Maria’s Guide to the Bowron Lake Circuit

October 12, 2025November 20, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

The Bowron Lake Circuit is a well known and popular paddling circuit in central BC, recognized for it’s remote setting and access to wildlife. The complete circuit is 117km long, including 11km of portaging and 106km of paddling across 12 lakes. It can be completed using a canoe or a kayak, but due it’s length and location, it does require a certain level of preparedness. The Circuit has been on my bucket list for a while and I finally completed it with my husband in our 16 foot Boreal Storm kayaks earlier this Spring. I have written several trip report blogs detailing my experience on the circuit, but I also wanted to create a guide to accompany those posts to help others plan and prepare for the experience. The first set of permits usually release in late October for the following summer; however, the release date for the 2026 season this year is Dec. 2, 2025.

Experience/Fitness Level

The first question to ask yourself is whether you have the experience and ability to paddle such a long and remote circuit. This was by far the longest paddling trip I’ve ever done. As a kayaker, most of my experience was sea kayaking, which has components that are more challenging than lake paddling, but the remoteness of the Bowron circuit is definitely an important planning consideration.

This isn’t like paddling at Deep Cove or Alouette Lake, where there are lots of other boaters and relatively simple conditions. I think it is absolutely required to have previous paddling experience before attempting the Bowron Circuit. Ideally, you should have at least a basic paddling course and know how to do partner rescues and self rescue. In addition, because of the remote setting, you should have experience backcountry camping and have a working knowledge of basic first aid. I recommend a Remote First Aid course, or at minimum, a Standard First Aid course. The circuit does have emergency radios located throughout, but I also recommend carrying an inreach or satellite device in case of emergency.

You should be prepared to paddle up to 5 or 6 hours per day (with breaks) and plan to be completely self sufficient. You should also be prepared for the challenges of portaging. While 11km may not seem like a lot, towing or carrying your boat is tiring (and the process of unloading and reloading your boat can be time consuming). Completing an overnight trip in advance of the circuit will help you get used to using the same muscles day after day, which can be exhausting. You can make the trip a bit easier by planning your visit during peak season. While it will be busier during that time, paddling and weather conditions will generally be more forgiving and easier to manage in the summer.

The Circuit

As stated, the circuit is 117km long on paper, but it is a bit longer in practice. I measured 135km on my GPS by the time I finished the entire route. From your starting date, you have up to 14 days to complete the 117km circuit, so you can plan for a slower pace, but most people will complete it in 7 days. We regularly paddled between 15 and 25km per day and were on the water for 5-6 hours per day.

The trailhead is located ~90 minutes east of Quesnel, which is 7-8 hours north of Vancouver. Once you leave Quesnel, there’s no cell service anywhere in the park. There’s a bit of development around Bowron Lake, where the circuit starts. There’s a park registration centre located at the north end of Bowron Lake, which is where you start the circuit. It is a regulated trail, so you need a permit to complete it.

The trail starts with a portage and then progresses through the 12 lake circuit. Some transitions from lake to lake require portaging, while others are connected by rivers that can be paddled from one lake to the next. There are 54 campsites spread out around the circuit. You need to reserve a permit to complete the circuit, but the campsites themselves are first-come-first serve, with the exception of group sites, which are a separate permit.

The most notable lake on the circuit is Isaac lake, which is the largest lake, at ~35km long. Isaac Lake can be challenging because it can get strong headwinds in the afternoon. The end of Isaac Lake also marks the halfway point on the circuit with a notable water feature known as “the Chute”, which I’ll discuss further below, followed by the Cariboo River. After the Cariboo River, the paddling gets a bit easier and groups are generally more spread out. The last campsite is located at the head of the Bowron River, which is a great place for wildlife viewing, before finishing with paddle back up Bowron Lake to return to the start of the circuit.

Permits

The Bowron Lake Circuit is located in Bowron Lake Provincial Park, which is managed by BC Parks. A permit is required to complete the circuit and there is a cap on how many people and boats are permitted on the circuit on any given day. There types of permits available are:

Full Circuit – The full circuit is what is discussed in this post. This is the 117km loop that starts and ends at Bowron Lake. With a full circuit permit, you have 14 days in which to complete the circuit.

West Circuit – If you don’t have enough time to do the whole circuit, you can get a permit for the west circuit, which is an out and back route down Bowron Lake. On this route, you can go as far as Unna Lake, after which you must turn around and return to Bowron Lake.

Group Booking – If you have 7 people or more in your group, you must make a group booking. The group booking is a bit different because you must stay at group sites, which means you will have a fixed itinerary. I believe the circuit itinerary is 8 days, but you can do either the full circuit or west circuit as a group.

