Rohr Lake Backpacking Trip

November 9, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

Rohr Lake has been on my hiking bucket list for years. I was hoping to visit in the middle of the summer, but I had bad timing and there was a wildfire in Pemberton, so I opted not to go, hiking the Heather Trail in Manning Park instead. I felt like doing one last backpacking trip over the Thanksgiving long weekend and convinced Adriana to come out with me for a 1-nighter.

After a beautiful September, the weather switched right before our trip and the mountains got their first dusting of snow the night before. Adriana claims that winter camping is too cold, but she was still excited about camping at Rohr Lake in -5 degrees Celsius, so her logic doesn’t check out, but I’m glad she was willing to join me! We got up early on Saturday morning and drove to the trailhead, just past Joffre Lakes, arriving shortly before lunch. Since we knew it would be cold, we both came prepared, meaning that my pack was feeling a little heavier than I prefer as I was carrying my winter sleeping bag.

It was a nice day, with no precipitation, but it was overcast. We weren’t sure of the condition of the access road and since we only had one car, we parked at the very bottom. The road is in really good condition for the first kilometre and I recommend driving up to the main lot, but it’s not a difficult walk, so we didn’t mind the slightly longer hike. If you have 4×4, you will be able to drive another kilometre, but I wouldn’t attempt it without. The middle lot is the safest route.

Even with the extra kilometre, I only tracked 4.5km from the bottom lot to the lake. It’s not a long hike, but it does have 500m of elevation gain, so be prepared for a climb. Once you finish the road, the trail meanders through the forest. It’s a nice hike through the trees and while there was a little bit of snow on the ground, the trail was pretty much bare from other hikers. Eventually you hit the junction for the Wendy Thompson Hut. If you’re going to the hut, follow the trail left, it’s much less steep, but if you’re going to Rohr Lake, follow the trail right.

The trail continues through the forest and gets quite a bit steeper until you emerge in a meadow. It was nice in the shelter of the forest, but once we hit the meadow, we were exposed to the wind and it got quite cold. The last part of the trail can be deceiving because it doesn’t look very long, but it travels up through a very steep boulder field, so be prepared to slow down the pace. This was particularly challenging with snow. There wasn’t a lot of snow, but the trail was much harder to follow through the boulder field and we got off track several times, having to course-correct. While it had snowed overnight, it was above zero degrees when we were hiking up, so it was quite muddy through the boulder field where the snow had melted.

We reached the top after about 2.5 hours of hiking. There were quite a few day hikers, but we didn’t expect to see many other backpackers. There was a group of 3 guys when we arrived, but that was it. The view from the lake is beautiful, but in early October, it was very cold and windy. Our first order of business was to eat lunch and then set up camp as soon as possible so that we could change out of our sweaty clothes.

That was probably the hardest part of the trip. I don’t regret camping in the Fall because there’s not actually a lot of space at the lake to pitch a tent and I hear it’s a popular destination in the summer, so if you’re going in July or August, I recommend starting early. We looked for a sheltered spot to pitch our tent in the trees, but didn’t find one, so we set up by the lake instead. We were both quite cold as we ate lunch and wanting to warm up, I changed as soon as we got the tent up. I felt a lot better after that, but in general it was a lot colder than we were anticipating.

We spent the afternoon taking it easy and doing a little bit of exploring, but I felt pretty stuck because of the conditions. In the summer, we’d planned to hike to Mount Rohr, but that wasn’t really an option with the snow and limited daylight hours. We were happy to discover that the lake has both a bear cache and an outhouse, neither of which we were expecting, so that was a nice surprise. In our search for the outhouse, we stumbled upon a campsite hidden in the trees and went through the effort to move our tent up there instead. It didn’t have a view, but it was 100% the right decision. It was noticeably warmer out of the wind and I think we both slept better because of it.

We made supper and figured we’d be heading to bed fairly early, but the guys had gotten a campfire going and after heating water for our nalgenes to act as a hot water bottle, we joined them. The fire was incredibly warm and the guys were pretty entertaining, so we had a fun time chatting with them. We would have gone to bed super early otherwise and I think the campfire really helped set us up for success overnight. My body temperature was already quite warm and toasty when I crawled into my sleeping bag, and thanks to my hot water bottle which had been warming my bed, I stayed comfy and warm all night. I do have a -30 degree bag, so that is probably to be expected, but Adriana had a -18 degree bag and a sleeping bag liner and she was nice and warm too.

