Barret Hat Trail: A great opportunity to go on a short hike leading to mountain and river valley views located just north of Houston, British Columbia, Canada. The lookout point, at one time, was a forestry lookout that was used by the park rangers to spot wild fires. Today, the Barret Hat Trail is a hidden gem of a local hike serving up views of mountains.

The short 2 km or so hiking trail travels along an old overgrown forestry road leading out onto a lookout point with fantastic views of the Telkwa Mountain Range and the Bulkley Valley. The entire hiking route should take 45 minutes to an hour to complete one-way.

The easy-grade hiking trail starts off by following a fairly wide dirt road up a hill of mud, exposed rock boulders and tree roots. The trail can be muddy, which is fun and is only a soggy condition that grows with rain. Make note, the hardest part of this trail for us on this trip was making sure we had the right trailhead (deactivated dirt road) because there was no clear signage.

A the top of the hill the route levels out for the first time on a small cleared hilltop. This is as far as you can go by vehicle. Continue following the trail into the shrubs and forest. Soon... the trail narrows and begins to follow some back acreage fencing of a farm before it leads back into the forest again and out to the lookout point.

How to get to the Barret Hat Trail: This is the tricky part at the time when we explored this hike because of the lack of signage at a three way intersection of gravel roads. From Hwy 16 heading west of Houston, BC turn left onto Barret Hat Road. Continue a short distance down the road to until the road veers left... when you could turn right or go straight. Do not veer left or turn right... go straight through and up the gravel road. Or park at the bottom and walk up.