A friend and I hiked up Downton Creek yesterday, summited Peak 8700 today and then made the trip home. I had been looking for info before we left and couldn't find much so thought I'd share what we learned!

The Downton Creek FSR has had a few small landslides that have been cleared. The washout that was there last year is still there but is passable.



At about 10.2km (just before the turn on to Branch 2) there is a big sinkhole/washout/car swallowing opening in the earth, but you can drive around it.





We turned up Branch 2 and about a kilometer later there is this lopsided landslide and we decided to park and walk the rest of the way. It's probably easily passable with the right car and driver



The hike up was fantastic. We went to the upper lake - about 7km from where we parked the car. This was my 3rd trip up there and I had no idea there are such extensive meadows up there! Stunning! No bugs. We lay out in our sleeping bags waiting for the stars to come out but the moon was so bright and dusk just goes on forever. Finally at 10pm there were about 6 stars and we called it a night and climbed into the tent.




Scrambled up peak 8700, saw a bunch of mountain goats and then hiked back down through the meadows. We found the trail that rejoins the main trail just after the first meadow (on the way up). Gorgeous flowers! No bugs! NO PEOPLE!

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Hm, none of the images showed up. Hang on.

Edit: I don't know what's going on. If you want photos of the road, message me.

Images or not - thanks for this update!

If you right click on the image and choose open in new tab you can see them.

Hi Jen,

I'm interested in hiking this area but I can't find much info on it. Does this hike take you to Viola Lake? What's the best way to access it?

Thanks!

How are the conditions on the trail? Snow?

Does anyone know what the fang-like peak is on the right side of this photo which was posted above?

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IIRC it's called Faulty Tower...

Nice. Gotta get into this area soon

No snow at all to the first lake. Some patches up above but easy to cross and/or avoid.

How was the snow up in that area? Where was the snow line at?

I'd really like to see your pics. Can you share them on imgur or something like that ?

Went there yesterday. Unfortunately didn't summit any peaks as we only had one day for a return trip, and on top of that we got a late start from Vancouver, but got to a second lake (saw from inbetween trees), and summitted a little hill from which you could see both lakes before turning around. Around that time we saw a wolf! What a magnificent albeit huge creature! As soon as he saw us he bolted away, so we only saw it for maybe 3 seconds from afar, but that was really special. I've never seen so many flowers as yesterday on the trail. The whole place is absolutely breathtaking, I can't believe such a pristine alpine is within 45 minutes hiking from the parking lot. Will certainly be back, next time with the tent for the overnighter.

The bugs were kind of annoying btw, so it sounds like they woke up in the last week. I would expect them to become more annoying in the next few weeks.

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Can someone who was recently up there give alittle more info on the road? The picture that JenCloss put up of the slide doesn't look that bad. Basically what cars can make it to the trailhead....A Honda Accord or a Toyota Pickup? and how much walking would the Accord be?

hmm, no bugs and no people, you nailed this one right. Hard to believe! Thanks for the post

We were there with 2 cars - one 2004 Forester, one 2014 BMW 3rd series. BMW made it about 1/3 of the way and then parked. Forester shuttled people to the very end. If you go in Civic I would say you will have to walk about 6-8k one way to the trail head. Pickup will make no problem - there aren't any serious offroading conditions, but few sections require clearance.