Chris M. at Illal Creek:

“Two of us went into the Illal Creek area for part of the long weekend. Colleen and I left late Sunday night and find a wonderful place to camp just off the Coquihalla Highway, shortly before the Sowaqua Creek exit. A short drive the next day took us to the access turnoff and I was able to drive all the way up the logging road to within 30 seconds of the trailhead. About 10 minutes in to the hike we used a log to cross the creek then we followed a nice trail up through the forest. Within an hour we crossed the scree field and were out in the open. Much of the north-facing slope was still covered in a little snow so we decided to head over to a dry ridge north of Illal Creek. After setting up camp and resting for a bit we followed an old wonderful little trail all the way around and then up Illal Peak. Great close views of Jim Kelly and Coquihalla Mountains. The sunset view of Needle and Yak Peaks from our camp spot was beautiful. On Monday we attacked the surrounding peaks in a mad blur of activity! Well actually it was nothing like that. We lazed around, packed up late-morning. Headed towards Spiral Peak. That started to look steep so we found small flower fields to distract us. Then picked a route across the bowl to join up with the trail down. Back at the car, we used the chilly creek to cool off in, sat in lawn chairs, drank cold beer and ate strawberry-rhubarb pie. I think the drive home was less than 3 hours, including a small stop in Hope.”