Our day hiking into this jewel of a lake was all around magic! There were a few setbacks of course which I’ll mention below. But between the waterfalls and having this gorgeous destination all to ourselves, it was pretty incredible. We hiked to this lake in September, and the larches were just beginning to turn golden. You start off deep in the forest with beautiful greenery everywhere, thanks to a good amount of rainfall. The trail is on the steeper side with several downed trees, but nothing you can’t get around. As you near the lake, you’ll come across your 2nd waterfall of the day, and it’s spectacular. From there, it’s just a short push to the lake. But when you first come over the hill, the lake doesn’t present itself fully. So it’s best to keep going across the rocks that make this lake similar in effect to an infinity pool. And if you have an extra couple of hours, the ridge to the right of the lake has a scramble route to give you an even better vantage point.
Everything you need to know about hiking to the Lake of Hanging Glaciers in British Columbia:
Mileage: 9.8 miles or 15.9 kmElevation Gain: 3,100′ or 947mTrailhead: the Lake of Hanging Glaciers trail begins 50km up Horsethief Creek Forest Service Road.Directions: From Radium at the Hwy 93/95 junction, drive west past the sawmill along Horsethief FSR. Turn left for Horsethief creek road after 1.5km. Take left fork at 3.8km. Continue straight at 4-way junction near 9km sign. Also continue straight at 14km sign. Keep driving this narrow road, keep straight at 39km sign and also keep past footbridge at 46k sign. Park at the 50k sign, end of road and trailhead (52k from Radium). I can’t remember where we got these directions from, but between this and following the signs, we made it! Needless to say, you’re way out of any kind of cell phone reception, and Google Maps isn’t going to know where you are. So another thing that might be handy, is an actual map!
Basic Facts and Tips for Lake of Hanging Glaciers:
And now… onto story time:
This hike into the Lake of Hanging Glaciers was our first one on a 10 day road trip through both B.C. and Alberta. I’ll be writing about all our adventures over the months to come, so stay tuned. Between sleepless nights, a serious rodent invasion, crazy massive snow storm, and countless breathtaking views, it was a ‘one of a kind’ road trip. The trip started the day before this hike when we left Montana, and hoped to be in our camping spot making dinner before the sun went down. However, the road conditions had other plans! It took us so long to get to the camp site, we arrived well into the night. So instead of dinner, we had some crackers and cheese instead.
(This idea of a quick dinner/sometimes no dinner has actually turned into a bit of a theme with our adventures.)
After our quick dinner, we hopped into the back of the truck to get some sleep. Somewhere in the night we heard some rustling about, but didn’t think much of it. The next morning we got up way before sunrise and made coffee on the tailgate. We figured since it took us hours to get the first 39 km, we needed an early start. We had read the road just got worse and worse. So with 11 km left to go, and our average speed around 6-8km/hour, we had over an hours drive left. To put it into other terms, we could have walked the remainder almost as fast as we were driving! When we got to the parking lot, we started getting ready by pulling out our gear. It was then I found a bag of my Maple Cinnamon Granola I had tossed in last minute the day before. It had a small hole in it, and I remember saying to Tyler that all the bumping around must have punctured the bag.
“It’s always funny to me the things we convince ourselves of sometimes!”
Looking back, this is absolutely laughable, but I blame it on the sleep deprivation. I grew up in the woods, and mostly definitely know better than to leave food where wildlife, (or even more problematic… rodents) might get interested. But I guess in my sleep deprived state, it didn’t occur to me we were looking at a rodent problem. Oh… but that situation would reveal itself in time. And you’ll hear the whole funny story over the course of the next 4 days of our road trip! We finally arrived at the lake and spent as much time as possible exploring and looking for the best shots. It was so incredible, we wished we were staying overnight in the backcountry tenting site. But as the day was waning, and we knew we had a over 3 hours drive back out, we reluctantly headed back out. Once we had unwound the chicken wire from the truck, we started the laborious drive out. And again, we ended up doing several hours of it in the dark. From there we headed north past Radium to start our next backroad experience heading into Bugaboo Provincial Park. And from here, I wanted to leave you with a final tip!
Whatever you need, try and get it in Radium!
We had over a half tank of gas, so we figured we fuel up at the next town. That way we’d head into the backcountry with a full tank. This plan totally backfired when the next towns we came to didn’t have anything open. I mean you couldn’t even run your credit card at the pump ‘old school style’! So now not wanting to head back through all the construction we had just come through, we decided to just wait until they opened in the morning. From there our story continues in the next adventure – Cobalt Ridge and Cobalt Lake!
Canadian Road Trip Series:
Lake of Hanging GlaciersCobalt Lake in Bugaboo Provincial ParkHiking in the Conrad Kain Hut Part 1Hiking the Conrad Kain Hut Part 2Helen Lake and and unnamed peak in BanffHiking Mount Fairview in Banff National ParkBow Glacier Falls and Iceberg Lake in Banff National ParkNatural Bridge in Yoho National Park
