's Juniper Trail Hike
Juniper Trail or 'Loop' is right on the edge of Kootenay National Park. There are no difficulties along the route. Due to its placement you can do this hike pretty early and late in the season when most other places are still snow covered. You can either start on the eastern end near the hot springs or at the pull over by the park entrance. This trip report is going west to east, from the park entrance towards the hot springs. If you are doing it in reverese, simply read the log from the bottom up.
How to get to Juniper Trail?
If you are heading south on highway 93, it is about one kilometer past the Radium Hot springs on the right hand side. If you are coming from Radium townsite then you will want to pulloff to your left about 100 meters past the south Kootenay Park entrance. In both cases the pull off is on the northwest side of the road with a sign that has "Juniper" written on it.
Juniper Trail trip log
From the road there is a small parking area that is on the northwest side of the road. You will find a sign on a couple 4x4 posts that has "Juniper 3 km" written on it.
A series of large switch backs take you down to the canyon floor where you come across Sinclair Creek.
Once you make it to the bottom you have the option to head left for a couple hundred meters to see Sinclair Falls. You can't really see the waterfall since it is hidden in the canyon but at only 200m it is worth a gander.
If you head to the left the trail ends close to the base of the waterfall. After you have admired the running water you can head back towards the sign.
Once you are back at the sign you will want to make a left and cross over Sinclair Creek on the bridge.
The trail now starts going up through a forest of Rocky Mountain junipers and Douglas firs. It is all done on switchbacks so it is not very steep at all.
As you head up to come to a small lookout where the trail turns sharply to the left. Here you can see where the 93 passes below through the canyon.
As you proceed higher up and along the trail you come across a nice vantage point that also has a decent bench to sit on and take a break.
The trail then starts heading downwards through a relatively spaced apart forest. If you are hiking on a hot day it is a nice relief to be in some shade.
As you head further down the mountain side the forest thickens and all the deadfall offers some real interesting scenery.
When you reach the end of the trail you will reach the road. If you are starting at this point you will come across a sign that says Juniper Trail is this way and 3.2km long.
You have a few options on the return. If time is not a issue you can head back the way you came or cross over the road and head back on the Red Streak Trail. The quickest way to get back would be to take the road back which is all downhill and a relatively straight line back to the vehicle.
GPS Plotted Route
As you can tell the trail basically parallels highway 93 as it heads east/west. The buildings on the right edge are the Radium Hot Springs. The trail ends (or starts) just short of that. In between the two flags is Sinclair Falls. The right flag is the point on the trail when you are at the bottom and the right flag is when you can 'see' it from the top. Neither view offers much more than seeing the splash of the waterfall as it is nearly hidden between the rock.
In our opinion it's better to start on the west side and finish in the east because if you start in the east you end up having to walk back uphill to where ever you parked. Whereas going west to east it is all downhill back unless you choose to take one of the neighboring hiking trails back to the start point.
If there is any change to the route you feel others should know about, shoot us an e-mail from our contact page.
