Berg Lake Backpacking Trip: Snowbird Pass

October 5, 2025October 6, 2025 / Maria / 2 Comments

Now that I’ve completed this trek, I feel like everything on our trip to Berg Lake was culminating up to our day hike to Snowbird Pass. This is a well known side mission on the Berg Lake Trail, but it’s a big one. You definitely need a full day if you’re going to attempt it, so plan accordingly. If you want to go all the way to the top of Snowbird Pass, it’s a 20km hike with ~800m of elevation gain.

The great thing about this hike is that the entire thing is incredibly scenic, so if a 20km day hike is too much for you, it’s really easy to shorten or customize this trip to your liking. I’m glad that I went the whole way to Snowbird Pass, but I also feel that I could have stopped hiking at any point on the trail and I would have been totally satisfied with what I’d accomplished (a peak bagger, I am not). But we wanted to give ourselves the best possible chance at getting to the pass, so we were up early and on the trail by 8:30am.

The weather was still treating us well and the trail starts with a leisurely walk along the Berg Lake flats. There’s a lot of broad-leaved willowherb growing along the river (also known as dwarf fireweed or river beauty) that I’ve really come to appreciate this year. We got a glimpse of Rearguard Campground, which is located 1km from Berg Lake. It has really nice views of Berg Glacier and Mount Robson, but it’s pretty exposed and doesn’t have a shelter, so I’d probably still pick Marmot Campground if I couldn’t get permits for Berg Lake.

After Rearguard, there’s a trail junction and you can continue on to Robson Pass Campground, or head east towards Snowbird Pass. The trail is pretty exposed all day, so we were happy to have a cloudy day to do this hike – I imagine it could be quite hot and draining on a sunny day. As you hike through the alpine, you start to get a glimpse of Robson Glacier, which wraps around the side of Mount Robson. Like Berg Glacier, Robson Glacier is stunning. It’s absolutely massive, with lots of texture and an ice-blue colour. The closer you get, you also start to see a small lake that has formed at the base of the glacier. I’m not sure if this lake has a name, but it’s much more silty than Berg Lake and it has a lot of bergy bits (as a Newfoundlander, I can assure you this is the correct technical term) floating in the water.

If you don’t have the time or ability to do the entire Snowbird Pass Trail, visiting the lake is a great objective. It’s ~3km from Berg Lake to the Robson Glacier lake and it’s completely flat. It would make a great side trail and provides a fantastic view of the glacier. It gets a lot more challenging after the lake, so if you only have a little bit of time, just go as far as the lake.

From the lake, the trail quickly ascends up the rockface towards the glacial moraine. In my opinion, this is the hardest section of the Snowbird Pass Trail. It’s very steep and the wayfinding can be tricky in some areas. It’s definitely preferable to do this on a dry day because there’s some scrambling over large rock and this could be challenging when slippery. There is one section with a chain (photo of Brandon below), however I thought this part looked scarier than it actually was. You don’t really need the chain to help you climb up and I thought it served as more of a guardrail than anything else. But certainly a nice-to-have, especially if you’re afraid of heights (this might not be the hike for you if you don’t like heights though).

The trail climbs 250m in 2km over rocky terrain until you reach a sort of rock landing (photo of me above), before starting to hike along the glacier moraine. It has a fantastic view of the glacier as it gives you a higher vantage point. We honestly couldn’t believe our eyes the entire time we were on this hike because the views are so out of this world and it’s one of the closest hikes I’ve ever done to a glacier (often you just hike to the base – it’s rare getting to hike alongside a glacier without the danger of actually being on it). We stopped at the rock landing for a snack break before continuing on; if you don’t mind doing the climb, this would be another great objective for a smaller day hike. It’s a better view than the lake, but it’s only half the distance of the full hike to Snowbird Pass.

We didn’t see anyone on the trail up to this point, but we got passed by a few other hikers when we stopped. Overall, we saw a lot more people on this trail than when we did the Hargreaves Lake Loop. But it’s a 20km trail, so it never felt crowded. We were some of the earliest hikers on the trail, so we encountered most of the other hikers on the way down.

After the first big climb, you get a break as the trail continues along flat terrain for 1.5km while you hike directly on top of the old glacial moraine! I thought this was incredibly cool. It’s not strenuous and I felt like I was on top of the world. I must have taken hundreds of photos of the glacier along this stretch because it completely blew my mind while hiking it. Another option for a shorter day hike could be to add this 1.5km stretch to your hike, since it’s pretty easy walking.

Eventually you reach the end of the moraine and the trail starts a second climb up to the alpine. I was prepared for another strenuous climb, but it wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating. It does start off pretty steep, but it levels out quickly and after 100m of elevation gain, the trail flattens into an alpine meadow. The trail is technically still uphill through the meadow, but it’s such a gentle climb you don’t really notice it.

