Backpacking Tonquin Valley takes hikers deep into the heart of untamed and serene wilderness in Jasper National Park. While this route can be done as a very long day hike, turning it into a multi day backpacking trip gives hikers a chance to fully enjoy the pristine alpine waters, towering peaks, and lush meadows that make the Tonquin Valley one of the hidden gems of Jasper.  Additionally, the Toqnuin Valley is the world’s second largest dark sky preserve, so the stargazing is phenomenal. This complete guide to backpacking Tonquin Valley in Jasper National Park goes over the transportation logistics of the point-to-point trail, how to secure backcountry permits, and a full trip report of my experience completing the hike. 

Map of Backpacking Tonquin Valley Trek

Are Permits Required for Backpacking Tonquin Valley?

If camping overnight, backcountry permits are required from Jasper National Park. Parks Canada uses a reservation system for securing permits. Reservations for Jasper National Park open in March for the 2024 season; see here for exact dates.  Be prepared to book for your desired dates as soon as the reservations are made available, backpacking Tonquin Valley is one of the most popular multi day treks in Jasper National Park and they can fill up in minutes. 

How to get to Tonquin Valley and Taxi Service Information

Backpacking Tonquin Valley is a point-to-point trek, so you either need to have 2 cars at the start and end or use a mountain taxi service, there is no shuttle service. Hitchiking is another option, but the road is not well trafficked, so you could have a long wait; we didn’t see anyone on the drive out.  

There are 2 main options for taxi shuttle services to Tonquin Valley: Caribou Cabs and  Mountain Express Taxi.  We used Mountain Express Taxi; they had excellent customer service and I would definitely use them again. They charged a flat rate of $100 CAD to pick us up at the Cavell Lake Parking Area (where we left our car) and shuttle us to the Portal Creek Trailhead to start the trek.

What’s the best direction to do Tonquin valley?

It really depends!  This trail is quite moderate as far as backpacking trails in Canada go.  Starting from the Astoria Trailhead gives a more gradual ascent over the first 25 km of the trail, with a final descent to the Portal Trailhead on the last day.  I did it the opposite direction starting at Portal the Portal Trailhead because I like to get elevation out of the way at the begining of my hikes when I’m fresh. 

When is the best time of year to backpack Tonquin Valley?

The official season for the Tonquin Valley is end of June to end of September. Late summer (mid-August to mid-September) is ideal to avoid the mosquitoes and black flies. Additionally from mid-July to mid-August is one of the best times to see the wildflowers bloom in Tonquin Valley (This is when we decided to go). In late September to Early October Toqnuin Valley experiences Larch Madness, where several sections of the valley transform into a gorgeous sea of yellow larch trees for about 2 weeks. 

What are the best backcountry campsites in Tonquin Valley?

There are seven backcountry campsites in the Tonquin Valley to choose from, and all require advanced permit reservations. I think Maccarib and Amethyst are best campsites for views. Each campsite has the same basic facilities: picnic tables, bear boxes for food storage, and pit toilets. Below is a brief description of each of the campsites:

Trip Report

After the popular Skyline Trail was booked for the days we were looking to backpack we landed on the Tonquin Valley not knowing too much what to expect.  (At the time, there wass a lot less info posted online about Tonquin than Skyline.) Tonquin Valley didn’t fail to blow my mind and it’s one of my favorite backpacking trips I’ve done in Canada. Tonquin Valley is known to have a lot of bugs and can be very muddy but I guess we got lucky, or maybe it was the cooler temps, because there weren’t any bugs and the mud was manageable.

On the drive to the trailhead we saw a bighorn sheep on the side of the road!

Day 1

We started at the Portal Creek Trailhead. The climb is very steady throughout the first chunk of the hike approaching Maccarib Pass.  We climbed a little over 700m (~2250ft), but over a 15km (~9mi) period.  That’s only about 250ft. of elevation of gain a mile, which is nothing. The rest of the hike was practically all downhill after Maccarib Pass.

Our campsite for Day 1 was at the Maccarib campsite. We stopped for lunch at the Portal campground, which was nice, but Maccarib was so much better.  It’s about 19 km to the Maccarib campsite from the trailhead, but definitely worth the extra push on day one.

It had been smoky for the past week while we were in Canada due to forest fires in BC, but once we made it to the pass, we were welcomed with majestic views of the valley.  This was the first moment of our trip we saw clear mountains without grey haze.  It was a beautiful spring-like day and we took some time to soak it all in.

