My Sister and I decided to hike part of the Stein Valley again (we did it two years ago).  The river was too high - again – so it required a long drive down a gravel back road.  Normally you can take the ferry across, but that is not an option when the river is high.

So I ditch out of work early and we hit the road.  We have planned to drive to Lillooet and sleep in the SUV for the night.  After a busy day at work, this was a long drive.  The dogs were all excited as they knew something was up, and they squawked a bit when the drive took longer than they thought it should, but they settled down soon enough.

We arrive in Lillooet and drive around a bit trying to decide where we will park for the night.  We chose a little gravel parking lot near the hotel.  We had dinner at the hotel and then made up our beds for the night.  The SUV is so big that we were very comfortable for the night. 

The restaurant opened early so we managed to get some bacon and eggs before hitting the road again (I know, we were really roughing it).

After driving down the rambling back gravel road with sharp turns on a narrow cliff side road, we arrive in the valley.  The dogs were so excited to go it was hard to get a picture of them sitting still.

So we head off down the trail.  It is easy at first as we head down into the valley (this also means we need to come back up at the end of our trip). The first section is an easy enough trail and over a very stable normal looking bridge.

After hiking a bit we come to a place called “the Asking Rock”.  It is a special place to the Nlaka’pamux people. They would say a short prayer here before continuing on their travels.  The Nlaka’pamux people have been using the valley for thousands of years.  There are pictographs that are potentially that old on the asking rock as well as one other area we came across (to be shown later).

Continuing on the trail there are rocky trails through wooded areas

downhill switchbacks

over questionable bridges crossing creeks

over old rockslides

The River was so high and it roared.  We pitched our tent next to it (somehow missed taking a photo of camp) and it was awesome to fall asleep next to it.

Day one we hiked 8km.

* * * * * * * * 

Day two we did a day hike to the suspension bridge.

The trail leads through the shady trees, which is perfect as the day is very sunny and warm.

Poor Koko needs more of a haircut – he got pretty hot.  Good thing there was lots of streams for him to cool his feet in.

 We passed into a very shady treed area, that was nice and refreshingly cool, with a beautiful little stream.  We stopped here for a bit to rest and Tamara gave me some advice on using the camera. (trust me, I needed it!).

Continuing along we come to Earl’s Cabin.  No idea who Earl was, but here is his cabin.

Then we cross Earl’s Creek – this bridge is a little unstable as well.

Found some pretty flowers and practiced my photography skills.

The river is still high and raging.  Would not want to go swimming!!

We went over a few more rockslide slopes.

Found some evidence of beavers… they have been busy.

We arrived at the suspension bridge.  It was damage by a rockslide in the winter  ( we knew this ahead of time).  There were reports of people crossing anyway, but we were not risking it with the dogs.

The bridge does not look very damaged at the close end

Looking at the far end you can see it is rather wiped out.

We get back to camp and the dogs are wiped out.  It is bed time.  They stole my spot in the bed. We zip our sleeping bags together so there is room for the dogs to sleep between us.  Koko usually sleeps on some of our clothes and I cover him with a down duvet that Tamara made them.

I move them over and tuck them in so I can crawl into bed.  They don’t seem to mind much.

Day two we hiked 10 km.

* * * * * *

Hiking out of the valley is the same as day one, only backwards.  We detour down a very overgrown side trail.  We have to crawl over and under downed trees, bush whack around washed out trail all to reach what we know is hidden down the path. (we discovered it by accident our last trip).

We come across a sign that lets us know we have reached our destination.  Fines up to $1 million dollars for damaging or disturbing the pictographs.

There are tons of pictographs.  These are only a few.  More will be in the photo gallery once I get them cleaned up.

After spending some time taking a lot of photos – we continue on our way.

And I spot another flower photo op.  I am very proud of this one.

We pass what we call a memorial tree.  There are plaques on the tree in memory of a few people, and little trinkets attached to them.  It is very neat.

The tree bark looks odd, we suspect it is termites.  Probably half the trees in the valley have signs of insect infestations and have the unique patterns on the bark.

I found another pretty flower photo, not as proud of this one – but still pretty.

So we have found our way out of the valley, and this is our last ascent up to the vehicle.  Tamara looks pretty happy.

And a beautiful sight – the car!!! Yay!! As you can see… it is not a very small car.

Day three we hiked 8km.

In three days we hiked 26km.  Not bad for our first backcountry trip of the season!