Cathedral Park Backpacking Trip: Rim Trail

December 6, 2025November 20, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

Cathedral Park has been on my bucket list for a long time. I was supposed to visit the park in 2018, but my trip was cancelled due to a nearby forest fire. Fortunately, the fire never did reach the park, but I missed out on the opportunity. Even more unfortunately, another forest fire in 2023 (the Crater Creek fire) did breach the boundary of the park, doing a lot more damage to the area. The fire tore up the valley along Ashnola Road, burning everything in its wake and then continuing up towards the core area of the park.

Fortunately, the fire was contained before it burned everything, but a good chunk of the east part of the park was decimated, including 2 campgrounds and the access road. Parts of the core area of the park were saved, including the lodge (honestly, I think we have the lodge to thank that it didn’t all burn down, as I suspect they water bombed it). The park has been closed, but it was partially re-opened this summer. There used to be 3 campgrounds, but Lake-of-the-Woods and Pyramid Lake both burned down, leaving only the Quinescoe Campground.

The lodge did not burn down, but it’s not open due to the loss of the access road bridge. The road closure had a big impact on park usage in 2025. While it is possible to hike into the park, the access trail is 15km long and climbs 1400m in elevation, so it’s a big hike. Historically, most people have paid to use the lodge shuttle to access the park, even if they were camping, in order to avoid the challenging access trail. It appears that the bridge repair is almost complete, so I suspect the road will re-open in 2026, but for 2025, hiking was the only way to access the park.

When I saw the re-opening announcement, I impulsively booked permits for the Labour Day long weekend. Carolyn and I has planned to spend the weekend together and I thought Cathedral would be a nice option. In the past, it’s been hard to get permits for Cathedral because of its popularity, but with the road closure in 2025, it wasn’t a problem. Carolyn wasn’t really sold on the idea, but when she learned park usage was low due to the closed road – and that there were 5 lakes in the core park area – she quickly got on board with the idea. We decided to meet at the trailhead on Thursday night before the long weekend to spend 3 nights camping at Quinescoe Lake.

If you’ve been following along my previous posts, you’ll know that I was already on a road trip with Seth, so we all met up at the Lakeview Trailhead on Thursday evening. Accessing the park is a bit tricky as it’s not close to any cities. From Vancouver, it’s a 5-hour drive through Manning Park until you reach Keremeos. From there, you take Ashnola Road to the Park entrance. Ashnola Road is a gravel road, so it’s a bit slow going, but it’s in good shape and you can drive it in any vehicle. It was humbling to see all the damage from the forest fire on the way. Everything along the road has burned down, leaving many rec sites exposed. It’s a very fresh burn scar and it’s honestly hard to witness.

Once you reach the park entrance, there are two rec sites along the road, one is at the Lakeview Trailhead, and the other is a few kilometres away, called Buckhorn. We camped at Lakeview since that’s where we were leaving Carolyn’s car, but it only has a single walk-in site and no outhouse, so I wouldn’t recommend it. We ended up camping in the parking lot since we were the only ones there. I didn’t drive down to Buckhorn, but from the map, it looks like a more traditional rec site and I would recommend that one if you’re doing a similar trip.

There are actually 3 trails that hike into the core area of the park, but the Ewart Creek trail on the east side of the park is still closed because it completely burned. The most common access to the park (for the limited number of people who actually hike in) is the Lakeview Trail, which runs parallel to the backcountry road. In any other scenario, we would have hiked in and out on that trail. But because Seth was still with us and heading back to Vancouver the next day, we had the unique opportunity to do a thru hike. There’s a third trail, the Centennial Trail, that you can access from the west side of the park. At 16.5km and 1200m gain, it’s slightly longer and has slightly less gain than the Lakeview Trail. It’s another hour of driving to get to the trailhead, but Seth was nice enough to drop us off. So we left Carolyn’s car at Lakeview, with the intent to finish the trail there.

It was calling for a very hot weekend, so we got an early start. It’s a pretty steady incline for the first 8km of the trail. You get a reprieve when you reach the alpine, followed by another climb up to the Rim Trail, before you head down to the Quinescoe Lake Campground. We kept a steady pace on the initial uphill hike, which was forested, but after a few kms, we entered a burn scar. Because we knew the lodge hadn’t burned down, we thought the damage from the Crater Creek fire had been limited to the east half of the park, so we were disappointed to see the burned trunk. It looked like the damage along the Centennial Trail may have been from another fire, because it didn’t seem as recent, but I couldn’t confirm online.

