Hiking Minnekhada Regional Park in Coquitlam
Contents
Minnekhada Park Hike Information
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 10.50Km
Elevation Gain: 372m
Highest Elevation: 173m
Average Gradient: 7.09%
Effort/Reward Ratio: Low / Low
Time Needed:
– Slow: 3 – 4 Hours
– Moderate: 2.5 – 3 Hours
– Fast: 2 – 2.5 Hours
Dogs Permitted?: Yes
Season: Year-Round
4×4 / High Clearance Required? No
Scrambling / Exposure: None
Minnekhada Park Trail
Trailhead Coordinates: 49°18’00.0″N 122°42’26.5″W
Minnekhada Park Overview
Minnekhada Regional Park is a park located in Coquitlam, near the Pitt-Addington Marsh and the Pitt River. The park has a little over 10km of trails with a variety of different sights along the way.
The most popular hike in Minnekhada Park is the High Knoll Trail, which offers a nice view above the Pitt River and Pitt-Addington Marsh. There are plenty of pleasant views throughout the park though, with the marshlands within the park a particularly easy stroll, as well as the Low Knoll and Addington Lookout.
There are many different trail options within the park, from an easy flat stroll around the marshes or the hike that is featured here covering every trail and every viewpoint within the park.
Minnekhada Park is a popular year-round spot due to the pleasant views for minimal effort. It’s particularly popular with dog walkers and families with small children as the trails are mostly simple and easy. The park also attracts naturalists as its chock full of wildlife, with many different bird species frequenting it year-round. This is also a high activity area for black bears and it’s not uncommon for them to be found within the park. That being said, they are entirely used to humans so don’t let it concern you, but you should be bear aware and prepared.
Due to all of the above, parking within the park can fill quickly, especially on a sunny summer day. Even on the cloudy spring day when I went the parking lot was overflowing by 9.30am, so I suggest an early start.
Maintaining this website requires a significant investment of both time and money, if you find this website a useful resource, please consider making a donation using this button.
Is Minnekhada Park worthwhile?
Many people will find Minnekhada Park a very pleasant stop at any time of year. As a hiking enthusiast though, this is a hike I would save for one of those cloudy or even rainy days when you won’t have any views from a summit. The trails around the marshlands are very pleasant and the High Knoll viewpoint does offer a good view. The rest of the viewpoints in the park aren’t anything to write home about, but you might as well do everything the park offers in one trip as I did.
How difficult is the Minnekhada Park hike?
At a 7% average gradient this is a pretty easy hike overall. Much of the hike is on flat or undulating terrain, with the climb up to the High Knoll being the only notably challenging part of the hike.
Technically a lot of the hike is on well groomed, gravel trails, though the climbs to the High Knoll and Addington Lookout , as well as the Mid Marsh trail can be quite technical, with a lot of rocky, rooty and slippery terrain.
Minnekhada Park Route Information
There are a couple of trailheads to get into Minnekhada Park, but the main one is on Quarry Road (see coordinates), where this hike begins. The trail begins at the north end of the parking lot near the washrooms.
After a couple of hundred meters you’ll take a right turn onto the Lodge Trail when the trail splits, following this for a couple of hundred meters more. Keeping right on the Lodge Trail, the trail will now hug the edge of the marsh while offering some nice views. There were a couple of cranes here when I arrived early morning, and the morning reflections off the water made for some nice photos.
The trail will continue to loop around the edge of the marsh, crossing over a bridge before entering the forest. Soon you will walk through a small picnic area near Minnekhada Lodge, which has a little viewing platform of the marsh. Keeping left you’ll now join the Fern Trail.
Over the next kilometer or so the trail remains simple on a gravel path, though it begins to climb gradually into the forest. At the 2km mark of this hike you’ll reach another junction which you’ll want to go right on, towards the Addington Lookout. Once you leave the Fern Trail the terrain deteriorates into a rocky trail with some mud patches throughout. You’ll actually descend 50m or so to the lookout, which is around 50m from the junction.
The views from Addington Lookout are nothing to get excited about, and in fact I’d skip this if I were to do this hike again as frankly the views are completely obstructed and almost pointless compared to the High Knoll viewpoint. Returning back to the Fern Trail will mean climbing back up the 50m you just descended.
Once you return to the Fern Trail you’ll climb a little more before beginning to descend. You’ll soon reach another junction where you’ll want to go left to the Low Knoll viewpoint. This is just a minor detour from the Fern Trail and offers some reasonably decent views above the marsh, though again nothing spectacular by any means.
Returning to the Fern Trail, you’ll now go left and almost immediately hit another junction, either going right up towards the High Knoll or left on the Mid Marsh Trail. If you want to do every trail in the park like I did, you’ll need to do a figure of 8 and as such you’ll go left onto the Mid Marsh Trail.
This trail is particularly rugged and covers some slippery rocks, so be careful with your footing. Soon you’ll descend towards the marsh and cut through the middle of it. This area is quite nice, offering views of both the north and south marsh. I saw a beaver here when I went, and you’ll notice lots of beaver dens dotted around.
At the end of the Mid Marsh Trail you’ll want to keep right and join the Log Walk Trail before again turning right and connecting to the Quarry Trail. This is a long looped trail in the forest, climbing gradually towards the High Knoll. The first half of the Quarry Trail is well groomed, but once you pass a junction going left (don’t take it), it soon deteriorates into a more rugged, rocky trail once again.
After this junction is where the climb towards the High Knoll begins. While it’s mostly straightforward it does have some steep moments that will leave you tired. After following the Quarry Trail for a total of 2km you will hit a junction that leads towards the High Knoll viewpoint. It is well signed 9and usually well trafficked), so it’s hard to miss.
From the junction you climb quite steeply up towards the High Knoll viewpoint, covering around 500m. The trail is rugged but perfectly manageable to all abilities, children and dogs included. Soon enough you’ll reach the viewpoint, which offers a nice view above the Pitt River and the Pitt-Addington Marsh.
After finishing up at the top you’ll head back down to the Quarry Trail, this time turning left and continuing around the loop. After 500m or so you’ll reach the junction with the Fern ad Mid Marsh Trail again, where you’ll turn right and follow the Mid Marsh Trail once more. At the end of the Mid Marsh Trail you’ll now go left onto the Meadow Trail, following this all the way back to the parking lot on Quarry Road.
When should I hike Minnekhada Park?
Minnekhada Regional Park is a year-round park at low elevation. Personally this is a hike I would save for a cloudy or rainy day but if you prefer to hike it on a sunny day it’s worth it as well. It’s a very popular park, especially in the summer, so I prefer to do it outside of the peak season.
Top Tip
While this hike covers all of the trails within the park, if I were to go again I’d probably skip the Quarry Trail and go straight from the Low Knoll to High Knoll viewpoint. This will save a lot of distance and elevation as you will also only be hiking the Mid Marsh Trail once if you did this. You could make it easier further by skipping the Addington Lookout, which is such an obstructed viewpoint it’s almost pointless.
