Guanaco Peak and Vicuna Peak stand at the head of the Upper Coldwater River Valley in the Coquihalla Summit Recreational Area.   They are not visible from the highway, but anyone who hikes up Zoa, Yak, Zupjok, or Needle Peak will likely photograph them and want to hike them.

Access is the difficult issue.   The route to Guanaco is up the Upper Coldwater Road from the highway.   Turn off at the Britton Creek-Coquihalla Lakes (Exit 228) ) interchange and stay on the west side,   Follow the gravel road through a works yard and continue to follow the road for 8km to the Little Douglas Lake trailhead and recreation site.   Everything past this point is too rough and overgrown for most vehicles.   The road continues on for 6 km to the trailhead, but it is so grown-over that any vehicle will be punished.   We chose to drive for 4k of the 6, but we can’t recommend it.   If we return to do this hike (and we want to), we will park at Little Douglas Lake and mountain bike to the trailhead.

The road ends at a Y intersection and at a berm to the right, we turned onto an old skid road which we followed for about 15 minutes.   Above the road on the left is a trailhead sign and flagging tape, the start of the climb up to Vicuna and Guanaco.   The trail was well marked.   It climbs alongside an old cut/replant, then winds up steeply through the forest.

On an angled shelf, the trail is quite wet, but the trail continues to climb right to the base of the eastern face of Vicuna.

From the base of Vicuna, a long traverse takes us up to the ridge between the two peaks and we get our first views to the west.    Looking south, we saw that the back side of Vicuna is for climbers only.   A route could be seen up the crack above the ridge on the northwest slope (one of our party, Russ, made the climb).

Since our main objective was Guanaco, we aimed west up the ridge, then up a series of ledges to the top of the mountain.

Wide views are one of the rewards from this summit.   Most impressive are the Anderson Peaks, looking like the peaks of Mordor in the distance.

A small glacier sits at the foot of a north-side slide zone.

On a clear day, the views extend to Mt. Baker, the North Cascades, the Coast Range, and the rocky Coquihalla Summit Peaks, but the slab faces of Vicuna are immediate and daunting.

We returned the way we came, a 7 km return hike from the trailhead.  A very good route and highly recommended, if you can just get up the valley on the overgrown road.

Coordinates:

• Start of the Upper Coldwater Road at the Rec site – N49 48.434 W121 05.583
• Y in road – go right (west) – N49 38.401 W121 08.252
• Trailhead sign – N49 38.753 W121 08.446
• Ridge between Vicuna and Guanaco – N49 39.631 W121 08.941
• Guanaco Summit – N49 39.719 W121 08.589