Berg Lake Trail Backpacking Guide

November 20, 2025 / Maria / 3 Comments

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

The Trail

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

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

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

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

Time of Year

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

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

Getting There

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

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

Permits

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

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

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

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

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

Campsites

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Itineraries

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day Hikes

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

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

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

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

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

Berg Lake Backpacking Trip: Hargreaves Lake Loop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Berg Lake Backpacking Trip

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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