ABOUT HORSE BARN VALLEY 

The Horse Barn Valley (HBV) Interpretive Forest is a 200-hectare area of Crown land adjacent to the Kimberley Nature Park just west of the municipal boundary. Comprised of two rocky ridges running west and northwest, and two sheltered, moist valleys nestled against the shoulder of North Star Mountain, the interpretive forest is an ecological and recreational jewel.

 

Three trails run along the lush valley bottoms, and two along the rocky ridges. A hike or bike along these trails reveals deep dark spruce and cedar groves, spreading wetlands, stunning viewpoints and tumbled talus slopes. Dipper Lake on the eastern border of the area lies at the base of soaring cliffs, and just a few hundred metres upstream from the lake is the Halfway Cabin. Built by volunteers in 1934 as a midway stop on the trail to Matthew Creek, the cabin has recently been re-roofed and its vintage woodstove provides rustic winter comfort to tired snowshoers and cross country skiers.

 

The Interpretive Forest was established in 2003 through an application by the Kimberley Nature Park Society to the province. While that designation allows for normal forest management practices to continue, it also recognizes the area’s important recreational, educational, ecological and heritage values, and gives the Kimberley Nature Park Society a role in their management in partnership with the provincial agency, Recreation Sites and Trails BC. The KNPS prepares an annual work plan for the area that includes maintenance of trails and signage, hosting interpretive walks, and stewardship of the Halfway Cabin. In 2014 a set of 13 interpretive panels was developed and installed throughout the HBV trail system to educate visitors about its human and natural history.