In any case, it was exposed and hot along the trail, with no tree cover. We were wrong in assuming we’d have shade in the morning, so we ended up slogging through the first 8kms. Eventually we reached a plateau and found a small section of unburned forest where we were able to enjoy lunch. We both brought our helinox camping chairs, so we had a really nice break in the shade before setting off again. Fortunately, it got cloudier in the afternoon, so we had some relief from the heat by the time we reached the alpine. We hiked through nice meadows before starting the ascent up to the top of the Rim Trail.

The Rim Trail is one of many defining features in the park. There’s a cluster of lakes that are surrounded by a towering alpine ridge. It’s a very rocky park and it’s aptly named “Cathedral” because of all the stone monuments found along the Rim Trail, which encircles the core area in a 16km loop. We had to hike up to the ridge to connect with the Rim Trail at Scout Mountain before heading down to the lakes. It’s very exposed along the ridge and some dark clouds rolled in while we were hiking up to the pass. We were a little bit concerned about possible thundershowers while we were exposed, but fortunately the rain held off until we got to camp.

As we started hiking down, we could see a few larch trees that hadn’t burned, but we very quickly entered a complete burn zone. It was very eerie and sad to experience. It felt like there was a heaviness over the park the entire time we were there to the extent that I felt like we were almost grieving with the park. There’s a thick layer of black ash over everything and it was really dusty to hike through the burn scar. There’s absolutely no shelter and the only sign of life was the fireweed that had started to pop up. I lament the fact that we’ll never get to experience the park pre-fire. There are still some sections of unburned larch forest that were beautiful to witness – I can only imagine what it was like before.

It was a Friday night, so we didn’t expect the campsite to be very busy, but we were surprised to discover that we were the only people there, leaving 29 campsites empty. 2 girls did show up just before dark, so a total of 2 groups at this once popular site. More groups showed up on Saturday, but I think there were probably a total of only ~8 sites in use the entire long weekend.

We enjoyed the solitude on our first evening and went for a swim in the lake before watching the sunset. It’s an interesting campsite because, while bears are always a concern, mountain goats seem to be the bigger issue. Signs advise not to leave anything out that might entice the goats, and to only pee in the outhouse, as they are attracted to salt (so they will lick your pee off the ground). There are cages where you can put things you don’t want the goats to get, and of course, still a traditional bear hang (don’t use the goat cages for food!). We did see a mama and baby goat hanging around the campsite, which made a reappearance every day that we were there, as well as a few deer.

Carolyn had a very rough first night in the tent. Immediately after lying down, she commented that her sleeping pad had a leak. She found it very quickly and patched it up with tenacious tape, only to lie down again and immediately put another hole in it. We found a very sharp rock under the tent that had clearly put both holes in her pad. She patched that one up with tape too, but it caused her trouble all night. She’d get an hour of sleep, only for the tape to give out. We dug out some duct tape to try and fix it up and she had so many layers of tape on it. We didn’t want to waste our patch kit on a mediocre fix in the dark, so she suffered through the night on minimal sleep. The next day we fixed it with the patch kit, and fortunately, that solved the problem.

We got up early again to hike the Rim Trail. There’s lot of ways to customize this hike as there are several connector trails that come down at each lake. But I recommend just doing the whole thing because the connector trails are very steep and exposed. The highlight of the park is seeing Smokey the Bear (pictured above) and the Giant Cleft (pictured below), so we decided to do the trail clockwise to hit these highlights first. We ended up hiking the entire day without seeing a single other person, so it was a pretty special experience.

We started by hiking to Pyramid Lake and then climbed up through the trees to Ladyslipper Lake. Everything is burned to Pyramid Lake, but there’s still a small larch forest between Pyramid and Ladyslipper. It was early when we arrived at Ladyslipper, but we wanted to swim in all 5 lakes, so we stopped for a quick skinny dip. Ladyslipper Lake is really beautiful and I recommend hiking there even if you’re not doing the Rim Trail. At the end of the trip, Carolyn decided Ladyslipper Lake was her favourite lake in the park, but it was second on my list.

Once you leave Ladyslipper, be prepared to be in exposed terrain for the rest of the day. There’s a big climb after you leave the lake and the trail is not easy to follow (though it’s still hard to get lost). It’s obvious where you’re headed and it’s open terrain, so it’s a bit of a choose your own adventure up to the first plateau. You get a great view of the Giant Cleft as you hike up, and eventually the trail levels out briefly before you start a second steep climb to the top. This was probably the worst part of the hike, it’s a narrow exposed trail with lots of scree, so choose your path carefully. You’ll know you’re at the top when you see the junction and the sign for stone city.