Clouds were starting to cover the tops of the mountains.  We could see that is was pouring in the direction of the Maccarib campsite. We were still a few miles away, and the clouds were moving perpendicular to the direction we were hiking, so we decided to sit on a bridge and see if we might be able to dodge the rain.

Speaking of the bridges, I’ve never seen so many bridges in a meadow environment. Jasper takes really great care of their trails and I was happy to not be walking through mush.

The mountains slowly started to disappear in every direction as the storm rolled in and it began to downpour as temperatures dropped. We threw on our rain gear and decided we might as well push on to the campsite, to try and stay warm by moving.

I don’t think any of us looked around the entire trip to the campsite.  All of our heads were down, trying to dodge puddles and keep our faces dry.  I didn’t have any rain pants or gaiters, so I got soaked fast.  What made my pants and boots so wet was actually plants brushing up on my legs, not the rain. After about an hour and a half we arrived at a raging creek.  To our surprise, there were bear poles towering over some trees on the opposite side of the creek.  I actually we wished we still had more hiking to do even though we’d already done 12 miles.  I didn’t know how we were about to set up tents in this weather.

Step one was to cross the creek.

There was an obvious path on the other side of the creek but the water was too high to cross and stay dry.  There was also a path that looked somewhat like a trail off to the left.  We took the side trail hoping for a bridge, to no avail.  So now we are standing there trying to determine how to cross.  There were some rocks about an inch under the flow, all the way across, but one slip and our feet would be soaked.  Naomi went first, slipped on step number two, and actually fell into the creek getting her sleeping pad soaked.  So now Eric and I were not looking forward to our attempts.  I kept my feet dry for a few steps and eventually gave up and trudged through the creek, soaking my boots.  Eric followed right behind with the same approach.

All but 2 campsites were taken and everyone had their tents set up and were nice and dry inside. We found a patch of evergreens and huddled underneath to try and get out of the rain.  Evergreens actually do a pretty good job at blocking out most of the rain. It was cold and raining, but we decided to hold out under the trees for a little while hoping for the rain to slow.

At this point we’re all shivering and my teeth began to chatter.  Standing outside in the cold rain was starting to turn into a dangerous situation and we had to make some survival decisions.  I was worried one of us might catch hypothermia and we needed to get dry quick, but it was still raining hard…

This was the worst moment of my life.

I’m not exaggerating.  Eric said this was the worst thing he’d ever experienced as well.  Naomi got caught in a blizzard on Mount Fuji, so she one upped us and said this was the second worst moment of her life.  Looking back, some funny things happened during all of the rain and memories were made but getting caught in freezing rain is definitely something I hope never happens again. Snow would have been so much better.

It was pretty hard to think, being so cold, but we managed to come up with a plan to get a tent set up:  Naomi and I would hold the rain fly up as wide as we could while Eric assembled his tent underneath.  We then grabbed some dry clothes, formed a pile of our soaked clothes under the tent’s vestibule, and the three of us gathered in Eric’s small two-man backpacking tent. It was pretty uncomfortable, and the ground was ice cold, but I was happy to be dry and warming up.

The three of us were in the tent for over 2 hours. A TWO MAN TENT. Eric had one episode of the office saved on his phone, so that passed about 20 mins of time.  The rest of the time was spent sitting on each other’s feet, huddling for warmth, complaining, and laughing at how terrible this situation was.

Eventually the rain stopped and it was time to set up my tent.  The rain brought in some much cooler temperatures than the nice spring weather we experienced only a few hours ago.  Everyone started emerging from their tents and offered their condolences to us having to endure the rain. We also learned that the side trail did actually have a bridge, we just didn’t go far enough… smh.

I guess everyone had better weather apps than me.  One couple had a Garmin with satellite weather access and warned us that the new weather prediction called for night temps in the upper 20’s F.  Last time I checked it was the mid 40’s…  HELLO WINTER.  Luckily, we were prepared for cold temps.

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Day 2

We awoke to fresh snow on all of the mountains around us.  Totally unexpected for the middle of August, but very cool! Our next campsite was only 6 miles away so we took some time to try and dry out our gear before putting everything back in our packs.  It hailed/snowed lightly during the early part of our hike.

The view around Amethyst Lake was spectacular.  This mountain might just be my favourite view from all of my two weeks in Canada:

A photogenic marmot posed for us right off the trail.

