Notes: Good trail as far as Summit Peak (Saint Paul E2), easy scrambling beyond.
Trip Report
Stone Mountain Provincial Park is in a more remote part of BC, along the Alaska Highway. We decided to take a day off from driving and stretch our legs with some hiking. We settled on Summit Peak Trail largely because of the amount of good information readily available, but it turned out to be a great, easy scramble on decent quality scree.
The trailhead is at a paved pullout on the north side of the highway, across the road from Summit Lake Campground. There is an outhouse, just be prepared to wait in line during peak tourism season. It’s worth noting that this is not the same as Summit Lake Provincial Park, elsewhere in BC.
We’d been able to dig up a bit of information on the objective in advance, but this billboard at the trailhead gave us all of the information we needed. Interestingly, as of 2024, the version of this map on their website only shows the route up to Summit Peak.The day starts on a good trail along a creek. Caught in this photo: the black flies in this part of the province are terrible. They didn’t bother me very much while hiking, but they ate me alive while relaxing at our campsite.After about 20 min of hiking along the creek we turned up the slope toward Summit Peak. One creek crossing was required, but it was no trouble at all in August water levels.The hiking trail ingeniously winds its way through cliff bands without requiring hands-on scrambling. The way is marked by many cairns.Looking back at Summit Lake and Mount St George. The campground can be seen to the left of the lake.Looking ahead as we approach the viewpoint. This high point ahead is the first of the three stars on the map at the trailhead.Looking back, Dan nears the viewpoint.A small cairn marks the top of the viewpoint, but the second star on the map, Summit Peak, isn’t much further ahead so we breezed past. Taking a break at Summit Peak before continuing on.Summit panorama from Summit Peak.A fair chunk of elevation loss and regain (300 m) from Summit Peak is required to continue the ridge walk around to Mount St Paul. The peak, and the third star on the map, is seen at the left.Looking back as Dan descends Summit Peak. The excellent trail leading to Summit Peak dwindled here, but the way was obvious and we continued on.At the bottom of the dip between the two peaks. We will continue the ridge walk route by gaining the slope to the right, but it looks like the most direct path would be straight ahead to the low spot in the ridge. The scree on these slopes is decent quality and I would expect the line to be easy. The peak of Mount St Paul is to the left.Looking back at Summit Peak as we make our way up to the ridge of Mount St Paul.Continuing along the ridge and nearing the summit, marked by a tall green structure.Looking back toward the highway, Summit Peak is at the left. Rather than returning the way we came, we will follow the ridge at the right, forming a loop back to the creek.Dan reaching the peak of Mount St PaulA quick selfie at the peak before beginning our descent.Picking my way down the rocky ridge, back toward the creek. This was never beyond easy scrambling.Unfortunately as we made our way down the toe of the ridge, Dan managed to step awkwardly and aggravate an existing ankle injury. He still hiked himself out, we just slowed our pace for the last two kilometers. We made it back to the highway in 7 hours, with plenty of time left in the day.We spotted a caribou along the highway while heading back to our campground. I had never seen one before this road trip and ended up seeing 8 over the week! I hope this little guy put some weight on before winter.
We spent our evening unwinding around a campfire. Does any lavish dinner truly compare to the random mash-up of whatever things survived to the last night of a road trip? On this evening we enjoyed roasted wieners in wraps with processed cheese slices – a feast fit for kings! The next day we made the 14 hour drive back to the Edmonton area, already beginning planning for a longer trip next time.
Peak Bliss 