceiving except for the Ross & Kyba guide. In fact, at the trailhead we met a guy that told us it was about an hour and only steep for the first bit! Not so at all buddy, lol!

It is basically straight uphill for most of the way to the Lake. There is a stream crossing about halfway where the dogs could get water. It is a tough and steep climb but well worth the effort! The picture above is about halfway and the upper parts of the hike provide amazing views of Abraham Lake and the surrounding mountains. The Lake itself is fairly small but very pretty. Make sure to bring lots of water and some duct tape for blisters that happen when feet are sliding around on the descent. Because of the steep downhill, don't do this hike if you are having knee or IT band problems.

We didn't do it this time, but you can climb to the top of the ridge from the trail, but it looks tough. As it was July long-weekend, there were a fair amount of hikers on the trail and up at the lake, but not so many that it felt crowded. We let the dogs off the leash a couple of times on the way down when we thought the trail was empty, but we continued to meet groups heading up to camp as late as 7 p.m.


We fished the lake from about 3 pm to around 6 pm and had about 4-5 bites on different spoons. Fish were jumping at that time of day. I caught a little brook trout but threw it back because it was so small.

At the Lake, there were about 6-7 groups of hike-in campers and it has a back country toilet. There were lots of kids camped out with their families and a couple of dogs. Everyone looked to be trying their hand at some fishing and we saw a few people catch some while there.

Even though we went fairly unprepared in that we didn't realize the distance or difficulty, this was one of the best hikes we've done. It was very rewarding to be able to sit at the lake for a few hours and fish before we had to make our way back down. Next time I'd like to hike in and camp and maybe even take a try at the ridge, I bet the pictures would be amazing from there!