It is a big day to do the entire Rim Trail. It took us almost 10 hours, but one of mine and Carolyn’s favourite things to do in the wilderness is film tiktok dances, so we stopped a lot to eat, film, and dance! Some people will just hike up to see the stone city and Smokey the Bear, returning the way they came. We had a quick break in the shade at the junction and then decided to do the 1km detour to see the rock features before lunch. I’m not really sure about the geological history of the park and how all of these stone formations came to be, but they have made it a special place for indigenous peoples and modern day visitors.

The first highlight is the stone city, which is a compilation of large scattered rocks, after which you arrive at Smokey the Bear. You can climb up to the top of Smokey, which we did, and then continue onto the Giant Cleft. This is exactly what it sounds like – a big gap in the cliffside. More adventurous hikers will scramble up Grimface Mountain, but we opted to turn around after the Giant Cleft, returning to the junction to eat lunch.

The rest of the hike is pretty straightforward as you circle around the top of the rim, but it is still surprisingly challenging. Like any ridge walk, while the net gain around the rim is minimal, there is a lot of up and downhill from peak to peak. Our first ascent was up to the Devils Woodpile, next to Pyramid Mountain, which has a great view of Ladyslipper Lake. The terrain is still really interesting because there’s a lot of rock, but over time, its become arranged into what looks like big waves of rock. I don’t know how this happens, but guessed it might be related to snowmelt, creating riverlike features. If I have any geologist readers, I’d love an opinion!

Our next milestone was hiking down to a lookout over Glacier Lake, before hiking up to the top of Quinescoe Mountain. Like I said, the trail isn’t always easy to follow and we got off it a few times throughout the day, but it’s always very obvious where you’re going, so we didn’t worry. The climb up Quinescoe Mountain wasn’t too bad, but we had one more ascent left on Red Mountain. It looked like a shorter and easier climb than Quinescoe, so we weren’t too worried about it, but it ended up being the worst one of the day.

The trail was the hardest to follow as Red Mountain was one big boulder field. You have to hop your way around the giant rocks up to the top, and then once there, the descent is even worse. My GPS track looks like we more or less followed the trail back down the mountain, but it sure didn’t feel like it! It was very steep and I felt unsure of myself in several areas because the boulders were so large. I was concerned about taking a wrong step and kicking up loose rocks. Fortunately, we made it to the bottom almost without incident, except that Carolyn’s bottle of electrolytes opened in her bag and coated everything in sticky, sugary liquid. Not her finest moment!

Eventually we reconnected with the Centennial Trail to follow our path from yesterday. We saw a few more deer on the way down, but were happy when we finally stumbled back to the campsite. There were a few more groups when we arrived, but overall, not very busy. We went for another swim before making supper for the evening. Tune back in next week to hear about the second half of the trip!

A Road Trip through BC’s Interior

November 29, 2025November 20, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

Similar to my trip to Berg Lake, Seth and I took a whole week off when we visited South Chilcotin Provincial Park, with our backpacking trip to Taylor Creek only being one part of the trip. After we finished the hike, we returned to Lillooet and then had two days of road tripping to get from Lillooet to Keremeos, where I’d be meeting Carolyn to hike in Cathedral Provincial Park. We spent the first night at Seton Dam Campsite outside Lillooet. It’s a first-come-first-serve campground that’s managed by BC Hydro. It was surprisingly busy considering it was a Tuesday night, but it’s a nice site.

We made hash browns and eggs at the campsite and then packed up to go adventuring for the day. Our first stop was just up the road to do the Seton Lake Viewpoint Trail. It’s a short trail, less than 1km round trip, that goes up to a viewpoint that overlooks the road and Seton Lake. It’s weirdly popular on instagram because there’s an cool curve on Duffey Lake Road that people like to photograph. Personally, I don’t really get the attraction, but we were close to it, and it’s so short, I figured, why not. Maybe I’m wrong though because Sadie seemed really into it! She seemed to like watching all the cars zoom by, so we hung around for a bit, heading back to the car before it got too hot.

Our next stop was to visit the lake itself. I’d been to Lillooet once before in the winter, but I didn’t stop at the lake. It’s a dammed lake and BC Hydro has developed it into a really nice rec site. You can paddle on the lake, but it does appear to get quite windy, even early in the day. Lillooet was forecasting to reach temperatures of 35 degrees celsius, so our plan was to enjoy a nice little swim. It was early in the day and we had the beach mostly to ourselves. We didn’t find the water too cold, even though it was early. We ended up having the nicest swim and lounged on the beach for a while before continuing on to our next destination for the day.

