Berg Lake Trail Backpacking Guide

November 20, 2025 / Maria / 2 Comments

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

The Trail

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

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

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

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

Time of Year

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

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

Getting There

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

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

Permits

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

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

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

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

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

Campsites

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Itineraries

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day Hikes

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

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

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

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

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

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!