There’s an incredible view of the glacier when you hit the meadow. There’s beautiful babbling brooks cascading down through grassy fields, as well as an amazing view looking back down the valley towards Robson Pass. This view is located somewhere between the 7-7.5km mark, so it could be another shorter hiking option if you don’t mind the extra climb. The citizen science storyboard about contributing to tracking glacier recession is a good landmark for this view.

If you decide to go past this point, I recommend just committing to the entire hike to the top of Snowbird Pass. I love wildflowers, so I always get really excited about alpine meadows. This one felt extra special because I didn’t know it was going to be there! It’s so barren hiking along the glacier moraine and it’s barren again at the top of Snowbird Pass, so the lush meadow in between was an unexpected surprise. After a brief hike in the meadow, you round a corner where you can see Snowbird Pass off in the distance. It doesn’t look too bad, but it’s deceiving as there is still a fair bit of elevation gain left.

We enjoyed the hike through the meadows, encountering a lot of marmots who definitely weren’t intimidated by us. As you get closer to the pass, the hike to the top starts to look more and more daunting. It was around noon when we finally started hiking up the final steep scree trail and I was definitely feeling ready for a break. You do about 200m of elevation gain through the meadows, and then finish with a steep 150m push to the top.

At this point, there were 2 or 3 groups ahead of us, so I was surprised to find the pass empty when we finally summited. Turns out, they had all immediately continued on up the ridge. I’m not sure if this was everyone’s goal, or if groupthink took over and they all thought they had to push further. There looks to be a faint trail, but it’s very steep and it eventually disappears into a scramble. I didn’t have any interest in going further, so we happily dropped our packs to enjoy having the pass to ourselves.

Snowbird Pass is really unlike anything I’ve ever hiked before. Berg Glacier and Robson Glacier are stunning, but it was from Snowbird Pass that I got to experience my first icefield! From the top of the pass you can see Reef Icefield, which is a flat expanse of ice that extends as far as the eye can see if every direction. In the distance I could see towering mountain peaks, giving the illusion that I was looking across a sea of ice. I would say that this ice is not as dynamic or interesting to look at as Berg or Robson Glaciers, it looks more like snow, but the scale of it is mind-blowing.

The other thing that’s interesting about Snowbird Pass is that it marks the boundary between BC and Alberta. Mount Robson Provincial Park is located in BC, but the icefield is in Alberta. We hung out for a long time admiring the icefield and eating our lunch. I’m not sure how far up the ridge people went – but some hikers re-appeared on the slope above us, so I don’t think they went too far. I don’t feel like I missed out on anything by not going up the ridge. You would get a higher view of the icefield, but I think you’d have to go pretty far up the ridge for it to be substantially better (but I didn’t go up there, so what do I know).

We spent the better part of an hour on the Pass before starting our descent back. There is a scree section at the very top of the pass, so that part wasn’t fun, but it’s not too bad after that and I really enjoyed our hike back through the meadow. There’s lots of freshwater sources in the meadow, so if you plan to hike that far, you don’t need to bring too much water if you’re willing to filter on the trail. We saw some more marmots in the meadow and I loved hiking back towards Robson Glacier because you can still see it looming above you as you approach.

There’s not too much to say about the return trip. It’s just as scenic as the hike in, but we did notice the clouds starting to darken as we hiked along the moraine. Shortly after we started the steep descent back towards the lake, we had an exciting surprise when a mountain goat wandered across our path. Brandon had been enthusiastically looking for mountain goats the entire trip and we were starting to get concerned that we wouldn’t see one! There’s a mountain goat on all Mount Robson’s promo materials, so we came to think of it as a mascot for the park.

We enjoyed watching the goat navigate the steep terrain, but the weather finally caught up with us and it started to rain. We were on the steepest and sketchiest part of the entire hike, so we quickly started to head down before the rocks could become too slick. It rained for ~15 minutes, but similar to the previous day, it was only a sprinkle before quickly moving on. We made it back to the lake just as the rain let up.

When we passed the lake on the way in, I vowed that I would swim in it on the way back. Brandon laughed at me because there are a lot of things he’d rather do than swim in a lake with bergy bits, but I love a good cold dip and I was convinced I would do it. After bundling up for the rain and with a pretty solid headwind blowing through, I was feeling chilled and much less confident as we circled around the edge of the water. We were about to continue back to camp when I finally gathered my resolve and led us off trail to a small sheltered beach.

It was definitely one of my less enthusiastic times stripping down to my swimsuit, but I really wanted to be able to say I’d swam in all the lakes (I might not be a peak bagger, but I’m definitely a lake bagger). While I got into my swimsuit, Brandon dug out his toque and gloves, refusing to so much as touch the water. It was definitely one of the colder places I’ve swam (much colder than Berg Lake), and it was really more of a dip than a swim, but I did it! And you know what, I did feel a lot better for it. As I dried off and put my warm clothes back on, I did actually feel warmer.