I have this book at home called “125 hot spots in British Columbia”. I had a look at it before the trip and was intrigued by Marble Canyon Provincial Park. It wasn’t on the most direct route, but it was close enough to Lillooet, that I decided it was a worthy detour, especially since I was travelling with Seth (a biologist). It ended up being the highlight of our two day road trip, so I’m glad we added it to the itinerary.

Marble Canyon Provincial Park is located north of Lillooet on Highway 99. It’s a series of lakes and has a frountcountry campground. But what really makes this park popular is what’s below the surface of the lakes. Pavilion Lake is home to microbialites, a type of sedimentary deposit that bands together overtime to create freshwater stromatolites. These are underwater structures that solidify into formations, similar to stalagmites, and it’s one of the few places in the world where you can find them. There are best viewed using scuba diving equipment, but it is possible to see them with a snorkel.

Seth remembered learning about the lake in university and was excited about the prospect of visiting. However, our first stop was to Crown Lake, which is where the campground and day use area are located. There’s a few picnic tables located down by the beach, so we cooked up some pesto pasta for lunch while taking turns swimming in the lake. It’s a small lake, with a waterfall located on the opposite shore. I’d planned to swim over there to see it, but while we were eating, we noticed a black bear hanging out on the other side eating berries, so I scrapped that plan.

After lunch, we drove back to Pavilion Lake to look for stromatolites. There’s a few pull outs along the road where you can walk down to the water. We found a nice spot and did a little bit of snorkeling. Regardless of whether we saw stromatolites or not, it was a nice place to snorkel. We took turns swimming while someone hung out with Sadie on the shore. We didn’t see any large stromatolites and we’re honestly not sure if we saw them at all, but Seth thinks we were still able to see the deposits along the rocks in the area, even if they weren’t large structures. We’re not scuba divers, so we were happy with the experience regardless.

After we’d had our fill of the lake, we continued towards Cache Creek, stopping at Horsting’s Farm Market along the way. It’s a huge market with fresh lemonade, ice cream, an apple orchard, and lots of treats. We had the fresh lemonade, which was delicious, as well as a few snacks. I learned after the fact that Cache Creek is also home to the famous Desert Hills Taco Stand. We did see it, and now regret not stopping for it, so hopefully next time!

We drove Highway 97C to Merritt, which I’d never driven before, and discovered the existence of a huge copper mine off the highway. If you’ve ever driven this highway, you’ll know what I’m talking about it. It basically looks like a giant salt flat. It’s cool to see, but it was so unexpected that it really took us by surprise. With the introduction of tariffs this year, I’ve been learning more about our exports and found it interesting to learn that almost half of Canada’s copper is produced in BC and that the mine we passed, Highland Valley, is actually the largest copper mine in Canada.

Our final stop for the night was Lundbom Lake Rec Site, located just outside of Merritt. There’s a bunch of rec sites in the area and they’re all first-come-first-serve, but have full time BC Parks Staff on site. It’s a couple kilometres of driving on gravel road to access the site, but it’s well maintained. Bring cash to pay for your site if you visit. It’s quite a nice site and has more than 100 campsites, but apparently it fills up quickly on the weekends, so plan accordingly. The highlight for me was sitting on the dock and watching the sun set over the lake.

On the last day of our road trip, we drove from Lundbom to Cathedral Provincial Park. It’s not a long drive, so we took our time with lots of stops. We made a quick visit to Kentucky-Alleyne Provincial Park, which is a very popular frontcountry site. Honestly, I thought Lundbom was nicer, but it’s cool having 2 lakes back to back at Kentucky-Alleyne. We also stopped at Allison Lake, which was an interesting lake. It’s a sandy beach lake, but the sand is very silty, almost like clay, so you sink down into it and it stirs up a lot of sediment with every step. I kind of got the feeling that Allison Lake used to be a lot nicer. The water level of the lake has clearly receded a lot in recent years, and it had the vibe of a washed up beach town. It was nice, but not super memorable.

We had lunch in Princeton and then spent a few hours exploring some of the attractions. It was disappointing to discover that very few small towns have any dog friendly restaurants. We had a similar experience in both Lillooet and Princeton – there were restaurants with patios, but none of them were dog friendly, so it was a struggle with Sadie. We ended up eating at a taco restaurant that had a table and some chairs outside.

In the afternoon, we did a short walk along the Kettle Valley Rail Trail, which is an iconic trail that extends hundreds of kilometres along the old railway track. This section of trail has an old tunnel and you used to be able to hike to the Red Ochre Bluffs, but the bridge was washed out in 2021 and it hasn’t been replaced yet. It was cool to visit the tunnel, but it is a little eerie. We also walked over to Swan Lake Wildlife Refuge, which is a protected area that’s supposed to be good for birdwatching, but it’s pretty underwhelming in the middle of a hot day (unsurprisingly).