We passed a sign that said Switchback Campsite was in 3 km.  I was pretty sure the campsite was before the actual switchback started but we never saw a campsite sign so we pushed on.

This is an intense switchback. We were very happy to be going down instead of up, that’s why I recommend starting from the Portal Creek Trailhead like we did.

We were all starting to wonder if we missed our campsite. This was the longest 3km ever, and we were going down, how had we not made it?

Well, eventually we ended up at the Astoria campsite, 3 km had turned into 10.  Somehow all three of us missed the Switchback campsite sign?  I guess it’s possible, but I have a feeling the sign had fallen down or was missing.  We didn’t miss signs for any of the other campsites along the way.  So be on the lookout if you’re camping at switchback!

There was only one tent pad left at Astoria when we arrived and we didn’t have a permit for this campsite.  We debated staying at Astoria for the night and doubling up our tents on the pad, but it was still pretty early in the evening and we didn’t want to screw over anyone who actually reserved the site. We decided to end the hike early and finished the entire hike around 9pm. (Still before sunset since we’re so far north.)  

Unfortunately, we had no place to stay, and lodging is always full in Jasper and the surrounding areas unless you book well in advance. We did find a place to stay, and It was quite an adventure, so I’ll save that story for another post.

In the end, we hiked 15 miles on Day 2.  It was tough, but exhilarating, with fantastic views the entire day.  Each time we hiked around one mountain, we were rewarded with a whole new view of the Canadian Rockies. If I do this trail again, I’ll definitely go the same direction, but I’ll camp on night 2, like we originally had planned.   This is a very doable backpacking route, and non-technical.  I’d recommend it to anyone, even first-time backpackers. Just know your limits and take extra time, it’s a long hike.

Let me know if you have any questions and I’d love to hear your experiences from the Tonquin Valley! Drop a comment below.

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Backpacking Bruce Peninsula National Park is a unique trek through a beautiful landscape more reminiscent of the Caribbean than Canada. The Bruce Trail features rugged limestone cliffs that plunge dramatically into the crystal-clear Georgian Bay, the famous Grotto, giant white pebbled beaches, lush forests, and plenty of wildlife. While the entire Bruce Trail is 900 km long, this particular section between The Grotto and High Dump Campground allows backpackers to experience all of the major highlights of Bruce Peninsula National Park and keep transportation logistics easy

Map of Backpacking Bruce Peninsula Section Hike

There’s many variations of this hike you can do in Bruce Penisula National Park.  I can definitely recommend the route that I did starting from Halfway Log dump (the direction doesn’t really matter, you could do the opposite of me, the trail is very up and down and you’ll do it all by the end). I camped one night at High Dump, and then the following night at Stormhaven before returning back to the Halfway Log Dump parking area. Alternatively, you could park at The Grotto and do a very similar route. The nice thing about parking and starting at Halfway Log Dump is it gives more flexibility with campsite reservations since the order/direction you do the hike doesn’t matter (so double the chances of getting permits for the dates you want!)

How to get to Bruce Peninsula National Park

 Toronto to Bruce Peninsula National Park is about a 4 hour drive. The park is located at the very top of Northern Bruce Penisula Municipality. There are several roads in the park but the main roads for hiking include one for the parking area for The Grotto, Indian Head, and Cyprus Lake, and one for the parking area for Halfway Log Dump and Emmet Lake.  The Visitor Centre is near the town of Tobermory, which is also worth a stop.  Also while in the area, I highly recommend visiting Fathom Five National Marine Park which has more than 20 historical shipwrecks, cool underwater geological formations, and has some of the best freshwater diving in the world. 

Does Bruce Peninsula Require Reservations for Backcountry Camping or Parking?

There are 2 backcountry campsites (Stormhaven and High Dump) in Bruce Peninsula National Park and both require reservations. Reservations can be made online on through Parks Canada’s online camping reservation portal.

The Grotto and Halfway Log Dump in Bruce Peninsula National Park require parking reservations for certain times of year. The Grotto requires reservations from April 30 to October 31 and Halway Log Dump has required reservations from June 17 to September 4.

Backcountry permit fees for Bruce Peninsula are $11.50 CAD just to make the online reservation and then an additional $12.75 CAD per person camping. Parking at The Grotto and Halfway Log Dump are $15 per Day.  Reserve ahead of time!

Bruce Peninsula also has an entrance fee of $8.50 per person per day for adults.  However I highly reccomend getting the Parks Canada Discovery Pass if you plan on going to any Canada National Parks for at least 4 days in a year.