We decided to take a detour on the way back to swing by the Robson Pass Campground, which is located 1km from Rearguard Camp, and 2km from Berg Lake. Similar to Rearguard, it doesn’t have a shelter, but it is close to the new ACC hut, which we were able to catch a glimpse of. The sun came out as we hiked back to Berg Lake and we enjoyed another beautiful evening by the lake. The rain didn’t return and we celebrated our big day with my homemade backcountry apple crumble dessert!

I had one last bit of excitement before bed. I met an older couple and ended up having a lengthy chat when I learned that they had lived in Newfoundland for 20 years before retiring back to BC. While we were talking, a moose wandered down the creek bed by my tent, followed by what looked like her yearling calf! They didn’t stay for long and quickly exited towards the flats, but we all felt so lucky to have glimpsed the pair!

The following day finally brought some of the marginal weather we’d been promised all week. After three clear evenings, we awoke to thick clouds obscuring the mountain. We had completed all our major hikes, so we weren’t bothered and we enjoyed a late start and leisurely breakfast on the shelter patio as the fog moved around. I transitioned into the more social part of the trip and befriended a few girls from Edmonton who paid me the nicest compliment, “I am not a bit surprised that you are a Newfoundlander, and I mean that in the best possible way!”

Eventually we departed Berg Lake to hike back towards Whitehorn Campground for our final evening on the trail. The rain rolled in and out throughout the day and we had a particularly stormy section as we crossed the flats from Marmot Campground. It was windy and rainy, so we completely bundled up in our waterproofs, only to ditch them again 20 minutes later.

We continued to make friends and I had a great chat with a couple from Belgium when we rolled through Emperor Campground. After 12 years in BC, being from Newfoundland is a much smaller part of my personality than it used to be, but this couple were very enthusiastic history nerds and asked me a lot of questions about Newfoundland’s history. This devolved into a pretty detailed discussion of Newfoundland’s late entry to confederation, which I do love to talk about, but rarely have such a captive audience. If you don’t believe me, check out this lengthy blog post I once wrote about it.

We probably could have hiked the whole way out on the last day and skipped Whitehorn Campground, but I didn’t mind spending the extra night there. It allowed us to have a slower paced day and we arrived at camp just before the first true downpour of the trip. There’s a large communal shelter at Whitehorn, so after setting up our tent, we spent the rest of the day getting to know the other campers. Like I said, I really love hiking in the Rockies for the community aspect of the hiking. I rarely experience this same kind of vibe on the trails near Vancouver, except maybe on the Sunshine Coast Trail, so it’s nice to take the extra time to meet new people and swap stories.

But that pretty much marked the end of our trip. We decided not eat lunch on the trail in hopes of nabbing a burger. It took us just over 3 hours to hike the 11km back to the parking lot and we were thrilled to return to civilization! We were not rewarded with a burger as most of the restaurants in Valemount were closed until suppertime, but we drove the extra distance to Clearwater, where we were able to shower before finally tracking down a smashburger (me) and a rack of ribs (Brandon). In conclusion, the weather was not what we expected, but I honestly couldn’t have imagined a better trip and I hope to return again one day!

Berg Lake Backpacking Trip: Hargreaves Lake Loop

September 28, 2025October 6, 2025 / Maria / 2 Comments

After a two day hike to the Berg Lake Campsite (see last week’s blog post), we had 2 full days at Berg Lake to do day hikes. As I mentioned in my last post, the forecast was rainy for the entire week we visited, but it was looking slightly better for our second day rather than our first. We had 2 hikes in mind: the Hargreaves Lake Loop and Snowbird Pass. Snowbird Pass is a much larger hike, so we decided to save that hike for the following day, focusing instead on the Hargreaves Lake Loop.

We still got up pretty early and it was quiet around the campsite. I feel like for every photo I’ve seen online of someone at Berg Lake, I’ve seen another photo of someone at the viewpoint looking down on the lake. There’s two trails that head north from the Berg Lake Campground: Hargreaves Lake and Mumm Basin. Both start with a steep climb up to the alpine until you eventually you reach a junction, with the Hargreaves Lake Trail heading west and descending to Marmot Campground; and the Mumm Basin Trail heading east and descending to Robson Pass Campground. At one point in time, you could do both trails as a large loop.

Unfortunately, the Mumm Basin Trail is now closed. From what I understand, this was a beautiful trail that looked down on Berg Lake, Adolphus Lake, and the Robson Glacier lake (doesn’t have a name that I’m aware of). But there was a rockslide a few years ago and the area is now very unstable, so it’s been closed by BC Parks. We did meet some people that decided to do the hike anyways because it’s more “hike at your own risk”, rather than a full closure (according to them). I don’t like this attitude because it’s only “hike at your own risk” until something goes wrong, and then you’re putting S&R volunteers at risk too. So my opinion is, skip the Mumm Basin Trail. To their credit, I talked to these hikers again later and they said that while the trail had nice views, it did feel very sketchy with all the loose rock in the area.

