Berg Lake Trail, Mount Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia

One of our favorite hikes or backpacking trips is the Berg Lake trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia, and this summer on our way to Edmonton we managed to do part of the trail once again.  If we are backpacking we hike all the way in to Berg Lake (21 km), but this time we managed only a day hike to Whitehorn Basin (11 km), where we often camp overnight on our way to Berg Lake.

Mount Robson Park was actually out of our way but worth the extra miles.  After coming up the Icefields Parkway through Banff and Jasper we headed west to Robson and after a brief visit to the visitor's center where we had our supper, we slept overnight just outside the park, cooking our own breakfast and getting and early start the next morning (our van is set up for sleeping overnight).

  While at the visitor's center we took some photos of Mount Robson,

and of the surrounding peaks as the sun set.

Next morning we were on the trail by 6:00 am,

following the Robson River to Kinney Lake,

a very easy part of the trail.

Kinney Lake must be one of the most beautiful spots in the Canadian Rockies.

 Hiking past Kinney Lake we crossed the floodplain of the Robson River,

and headed up Whitehorn Hill.

After crossing the suspension bridge at Whitehorn we ended our hike

in the Valley of a Thousand Falls.

We had lunch there and hiked to White Falls at the end of the valley

before heading back.

There were not a lot of wildflowers in bloom but we found some.

 We found quite a number of native orchids still blooming also,

more of them as we gained some elevation:

Blunt-leaved Rein Orchis,

Pad-leaved Orchis,

 Small Round-leaf Orchis,

 a pale form of the Small Round Leaf Orchis that we had not seen before,

 Large Northern Yellow Lady's Slipper,

 Alaskan Piperia,

 both color forms of the Heart-leaved Twayblade,

 Northern Green Bog Orchis.