From there, our only plan was to drive to the trailhead for Cathedral, but I was really keen to take a river bath before starting my next hike, since we’d been camping for 5 nights at this point. This trip was a bit different than my normal summer trips in that I didn’t book any campsites and we planned to just hit up first-come-first-serve campgrounds along the way. So our plan was pretty fluid. This is easy to do during the weekdays, but I still recommend booking campsites where possible on the weekends, or planning to arrive early to campgrounds. Some areas of the province have more rec site options than others and the area around Princeton had tons of options! So if you’re ever looking to do some leisurely camping, Highway 3 between Princeton and Keremeos is a great location.

All this is to say that I decided to target Bromley Rock Provincial Park as a good location for my river bath. It’s located right off the highway outside of Princeton and it has a frontcountry campground and a day use area. It’s a really nice river pool for swimming and it was surprisingly busy for a Thursday afternoon. If you go to the far end of the parking lot where the outhouses are, you can walk down another trail towards the river (away from the pool). It’s not as nice for swimming, but it’s more private, though people do fish along the river. We found a more secluded spot and took the opportunity to use my pocket shower to clean up a bit. Smelling much better than before, we continued on to Keremeos to pick up some Thai food for supper.

The final part of our route was to take Ashnola Road down to the Cathedral Park entrance. Cathedral is a remote park that is most well known for the Rim Trail. It’s an alpine, desert-like environment filled with lots of mountain goats and breathtaking stone structures and monuments. When I told the park operator at Lundbom that I was going to Cathedral Park, he described his experience there as “spiritual”. It’s a somewhat popular park, but not crowded because of the limited access. It’s ~15km to hike into the core area of the park, which used to be home to 3 campgrounds and a lodge. In the past, most people would access the park core area by shuttle bus through the lodge, avoiding over 1000m of elevation gain.

Unfortunately, half of the park burned down in 2023 when a forest fire tore up the valley all the way to the lodge before they were able to contain it. The lodge is still standing, but 2 of the campgrounds burned down, along with the bridge that connected the lodge to Ashnola Road. The park re-opened this past summer to hikers, but the lodge is still closed until the bridge is repaired, so your only option is to hike into the park.

Two back-to-back hiking trips did not interest Seth, so he was dropping me in Cathedral and Carolyn would be joining me to hike for 4 more days. There are two rec sites along the road, one is right at the Lakeview Trailhead, and the other is a few kilometres away, called Buckhorn. We camped at Lakeview, but it only has a single walk-in site and no outhouse, so I wouldn’t recommend it. We ended up just camping in the parking lot since we were the only ones there. I didn’t drive down to Buckhorn, but from the map, it looks like a more traditional rec site. It was a bit of an anti-climatic end to our road trip, but we had one night along the river before starting our hike the following day. Stay tuned to hear about my experience in Cathedral Provincial Park!

Berg Lake Trail Backpacking Guide

November 20, 2025 / Maria / 3 Comments

The Berg Lake Trail is one of the most iconic backpacking trails in the Canadian Rockies. It’s been on my bucket list for a long time, but it was closed for 3 years due to flooding that washed out portions of the trail in 2021. It finally re-opened in 2025 and I was super keen to visit the same summer. I spent 6 days hiking along the trail and it was easily the highlight of my summer! I’ve already published a 3-part trail report about my experience, which you can read starting here, but I had a lot of other learnings about the trail that I’d love to share. Reservations for the 2026 season are releasing at 7am on December 2, 2025. so here’s everything you need to know about the Berg Lake Trail!

The Trail

The Berg Lake Trail is a 42km there-and-back trail located in Mount Robson Provincial Park in BC. The trail starts at the parking lot north of the visitor centre and continues for 21km to the beach at the back of Berg Lake. There are 7 campgrounds in the park, with the most popular being the Berg Lake Campground.

There are a few options for how to hike this trail. If you’re not a backpacker, it is possible to day hike the entire thing, but you should give serious consideration to your fitness ability and previous hiking experience if you decide to attempt it. While the trail itself is not technical, it is a considerable distance and it covers almost 1000m in elevation gain. Approximately 500m of the gain is done in a 3km span, so it is a challenging and tiring hike. If you are not used to hiking long distance or you don’t have experience hiking in the mountains with significant elevation gain, I strongly recommend against attempting this as a day hike. If you do plan to day hike, I recommend starting before sunrise to give yourself lots of time, or consider biking as far as Kinney Lake. I found that the day hikers were primarily tourists who either don’t camp, or weren’t aware of the lead time required to secure permits.

