October 1st, 2017
Harrison Grind (aka Campbell lake trail) can be found just off Harrison hot springs road (hwy 9) shortly before the lake across from Balsam Ave. There is a small area to park on the gravel beside the condos otherwise you can park on Balsam Ave. like I did.
You can find this trail info at the beginning of the parking lot along with a list of other nearby hikes.
It was a foggy start on Sunday’s hike but it later cleared up and became a beautiful day! It was really neat to watch the fog slowly clear away into clear blue skies at the view point.
The trail can be a bit confusing (we almost got lost a few times as the markers are not clear in some spots). I followed the Vancouver trails directions for the start of the trail (vancouvertrails.com). As you climb up past the water tower back into the forest keep right when the trail splits and follow under the power lines. Then you go around the power line tower back into the forest. The markers become a little bit better at this time. The trail is overgrown in a lot of areas and there is a lot of ducking under logs or climbing over them. I thought this was pretty fun but I must say I was quite sore after this hike haha.
The start of the trail gets you climbing immediately.
Here are some photos in order of the description of the confusing part of the trail.
It took us about 2.5 hours to get to the Harrison lake lookout.
The fog clearing and opening up to the beautiful view of Harrison Lake
We then chose to continue hiking for another 30 minutes to Campbell lake which was definitely worth it! This part of the trail is mainly flat too which was nice. The only tricky part was a part where we had to climb over boulders while trying to avoid many devil’s club plants. This made our hike around 6 hours round trip hiking at a moderate pace.
A few photos of sections of the trail.
Devil’s club, do not touch these plants!
Campbell Lake
The trail is mainly dog friendly except for our friend had to turn back when we headed across a section of boulders to get to Campbell lake (as her dog was unable to cross these boulders). So keep that in mind if you are hiking with your dog. No issues to get to the lookout point though. I wouldn’t recommend bringing small children on this trail unless you are planning on carrying them.
Dragon tree
Very beautiful trail with a variety of scenery and trail terrain. It is definitely a grind but nothing too crazy if you have hiked a few intermediate trails recently.
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