Before the trail closure, you could hike both trails as one big loop, but now you can only loop from Berg Lake back to Marmot, so that’s what we did. The Berg Lake viewpoint is still open, so you can still enjoy that view for yourself! The trail was completely empty when we started our hike up to the junction. The trail follows the river and you get a lovely view of Toboggan Falls on the way up. It’s steep, ascending 250m in ~1.25km, but I didn’t find it too bad early in the morning when it was still cool. We saw lots of wildflowers along the way and I had fun identifying them. There’s a bench where you can rest about halfway up the climb that has gorgeous views down to the lake! If you don’t have enough time to hike all the way up to the viewpoint or do any full day hikes, this bench is a great objective! It’s not too far from the campsite and it has amazing views. You could easily do it after dinner or early in the morning.

After a short break at the bench, we continued up to the junction. From here, your options are to continue west to Hargreaves Lake, or go up to the viewpoint, advertised on the sign as “the cave”. The trail does get steeper as you climb another 200m in less than 1km. Eventually you pop out of the trees into the alpine, which is mostly barren scree slope and rock, to an amazing view of the lake, glacier, and mountain! This is where we met the people doing the Mumm Basin Trail, and they were 1 of only 2 groups that we saw all day. This was surprising to me given how many photos I’ve seen of the viewpoint online, but it’s possible a lot of people do the trail in the evening after arriving at the campsite if they only have 1 night.

I understand there’s a large rock located up there somewhere, which is where everyone likes to take their photo. I believe it’s located east of where you pop out of the alpine and that if you just keep heading on towards the cave, you’ll find it. The views are incredible everywhere, so I wasn’t too concerned about being photographed on one specific rock, nor did “the cave” hold a lot of interest for me. It’s wide open alpine, so we decided to do a bit of random exploring instead. We didn’t end up finding the rock, but picked a goal location further up in the alpine and did some slow wandering until we got there.

There’s no trails, so if you opt to explore further, make sure to avoid the meadows and wildflowers. We stuck to bare rock and traversed through a few boulder fields in order to avoid the flowers. However, I still had a lot of fun trying to identify them! We didn’t see any large meadows of flowers, but I did spot a few of my favourites, like the western pasqueflower, alpine pussytoes, alpine speedwell, and even a globeflower, which was a first.

We ended up exploring around the alpine for the better part of two hours and I had just as much fun (probably more) as if I had gone in search of the big rock. But it’s all about what you want to do and if you really want the big rock photo, I encourage you to go for it! Not everyone has hours for random exploring and that’s totally fine too! You can see more of the back of Berg Lake’s river delta from the big rock and that’s something I didn’t see from where I adventured.

What I did instead was spend a lot of time playing around with perspective on my camera. Because you’re located high up on a steep slope, with an even bigger mountain located directly in front of you, there’s a lot of opportunity for cool perspective shots. The glacier is already huge, and with a bit of zoom, you can get some pretty funny and epic shots. I was more about the epic shots, while Brandon thought it was hilarious to mess around with the glacier. He had me imitate the shape of the glacier and pretend to lick it, and then got me to take photos of him “sitting” on it. Brandon’s photos produced a lot more laughs, so I’ve included some of each (I know I’m in both photos, but the first one was Brandon’s “funny” shot and the second was my “epic” one, although admittedly, they are both pretty epic).

We got back to the viewpoint around 12:30pm, which probably would have been a good time for lunch, but we decided to continue on to Hargreaves Lake instead. We were so lucky with the weather again. It was overcast most of the morning, but it didn’t rain and we got several sunny breaks. Because we’d been expecting such bad weather, I felt pretty high on life for most of this trip and appreciated every moment of no-rain that much more. I felt like every moment of the trip that it wasn’t raining was some kind of bonus moment, which really helped up make the most of the trip!

We hiked back down the trail to the junction and then merged onto the Hargreaves Lake Loop. The trail continues on relatively flat terrain for ~1.75km as you traverse the treeline at the base of the alpine. It’s mostly in the forest until you get to Hargreaves Lake, so we didn’t see much, but it’s still a nice hike with lots of wildflowers. Eventually you hit another junction and there’s a short, but very steep, climb up an old moraine to get to the viewpoint of the lake. You always see this hike mentioned on hiking blogs, but I’d never seen any photos of it and it seems to be overshadowed by other more epic trails. I wasn’t expecting much from the viewpoint except for a little lake in the woods.