Which Bruce Peninsula Campsite is best?

I think Stormhaven is the better of the two Bruce Peninsula campgrounds. The individual tent sites at Stormhaven are tucked away in the woods but with quick and easy access to the beach to enjoy the sunset, cook some meals, and do some stargazing. High Dump is also near a beach, has better solitude, and also includes a small beach with a steep rope descent to get to.  All of the reservable tent sites come with wooden platforms to set up tents, bear poles to hang food, and pretty nice pit toilets. 

Trip Report

My Friend Hannah and I headed to Ontario from the High Peaks Region of the Adirondacks.  This was my first time to visit Toronto, and Hannah hadn’t been since elementary school. We stopped by Niagara Falls along the way and then biked around town checking out popular spots, eating good food, and going to a few breweries.

We were curious if Ontario had any good hiking/backpacking opportunities, we had all our gear with us from the week before, and backpacking was the goal of our original two-week trip that got canceled due to wildfires in California. Every Google search kept recommending the same place: Bruce Peninsula National Park.

After seeing images of the park, we really wanted to do Backpacking in Bruce Peninsula and see it for ourselves. All of the backcountry campsites were full though and the other campsites nearby were quite expensive; around $45 for peak season. The park was also about a 3.5 hour drive from Toronto.

We went to a coffee shop to research more hiking options; there were some other promising locations near Ontario from our initial research.  Just in case, I checked the Canada backcountry reservation website for the 5th time that day, AND THE HIGH DUMP CAMPGROUND HAD OPENED UP!  To make things even better, the campsite reservation was for an itinerary reservation; In order to book High Dump, we also had to book a second night at Bruce Peninsula’s other backcountry campsite: Stormhaven.

We lucked out with Stormhaven, it was definitely the better of the two sites.

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Unpacking and hiking to our first camsite: High Dump.  Backpacking Bruce Peninsula was finally underway!

First epic view of Lake Huron at Overhanging Point in Bruce Peninsula

Amazing views of the Milky Way on our first night! We were actually surrounded by storm clouds and there was faint distant lightning creating a ring of occasional dim light.  Bruce Peninsula is a Dark Sky Preserve so the stargazing here is phenomenal. 

Can you spot the guy in the right image?  Some of the cliffs are pretty high. The highest cliff in the park is 120 feet.

We kept hearing about Indian Head Cove so we wanted to check it out for ourselves. Here’s what we found:

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Although there’s not much total elevation gain in Bruce, there’s plenty of net elevation gain on The Bruce Trail. We experienced constant inclines and declines; especially on the section from Halfway Log parking lot to the High Dump campground.   By the end of the trip, the difference between our highest and lowest point on the trail was about 200 feet but the overall elevation gain was over 2,000 feet!

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This past October, I embarked on one of the most beautiful backpacking trips of my life, tackling 37.5 miles and 8146 feet of elevation gain over the course of four days. While that may sound intimidating, the trail was fairly moderate, with most of the elevation gain being gradual other than a few strenuous sections.

I had always dreamed of visiting the Canadian Rockies, and when I finally made it there in 2017, I knew I had to come back in the fall some day for the legendary Larch Madness. During this brief climate window, all the larch trees in the area (which closely resemble Christmas trees) turn a vibrant yellow. I was lucky enough to convince my adventure friend group to go to the Canadian Rockies for our annual outdoor adventure trip. We timed our visit for backpacking Mount Assinboine perfectly, arriving on the first weekend of October 2022, when the larches on this particular trail were at their peak. Other popular trails, like Sentinel Pass and Larch Valley, had already passed their prime and were a darker shade of yellow.

This trek came with a number of logistical challenges, especially in the off-season. For one, it’s a point-to-point trail, so you need either two cars or a shuttle to get between the two trailheads. We opted for the shuttle option, using the Three Sisters Taxi Service, who were fantastic and I highly recommend them. They picked us up from the Mt. Shark trailhead at 8 am and dropped us off at Sunshine Village.

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There are six backcountry campsites along the trail, which makes it easy to tailor the trip to different skill levels. Initially, we had planned to complete the trek in three days, but after an intense two-day backpacking trip in Yosemite earlier in the summer with some of the same crew, we decided to add an extra day for more relaxation and to really soak in the stunning scenery. In the end, we spent four days and three nights on the trail, with no day being longer than 12 miles.

