Trail: Spirit Caves
Date completed: June 2020
Distance: 5 km
Elevation: 850 m
Location: Yale, British Columbia
Distance from Vancouver: Approximately 2.75 hours
Directions: Click here for Google maps
Adults: 2
Ages of Children: 6, 9, 12
Stroller friendly: No
Dog friendly: Yes, on leash
Bathrooms: No
Cell service: Yes
Jellybean Rating: 4/5
The Spirit Caves Trail in Yale is one of the most fun places we’ve been!
Located just outside of Hope, the Spirit Cave trail is a bit tricky to find. In fact, you’re going to thank us for saving you from a frustrated few minutes of driving as you try and find the trailhead:
Your GPS is going to tell you that you’ve arrived at your destination, but you may not see the sign for the trail. You’ll see a forest on one side of the freeway and a residential area on the other. The Spirit Cave Trail is across from the homes.
This is what you”ll see on the residential side of the freeway:
This is what you’ll see at the trailhead for the Spirit Caves Trail:
The trail is very well marked the whole way up. The trail is groomed and you’ll be able to follow it quiet easily.
The trail does start to get quite steep. This is definitely a good hike to wear proper footwear on.
About halfway there’s a beautiful lookout. It’s about at this point that you may need to seriously get the motivation mode going. The kids are going to be tiiiiiiired. Our solution to motivate the kids? SNACKS!!
The trail starts to get easier after this point. Maybe it was the snacks, or the happier children, or the plateau in grade….but we definitely enjoyed this next slog more than the first.
There’s nothing magnificently telling that you’ve reached the caves except for some small offshoot trails from the main one that leads to the boulders.
It’s seriously worthwhile taking some time to explore here. There are some really neat caves to explore (make sure your phone is charged for your flashlight and make sure to do a check before heading into the caves).
Jellybean Summary for Spirit Caves
This is a super neat trail. It’s tough and definitely pushed us, but the result at the end is soooooo worth it. The kids had so much fun and talk about it all the time.
As mentioned earlier, the trail is a bit steep. Take your time, especially on the way down. We gave this trail a 4/5 Jellybean Rating because of how fun it is at the end of the hike, but the hike itself gets a 5.
Stay safe and have fun!