In 2025, the circuit was open from May 17 to September 28 and permits can be hard to get depending on when you want to visit. Peak Season is late June to end of August. If you plan to paddle during this time, you should book a permit as soon as they release. BC Parks usually releases a series of permits in October, following by a second set of permits in March. The release date for 2026 is Dec. 2, 2025; I’m not sure if they’ll do two releases or just one. These can be obtained from camping.bcparks.ca

Time of Year

Time of year can also play a large role in determining when to paddle the circuit. If you don’t like crowds, then you may want to avoid the summer months and paddle in the Spring or Fall. Summer can be very hot or smoky and the water level in some of the rivers can get pretty low. However, the benefit of paddling in the summer is that you’re likely to have less rain, calmer paddling, and warmer nights. It’s also better weather for swimming as the lakes will be warmer.

The benefits of paddling in the shoulder season is that there will be less people, less bugs, and less likelihood of smoke and fire bans. However, the weather can be significantly more challenging in the off-season. We paddled the circuit right after it opened in May. It was very warm in Vancouver leading up to our trip, but the circuit is located much further north, so it will stay cool later in the Spring and earlier in the Fall. The lakes only become ice free at the end of April, so the water will be quite cold in May. Our experience was that it was really cold overnight in May and we had to battle with frequent rain and higher winds. Rain is manageable, but high winds can be a show stopper on a trip like this.

If you’re more experienced in the backcountry, shoulder season is a good option, but if you’re a novice paddler or camper, I recommend just going in the busy season. The number of people on the circuit is controlled, so while it will be busier, you shouldn’t lose the remote feeling of the setting.

Getting There

Getting to Bowron Lake Provincial Park isn’t challenging, but it is remote. Unfortunately, there aren’t many options for transit, so I believe driving is the only option available, unless maybe if you book a guided tour. If you’re traveling from Vancouver, it’s ~700km to drive to Quesnel along the highways, followed by another ~110km inland to the park on highway 26. This highway is paved from Quesnel to Barkerville, but the final 30km is gravel road. It’s in good condition, but it will slow down your driving speed. We drove slower on the entire road because we saw a lot of wildlife along the way and didn’t want to hit a deer or a bear.

Rentals

We had the benefit of using our own kayaks for this trip, but it’s easy to rent if you don’t have your own boat (most people don’t). The two most popular places to rent that we encountered was Bowron Lake Lodge and Becker’s Lodge. Rentals are surprisingly cheap and they will drop the boat off to the registration centre for you.

Canoe vs. Kayak

While I’ve been calling it the “Bowron Lake Circuit”, it is technically called the “Bowron Lake Canoe Circuit”. Traditionally, I think more people canoe this route than kayak it, but kayaking is definitely growing in popularity. The Portages are all in fairly good condition and the majority of people use a cart to tow their canoe or kayak. If you had to do an overhead carry on the portages, then canoeing would definitely be the way to go, but given that you can take either boat on a cart, I think there’s fundamentally no difference and that you should do whichever one you like more.

I don’t feel that the canoers had any advantage over us in our kayaks. There could be an argument made that it’s easier to portage a tandem canoe because you have 2 people and 1 boat, but I would counter that a good sea touring kayak is more appropriate to handle strong winds than a canoe and won’t make a mess of your gear if you accidentally capsize. You can make an argument for either option, which is why I think it personally doesn’t matter. There are lots of paddling routes that aren’t feasible with a kayak due to the need to overhead carry, so if you like kayaking, this is one of the limited circuits where you can actually bring a kayak.

What isn’t appropriate is a short kayak, a sit-upon kayak, or a stand-up paddleboard. If you’re going to take a kayak, it should really be a sea touring kayak.

Portaging

This was my first time portaging my kayak and whether you go with a kayak or a canoe, there are some important considerations for portaging.

The portage trails are in relatively good condition and can be navigated with an expedition cart, but they are still fairly rugged. They all have hills as you portage from lake to lake, and some trails will get muddy, have significant potholes, or have rocks and roots you need to navigate. In order to protect the condition of the trails, BC Parks have set weight restrictions on your boat.

If you travel in a canoe, you will be required to weigh the gear that will sit in your canoe while portaging. You are not allowed to have more than 60lbs of gear in your canoe while portaging, everything else must be carried in a backpack. To accommodate this, most canoers will leave their paddles and safety gear in the canoe, along with maybe a food barrel or cooler. Everything else must be in a backpack that you wear while portaging.