All things considered, I slept pretty well. I got up to pee once overnight and the clouds had cleared out and the stars were really putting on a show. I would have loved to stargaze for a little while, but it was much too cold and I quickly crawled back into the tent. The weather forecast showed it getting down to -5 degrees overnight.

We had a lazy morning, enjoying breakfast before packing up the tent and our gear to head back to the car. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but it was still very cold. Where it had been very muddy along the waterfront the day before, everything was now frozen, including the edge of the lake. Honestly, I preferred the ground this way, much easier to walk on and much less messy. But again, I was glad we moved the tent to the forest because otherwise we would have been sleeping on ice all night.

Unsurprisingly, the hike down the boulder field was more challenging than the hike up. The trail was easier to follow on the way down, but now that all the mud had frozen, it was extremely slippery. There wasn’t any snow on the trail, but we wore our microspikes because otherwise it would have been very easy to take a slip on a frozen rock. There were quite a few day hikers coming in, some of which had microspikes, others that did not.

My criticism of this hike would be that I think it has become the overflow hike for Joffre Lakes. There were several large groups of people who did not seem equipped to be hiking at all. A few of them stopped to talk to us and ask for directions. They didn’t seem to have any idea where they were going and said that the park rangers at Joffre Lakes had suggested the hike. My hypothesis is that a lot of people show up to Joffre without the day pass and the rangers recommend Rohr Lake instead. I have mixed feelings about it. It’s very close, so it seems like an appropriate hike, but it’s a lot more technical than Joffre Lakes.

Once we got past the boulder field, the trail got much easier and we layered down, but it was still a bit challenging on the knees on the way out. I quite enjoyed the walk down the road though. You get a great view of Mount Matier on the way out and there’s a few deciduous trees along the road that had turned a beautiful shade of yellow. We got back to the car shortly after lunchtime and hightailed it into Pemberton to treat ourselves to burgers. I’d still love to come back and do this hike in the summer, but glad to cross it off my bucket list for now!

Hiking Skywalk South

October 27, 2026October 27, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

Iceberg Lake is a popular trail in Whistler that’s ~15km round trip with 900m of elevation gain. The trail hikes up through the forest north of Whistler, exiting to a beautiful alpine meadow and a steep climb up to the lake. It’s nestled at the base of the mountain and regularly has bergy bits floating in it, making for a cold swim and scenic photos.

The first time I hiked to Iceberg Lake was in August 2022. Rather than do the there-and-back trail to the lake, we opted to do a loop along the Skywalk North trail. This does add considerable distance to the hike, but not a lot more elevation gain. We tracked just over 1000m of gain along the entire Skywalk North trail over 21km. It’s a beautiful trail and I highly recommend adding the extra kms to avoid hiking in and out on the same trail.

Adriana wanted to hike Iceberg Lake in mid September and we opted to do the Skywalk South trail this time. It’s similar to the North trail, but I’d say it’s a little more challenging. I tracked 21.5km and over 1200m of elevation gain, so there is a bit more climbing. Both trails share the main trail to Iceberg Lake, but Skywalk North is accessed from Mountain View Drive and heads North from Iceberg Lake, whereas Skywalk South is accessed from Alpine Way and heads south from Iceberg Lake. I hiked both trails clockwise, but I think I would recommend hiking Skywalk North counterclockwise instead. The direct trail to iceberg lake is the easiest way to get there, the Skywalk trails are quite steep. I prefer to hike the steepest part uphill (I have bad knees), so I recommend hiking out on the Iceberg Lake Trail.

Both trails are beautiful and it’s hard to differentiate between them. Skywalk North is a bit steeper, but has a second, warmer lake (Screaming Cat Lake) where you can swim, whereas Skywalk South has incredible views looking down to Whistler and an optional extra summit to a small peak below Rainbow Mountain (we didn’t bother). Since I already wrote about Skywalk North, I’ll focus on Skywalk South for the rest of this post.

The trailhead to Skywalk South is on Alpine Way. There’s no parking lot and you do have to park along the street, so pay close attention to the parking signs, because it’s not allowed everywhere. Be prepared to do some road walking to the trailhead which starts with a long section of trail on an old FSR that is in good condition and easy to follow. After approximately 3km, you reach a junction where you can take a left onto the Skywalk South trail, otherwise you will continue directly to Iceberg Lake. We opted to get the hardest part of the hike done early, which is why we veered left onto the Skywalk South trail. Watch out for mountain bikers in this section as they do use part of this trail as a connector.

