[Monday, 25 March]
My second day was a waterfalls day.
I started by driving west past the British Columbia border to Mt. Robson Provincial Park. I’ve been through on the way up and wanted to explore some of the waterfalls that I had not visited on my previous trip. I brought the camera and tripod, thinking that waterfalls in the snow might make for interesting long-exposure subject matter.
First stop was Overlander Falls, just before the Mt. Robson base area/campground. It’s a short hike down from the road to the falls on the Fraser River and I made good use of my micro-spikes and hiking poles. Signs warned of “berry season” with scary pictures of bears and moose, so I brought my bear spray with me, even though I think it’s still a bit early.
I ran into a jovial couple of Long Islanders in the parking area. They had hiked on the other side of the road, starting at the Mt. Robson visitor center parking lot, and were going to complete a loop along the river. They clued me in to the fact that some of the trails in the rest of the park were open though unmaintained, and worth checking out. It was some of the best advice of the trip.
The hike down isn’t terribly difficult, but it is steep in places and this time of year it’s icy. I feel sorry for the people doing it without poles or traction devices. The falls are partly iced-over, and the flow is low this time of year. It’s a beautiful and serene place, but not terribly photogenic, especially in hard direct light from the one viewpoint that’s accessible this time of year. I made a couple of photos of the falls, and another looking downstream, but wasn’t thrilled with the results.
I slowly made my way back up to the car and continued west towards the visitor’s center. Realizing it was still completely closed, I quickly adjusted to stay on the road to the Rearguard Falls parking lot to the west, where I had my lunch. Rearguard Falls is in a separate park, but also part of the BC Parks system and like everything else in that system is free to use.
Rearguard is also much more developed, close to the road, and snow-free this time of year as it’s at lower elevation. As with Overlander, the view of the falls is from an established viewpoint with no options for seeing other angles. I made a bit of video, but otherwise chose to move on. Upstream there are nice locations along the river where you can approach the water and I found that location far more interesting for photography.
I spent about an hour there. In summer, it would be a nice spot to dunk myself in the water if the flow wasn’t too strong. There would also be far more people. Today, it was just quiet, somewhat anti-social and just what I needed.
I decided to detour to the trailhead for the Berg Lake Trail at Mt. Robson to check on the advice I had received from the people I met earlier. Last time I was through here, it was still completely closed due to flooding in 2021 that wiped out much of the trail and all the river crossings along it. As of this writing, the trail is open as far as you care to go, though there’s no camping so you’re limited to how far you can go in and back in one day. In practice, that means you can get as far as Kinney Lake, which is the first lake along the trail.
[As the snow melts, sections of the trail above Kinney Lake will close as they will become impassible with higher water flow on the Robson River. Sections will open as reconstruction completes, but the full trail will not open until next year.]
I got a nice video of the Robson River near the parking lot, and talked to a couple of people returning from their hikes to confirm that it’s open and passable to Kinney Lake, though it’s snow-covered and icy in spots. I decided that unless the weather is much worse, that’s the plan for tomorrow.