Boy was I wrong! I think Hargreaves Lake has to be one of the most underrated hikes in the park! If you can only do one day hike, Snowbird Pass is still the way to go, but you will absolutely not be disappointed by Hargreaves Lake. It you have the time, definitely don’t overlook it. It’s not even that far from Marmot Campground, so you could easily hike up there in the morning or evening, same as with the viewpoint. And it’s not very far from the viewpoint, so it is worth tacking it on to the hike. Here, I’ll even give you a rare landscape photo, so you can really appreciate it!

Hargreaves Lake is a glacier-fed lake that is located in wide open alpine with a huge glacier sitting behind it, overshadowed by Mount Phillips. I was a little confused looking at the trail on the map, because it doesn’t show the trail actually going down to the lake. This is because the lake is shielded by an enormous moraine, so we didn’t get a glimpse of it on the approach. You climb up the moraine and then look down on the lake from the moraine. You could do a scramble down to the lake if you wanted (which I’d love to come back for), but we opted not to since we’d already done 2 hours of scrambling from the viewpoint. Plus, I was really hungry, so we sat up there and enjoyed the view while eating lunch instead.

We encountered our second group of the day at this viewpoint, but they didn’t stay too long and we eventually had it all to ourselves. The view of Berg Lake from “the cave” is great, but honestly, if you want an easier view, I think the view of Berg Lake from the top of the Hargreaves moraine is just as stunning! We had a big photoshoot up there before starting our hike down. From the viewpoint, it’s ~1.25km and ~275m of elevation loss to hike back to Marmot (compared to 450m between Berg Lake and the “big rock” viewpoint, which is why I say this is an easier option). Plus, a good chunk of this hike is in the subalpine with limited trees, so you still get really good views on the way down.

Throughout the day there was a steady stream of helicopters running in and out of the park delivering supplies. I can’t be 100% certain, but giving what it looked like they were bringing in and where they were heading, I’m almost certain it was supplies for construction of the new ACC hut at Robson Pass (which we caught a glimpse of the following day while hiking to Snowbird Pass). What was a little worrying were some very dark rain clouds that rolled in as we were hiking down. We didn’t want to get stuck in exposed terrain if there were thunderstorms, so we came down the ridge pretty fast. It did rain for ~15 minutes, but it was light and we didn’t get very wet.

We’d been planning to hang out at the Marmot Campground, but because of the rain, we opted to go straight back to Berg Lake instead. The rain ended up being short-lived and it finished before we got back. I was sweaty from a full day of exploring, so I quickly changed into my swimsuit to go for my daily swim! We ended up hanging out on the beach for a while, enjoying the view and the lack of rain. It’s so easy to just sit for hours staring at the glacier and Mount Robson, and we did!

It ended up clearing up a lot and it didn’t rain anymore that day. So the rainy forecast for the last two days had only resulted in two 15-minute sprinkles, despite showing rain for most of the day. We decided to cook supper by the lake rather than at the shelter. Seth got me the helinox chair zero for Christmas, which only weighs one pound, and I have been loving having it this year! It definitely adds a little bit of weight to my pack over my old sit-upon, but for trips where you’re eating outside or spending multiple nights at the same site – it makes it so much more comfortable! It’s not totally necessary at Berg Lake as there are lots of benches around the lakefront, but I don’t regret bringing it.

We ended up hanging out at the lake for a few hours before heading to bed. We planned to do the Snowbird Pass trail the following day, which is a 20km round trip hike, so we wanted to get an early start. When I got up to pee in the middle of the night though, I was treated to the most amazing starscape! Sometimes I like to do astrophotography, but I thought it would be cloudy our entire trip, so I didn’t bring my camera or tripod. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so even though I needed the sleep, it was worth a short walk out to the beach in the dark to admire the milky way over Mount Robson! In lieu of star photos, enjoy a photo of me kicking back relaxing on the beach… and one more epic shot from the viewpoint!

Berg Lake Backpacking Trip

September 21, 2025October 6, 2025 / Maria / 5 Comments

There are a lot of amazing hiking trails in the Rocky Mountains. Over the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to visit a handful of the big trails – Assiniboine, Rockwall, Lake O’Hara – but this year, the real hot spot to hike in the Rockies was definitely the Berg Lake Trail.

The Berg Lake Trail is located in Mount Robson Provincial Park in BC. Mount Robson is the tallest peak in both the Canadian Rockies and the province of BC, so this has always been a popular trail. However, in 2021, there were massive floods in the park, which resulted in helicopter evacuations of park users and a subsequent 3 year closure of the park for trail repairs. BC Parks completed upgrades to the trails and campgrounds earlier this year and the entire trail re-opened to the public at the start of the summer. As a result, it seemed like everyone was desperate to visit this magical place.