In the summer, hikers can opt to take the Sunshine Gondola to the top of Sunshine Mountain to begin this particular trek backpacking Mount Assiniboine or explore other popular hikes in the area (like Healy Pass or Citadel Pass). I’m not sure when the gondola typically closes for the season, but comments on AllTrails indicated that it had already shut down by mid-September this year. This added an additional 3.4 miles and 1700 feet of elevation gain to the start of our trip, as we had to hike up the service road to reach the ski village at the summit. Luckily, this was probably the most difficult part of the trek and I’m glad we could knock it out at the beginning when we had fresh legs.

Day 1 – 11.5 miles

After reaching the top of Sunshine Mountain, we set off on the “real” hike, starting with Citadel Pass. This trailhead also marked the crossing from Banff National Park into Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park. The first few miles on Citadel Pass were fairly flat, with just one moderate section of elevation gain, and we also got our first glimpse of dense larch tree patches.

On the other side of the ridge, the explosion of yellow larch tree colors simply blew my mind. I had no idea this trail would offer so many Larch madness viewing opportunities, competing with the more popular larch hikes in Banff. Howard Douglas Lake was our potential Day 1 campsite if we were too tired from the service road ascent (and we got a permit in advance), but we felt well enough to press on, so we just stopped there for lunch. I will say, though, that this was a much nicer campsite than the actual campsite along the trail where we stayed, and it was by a lake.

After lunch, we faced another moderate section of elevation gain before a pretty rapid descent into the valley where the Porcupine Backcountry camp was located. The descent was approximately -2,000 feet of elevation loss over 2.5 miles. Bless the knees and toes!

The Porcupine campground was situated at the bottom of the valley between two crossing streams. One of the streams was dry, while the other had a light flow. This was the case for most of the hike – I’d say only about 50 percent of the streams were flowing, but there were still plenty of opportunities to refill our water bottles. All of the backcountry campsites were really nice, with pit toilets or outhouses (shielded from the weather), bear boxes to store food, and cooking areas with benches or wooden picnic tables.

I didn’t have a thermometer or cell service to check the weather forecast for all three days of the trek, but it was definitely chilly at night, with lows in the low 30s or upper 20s Fahrenheit. As expected, the mornings, right after sunrise, were the coldest parts of each day. This definitely wasn’t ideal, as no one wanted to crawl out of their cozy sleeping bags.

Day 2 – 9.5 miles

On Day 2, we set our sights on the Mount Assiniboine area. We hadn’t really seen the peak since the top of Citadel Pass, nine miles earlier. And that trend continued.

Day 2 was a bit of a slog, mostly uphill. The day started with a more serious incline, and the first four miles were spent switchbacking through the forest with no views and no larch trees.

Eventually, we popped out at Og Lake, where we stopped for lunch and refilled our water bottles. Sour Patch kids never tasted so sweet. Og Lake is also a very nice camping spot with elevated views of the lake. However, it’s important to note  that there’s not an easy path to the lake from the tent pads – it would probably take a five to ten minute walk to get down to the water.

After lunch and departing Og Lake, we entered a classic high alpine tundra area, where the plant life and scenery totally changed. We could finally see Mt. Assiniboine again! The next several miles, once we entered this tundra area, were fairly flat until we reached our Day 2 camp at Lake Magog.

We were all pretty disappointed by the Lake Magog campsite. And unfortunately it’s the only option in the area, so there’s really no other choice unless you book a cabin stay. While there was a beautiful view of Mt. Assiniboine, Lake Magog was completely obstructed by a lot of elevated land between the tent pads and the lake shore. To get down to the water required another 15-20 minute hike and around 300 feet of elevation descent, which we had to do because the water pipes at the tent pads were also shut down for the off-season.

The view down by the water was great and worth the hike!

We had three photographers on this trek, and we were all having a blast photographing Mt. Assiniboine as the light faded during sunset. We also got up in the middle of the night to do some astro photography of the peak. Unfortunately, we missed the iconic photo spot at Sunburst Lake. We didn’t realize until after we completed the trip that this spot was off our main route – we thought we would just stumble upon it at some point while hiking. That wasn’t the case 🙁 But that just means we’ll have to return!

Day 3 – 11 miles

On the third day, we woke up to some beautiful, chilly weather and decided to take it slowly. After making coffee and eating some snacks for breakfast, we headed back to the lakeshore trail to see Mt. Assiniboine in the morning light and take our annual group photo.