If you are able to backpack it, I think this is a more enjoyable way to experience the trail. I did the trail over 5 nights, splitting the trail into 2 parts on the way up and down, and then camping 3 nights at Berg Lake to do day hikes. If you have more time to spend in the park, there’s lots to explore, but you can also enjoy this trail over a shorter period. I’d recommend a minimum of 2 nights. Most likely your itinerary will be limited by what permits you are able to obtain.

A photo of a female backpacker on a mountain overlooking Berg Lake and Mount Robson on a sunny day, on the Berg Lake Trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park in BC.

Time of Year

The best time of year to visit the Berg Lake Trail is pretty straight-forward. Mount Robson is the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, so the trail is covered in snow for most of the year, limiting the core hiking season from late-June to mid-to-late September. You can visit year round, but you must be prepared for winter conditions and be aware of avalanche risk, which I won’t be discussing in this post.

I think there is slightly less traffic in September, as it gets cold quickly in the Rockies, but otherwise, avoiding the crowds isn’t really possible. If you go in late-June, be aware that there may still be snow on some of the trails; and if you go later in the summer, it’s more likely that your trip might be impacted by wildfires. Mid-to-late July might be the sweet spot, but I visited during the first week of August and lucked into great conditions. The mountains are always susceptible to storms, so be prepared for that.

Getting There

I think it may be possible to take a bus to Mount Robson Provincial Park from either Jasper or Kamloops in the summer, but it’s not a common route and I don’t know how reliably buses run. Similar to other popular Canadian parks, the easiest way to access is by driving. The park is located on Highway 16, which is a 5 hour drive from Edmonton, 7 hours from Calgary, and 7.5 hours from Vancouver (all without breaks). It’s not an easy park to access, but I promise it is worth your time. There is a very large parking lot at the trailhead, which is relatively secure, but never leave valuables in your vehicle.

https://flic.kr/p/2rs1WuZ

Permits

Without a doubt, getting permits will be the hardest part of your trip to Berg Lake. This is a world-renowned hiking trail and attracts crowds of visitors every year. If you don’t get camping permits, then day hiking may be your only option to visit the park. If you want to try and get camping permits, then it’s important to mark your calendar with the permit release date. The permit release date for 2026 is Dec. 2, 2025. Unlike other BC parks, the permits for the Berg Lake Trail are released all on one day. The date is usually announced on the Mount Robson Provincial Park page, as well as on BC Park’s instagram. They usually don’t give a lot of notice (1-2 weeks), so you should be prepared to check in regularly at the end of the year until it is announced. The easiest way is to follow their social media.

Once released, you will have to book your permits on camping.bcparks.ca. Unlike Parks Canada, there is no random queue generator and you will have to login to your account, so there is no benefit to using multiple devices to try and get higher up the queue. However, if you have multiple people going on the trip, it is advantageous if you all login to your respective accounts to try for reservations (effectively giving you multiple chances to get your desired itinerary). I recommend creating an account in advance of release day (when the website will likely be slow due to traffic) and logging in before the sites release.

Once booking opens, select “backcountry reservations” and search for your start date. You will be forced to build your itinerary day by day, which can be a little frustrating. Once you get a date in your cart, you don’t need to worry about losing it, but it will become more challenging as the dates book up to continue building the itinerary. For example, by the time you get Whitehorn in your cart for your first night, Berg Lake may no longer be available for your second night. People are constantly adding and changing dates and campsites in the rush to get their itinerary, especially if you have multiple people from the same party trying to make 1 booking. So the trick is to frequently refresh. Just because you don’t see Berg Lake available right away, doesn’t mean it won’t show up if you keep refreshing.

My recommendation for booking a longer itinerary is to take what you can get and make changes later. If Berg Lake is not available, book Marmot or Rearguard and move on to the next day before those dates book up too. Once you have secured a booking for each of the dates in your itinerary, go back and look for cancellations. Keep refreshing until you see one, and then make a change to your booking to add it. This does cost more money as the change fee is $6, but I was able to get bookings for Berg Lake after the fact using this hack. When I made my first booking, I had 3 nights split between Marmot and Robson Pass campsites. I was able to change my reservation from Robson Pass to Berg Lake within the hour from people dropping sites, and I was able to get a cancellation later in the season and change my booking from Marmot to Berg Lake. So in the end, my starting itinerary (which had no nights at Berg Lake) ended up with 3 nights. You can track cancellations on Schnerp, which will notify you when a site opens up.

A female hiker walks in front of an epic glacier icefield at the top of Snowbird Pass in Mount Robson Provincial Park, off the Berg Lake Trail, in BC.

