Berg Lake, in British Columbia's Mount Robson Provincial Park, is
one of the most spectacular destinations in the
Canadian Rockies. Nestled beneath Robson's mighty Emperor Face, the Berg glacier
descends steeply right to the shore of the large, vivid turquoise lake. If you're
visiting the Rockies, it's a place you simply must see. Although normally
advertised as a backpacking trip, the 25 mile roundtrip to the lake along the
Berg Lake trail can be done
as a day hike by combining a modicum of determination with a little cheating,
as described below. I did this in summer 2006 and without a doubt it's the best day hike that I've done so far.
Hiking to Berg Lake - in a day!
The Berg Lake trailhead is just off Highway 16, about an hour west of the town
of Jasper in Alberta. From the trailhead, it's 9.5 miles to Emperor Falls, 11
miles to the Marmot campground and the edge of Berg Lake, and 12.5 miles to
the Berg Lake campground from where the best views are to be had. A day hike
to the lake is literally a marathon! Fortunately you can cheat - mountain bikes
are both allowed and very useful along the first 4.5 miles of the trail. In the
long summer days at these high latitudes, 9 miles of biking plus 16 miles
of hiking is eminently doable and in fact permits a pretty leisurely day trip
to the lake without the hassle
and effort of hauling a backpack up the sometimes steep trail. Thus armed with a pair
of mountain bikes (readily rented from any of several bike shops in Jasper), and motivated
by the astonishing view of Robson that you get even
driving to the parking lot, my brother and I set forth along the trail at 7:15am on an
August morning.
The first 2.7 miles of trail follow an old road through forest along the
river. It's almost all uphill, mostly at a moderate grade but with one steep
section near the start that was hard work for mountain bike novices such as ourselves.
At the outlet to Kinney Lake the trail crosses the
river on a bridge and for the next couple of miles mostly follows the shore of Kinney Lake. Another stiff climb
here had us pushing and sowed real doubts about whether the bikes were really such a time saver -
these doubts were assuaged on our return downhill in the afternoon which was blazingly fast.
We stopped at the lake shore to photograph
first light reflections of the distant peaks in the perfectly still waters
of Kinney Lake. Pressing on, we passed through Kinney Lake campground and reached the bike rack that marks the end
of the bike-able section of trail in exactly an hour. We dutifully locked
up our bikes in the forest though I doubt the spot is exactly a hotbed for thieves!
Continuing on foot, the trail crosses the alluvial plain upstream of Kinney Lake to reach
the base of Whitehorn Hill at the 5.6 mile mark. This section of the trail is very
beautiful, and the environs of the lake in the still early morning hours feel much
wilder than you would expect from
the Canadian Rockies. Surmounting the moderate hill,
we crossed one of those entertainingly wobbly `one person only at a time' suspension bridges that
you find on all the best trails to
reach Whitehorn campground and the Valley of a Thousand Falls at the 7 mile point.
True to it's name, an impressively high falls is immediately visible across the valley, but the
trail heads in the opposite direction and the only views you get of this falls are distant ones.
Beyond Whitehorn campground, a short flat section of trail leads to yet a third
bridge across the river and the start of the crux of the hike. For 2 miles the
trail climbs steeply, gaining more than half of the 2600 foot elevation gain to Berg Lake
in a single push. It's good exercise but not too bad with a day pack (even one encumbered with
camera gear and a sturdy tripod), and though the ascent is through the trees it's broken
up by views of a series of increasingly impressive waterfalls - first
White Falls, then Falls of the Pool, and finally Emperor Falls at 9.5 miles. A short spur
trail leads to a better view of the Emperor nestled beneath Mount Robson - a
spectacular sight best photographed in the afternoon on the return leg.
Just before reaching the Emperor at about 10am sunlight
finally filtered through to the trail - up to this point we'd been hiking
all the way in the shadowed valley in temperatures that started off only a
few degrees above freezing.
Passing the Emperor Falls trail junction, a final brutally steep section of trail
brings you to the Emperor Falls campground and the upper valley which contains
Berg Lake. From here on, with the climbing accomplished, the trail is outstandingly
scenic all the way to the lake. Ahead lies the Emperor Face of Mount
Robson and teasing glimpses of the Mist and Berg glaciers. Looking back is
an equally impressive vista of sharp snowy peaks rising beyond the colorful
valley and braided river channels. After about a mile the trail rounds a
corner to reach a flat, rather barren looking plain, which you cross to
reach Marmot campground near the outlet of Berg Lake. We reached the campground
in a little more than 4 hours. Here, 11 miles from
the trailhead, is the first place where you can legitimately declare victory and
consider returning!
Having made it this far, however, you'll want to go further.
Berg Lake is big. The already impressive view of the Berg glacier, which tumbles all the way from
the summit snowfield to the water's edge, is partially obscured from the Marmot campground and
steadily improves as you hike along the shore
toward Berg campground at 12.5 miles from the trailhead. We stopped and ate lunch along the
shore of the lake here. Disappointingly there wasn't much evidence for any bergs in Berg
Lake, but small-looking chunks of ice and rock were sporadically falling off the glacier and they
made plenty of
noise. From the lake, the mountain rises almost 8000 vertical feet, so you need a
wide angle lens to do justice to the scene. My 28mm lens (35mm equivalent) wasn't
really wide enough - 24mm would have been better.
Water is in abundant supply along this trail, so to save a few pounds of weight we filtered some
from a stream near Berg Lake for the return trip. Taking it pretty easily, and
stopping often to take photos, we
made it back to the trailhead some 11 hours after setting out.
Postscript
Would I recommend doing the Berg Lake trail as a day hike? Absolutely... as long as
your goals are limited to seeing the namesake lake. With the assistance
of the bikes at the start and end, we found the hike to be much easier and quicker than we had
anticipated. The trail is in great shape all the way -
at least as good as the trails in the Canadian National Parks - and the unsurprising
conclusion to be drawn from observing backpackers laboring up the hills is that it's much
easier with a light pack (one fellow, stripped to the waist, was even engaged in the
Sisyphean task of pushing a wheeled
contraption containing god-knows-what up the hill toward the Emperor Falls campground).
That said, there are sound reasons to camp too. The Emperor Falls, Marmot and
Berg Lake campgrounds, in particular, are stunningly situated, and would surely be
memorable spots to spend the night if you're into that kind of thing. Moreover, even
better scenery - if that's possible - is to be
seen by pressing on beyond Berg Lake up to Snowbird Pass. Snowbird Pass can be readily reached via a day
hike from Berg Lake - it's about 11 miles further on with another 2600 feet of climbing -
but it would require a truly banzai effort to storm the Pass
in a single day starting from the Berg Lake trailhead!
References
Mount Robson
Provincial Park - the official website
Canadian Rockies Trail Guide by
Brian Patton and Bart Robinson. This is a very comprehensive guide to trails in the
Canadian Rockies. Essential reading.
Don't Waste Your Time in the
Canadian Rockies by Kathy and Craig Copeland. People seem to have a love / hate
relationship with this guide. Our experience was that the hikes they rated as
"Premier" or "Outstanding" were, indeed, just that.
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