Also shoutout to Ian waking up earlier than everyone and capturing some photos of a black bear down at the shore of Lake Magog.

Love these dudes!

After leaving the Lake Magog area, we entered an extensive Larch Madness area. The trees were a tad past peak and more orange than yellow, but we found ourselves surrounded by an ocean of larches. This area had more larches than other tree species, which was the opposite ratio of what we had seen the previous two days.

We remained in the magical larch forest for the first two-mile ascent. The switchbacks were a bit intense at times during those first two miles, but the views were excellent for distracting us. Wonder Pass was the highest point of Day 3, and then we began an eight-mile descent. We had distinctly different views after reaching Wonder Pass and entering a new canyon.

The first mile of descent after Wonder Pass was fairly gradual. We saw a grizzly bear about 100 yards ahead of us just off the trail for about two seconds before it disappeared into the forest. We waited about 10 minutes to continue, pulling out our bear spray to be on the safe side, making loud noises, and proceeding with caution. We never saw it again.

After we got our first glimpse of Marvel Lake, the real descent began. It was about 1,500 feet of elevation decline in about 1.5 miles. This section is the main reason I’d recommend going the direction we did, instead of Mt. Shark to Sunshine Village.

The scenery shifted dramatically again, and it felt like I was transported back to my summer backpacking trips in Banff in 2017. We were treated to views of a giant turquoise glacier lake, majestic mountains, dark green pines, and almost no sign of larches. After crossing Wonder Pass, we were actually back in Banff National Park, but it was interesting how all the larches disappeared so suddenly.

Even after reaching the bottom of the switchbacks, we still had three miles to hike parallel to Marvel Lake, still about 500 feet above the shore. It felt like the lake was growing as we hiked these three miles. The lake is so massive that the views barely changed even though we were making forward progress, and it seemed like the end of the lake would never come.

But it did, and we all dipped our legs in the water. I really wanted to swim, but the sun was starting to set and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to dry off fast enough before the night time chill arrived. A short hand slapping bath with the ice cold water would have to do. 

Like the Og Lake and Magog Lake Campgrounds, the Marvel Lake campground is not close to the lakeshore. We were originally planning on camping here but instead felt the need to push on to the Br9 to make Day 4 shorter, because we realized we made a major goof.  

We way under-packed our food.  This was our first 4 day backpacking trip; in the past we mostly did 2 day adventures.  When we were packing food, it looked like double what we normally packed and none of us questioned it.  Oops.  We weren’t completely out of food yet, and as long as we finished in 4 days as planned we’d be fine, but hungry. 

The Marvel Lake Campground and Br9 campground both have nice creeks running through them for water.  The cooking area at the Br9 campground was much further from the tent pads than all of the previous campgrounds we stayed at on the trek.  I’m not sure if it was because we were in Banff National Park now instead of MAPP. 

Day 4 – 5.5 miles

For breakfast on Day 4 we skipped the coffee and had our remaining snacks to fuel us for the last 5.5 miles.  Cheez-its, trail mix, and skittles… breakfast of champions, hahaha. 

The last 5.5 miles were mostly flat and through forests with no views.  We did have one amazing view though towards the beginning of the day at a river crossing that fed into the Spray Lakes. We did this hike pretty quickly, in about 2.5 hours. Then we packed up the car and booked it to the Wendy’s in Canmore to feast.

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Summary

Sunshine Meadows to Mt. Shark is a 10/10 4 -day backpacking trek and fairly moderate.  There were a few intense sections, but overall the elevation gain and descent were fairly gradual over the 38 miles, with the main difficulty just being the sheer distance/time on our feet.  

I’m sure this hike is very beautiful in the summer, but hiking through the yellow larch forests in early October was absolutely gorgeous and unforgettable.  Even when I was out of breath, I still had a big smile on my face throughout all the larch sections. 

I’ve done several backpacking trips in the Canadian Rockies and this is my new #1. I would love to return and do this trek again in the future.  Next time, I’d love an opportunity to see the mountains blanketed in fresh snow and dotted with bright yellow larches. 

As a bonus, I’m linking a map below with a lot of popular fall color hikes in the Banff National Park region.  When I was doing research for this trip I put them all on this map, many with links to corresponding blog posts. It’s mostly day hikes, so maybe a combo with this trek??