Since BC Parks had been teasing the re-opening of the park, I was really determined to visit this year. I try to do one big multi-day hike a year, and I passed on obtaining permits for any of the other major hiking trails when they were released. When BC Parks finally announced the re-opening in early April, I was ready!

If you’ve ever done a popular Canadian trail that requires permits, you’re probably familiar with how challenging they are to obtain. Hiking and backpacking have become increasingly popular, among both the locals and tourists (domestic and international). The popular hikes in the Rockies usually release permits for the entire season in the Spring, and it is always a battle to obtain permits. This experience was no different and I spent the better part of an hour fighting for permits.

If you’re looking to visit, permits can be obtained from camping.bcparks.ca. Traditionally BC Parks releases their sites 4 months in advance of your visit (so it’s a rolling window), but on this occasion they released the entire season at once due to the late announcement about the re-opening of the park. I’m not sure what they will do in the future. The challenge with this hike is that you have to go in and out on the same trail, so people are booking campsites in both directions. In addition, you have to build your itinerary day by day, so you have to essentially refresh the page after you add each day. If you are unable to get what you want for a certain day, you can’t continue the booking to the following day because you can’t leave a gap in your itinerary. Due to the scarcity of sites, most parties will have multiple people online at the same time trying to book sites, which results in campsites appearing full, but later showing vacancies as groups eventually release sites. This creates more opportunities for website bugs and overcrowding to wreak havoc on your cart.

The Berg Lake Trail is a 21km trail that runs from the trailhead on Highway 16, to Robson Pass. There are 7 campgrounds, shown below, but the most popular is, of course, the Berg Lake Campground. As a result, everyone is trying to get permits to Berg Lake, usually with a campsite somewhere along the trail midpoint on the way in and out (or sometimes just on the way in). It’s really hard to get permits at Berg Lake, so my advice is not to waste your time refreshing if you can’t get Berg Lake. There are several other campsites in close proximity to Berg Lake, book one of those instead so that you can at least secure an itinerary. You can look for cancellations at Berg Lake later. There is a $6 change fee to change campsites, so it does cost a little more, but in my opinion, it’s better to secure a booking to another site quickly, rather than risk getting no permits.

The first couple hours after the permits release is chaos because people are constantly adding and releasing sites from their cart. So if you’re struggling to get what you want, keep refreshing for at least a half hour because there’s a lot of changeover of campsites. My preferred itinerary was to stay at Kinney Lake on the way in, 3 nights at Berg, and then Whitehorn on the way out. I wasn’t able to get any of those sites, except Kinney Lake, so I booked sites at Marmot and Robson Pass instead. With all the turnover, I was able to change my site at Robson Pass to Berg Lake within the hour. I wasn’t sure if I would get other cancellations, but I watched all summer and I was able to get my entire preferred itinerary (including 3 nights at Berg Lake) in advance of the trip! So it’s better to have something than nothing. Once you have a booking, sign up for cancellation notifications on Schnerp – they scan the sites and will email you as soon as one becomes available for your selected dates. I got most of my cancellations in the week leading up to the trip (with the final one a day before I left), so don’t be discouraged, most people wait until the last minute to cancel.

That’s a lot of information about the permit process, so let’s move on to the fun stuff! After getting through the reservation gauntlet, I was super excited about the trip and planned to do the trail with Brandon. We left Vancouver after work on Friday night in late July and drove halfway to Kamloops. We did the second half of the drive in the morning and arrived at the Visitor Centre around 1pm in the afternoon. We were starting our hike the same day, but it’s only ~7km along mostly flat terrain to Kinney Lake, so we weren’t worried about a later start. You’re required to stop at the visitor centre in order to pick up your permits, so plan your start time accordingly as it closes at 4pm.

Unfortunately, the weather was looking absolutely abysmal for our trip. We kept checking it every day leading up to our departure, but it consistently showed rain for the entire 6 day trip. We were optimistic it wouldn’t rain the whole time and that we would get some nice weather windows throughout the week, so we didn’t even consider cancelling. But I do think this is why I was able to get last minute cancellations at Berg Lake. It started to pour as we approached the visitor centre, so we were in no rush to start the hike. I spent some time lining my backpack with a garbage bag and then we hit up the Mount Robson cafe and gift shop to kill time.

Eventually the rain started to lighten, so we drove to the parking lot to get ready. We dressed in full waterproof gear, but the rain stopped very soon after we started hiking and we quickly got sweaty from the humidity and ditched our layers. The view up towards Mount Robson was completely clouded in, but at least we were dry, and I was optimistic that we’d see Mount Robson at some point in the next 6 days.

The hike to Kinney Lake is very chill. You mostly hike through the forest along the Robson River and you can see where they’ve reinforced the trail against flooding in some spots along the way. It’s a easy hike and there were quite a few day hikers along the trail. Eventually, you hit a bridge at the edge of Kinney Lake, which has a gorgeous view of the lake and river, with Mount Robson in the background. The trail continues along the lakeshore, but it was a bit flooded throughout, so you can take the perimeter trail if you want to avoid that.