At first, the trail is quite flat as it traverses along the backside of the mountain, but eventually it gets steeper. It’s not a technical trail and it is nice to have the shade from the trees on a hot day. After a few kilometres, you will start to pop out into some of the alpine meadows and the trail gets less steep before a final push to the high point. Once we got to the highest point, we stopped for lunch underneath the optional trail to the summit. I’d recommend pushing just a little bit further. Past the junction, there is a small pond that looked great for swimming, and past that there are fantastic views down to Whistler. I think this would be the best place to stop for a break, but we just took some photos instead.

After that, you have to hike back down towards Iceberg Lake. It’s nestled in the side of the mountain, so you can’t see it until the very end, but there’s beautiful views of the alpine. This section is a little bit tricky and hard to follow, so pay close attention. You have to hike down a boulder field, which is steep, but not too challenging. Our problem was that we ended up getting off the trail at some point and by the time we realized, it was a bit tricky to navigate back to the trail. We managed, but my advice is to keep a close eye on the GPS track. It’s a wide open area, so it seems deceptively safe, but once you get off trail, it is not easy to get back on it. It’s easy to get cliffed out, so avoid having to backtrack.

Eventually the trail merges with the Iceberg Lake trail. There’s an outhouse at the junction and a beautiful meadow along the river. Follow the river and you’ll hike back up through one final boulder field before arriving at the lake. This is a steep section as well, but the trail isn’t hard to follow.

The sun sets early over the mountain behind the lake, so if you arrive late in the day, you may be in the shade. We arrived just in time, right before the sun dropped behind the mountain, and we were able to go for a quick swim before losing the light. We still had lots of daylight, but the temperature dropped very quickly after the sun disappeared.

The only part that sucks about the Skywalk South trail is that you have to re-do the hike back to the junction. On the Skywalk North trail, it’s one continuous loop that hikes north from the lake. We walked back to the outhouse and then had a nice walk along the Iceberg Lake trail to the car. I enjoyed the section in the forest, but once we rejoined the lower part of the trail along the old road, I quickly lost interest.

It’s a long hike and I found it pretty challenging on my knees for the last section. It’s pretty boring along the road and it felt so much longer on the way down. Me and Adriana both ended up more or less hobbling off the trail for the last 3kms because our knees were so done. Since it’s such a long trail, make sure you give yourself lots of time and daylight, especially if you’re going later in the season. It took me 9 hours to do the full Skywalk North loop in 2022 and 10 hours to do the full Skywalk South loop in 2026.

Both trails are beautiful and I think they offer a lot of extra views that you won’t get if you just do the Iceberg Lake trail. I won’t be in a rush to go back now that I’ve done both, but they did offer different enough perspectives that I didn’t mind returning for the Skywalk South trail. I highly recommend both!

Favourite Hikes in Southwestern BC: Part VI

October 17, 2026October 16, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

I’ve lived in BC for over 12 years now. I started ranking my top 10 favourite hikes in the southwest part of the province in Fall 2016 and I have been creating a new list every two years since then. By 2024, I had 5 lists featuring a total of 50 hikes, so I narrowed it down to a special list of my overall top 10 hikes in the last decade. I’d like to continue the trend, so welcome to Part VI of this list, featuring my favourite hikes of the past two years.

10. Pump Peak

I’m surprised it’s taken 12 years for this hike to make the list, but there’s always a shorter hike close to home that never fails to surprise me. Despite hiking to Brockton Peak many times over the years, I only hiked to Pump Peak for the first time in 2026. It’s located very close to Vancouver in Mount Seymour Provincial Park and is a great option for a sunset/sunrise hike, or a short overnight. (8km, 400m gain)

9. Tricouni Berg Lake

Tricouni Berg Lake (not to be confused with Tricouni Lake or Iceberg Lake) is a newly popular hike past Squamish. It only came on my radar pretty recently, but it’s a fun day hike or overnight trip with a huge payoff at the lake. Turn off Highway 99 onto Chance Creek FSR and follow the Chance Mainline (~8.5km) as far as you can go. It’s a gravel road that most vehicles can handle. From there, park and hike up to a beautiful alpine lake nestled under Tricouni Peak. (10km, 500m gain)