Kayaks are a bit different. I thought our gear was also going to get weighed, but I guess kayaks are more restricted about how much gear can actually fit in the hatches, so they don’t get weighed. There was another group of kayakers while we were doing the circuit and they opted to portage their kayaks fully loaded, but Seth and I brought backpacks and portaged our kayaks partially empty. I don’t regret this choice. Pulling the kayak is really tiring and I don’t think I would have been able to do it if the boat was fully loaded, plus it puts a lot of strain on the boats (which we love and don’t want to damage).

Logistically, this was a bit more challenging because we had to strategically pack our kayaks to also fit a large backpack. We had everything in smaller dry bags and packed the empty backpack in our larger hatch. Then, at the portages, we would remove most of the dry bags and load them into our backpacks. The only gear we left in the kayaks was our paddling gear and our food bags, which were too bulky to easily fit in the backpack. It slowed us down on the portages because we had to unload and reload everything at every portage, but I personally believe it made the portaging less painful and I would do the same thing if I ever go back.

River Paddling

The last thing I want to highlight before talking about itineraries is that there is a challenging section of river paddling on this trip that you should be aware of. At the end of Isaac Lake there’s a more challenging whitewater section of river, with two water features known as ‘the Chute’ and ‘the Rollercoaster’. These are not required water features – they’re about 1km in length and you do have the option to portage around them. We had originally planned to portage around them, but ended up paddling it instead.

The Chute is located right at the end of Isaac Lake and is easy to assess because it’s directly visible from the large campsite at the end of the lake (Camp #28). A lot of paddlers will spend the night at Camp #28 to assess the chute, watch a few others run it, and then decide whether to paddle it themselves or not. The chute is a bumpy section of water that is mostly made challenging by the fact that it’s surrounded by eddies and you have to make a 90 degree turn at the end to continue down the river. If you exit or turn too early, you can get sucked into an eddy, or get hit broadside by the waves, causing you to capsize. We ended up running it at the same time as a half dozen other paddlers and we all managed to navigate it safely without capsizing. The water level was very high, so the waves were also high, but we didn’t have to worry about hitting rocks, which is more of a challenge in the summer. My recommendation is to assess at the campsite and make your decision then.

The Rollercoaster is just a few sections of standing waves. I didn’t find it overly difficult, the only trick really is to watch for rocks so that you don’t hit anything accidentally. Once you finish the Chute and the Rollercoaster, there are 2 mandatory portages past other river features that are not navigable – the cascades and a waterfall. Instead, you’ll bypass these obstacles and get kicked out on McLeary Lake. However, there is one more obstacle left.

McLeary Lake is connected to Lanezi Lake by a 6km paddle on the Cariboo River. This is a beautiful and fun section of paddling, but there are several hazards you need to be aware of (and there’s no option to bypass the river). When the water is high, there are fewer sweepers and deadhead hazards as they are below the surface, but you still need to watch out for them in case they are just under the water. What was more concerning for us was the speed of the current. The river moves very fast, which is fun, but it could be easy to lose your boat if you capsized. When the water level is low, you need to be more cognizant of sweepers and deadhead so that you don’t hit anything with your boat, which could also result in a capsize. I did prefer having a kayak for these sections because risk of losing my gear if I capsized was pretty much non-existent in a kayak.

Itinerary

The main consideration for your paddling itinerary is how many days you want to do the trip. There’s 54 campsites in the park and it will vary how busy each one is. I wouldn’t worry too much about which specific site you will stay at, rather focus on the average distance you will need to paddle every day and whether or not you will have any bonus days to rest or sit out bad weather.

The most common length of time to complete the circuit is 6-8 days. In my opinion, 6 is a bit ambitious, 7 is reasonable but doesn’t allow for setbacks, and 8 is comfortable. Beyond 8 days, you need to be prepared to bring quite a lot of food with you, but that’s not to say you can’t take that long if you have the time. I felt that we did the circuit at a pretty fast pace. We would get up really early every day to paddle flat water, and in many cases we were arriving at the campsites pretty early as well. It’s nice to arrive early at the campsite to get the one you want, but I wish we could have stopped a bit more along the way to enjoy other sites during the day. The reason we didn’t was that it was very cold in mid-May and when I wasn’t paddling, I wanted to be getting into warm, dry clothes, so we didn’t take long breaks. Paddling in the summer, I’d prefer to stop and swim more, so a longer itinerary would allow for that.

Below I’ve compiled a few suggested itineraries depending on different durations and objectives. The campsites are only suggestions, you need to be flexible with campsites and be prepared that if one is full when you arrive, you may have to paddle a few more kilometres to the next one. I know the text is a bit hard to read on my blog, so click the photo to view a higher resolution version on my flickr.