It took us ~2 hours to reach the campsite on the east side of the lake, where we were surprised to find that more than half of the campsites were empty, despite it being 6pm. Apparently ‘no-shows’ has been a common theme in the park all summer. There was a viral tiktok of someone complaining about all the empty sites at Berg Lake. I did find this to be the case at most of the campsites, but not at Berg Lake. There were maybe 1 or 2 empty sites, but overall, in the 3 nights I spent there, that campsite seemed pretty full.

We were happy to arrive at Kinney Lake dry because most of the other campers had gotten completely soaked on the way in. The Kinney Lake Campsite is really beautiful and has several waterfront sites. We were too late to get one, but it also has a big open air shelter that is amazing on a wet or sunny day. I think this site is passed over a lot because it’s so close to the trailhead, but it’s a great place for families and it was my favourite site after Berg Lake. If you want a late start, this is a great option.

The first thing I did after arriving was go for a swim. The water is cold at Kinney Lake, but warmer than I was expecting. It’s definitely the easiest lake to swim in! We had a very chill evening and mostly hung around at the shelter after setting up our tent. Fortunately, the rain didn’t reappear and the clouds lifted. We were able to catch a glimpse of the backside of Mount Robson and we got really cool views as the fog settled over the top of the lake.

When we woke in the morning, it was cloudy, but not raining. The forecast was showing rain in the afternoon, so we figured it was a good idea to get an early start on the day. From Kinney Lake, we got an idea of the number of day hikers that visit the park in the span of a day. It’s 40km round trip to hike to Berg Lake, so I didn’t expect to see many day hikers past Kinney Lake. Was I ever wrong! There was a steady stream of visitors attempting to do the entire trail in a day. Since it’s such a long hike, they all start early, so we saw lots of people hiking into Kinney Lake as we were preparing to start our day.

The amazing thing about this hike is that pretty much the entire journey is scenic! Once you leave Kinney Lake, you hike through the forest to the end of the lake, where you come to a junction. There’s a few bike racks here because you are allowed to bike as far as Kinney Lake, which is a popular option for day users. There’s two routes at the end of the lake. There’s the Kinney Flats route, which crosses the river delta at the end of the lake, or the alternative high route, for when the Flats are inundated. It was dry, so we chose the Flats route, which is more scenic and saved us unnecessary elevation gain.

Once you reach the end of the Flats, the climb begins. It’s uphill for most of the rest of the day. It still wasn’t rainy and we were pleased about the conditions overall. At least with the clouds, we were spared from the hot sun on our climb. The next landmark is Whitehorn Campground, which is ~2km from Kinney Flats. This entire section of trail is new since the flood. The trail used to climb up the west side of the valley, but now it goes up the east side. The Robson River flooded the banks during the 2021 flood, so the new route avoids crossing it at the bottom of the Flats.

There’s ~150m of elevation gain in this section and the trail mostly switchbacks through the forest. I didn’t find it too strenuous and before we knew it, we had arrived at Whitehorn Campground! This campsite is also beautiful as it overlooks the Robson River and has an incredible view of the Valley of a Thousand Waterfalls. The name accurately captures the vibe and we had a snack break along the river while spotting all the waterfalls. There is a large open-air shelter at Whitehorn and it’s located close to the midpoint of the trail, making it a popular stop on the way to Berg Lake.

We continued hiking up the valley and the trail again diverges from the old trail. The new trail is longer than the old trail and now you cross the Robson River at Whitehorn Campground, and then again before you start heading up to Emperor Falls (with the new trail on the west side of the river rather than the east side). The trail is relatively flat for 2km after Whitehorn as you hike along the valley. There’s a huge new bridge crossing the river that provides an awesome view of the surrounding waterfalls.

After you finish the valley walk, the trail difficulty really ups the ante. For the next 3km, you’ll do the bulk of the elevation gain as you climb up towards Berg Lake. At first, it’s very steep and there are lots of warnings not to take breaks because of the risk of rockfall. There are a few landmarks though. The first is a beautiful view of White Falls, followed by the Falls of the Pool viewpoint. The clouds continued to break-up all morning and there was actually a lot of sun as we sweated our way up to Emperor Falls.

Emperor Falls is one of the larger waterfalls on the trail and involves a short detour, but it’s definitely worth it! It’s a huge waterfall and it gives off a lot of spray, so either grab your rain jacket or prepare to get wet. At this point, we were getting really hungry, so we didn’t stay too long and continued another 500m along the trail to the Emperor Falls Campground, where we planned to have lunch.

