Skyline Trail to Lone Goat Mountain – Manning Park

Skyline Trail to Lone Goat Mountain – Manning Park

I have another corker that I’d like to share with you all. The Skyline Trail to Lone Goat Mountain (or to Snow Camp Mountain) in E.C. Manning Provincial Park is one of the premiere hikes in this part of British Columbia. It starts with a not-too-steep climb up to the main ridge of Snow Camp Mountain, then follows flower-filled alpine meadows over to Lone Goat Mountain. As soon as you reach the ridge, you will be treated to spectacular mountain views so you’ll see why this trail is called the skyline!

Skyline Trail to Lone Goat Mountain Map

Skyline Trail to Lone Goat Mountain – The basics

Distance: 20+ km
Cumulative Elevation gain
: 1160m
Elevation change: 635m
Highest Point: 2005m
Time:Β It took us just under 7 hours, including breaks
What to bring:
Loads of water
The 10 Essentials
Hiking poles were helpful
Facilities:
There is a loo at the trailhead
Dogs:
Dogs will love it, but they need to stay on their leashes.
How hard is it?
Intermediate. It there is a decent amount of elevation gain, but it does not get very steep (until the last part up to the peak.) The most difficult aspect is probably the distance if you are not used to hiking 20km. My phone thought it was more like 24km.

Skyline Trail I Trail – Getting Started

We started our hike from the trailhead at Strawberry Flats. There are plenty of sign posts; You should follow the signs for Skyline II.

There are actually two Skyline Trails in Manning Park. Skyline I is a loop up onto Snow Camp Mountain from Strawberry flats or Lightning Lake. While Skyline II is a longer trail across the mountains past Lone Goat Mountain and on towards Skagit Valley Provincial Park. This trail goes on both the Skyline I and Skyline II trails.

Be bear aware – make noise

We didn’t see any early in the morning, but the previous time we visited Strawberry Flats (for the Three Falls trail) we met a beautiful black bear on this part of the trail. This time there were four of us making plenty of noise so we didn’t see any bears. If you are in a smaller group, just make sure you are loud.

The first 4km are basically switch backs through the forest. As you climb higher, the trees start to open up a little and you’ll be bathed in sunlight.

At around 5km in, you get your first glimpses of Snow Camp Mountain’s Peak (left) and Lone Goat Mountain (in the middle). The red/brown mountain to the right is Red Mountain.

Junction for Skyline I and Skyline II

Once you reach the junction up on the ridge, you want to turn off down the Skyline II trail. However, before you do that, go and look at the views! This is the viewpoint you’d see if you wanted to return back down the Skyline I trail.

It’s a bit of a steep drop, but aren’t the mountains gorgeous!? The next section of the trail climbs down the ridge to the right of my photo below, then straight back up again to the green ridge in the distance.

Down, then back up again!

Next you need to follow the switchbacks to lose around 150m in elevation. Once you’ve reached the lowpoint, you just hike right back up again!

Manning Park’s Alpine Meadows

If you have seen my post about Three Brothers Mountain, you’ll know that Manning Park has sooo many amazing wildflowers once you get into the alpine. The Skyline II trail is no exception. My walking pace slowed down considerably once we made to this part of the trail. I stopped hundreds of times to take photos of flowers.

Wildflower wonderland

In addition to all the red paintbrushes (the red spiky fellas) and alpine lupines (blue/purple dudes) there were lots of cool plants that I had never seen before. They looked like succulents.

We were hiking with our friends Bernie and Zoe, who are super speedy walkers. So I spent most of this part of the hike taking photos, then running to catch up as everyone was so far off in front of me.

Thunder Lake View

As well as wildflowers, there are oodles of mountains views to take photos of! I loved being able to see Thunder Lake from above. We hiked along the Lightning Lake Chain trail to that lake last year, so it was great to see the birds eye view of the same scenery.