Campsites

There are 7 backcountry campsites in the park, so there are lots of options for where to stay and opportunities to customize your trip. The first 3 campsites are located along the trail to the lake, while the last 4 campsites are all located within 3.5km of one another around the lake. I’ll discuss itineraries below, but here’s an overview of the 7 campsites along the trail. All campsites include outhouses and bear lockers and as discussed above, require valid permits for the duration of your visit.

Kinney Lake – This is the first campground, located right on Kinney Lake at the 7km trail marker. It has 18 tent sites and a large open-air shelter. It’s a beautiful campground with several lakefront tent pads and a lovely view from the shelter. The trail to Kinney Lake is a gentle uphill, so this campsite is often overlooked because it is less than halfway to Berg Lake. But it’s a great option if you have a late start on your first day, as well as for families or those who want to experience Mount Robson’s backcountry, but have concerns about the strenuous hike up to Berg Lake. There are bike racks located at the back of Kinney Lake for those who bike up.

Whitehorn – This campground is located along the Robson River at the 11km trail marker. It has 22 tent sites and a large open-air shelter. This campground is ideal if you’re looking to split the hike to Berg Lake in half. It splits the elevation gain in half as well, though day 2 is slightly more strenuous. Some of the tent pads are along the river, while others are in the woods, but there’s a beautiful view of the valley and the backside of Mount Robson from the campground.

Emperor Falls – This campground is located just past the viewpoint for Emperor Falls at the 16km trail marker. It has 9 tent sites and some picnic tables, but it does not have a shelter. While the tent pads are located right next to the river, making for a nice view, the main downside to this campsite is that it’s located at the top of all of the elevation gain, so it leaves you with a big day if you’re hiking from the parking lot. I would probably avoid it on the way up, but it’s a good option to shorten your hike on the last day.

Marmot – This is the first of the upper campgrounds, any of which can be used as a base for day hikes. It’s located at the foot of Berg Lake at the 19km trail marker. It has 7 tent sites and a recently constructed semi-enclosed shelter (this one has windows, unlike the shelters at Kinney Lake and Whitehorn). Most of the tent pads are located in the woods, but 1-2 have a direct view of Mount Robson. While the view from Marmot is not quite as good as from Berg Lake, it is located right on the lake and would be my first choice if I couldn’t get a site at the Berg Lake Campground. Some people really like this campground because of how small it is, so you can avoid the crowds.

Berg Lake – This is the most popular campground on the trail. If you can score a permit for this campground, do not hesitate to book it. It’s located at the head of Berg Lake at the 21km trail marker. It has 26 tent sites and a fully enclosed cooking shelter with a large porch and view of the Berg Glacier. This is the most beautiful campsite on the trail, but it will be very busy as a result. Most of the tent sites are in the woods, though there is one premium tent pad with a lake view. A few of the sites at the back of the campground also have mountain views.

Rearguard – This campsite is located just past the Berg Lake Campground at the 22km trail marker. It has 6 tent sites and is a good option if you weren’t able to get a campsite at Berg Lake. It’s not located on the lake, but it does have nice views of Mount Robson and the river delta. The main downside is that there is no shelter, so if it rained, I’d prefer to be at Marmot.

Robson Pass – This is the last campsite in the park, located at the 23km trail marker. It has 15 tent sites. It’s located a little bit further away, but it can still be a great base if you’re planning to do some day hikes. You can access Snowbird Pass from this campsite, as well as you can hike up the backside of the Mumm Basin Trail – although be aware that this trail no longer connects to the Toboggan Falls trail due to a rockslide in recent years – but I’ve heard it still has a great view. Similar to Rearguard, the main downside of this campsite is that it doesn’t have a shelter.

Robson Hut – Another option to be aware of in the future is that the ACC is currently constructing a brand new mountain hut at Robson Pass, which should be open for the 2026 season. You will be able to book this hut through the ACC and it will be the swankiest accommodation available in the park. Please note that this is separate from the BC Parks booking system and it is not an open hut that you can visit. A booking will be required to use the hut.

Robson Meadows – Just to cover my bases, I want to mention that there is a frontcountry campground located off the highway near the visitor centre, which is a great option for camping the night before or after your backpacking trip.

A photo of Mount Robson on a sunny day with the Robson River in and trees in the foreground and the mountains and glacier in the background, on the Berg Lake Trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park, BC.

Itineraries

I’ll keep this fairly simple. It’s not easy to get permits, so it’s really a take what you can get scenario, but there are a few strategies you can employ.