8. Brandywine Mountain

Brandywine Meadows made my very first top 10 list in 2016, but having recently hiked closer to the mountain summit, I’m adding the mountain to this list. There are two trailheads for this hike, a lower one accessible by any vehicle, and an upper one accessible by 4×4. I really recommend the upper lot if you’re hiking to Brandywine Peak. This is a beautiful hike through the meadows and up and over the side of the mountain. Some wayfinding is required over the mountain and it is extremely steep, so only recommended for experienced hikers. I haven’t actually summited, but enjoyed hiking up the ridge. (10km, 800m gain)

7. Golden Ears Peak

This is another hike that I can’t believe had to wait 12 years to make my top 10 list. This is a beast of a trail, so despite its close proximity to Vancouver, it took me a long time to finally work up the nerve to hike it. Located in Golden Ears Park, this is an iconic trail that overlooks Pitt Lake and the surrounding mountains. There’s over 1500m of elevation to summit the mountain, so it’s very steep and should only be attempted by experienced hikers. You can complete it as a day hike, or reserve a campsite to spend the night at the scenic Panorama Campsite. (24km, 1600m gain)

6. San Josef Bay / Raft Cove

San Josef Bay and Raft Cove are both located on the far north coast of Vancouver Island in Cape Scott and Raft Cove Provincial Parks. Both hikes require a long drive on gravel road from Port Hardy (65km+), so they are not easy to access, but well worth the drive. Both hikes are short and visit iconic sandy beaches, but San Josef Bay is a fairly straightforward flat hike, while Raft Cove is fairly technical. San Josef Bay has stunning sea stacks that you can visit at low tide, but it has the downside of being much busier than Raft Cove. (San Jo: 6km, 0m gain; Raft Cove: 7km, 100m gain)

5.Windy Pass / Camel Pass (South Chilcotin)

South Chilcotin Provincial Park was featured on both my 2024 list and my overall best hikes list, so I was excited to return to the park in 2025, this time accessing it from Taylor Creek. I spent 3 days hiking and camping in the park, visiting both Windy Pass and Camel Pass. Camel Pass is accessible as a day hike, but you’d need to backpack in order to access Windy Pass. Both are stunning alpine features of the park. (20-40km, significant gain)

4. Trophy Meadows / Moul Falls (Wells Gray)

This is my last double feature, I promise. I know Wells Gray is a bit of a stretch to be considered Southwestern BC (it isn’t), but I always stretch the bounds on this list to pretty much anything east of the Rockies. I couldn’t bear to leave Wells Gray off the list, often known as the waterfall park, it’s incredibly scenic. My favourite waterfall was Moul Falls, which has the special feature of being able to walk behind the waterfall. But I also loved hiking to Trophy Meadows to see the wildflowers, so I had to include both on the list. (Trophy: 6km, 300m gain; Moul: 6km, 150m gain)

3. Cirque Lake

This hike was a surprise contender for the list. I often just scroll around Gaia for the fun of it, looking for interesting trails, which is how I stumbled upon Cirque Lake. It’s a remote lake in the Callaghan Valley, which can only be accessed by driving 10km down a gravel road with water bars, paddling across Callaghan Lake, and then hiking up a steep trail to Cirque Lake. It’s not a long paddle, nor is it a long hike, but added together, it is a bit of effort to get to the lake. Once there, enjoy the gorgeous alpine views. (4km RT paddle; 4km, 250m gain hike)

2. Cathedral Rim Trail

Cathedral Provincial Park is a stunning, some would say spiritual, park south of Princeton. It’s just far enough away from Vancouver that it’s not too busy and the long access into the park restricts visitors. You can’t do this hike as a day trip and I visited as a 4 day backpacking trip. When operating, you can take a shuttle into the core area of the park and complete the beautiful Rim Trail, which features a number of rock monuments, as a day hike. The shuttle wasn’t running when I visited due to a recent forest fire, which is why I needed more time to hike an extra 15km each way in and out of the park. (Rim Trail: 18km, 900m gain)

1. West Coast Trail

I finally hiked the West Coast Trail and it’s not surprising that this lands as my number 1 hike of the last two years. The West Coast Trail is one of the most iconic trails in BC and is famous for a reason. It’s a multi day coastal hike that features roaring waterfalls, pristine beaches, and stunning sea stacks and sea caves. I completed the trail over 7 days and I would only recommend it to experienced hikers. There are over 100 ladders on this trail and it is a very challenging multi-day trek. But if you’re up for the challenge, you will be rewarded! (75km)