Zupok Peak

My previous post covered 12 easy hikes to explore with your dog near Vancouver, but if you’re looking for something a little more adventurous, there are lots of epic hikes to do with your dog too! Remember, while all of these hikes are dog-friendly, they have varying on/off leash rules, please make sure to respect them, they exist for many reasons. In addition, please also make sure to pick up after your dog. Dog poo is not natural and carries lots of harmful bacteria that has been proven to lead to e.coli in waterways. Here’s some great trails within a few hours drive that make for a fun hike with your furry friend!

Three Brothers Mountain

Location: E.C. Manning Park (East of Hope)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 21km, 500m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: Skip the climb by driving all the way to the top of Blackwall Road. From there, it’s a scenic hike through alpine meadows, culminating with a ridge walk to the peak of First Brother Mountain. This is a popular trail, be prepared for it to be busy, especially when wildflowers are in peak bloom.

Snow Camp Mountain

Location: E.C. Manning Park (East of Hope)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 18km, 900m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: The trail leaves from Strawberry Flats on the Skyline II Trail. Start with a 5km hike uphill through the forest before arriving at the most scenic viewpoint of the trail looking towards iconic Hozomeen Mountain. Continue on to climb to the top of Snow Camp mountain, a great place to see wildflowers. This trail is less well known than Three Brothers Mountain, but gaining popularity.

Flatiron

Location: Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area (north of Hope)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 10km, 850m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: This is a steep hike through the forest until you reach the junction for Needle Peak. Needle Peak has several rope sections and is not recommended for dogs, but continue past it to the small lake below the Flatiron and climb up to the large plateau with phenomenal views.

Zoa Peak

Location: Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area (north of Hope)
Season: Year round
Terrain: 8km, 650m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: This is a great trail to explore all year round. In the summer, drive to the parking lot for Falls Lake and follow the trail up an old forestry road and then through the forest to views at Zoa Subpeak and Peak. In the winter, park at the highway pullout and snowshoe the road to Falls Lake. Continue up the forestry road, but follow the winter trail through the woods. Do not go past Zoa Subpeak without avalanche safety training and equipment, as the final peak is in challenging avalanche terrain.

Zupjok Peak / Ottomite Peak

Location: Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area (north of Hope)
Season: Zupjok: July – September; Ottomite: Year round
Terrain: 10km, 700m gain; 8km, 350m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: Zupjok is a steep climb through the forest in the summer, but offers fantastic views from the summit, where you can continue along the ridge to Llama and Alpaca Peak, if desired. Zupjok Peak is not recommended in winter due to challenging avalanche conditions, but Ottomite Peak can be accessed year round. Follow the trail at the branch for an easier day of hiking or snowshoeing.

Elk / Thurston Mountain

Location: Chilliwack
Season: June – October
Terrain: Elk: 8km, 800m gain; Thurston: 16km, 1100m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: This is a popular trail located east of Chilliwack. Hike uphill through the forest until you reach the fabulous viewpoint at the top of Elk Mountain. From there, you can continue along the ridge to Thurston. The trail dips in and out of the forest, with some of the best views before the peak. There is no view at the actual peak.

St. Mark’s Summit

Location: Cypress Provincial Park
Season: June – October
Terrain: 10km, 550m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: One of the most popular trails on the list, this hike attracts locals and tourists. Park at the main Cypress lot and get a free backcountry tag from the lodge to attach to your pack. Hike through the forest to an incredible view of Howe Sound from the top of St. Mark’s. It is essential to keep your dog on leash at the summit as there are very dangerous drops. Some people do this hike year round, but avalanche safety training and equipment is highly recommended.

Mount Strachan

Location: Cypress Provincial Park
Season: June – October
Terrain: 7km, 550m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: Park at the main Cypress lot and get a free backcountry tag from the lodge. This is a nice loop trail that circles around the ski resort. The trail hikes up Collins run to the top of the Sky Chair, and then you can take the trail down Christmas Gully to merge onto the Howe Sound Crest Trail back to the parking lot of the ski resort.

Diez Vistas

Location: Belcarra Regional Park and Buntzen Lake Rec Area
Season: Most of the year
Terrain: 14km, 650m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: Hike to the top of the Diez Vistas trail from the Buntzen Lake parking lot to get *up to ten* views of Indian Arm, then hike back down to Buntzen Lake and circle back on one of the lakeview trails on either side of the lake. You will need a free parking pass for Buntzen Lake, which release 2 days in advance.

Crooked Falls

Location: Sigurd Creek Conservancy (northwest of Squamish)
Season: April – November
Terrain: 6km, 450m elevation gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: This is a forested trail north of Squamish that hikes up to a large waterfall. Best viewed in the Spring when run-off is high. Make sure to keep dogs on-leash near the waterfall as they could easily be swept away.

Brandywine Meadows/Mountain

Location: Whistler
Season: July – September
Terrain: Meadows: 6km, 550m gain; Mountain: 16km, 1500m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: These hikes are accessible from the end of the Brandywine FSR, west of Whistler. They are both incredibly scenic, however, they do involve a very steep trail up through the forest to access the meadows. If you have 4×4 and high clearance, you can cut 400m of gain from the trail profile. Camping is no longer permitted at this location. Just hike to the meadows if you want an easy day, but if you want a challenge, head up towards the peak.