Yoho National Park, BC

Yoho Valley, Iceline, Whaleback Trails Loop

August 12-14, 2017

Overview:

Distance: 30km (~19.5mi)

Time: 3 days, 2 nights

Difficulty: Moderate

Elevation Gain: 760m (~2500 ft)

I’m writing this post 1.5 years after the fact, but I have a lot of pictures from the adventure I wanted to share in a quick photo essay.  On this trip, my friends, Eric and Naomi, and I explored Yoho National Park, Jasper National Park, and Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies.  During initial research for the trip I stumbled upon some pictures and blog posts from Yoho and it looked beautiful. It also seemed to less popular than the other parks.  In the end, this Yoho National Park backpacking loop turned out to be my favorite part of our trip.  Maybe it was because this was my first taste of the Canadian Rockies and beautiful glacier lakes, but Yoho really took my breath away and offered very different types of scenery.

Eric and I departed Calgary for Yoho National Park in the morning.  About an hour into our drive we got our first glimpse of the Canadian Rockies!

We started at the Takkakaw Falls, the tallest waterfall in Canada. There is a section of the parking lot dedicated to over-nights only and we lucked out with the last available spot. Before we began backpacking we hiked up to the base of the falls to snap some photos and feel the mist.  

We had some beautiful weather backpacking to the Twin Falls campsite on the first day.  We also had our first taste of glacial water.

Laughing Falls looked beautiful with the sun starting to set.

We arrived at the Twin Falls campground around 6:45pm.  It took us about 3 hours to hike the first 7km of the trip.  The campsite was next to a river and also had some nice picnic tables. During dinner, Eric and I went to take a quick look at the river, and when we came back to the table, a friendly Chipmunk was eating Eric’s leftover granola.

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We slept in a little bit and started Day 2 around 8am.  The next majestic landmark we came across was Twin Falls.  We took a break for a snack at the Twin Falls Chalet and chatted with some hikers staying there.  They told us it was there 3rd night and they had been exploring the surrounding areas. They also said the food the staff cooked at the Chalet was amazing. I’ll have to go back and try it sometime.   

We next merged with the Whaleback trail and started our ascent to the top of Twin Falls. It was a serious climb with a lot of switchbacks; about 500m of elevation gain in less than 3km. In hindsight, we backpacked the loop the harder direction (counter-clockwise), but either way is still strenuous. It started drizzling during our ascent and didn’t stop until we reached our campsite.

Some leftover snowpack In August!

We hiked at a higher elevation for a little bit soaking in 270 degree majestic views of Yoho Valley before heading back down to meet back up with the Iceline trail.

Pit Stop at the Stanley Mitchell Hut. The next several miles were going to be trekking into the rocky glacial region behind Eric in this photo:

Once we got above the tree line, the scenery drastically changed and it felt like we were in a completely new place.  It was extremely rocky, with minimal plant life, and glacier ponds scattered all around.  I imagine this section of the hike is how the Iceline Trail got it’s name. We filled up our water bottles in a super turquoise pond.

Before beginning our descent down to Yoho Lake we got an alternate view of Takkakaw Falls.  I had no idea the mountains kept going so high about the falls when looking from the base of the falls the previous day.  It was a great feeling looking at the Falls from here and seeing how much terrain we’d covered in a little over 24 hours.

We arrived at our campsite around 7:30PM and the clouds broke up a bit right when we arrived. This gave us an opportunity to set up our tent while keeping our gear dry.

You’d like: Backpacking in Bruce Peninsula National Park

There were two other groups of campers there.  One group was a mom and her daughter just starting their trip. The other group consisted of a few hikers from a university (I can’t remember where) taking rock and fossil samples in the backcountry for. One of the guys we were talking to had done some geological research in our home state of Virginia as well, so we bonded over that. 

It rained all night long, but we awoke to some cool foggy views of Yoho Lake.  We also found some of the red Canada chairs!

The hike out took about an hour and then we were off to Banff to shower, rest up, and meet Naomi for the next part of our Canadian Rockies adventure!

Overall this was an amazing Yoho National Park backpacking loop and I’d recommend it to anyone.  The hike up to twin falls was strenuous, but the rest of the loop was easy to moderate. I would like to do the same loop again sometime,  hopefully when it’s less rainy and also more clear outside.  Many of our views on this trip were hindered due to smoke and haze from forest fires. Maybe in the Fall next time with the larch trees! If you choose to do this loop, make sure you reserve permits well in advance!

If you have any questions or comments, shoot me a post below!  Happy Adventuring!