Rockwall Trail

Kids in a Candy Shop

Unlike most trips, I went into our Canadian Rockies road trip pretty blind. Kelly and I only thought of the trip idea a month before and I was super busy in the weeks leading up to it. All I could manage was to get some campground reservations. It seemed like there were abundant easy hikes, so I figured we could figure it out when we got there.

A few days before we were set to arrive in Banff, I saw a run on Strava by my friend Nick at Moraine Lake. I reached out to him and he suggested that we do a long run together. He had found the Rockwall Trail in Kootenay National Park on SkiUphill’s list of area trail runs. 35 miles point to point? Larches? A big rock wall? Sounded good to me!

We met up at the northern parking lot and dropped a car before driving 10 minutes to the Floe Lake Trailhead. It was a moody morning, with high clouds enveloping the peaks, but the forecast held the promise of fair weather.

Beautiful waters of the Vermilion River.

The initial climb to Floe Lake passed through a burn of 20 years ago. The vegetation had lovely fall colors.

Headed towards Floe Lake.

After many ski adventures, this was actually the first time I had run with Nick! He had trained a lot over the summer, so he was definitely in better shape than me. I have run less this summer than previous summers, mostly because I have been too busy with work and life.

We entered the larches just before Floe Lake. They were green-yellow, but still beautiful. Floe Lake was an impressive lake, with the giant rock walls of Floe Peak looming more than 3,000 feet above! With the moody summit clouds, it seemed that the vertical walls were of indefinite height. There were even still a few small glaciers at the base of the wall. It reminded me of how Mt. Index looms above Lake Serene.

Floe Lake!
Floe Lake larches.

We were both impressed with how Canada manages recreation. They had established campsites to reduce impact, completely even with picnic tables and food storage. They even had a map showing the social trails to the bathrooms so that people don’t create more social trails. Sometimes, Canada just seems too… rational.

Ascending to a pass, we climbed through gorgeous larch meadows. The contrast between the gentle slopes we were on and the steep rock walls nearby were a preview of the rest of the route. The views looking back to Floe Lake were absolutely gorgeous.

Floe Peak and Lake.

We crested the next pass and began a long descent towards Numa Creek. This descent was highly runnable and we made good time.

Descending towards Numa Creek.
Pretty meadows and waterfall above.

The next climb towards Tumbling Pass was pretty hefty also. We chatted with some enthused backpackers. They said that the Rockwall Trail has extremely competitive backpacking permits; you have to enter a lottery the day it opens, and even then chances are slim. According to them, the Rockwall Trail was one of the five best trails in BC! It made me hugely appreciative of my body’s ability to do 35 miles on a random day. Until a few days ago, I had never heard of the Rockwall Trail, and I did not even know Kootenay National Park existed! Now I was running a bucket list trip on a beautiful fall day.

The trail winds through beautiful larches at Tumbling Pass.

At Tumbling Pass, the route begins to get up close and personal with some glaciers. We had no idea what to expect, so we both exclaimed in surprise when we suddenly saw hanging glaciers to our left. Perhaps that’s it’s called Tumbling Peak!

Past the tumbling glaciers!

The trail skirts the side of giant moraines left by once-mighty glaciers. The glaciers have mostly receded, but the larches are quickly repopulating the rocky remains. It would have been incredible to see this terrain when the glaciers were still proud.

Running past the Tumbling Glacier Lake.

The next descent and climb was quicker. The view looking back through the larches to the north face of Tumbling Peak, with its hanging icefields, was as pretty as I have seen. It really felt like nothing could get better than this.

Single track dreams.
Magnificent.

As we approached Wolverine Pass, it somehow got even better. A giant triangular peak (Mt. Gray) appeared to our left and beautiful creeks filled the flat meadow to our right. This truly has to be some of the most beautiful trail in the entire world!

Running through Canadian heaven.

We had a grin on our faces that could have been seen from back home in Washington. We were like two kids in a candy shop, feasting our eyes on such incredible, new mountains all around us. It can be so fun to go to new places without expectations or knowledge. It reminds me of that kid-like amazement I felt when I was just getting into climbing mountains – when each view was more beautiful than anything I had seen before.

Nick is a happy boi.

Finally, we reached the real “Rockwall”, although it felt like we had been running along a giant rock wall all day. I guess this one was a bit more wall-like.

At the real Rockwall finally.
The Rockwall Glacier lake.

We had one final climb to do, and then it was “all downhill” out.

Saying goodbye to the Rockwall.
Giant waterfall coming down from Sharp Mountain.

There was an unfortunate amount of sneaker vert in the last 6 miles, which reminded me rather bluntly that I was not in shape to do 35 miles on trail. But we managed to hold a good pace and finished with plenty of light!

Back to the river.

We drove down the road, meeting Kelly just as she finished her own hike to Floe Lake. She made us a tasty curry dinner in the van before we parted ways with Nick. Thanks Kelly!

Kelly with some tasty curry and naan!

The Rockwall Trail was an incredible day, and definitely one of the best trails I have ever run. In the Cascades, I typically know what views to expect or what lies over the next pass. But this adventure was truly into the unknown for me, and it was super fun to be surprised around every corner. The Canadian Rockies are pretty amazing at this time of year. Thanks, Nick, for getting me out!

Notes:

  • We measure the route to be 35 miles and 8600 ft gain. It took us about 10 hours.
  • Which direction to go? We went south to north because we though it would get most of the climbing done early. The other direction would have slightly better views, in my opinion, because you would be running towards the beautiful north faces.
  • Water was abundant at this time of year.
  • The trail surfaces were generally runnable. The least runnable part was the climb up to Tumbling Pass from Numa Creek. The trail here is rocky and overgrown. So we were happy to be hiking up it.
  • The larches here seem to be a week or so ahead of the Cascades. We were expecting them to be more golden, but perhaps because the Kootenays are west of Banff, they are later than Banff?
  • There are multiple trails that allow shorter variations of this loop. In my opinion, the best part is around Wolverine Pass and Rockwall Pass.

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