Snow Camp Mountain Vs Lone Goat Mountain

This trail goes right up to both Snow Camp Mountain or Lone Goat Mountain, so you could easily climb to the top of either. Our original plan was to hike up Snow Camp…but we totally missed the turning for it. We had so much fun on the trail that we just kept going to Lone Goat Mountain. You do lose (and then gain) extra elevation if you head for the Lone Goat, but not *too* much.

To reach Lone Goat Mountain’s peak, you just have to keep walking to the end of the trail on the AllTrails map above. After that there’s a turning that climbs straight up the extra 150m to the top.

This last 150m of elevation gain is the toughest part of the whole hike. It is steep and the ground is quite dusty and slippery. Still, you can take it slowly, as every time you turn around, you will see views of Mount Hozomeen like this…

We made it up and stopped for some food. This is one of my favourite lunch viewpoints of the whole summer. It was amazing in all directions.

Lone Goat Mountain Views

This is the view back towards Thunder Lake and Lone Mountain.Β  You can see the edge of Frosty Mountain off in the distance. We hiked there to see the golden larches in the autumn.

This is off in the other direction. There are layers and layers of mountains.

We hiked a little further over to the edge to take a peek north towards Red Mountain too.

Looking back, these photos all look a little fake as it was just all so blue, green and lush! The photo below looks back to Snow Camp Mountain, and the ridge beyond; Where if you like, you can follow Skyline I back down to Lightning Lake.

And this is the steep view back down to the Skyline II trail, with Hozomeen Mountain looking fabulous in the background.

Heading back via Snow Camp Mountain

We didn’t hike up Snow Camp Mountain on this occasion. We had big plans for a swim followed by a slow-cooked dinner on the campfire. I’ll definitely be back to hike it next time.

Extra tip – Start early

We started at 8am, so the hike up was relatively cool and pleasant, and the bugs didn’t really start to munch on us until we reached the peak. We hardly saw any other hikers at all before lunch. The trail was far busier on our return journey, so most people seem to start a few hours after we did. However their hike must have been far hotter and more exhausting. If you possibly can, start early for a more pleasant (and quiet) hike.

Once again, I have to finish with some of the panoramas from this walk. They give you a better idea about how expansive the views can be from Skyline Trail to Lone Goat Mountain.

Isn’t it gorgeous!? What do you think?

All the hikes in E.C. Manning Park are fun, but this is one of the truly spectacular ones. If you would like to find an amaaazing hike East of Vancouver, look no further! Just click on the pins below to save this to hike later.

Lone Goat Mountain via the Skyline Trail - E.C.Manning Park - BC, Canada Skyline II Trail flowers - E.C.Manning Park - BC, Canada Skyline Trail to Lone Goat Mountain - E.C.Manning Park - BC, Canada

37 thoughts on “Skyline Trail to Lone Goat Mountain – Manning Park

    1. Thanks Miranda! The flowers were pretty spectacular weren’t they! If you come North i hope I can introduce you to Manning park one day.

  1. Ah Josy, I can smell that fresh air. I’ve been up and down the Pembrokeshire coast in the last week but I miss a decent mountain… v jel. And I was delighted with the Josy-Jump (trademark pending). One day the picture will show just your feet as you find the gravity is as thin as the air and fly away, drone like…

    1. I sort of love that idea Geoff! I might have to ask Marc next time we go hiking, to see if I can get a jump photo with just my feet!! 🀣🀣🀣

      How was the Pembrokeshire coast? It must be lovely at this time of year.

  2. Josy, you have totally sold me on Manning Park. All the hikes you’ve posted about look awesome and this one is no exception. We were supposed to go but had to postpone because of the smoke. I saw succulents like that in the Chilcotins; they’re beautiful.Please remind me when you visited. Perhaps I’ll try to catch the wildflowers in bloom next summer if I can’t get in a visit in the next few weeks.

    1. We went twice this year, once in early July (around the 10th) when there were still glacier lilies, then again (24th July) when all the flowers had popped out.

      It changed really quickly between those two dates. We were FREEZING at night the first time, then snugly, warm and needing to swim the second time!