Emperor Falls is one of the smaller campgrounds on the trail and unfortunately, it doesn’t have a shelter. It does have a picnic area and some beautiful tent pads along the river. I don’t think this campsite is very popular because it’s so close to Berg Lake and people would rather stay at Berg Lake, but it’s still a nice spot. We set up on one of the tent pads and ended up taking a pretty lengthy lunch break. It started to sprinkle on us when we were getting ready to leave, but it was short lived and the sun came out again as we started the last section of our hike.

From Emperor Falls, it’s ~2km to Marmot Campground, which is located at the head of Berg Lake, and then another ~2km to the main campground at the foot of Berg Lake. The good news is there’s very little elevation gain along this stretch and it is incredibly scenic! As you leave Emperor Falls, you hike along the river at the edge of the mountain. With the sun out, we could see Mount Robson and the short arm of the Berg Lake Glacier coming down the mountain. I remember feeling so incredibly happy at this part of the hike. We weren’t sure how much of the scenery we would get to see with the poor weather forecast, yet here we were already admiring Mount Robson and the glaciers! We both had huge smiles as we continued towards the lake.

After 1km, you start hiking across the flats to the edge of the lake, where there are dozens of streams crisscrossing the terrain. It’s easy to see how this part of the trail could have flooded. I believe the trail was re-routed in this area too – you still cross the flats, but BC Parks have made a trail of stepping stones so that you can (for the most part) avoid getting your feet wet. I’m not sure how long this will last with the streams constantly changing, there was one section where I switched to my sandals because the water was coming up over the rocks and I didn’t want to risk wet shoes so early in the trip.

If you’re not able to get a campsite at Berg Lake, then I think Marmot Campground is the next best option. Marmot is also located directly on Berg Lake, just on the opposite site. You can’t see the main part of the Berg Lake Glacier from Marmot, but you can see the smaller arm and it still has incredible views. I had 2 nights at Marmot on my original booking and was only able to get the cancellation for Berg Lake right before my trip. I’m glad we ended up with 3 nights at Berg (even if only so that we didn’t have to move our tent), but I would have been very satisfied at Marmot too. Plus, Marmot has a brand new shelter and outhouse!

Despite it’s beauty, we didn’t stay long at Marmot because we were itching to get to our campsite. It’s only 2km along the lakeshore to get there, but it did feel like a bit of a slog at the end of the day. We tracked 15km on my GPS with the detour to Emperor Falls, which is a pretty big day. With our long lunch break, it took us 7.5 hours to hike from Kinney Lake to Berg Lake, so we were ready to ditch our packs. The hike along the lakeshore is in the forest, but there are breathtaking views of the lake and Berg Glacier as you get closer to the campground.

Eventually we made it and Brandon wondered off in search of a campsite (he prides himself on always finding the best site available). There’s only 1 tent pad at Berg Lake that actually has a view of the lake, so I didn’t care too much where we stayed, my main concern was going for a swim as soon as possible. So while Brandon was wandering the campground, I snuck down to the waterfront and changed into my swimsuit for a dip. Alpine Lakes are always cold and I knew Berg Lake would be no exception with the glacier draining directly into it. But I love lake swimming and I have to say, it honestly wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be. It was obviously cold, but not the immediately numbing kind of cold. I was able to stay in the water for a few minutes and it felt lovely to wash all the sweat off.

Brandon returned with 2 potential sites and we ended up picking one along the river, behind the shelter. There’s a few campsites at the edge of the campground that do have a view of Mount Robson, but I really liked being close to the shelter, which is where the main open area of the campground is, with the best view, so I was very happy with our site. We set up our tent for the next 3 nights before heading to the shelter to make supper. There’s a bunch of picnic tables with a good view of the mountain, but we weren’t sure if it might rain again, so we opted for the shelter.

Hargreaves Shelter is fully enclosed with a bunch of picnic tables inside. But the crown jewel of this shelter is the patio, which has a great view of the lake! We made some friends and enjoyed a nice night chatting and taking in the view (while stuffing our faces). Communal cooking spaces are one of my favourite things about the parks in the Rockies. You know you have at least one thing in common with everyone there, so I love hanging out and getting to know the different people visiting the park. Most of the campers we met were from BC or Alberta, whereas a lot of the day hikers were international tourists.

Eventually, we relocated to the lakefront for sunset and hung out for a while, basking in how lucky we were to actually be there. The scenery at Berg Lake is unparalleled and even though it’s a busy site, there’s so much energy and appreciation present. I was mostly thrilled that it wasn’t raining and I was full of optimism for the days ahead! Sometimes you want to just be, and this is one of those places where I wanted nothing more than to just sit in silence and stare at nature’s beauty and marvel at the height of Mount Robson. Check back next week to read about my day hike to Hargreaves Lake.

The Road Goes Ever On

Canadian Outdoor Adventure and Travel Blog

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