Semaphore Lakes

Location: Semaphore Lakes Rec Area (west of Pemberton Meadows)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 5km, 350m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: This is the shortest hike on the list, but no less epic than the others. This trail has become very popular in recent years for its easy access to beautiful alpine landscapes and two lakes. The trail is primarily in the forest until you reach the lakes, from there you can explore further around the surrounding alpine.

Zupok Peak is a little bit off the regular beaten path, located on Highway 5 in the Coquihalla Summit Rec Area. It’s often paired with other peaks, like Ottomite Peak, Llama Peak, and Alpaca Peak. Ottomite Peak is a great option for snowshoeing and snow camping in the winter because it’s fairly short and stays in simple terrain, but I wouldn’t recommend any of the other peaks in snowy conditions because they go into challenging avalanche terrain, so stick to summer and fall when visiting those.

Me and Brandon have a tradition of going on a big hike every Thanksgiving weekend, and we picked Zupok Peak for our 2025 Thanksgiving hike. It was still early October, so we thought we might need microspikes for a small amount of snow, but were surprised to discover that the peak had gotten a dump of snow the night before we hiked the trail. So despite gorgeous sunny conditions on the day we visited, there was quite a lot of fresh powder on the trail.

The trail starts at the Zopkios Rest Area in the Coquihalla Summit Rec Area. You can park at the end of the lot and walk over to the west side of the washroom to access the trailhead. It’s a fairly well established trail, but it’s not very popular. Needle Peak and Flatiron, which are located on the other side of the highway, draw most of the crowds in this area, with Zoa Peak being the next most popular trail after those.

It’s a nice walk through the forest as you head towards Ottomite Peak. There is one river crossing and the bridge is in pretty rough shape, so take your time. There was snow along the entire trail, but it wasn’t very deep at lower elevations. Our biggest problem was that it was extremely cold. Usually I don’t need to layer up too much while hiking, even in winter, but on this particular day it was very chilly!

After ~3km of hiking along relatively flat trail, you will reach a junction to Ottomite Mountain. If you go in the winter or during snowy conditions, I recommend just visiting Ottomite and skipping the other peaks due to potential avalanche hazards. There’s a nice view from Ottomite and the trail is wide and still very easy to follow. Since it was the first snowfall of the season, we continued on towards Zupok Peak.

From here, the trail became harder to follow in the snow. There was one group that had started ahead of us, so they were breaking the trail. Once you start the ascent to Zupok, there’s markers on the trees that you can follow, but if the other group hadn’t broken the trail to the base of Zupok, it would have involved a lot more route finding for us. Instead, we were able to just validate the track using GPS to make sure we were on the right track.

After the junction to Ottomite, it’s ~2km to the summit of Zupok. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but this part of the trail gets really steep and it’s a big slog to climb up to the summit. You climb ~500m of elevation in 2kms, so be prepared for a steep grade! Most of the trail is through the trees, but there is one nice viewpoint halfway up. Near the summit you pop out of the trees for an incredible view of the area. In the summer, I think the trail would be a lot easier to follow, but it was a bit of a struggle in the last 300 metres to the top. The snow was much deeper on the summit (knee deep) and it was very windy, so we were pretty cold.

When we started the day, we planned to continue to Llama and Alpaca Peak, which looked fun since you get to walk along the ridge after Zupok, but that plan was quickly abandoned when we got to the summit. We only had microspikes and it was evident that we would need snowshoes along the ridge. Plus, it was just too windy and cold, so we quickly amended the plan to eat lunch at the summit and then turn around.

If you visit on a nicer day, I’d definitely check out the other peaks, but be prepared for the hike to still be fairly strenuous. You have to climb down Zupok Peak, only to immediately climb up Llama Peak (and then repeat again for Alpaca Peak), so you do still expend a lot of energy on each ascent. Plus, you’re in the alpine the entire time, so on a hot day, be cognizant of the exposure and sun protection.

We stopped for a quick lunch and Simmer got herself in a bit of a pickle. She wanted to put on her snowpants, but she didn’t want to take off her boots because her feet were so cold. She accidentally put them on backwards and then got stuck in them trying to reverse them with her large boots on! So we had a good laugh at her before snapping a few photos and heading back down the mountain.

We didn’t spend much time on the summit and we hiked back down to the base of Zupok pretty quickly. It was like a different world down there. There was no wind and the sun was out, so we were able to take a proper break to warm up. Brandon decided to build a snowman to stand guard at the mountain base. Otherwise, it was a pretty quick hike back to the car and we continued back to Hope for a proper meal.

I thought the view from the top of Zupok was beautiful, but this is a pretty challenging hike. I don’t think I’d be in a rush to re-do it because the hike up is such a slog, but I would love to explore the ridgeline on a less snowy day. I have heard that Fall is a good time because the shrubs along the top change colour and it’s not too hot along the exposed ridge, but obviously we were a bit too late in the season on this occasion, so early September might be the sweet spot!