Campsites

Like I stated above, don’t worry too much about specific campsites. Before I went on the trip, I kept trying to google “nicest campsites on the Bowron Lake circuit” with no luck. The reason for that is that the campsites are all very similar. There’s not a lot to differentiate one from another. There are a few large sites that are nice, and some have slightly nicer lake views than others, but honestly, they’re all nice.

In the early season, which is when I went, the campsites with shelters were definitely more popular because it rained a lot and it was cold. The sites with shelters have woodstoves, so it was really nice to stay at them. Most of the sites with shelters are large, except for the few on the front end of the circuit, but there is definitely some overflow space. If you have a small group, I think it would be fairly easy to stay at any of the small sites, but if you’re a larger group, you may want to plan accordingly.

In my opinion, some of the stand-out sites are Camps #8, 15, 28, 31, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 44, 48, and 54. But be prepared to stay anywhere. The only one I really recommend prioritizing is Camp #28 if you’re planning to run the chute. It’s nice to have some time to study it and consider your approach! From my experience, Camp #54 can also get really busy because people are trying to reduce their distance on the last day. Camp #54 is a pretty site, but I kind of wish we’d stayed at #48 instead. I’ve included my breakdown of all the campsites and I rated each one as how I would prioritize where to stay. Again, take it with a grain of salt, there are no bad campsites.

Gear

As noted, this is a trickier trip to pack for because you have to fit everything in your boat, while also being prepared to carry a good portion of your gear when portaging. We managed this in the kayaks by packing everything in organized dry bags (1 for kitchen, 1 for food, 1 for sleeping gear, etc) and then choosing the best way to fit everything in the kayak and in the backpacks. We couldn’t fit our kayak wheels inside a hatch, so these were attached to the outer part of the kayak using bungy cords.

There is also a lot of safety gear required for a trip like this. If you’re renting boats, they will provide you with the accompanying boating gear, but you should still plan to bring all your personal safety items. Below is a copy of my kit list from this trip. It’s not perfect and everyone will want slightly different things depending on time of year, but this worked well for us!

Food

Food is one of my favourite topics when it comes to the backcountry. When backpacking, your food will likely be the heaviest thing in your bag, so it’s important to minimize the weight. When paddling, weight is less of a consideration, but because of the limits to how much weight you can carry in your boat, it is still something to consider. I’m really big into dehydrating my own food, so we decided to just bring all dehydrated meals. There wasn’t as much space for food in our kayaks as in a canoe, so we thought this was the easiest option. Some canoers will bring coolers, but keep in mind your icepacks will not last longer than a few days, so plan to eat all your perishable food by day 3. Glass is not permitted on the circuit.

Some people get really into calorie counting for these types of big trips. You should definitely plan to bring larger meals than you normally eat, because you will be doing a lot of physical activity, but my experience is that I don’t really start to get really hungry until at least day 3, so normally I’ll start packing extra snacks for the second half of the trip. On a remote trip like this, I’d plan to bring 2 extra days of food in case of emergency. You could easily get grounded by bad weather or high winds, so be prepared with food reserves. Check out my series on dehydrated food if you’re curious.

Other Considerations

Water purification – One nice thing about the circuit is that you’re paddling on freshwater all day every day, so you don’t need to do any big water carries. That said, I recommend bringing a water filter with you. I used a gravity filter with a 4L reservoir that we could fill at the campsite every night.

Wind – Most paddlers are used to afternoon winds and the Bowron Circuit was no exception to this rule. Water conditions are generally calmest in the early morning or evening, so plan accordingly. There’s a lot of daylight through the summer, so our approach was to get up early. This meant we were usually first to arrive to campsites as well.

Wildlife – Due to its remote location, there is a lot of wildlife around the Bowron Circuit, and fortunately, the wildlife has not become habituated to people (yet). It is pretty likely that you could see a moose or a bear on the trip, along with smaller wildlife like marmots, beavers, and birds. Make sure to always practice bear safety, all the campsites have bear caches. Fishing is permitted with the proper permit.

Woodlots – There are woodlots scattered throughout the circuit. These are changed every year, so they are not marked on a map. Because I visited in May, there were no fire bans and we were able to have campfires every night. Since it was so early in the season, it was easy to collect deadfall around the campsites. It may be more challenging to find wood later in the season, in which case it might be a good idea to collect wood at the woodlots. Remember to never cut down live trees.

Have fun! This is an amazing experience!

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!