Minnekhada High Knoll: 2 hour hike in Port Coquitlam
Once upon a time I used to be semi fit and went on a lot of hikes because it was a free activity. The longest hike I did at my peak was Garibaldi (8 hours) and I would do The Chief several times throughout the summer.
It’s been 2 years now since my hiking days and I can’t imagine even doing the stairs at the bottom of The Chief (lol). But I did want to get back into hiking, especially with all this social distancing going on, so I am restarting my hiking hobby with one of my favourite short hikes – Minnekhada High Knoll in Port Coquitlam.
Directions
Minnekhada High Knoll is one of the trails inside Minnekhada Regional Park. They have other trails as well, including a Minnekhada Low Knoll, which is an easier trail – I would not consider it a hike.
The entrance I like to start at is Quarry Road. There is a parking lot and outhouses. You can also start and park in Minnekhada Lodge, but then you wouldn’t cross through the marsh (which is quite pretty!).
The hike
Starting from Quarry Road, you go through 1 or 2 very short little trails before you reach the entrance of the lower marsh. You can take any of the Lodge trail, Meadow trail or Log walk.
Again, I choose to start from Quarry Road specifically because I like walking through the marsh.
The marsh is flat and there’s no terrain, but it’s cool to walk through the little path across the marsh fields.
After crossing the “bridge” past the marshes, follow signs that point towards High Knoll. The elevation from here on out gets steeper (nothing too serious). I see this as the true “beginning” of the trail because everything else before this is relatively flat.
The terrain varies from the usual – tree roots, stones and rocks. I find that it can get quite muddy if you go after a rainy day due to the marshes, so only choose this hike on a sunny day/week. The path itself is not marked by anything but it is wide and obvious enough for you not to get lost.
The view
The thing I love the most about Minnekhada High Knoll is that the view is spectacular for the amount of time and effort you put in. Take the Grouse Grind for example – you walk up stairs for 1.5 hours and get almost no view (just a bear and a lodge). But Minnekhada High Knoll on the other hand takes 1 hour to go up and at the top you see this:
So pretty right?!
The view is a mixture of lots of areas – Port Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Coquitlam. You can see the marshes from high above as well as bridges and tall buildings in the background. I’ve done this hike previously in the Fall as well and it’s really pretty to see the leaves change colour.
Final thoughts
In total, Minnekhada High Knoll takes around 2 hours to go up and down. The view is beautiful and it’s really not that strenuous of a hike. Children and dogs can do this hike easily and you don’t need any special hiking equipment or shoes because it’s not that steep.
I’m looking forward to doing more hikes and getting my body back to regular shape.
Sincerely, Loewe