Mount Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia - September 15th to 16th, 2022

We cannot control the weather. When bad weather arrives, we can either sit around and complain about it or try to make the best of it. We’ve always been those glass half full kind of people.

We knew the sunshine would not last forever. Our drive on Thursday, from Purden Lake Provincial Park to Mount Robson Provincial Park, was on a cloudy day with occasional light rain showers. We were grateful for the one week of sunshine we just had, so we had nothing to complain about.

Our first stop along the drive was at the Ancient Rainforest Trail. We initially stopped because we detected that we had a weak cell signal. There were bills to pay, a campground to reserve for Season Five, and a blog and video to post. And we wanted to check the latest news on the Chetamon Fire and Jasper’s power issues. Good news! The power was restored to Jasper. Even better news, Jasper National Park was welcoming visitors once again and opened Whistlers Campground back up! Woohoo! The only down side was that Whistlers was open as first come/first serve for the three nights that we wanted it. So, change of plans again. We’ll try to snag three nights at Whistlers Campground when we leave Mount Robson, for the same three nights as our original Whistlers Campground reservation, and cancel those three nights at Lake Louise (leaving the remaining, original three nights at Lake Louise).

After taking care of business, we walked the Ancient Rainforest Trail. The boardwalk trail is only 900 meters round trip (a little over half a mile). There are a couple other trails that continue up the hillside if you want a longer trail, but we just stuck to the boardwalk. The trail is among some large, 1000 year old red cedar trees and ends at a small, cascading waterfall along a stream. It’s a beautiful little walk to break up a drive and stretch your legs. It is also wheelchair accessible. One of the interpretative signs indicated that there were flying squirrels in the area. That would be cool to see, but we didn’t spot any.

Our next stop was in the town of McBride. We parked at the visitor center which is in an old train station. While we sat in our Red Tail Lodge (our camper van) eating our lunch, a short passenger train, only three cars long, pulled into the station. We were not sure if it was a sightseeing train or a commuter train. Later, we learned that there is a sightseeing train (https://visitmcbride.ca/getting-here/by-rail/) that goes through McBride. Afterwards, we strolled up and down Main Street. McBride is a cute little town. We picked up a couple of items at one of the markets. Then we walked over to Uncle Mark’s Meat Shop, mainly because the name of the place caught Ann’s eye. She has a brother Mark, who is Uncle Mark to our children. Yet again, we had no room in our small fridge to put more meat, so we just bought a jar of thimbleberry jam and two handmade ice cream sandwiches, one with chocolate chip cookies and the other with double chocolate cookies. The ice cream sandwiches were delicious and a nice way to top off our lunch. We’ve never eaten thimbleberry, so we are looking forward to tasting that.

The last stop along our drive was at Rearguard Falls Provincial Park. The short trail to the falls is right off the Yellowhead Highway. We are so glad we stopped. The falls are quite impressive. They’re very large, powerful, and interesting. A white water rafting group was putting in their rafts just below the falls. We watched them start their journey down the Fraser River. The falls are also the upper limit of a salmon run. We could smell fish, but didn’t see any. It was probably a little too late in the season.

After setting up camp at the Robson River Campground in Mount Robson Provincial Park, we walked the mile up the access road to the visitor center. We arrived just minutes after they closed at 4 pm. We were hoping to get information on hiking trails for the next day, even though the forecast called for rain all day. From posted signs, we did learn the the Berg Lake Trail was closed for the season for maintenance. That looked like the main trail of any significant distance. We bought a couple of drinks from the gift shop which was still open and walked back to the campground.

After dinner, we walked around the campground. There was a short trail down to the Robson River, so we checked it out. We were able to find our way out onto the river bed and had a wonderful view up the river to some of the mountain peaks. Even though it was supposed to start raining soon, the clouds parted and the sun lit up the peaks for a spectacular view. Perfect timing!

It rained most of Friday. A little after 10 am, we decided to drive over to the Overlander Falls Trailhead. The rain looked like it was letting up a little bit and we needed to charge our lithium batteries. The falls are less than half a mile from the trailhead, down some switchbacks to the Fraser River. The narrow canyon was pretty interesting there and the rain was holding off, so we continued on the trail along the river that led back to the Robson Meadows Campground. We followed it about half a mile, to the ruins of a cabin from Dennis Hogan’s railway construction camp, then we turned around. The sun even peaked out from behind the clouds for us on our way back.

Even though we didn’t hike very far, we counted it as hike number 42 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022. Yes, our criteria for a hike is getting less strict than it was a couple of years ago.

From the trailhead, we drove over to the parking lot of the visitor’s center. Mount Robson was visible when we first arrived. After we took some pictures, the clouds covered up the mountain again and the rain returned.

After eating our lunch in our Red Tail Lodge, we went into the cafe for dessert. Keith had a raspberry Danish while Ann ate a chocolate ice cream cone. It was not the best we’ve ever had, but they were enjoyable.

The visitor center had some free wifi, so we walked over there to catch up on emails. While we were there, we ventured down into the basement of the building where they had some interpretative displays. The ones on the history of the area and the people who first summitted Mount Robson were rather interesting.

After that, we drove back to our camp site and spent the rest of the rainy day inside our cozy and warm Red Tail Lodge.

Despite all the rain, we managed to see some great sights, from waterfalls along the turquoise-colored Fraser River to glimpses of Mount Robson peaking out from the moody-looking clouds. We counted our blessings and were ready to move on to Jasper.

Check out our related video: Mount Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia

(Ann)