      It is nice in early spring for snowshoeing too…but we never saw the views when we came on previous trips (in March/April)

    1. Riiight? I have to admit I liked best it once we made it up high, but the forest was also good for keeping us cool (as well as being beautiful!)

    1. I would love to visit the Aussie bush too (although I love the sound of Tas and their rainforests… I guess I am drawn to rainy places!)

  3. Oh my goodness the landscape looks breathtaking! I love hiking but I never did such a long one. I think the longest I’ve ever done was 3 hours πŸ™‚

    1. If you ever start doing longer walks, it gets easy to manage quite quickly. I bet you could do it once you see how pretty the rewards (views) are. πŸ™‚

  4. I’ll admit anything with a “bear noise” warning scares me a little, but these photos are so spectacular that it might be worth it. Thanks for such great into on Long Goat Mtn.

    1. Yeah I know what you mean. I was super scared about the possibility of bears when we first moved here.

      Now we know to be careful and noisy, to be honest, we see them so rarely that I am normally excited to catch a glimpse of one from far away! If you go in a group of 4, you’d always be okay.

  5. British Columbia has so many incredible trails! Skyline Trail looks incredible. I love this guide because it goes through the entire trail and what to expect. It’s super helpful, and I’m excited to use this when I visited British Columbia. I can’t wait to hike in Canada again!

  6. British Columbia looks absolutely beautiful! πŸ™‚ I love the greenery and flowers! I am adding it to my travel list. Meanwhile, I am trying to discover trails like this in the UK!

  7. Wow it looks absolutely gorgeous! I really want to visit Canada, hopefully soon πŸ™‚ I haven’t done such a long hike before but working my way up to it. I’m definitely saving this for later!

  8. This looks absolutely stunning, what a view 🀩 Can’t believe you saw a bear beforehand, how was it?? I’ve always thought they were adorable 🐻 but probably because i’ve never seen one in real life ahah! Great post!!

  9. More jumping! Brilliant. The skyline trail looks amazing, what a wonderful walk again. The wilderness around you is simply stunning, you are so lucky.

  10. This makes me miss the mountains so much! I’ve never done this trail before and i’ve been to the area a couple times. The flowers are stunning- i’ll add this one to my bucket list for the next visit!

  11. This hike looks absolutely gorgeous! I used to live in Vancouver and whenever I visit now I try to add on a new hike somewhere nearby so I will definitely put this one on the list for when I return next

  12. The sky line trail looks like such a beautiful way to explore nature! The mountains and flowers are breath taking. Your post is making BC move closer to the top of this list of places we have to see first hand

  13. This hike seems like it has everything! Lake views, meadows, and wild flowers! So beautiful! I am so scared to encounter bears when I hike! We have these little bear bells that we always carry with us, but I think we need to do something a little bit louder lol.

  14. Hi Josy, thank you for such a detailed post. I am not much of an active hiker, but I love the views that you are welcomed to.

    Lovely photos.

  15. The trail is so gorgeous and the views, wow! I would be scared though on that rocky bit, where there’s a drop. I love mountains but I also hate heights, haha.

  16. What an amazing hike! 7 hours?! My feet would fall off! My max has been like 2 and I couldn’t walk for the rest of the day haha!!! What a gorgeous landscape! We have the Bruce Trail here in Ontario but no views quite like this!

  17. This is insanely beautiful. I love all the flowers, there are so many colors. That’s a completely different type of hike view than the ones I’ve been doing around here. 20km seems like a lot when you think about it in one day but if it’s not too much elevation gain on some parts that makes sense. I should try and get this hike in before the end of the year, or plan for spring

  18. That is a BIG walk. I don’t think my fitness level is up for that but the scenery is certainly compelling. The big mountain views in British Columbia are spectacular.

  19. What an awesome day you had for that hike! I really like the whole Skyline ridge – it’s such good hiking.

    The little yellow succulents are stonecrop: lance-leaved in the first picture, and I think Oregon in the second. Very cute little flowers!

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