Tod Lake & Summit Hike

Alpine Blossom Festival

**From Sun Peaks: There will be a limited amount of hiking tickets available for sale each day, to manage guest numbers, overall guest experience, and ensure our new safety procedures are followed. Book hiking ticket here.

Trail Name: Tod Lake Hike – Sun Peaks
Distance: 10.7 kms
Time: 3.5 hours
Difficulty: Medium
Cell Service: Intermittent
Trail: Single track
Highlights: All the gorgeous alpine flowers!

To get there: Sun Peaks Resort is located about 40 mins north of Kamloops. Head north on Highway 5 towards Clearwater. Continue for about 29 kms, and you’ll see signs for Sun Peaks. Turn right onto Old Highway 5 and then take your first left onto Tod Mountain Road. Continue following this road for about 31.5 kms. Once you get into Sun Peaks, keep an eye out for P3. Park here. Or see it on Google Maps here.

Make sure you purchase a lift ticket from the ticket office located in P3.  Tickets were about $20/ea. Once you’ve got your ticket, hop on the Sunburst Express chairlift. At the top, you’ll want to get on the #2 – The Crystal Bowl Loop trail. Follow this trail until you see trail #5 – Top of the World trail. This part of the trail is the most difficult of the whole hike as it is fairly steep and full of switchbacks. Follow this trail to the top of the Crystal chair. From here, we took a quick side trip up to the top of the world following trail #6 – Juniper Ridge Loop. After taking in the sights, we hiked back down and continued following trail #5 another 0.2km until it turns into trail #10 – West Ridge trail. Continue following this trail for about 1.5kms until it turns into the #7 – West Bowl trail. After 0.9km you’ll reach another fork. If you’re up for it, the left trail will lead you to the top of Tod Mountain along the #11 – Tod’s Peak trail. This trail is well worth the short and steady climb if you’re up for it. It adds another 1.6km to your hike if you hike to the summit and back around the backside of Tod Lake. Otherwise, continue the last 0.8km along #7 to reach Tod Lake. We recommend packing a lunch to enjoy lakeside, as well as buy spray as the bugs can get quite bad.

Late July is the ideal time to visit Sun Peaks and enjoy the blooming wildflowers. Every year they host the Alpine Blossom Festival at the height of their bloom. 

This hike may seem complicated with all the trail numbers, but it’s not. Grab a hiking trail map from the visitor center, and use it to help guide you to Tod Lake.  This trail is unavailable to dogs, as they cannot ride the chairlift up. However, if you really want to bring your pup, you are welcome to hike up from the bottom. We met the loveliest golden retriever at the top of the Crystal chair. Make sure you also bring plenty of water and snacks, as well as sunscreen and bug spray along for the hike.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Is there a hiking group l can join. Senior, 66 I medium shape.
    Easy hikes needed first to build up strength . I absolutely love hiking.

  2. The time and distance on these are all round trip correct? Thinking if doing this one this weekend!

    1. Yup, always round trip!

  3. Can we camp up there ?

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