Strategy 1: Hike all the way to Berg Lake in a day. The idea with this strategy is that you book as many nights as you want at the lake, prioritizing day hikes from the lake. The benefit is that you can immediately concentrate on getting bookings for Berg Lake before they fill up and maximize your time at the lake. The downside is that you need to be prepared to do the full 21km in a day, which is challenging, but allows you to spend more time at the lake if time is limited.

Strategy 2: Break up your hike to Berg Lake into 2 days, staying at one of the middle campgrounds on the way up, but planning to hike all the way back to the parking lot in a single day. Again, book as many nights as you want at Berg Lake after you arrive. This makes your hike in easier than strategy 1, but still gives you extra time at the lake, as the hike down is much easier than the hike up.

Strategy 3: Break up your hike to Berg Lake into 2 days on both the way up and down. If you have more time available, you can still book multiple nights at Berg Lake in the middle to do day hikes, but the benefit is it gives you a more relaxed hiking timeline, especially if you are worried about the challenging terrain.

Personally, I would only do strategy 1 if I only had 1 night. I used strategy 3 for my visit because I had lots of time, but I would have been comfortable with strategy 2 as well. It is more manageable to do the hike down in a single day. Here’s a couple of options based on the number of nights you have. (D=day, N=night)

Number of Nights	First Choice Campground	Alternate Campgrounds
2 days, 1 night (strategy 1)	D1: Hike to Berg Lake D2: Hike out	Marmot, Rearguard
3 days, 2 nights (strategy 1)	D1: Hike to Berg Lake D2: Day hike, stay at Berg Lake D3: Hike out	Marmot, Rearguard
3 days, 2 nights (strategy 2)	D1: Hike to Whitehorn D2: Hike to Berg Lake D3: Hike out	N1: Emperor, Kinney Lake N2: Marmot, Rearguard
4 days, 3 nights (strategy 2)	D1: Hike to Whitehorn D2: Hike to Berg Lake D3: Day hike, stay at Berg Lake D4: Hike out	N1: Kinney Lake N2: Marmot, Rearguard N3: Marmot, Rearguard
4 days, 3 nights (strategy 3)	D1: Hike to Whitehorn D2: Hike to Berg Lake D3: Hike to Whitehorn D4: Hike out	N1: Kinney Lake N2: Marmot, Rearguard N3: Kinney Lake, Emperor
5 days or more	Same as 4 day options, but add multiple nights at Berg Lake

Day Hikes

There are several great options for day hiking along the Berg Lake Trail. I really think it’s worth it to try and fit in at least one day hike if you can get multiple nights at campsites near the lake, but if you can’t, it’s not the end of the world either. Berg Lake is a world-class trail on it’s own and the entire trail is stunning, whether you have time for side quests or not. If you do have time, here’s the trails I would recommend.

Snowbird Pass – In my opinion, this is the best trail in the park. People like to prioritize the Berg Lake Viewpoint on the Toboggan Falls Trail, but this trail is the real gem. It’s a 20-km round trip hike from the Berg Lake Campground, so you definitely need a full day for it, but it features views of both the Robson Glacier and the Reef Icefield. It’s stunning from start to finish. If you don’t have enough time to do the whole trail, it’s still worth it to hike the 3km from Berg Lake to the lake at the base of Robson Glacier. I’ve written an entire blog post about this trail.

Toboggan Falls to Berg Lake Viewpoint – This is the most popular side trail in the park. From the Berg Lake Campsite, you can hike 1km up along the Toboggan Falls trail (enjoying the view of Toboggan Falls along the way), to a junction that takes you another ~1km up to the Berg Lake Viewpoint. From here, you can get the iconic photo of Berg Lake, the delta, and Berg Glacier. You don’t need a full day to do this hike, so if you’re short on time, you can probably knock it out in ~2 hours after you arrive at camp.

Hargreaves Lake Loop – If you have a full day, expand your hike up to the Berg Lake Viewpoint to also include the loop around to Hargreaves Lake via Marmot Campground. It’s approximately 7km round trip and in my opinion, Hargreaves Lake is really underrated. There’s a small viewpoint off the trail that takes you up to a lookout of Hargreaves Glacier and the Marmot branch of the Berg Glacier at the same time. I’d recommend a day if you’re doing the whole loop, but if you’re staying at Marmot, you could easily hike up to Hargreaves Viewpoint and back in an evening, as it’s only ~3km round trip.

Adolphus Lake – I haven’t done this trail myself, but if you have the time, you can hike out from Berg Lake to Robson Pass and then continue on to see Adolphus Lake. It’s ~2.5km from the Berg Lake Campground, but along completely flat ground. It’s a great option if you’re staying at Robson Pass.