Rockwall Trail is my new favourite backpacking trip. There was so much to love about this hike: stupendous views every day, great company, sunny and warm weather, wonderful campgrounds, endless fields of wildflowers, epic towering mountains and glaciers, and abundant streams, rivers, creeks, and waterfalls. On a personal note, the lack of knee pain (unlike last year) made the hike even more enjoyable.

My friends and I completed the hike North to South in three nights staying at Helmet Falls, Tumbling Creek, and Floe Lake, which I think was ideal in terms of pacing and daily distance/elevation gain. These also appeared to be the three nicest campgrounds. We were pretty lucky!

Date: 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-04

Location: Kootenay National Park

Friends: Chris, Kat, Ingrid, Nick, John, Eric, Joel, Robyn

Day 1 - Paint Pots trailhead to Helmet Falls campground

We started off with a physically distanced carpool - left three cars at Paint Pots and just managed to get a spot at Floe Lake. We were lucky we didn’t arrive any later than 9 a.m. or we wouldn’t have been able to find a spot at Floe Lake parking lot, which is not very big.

The paint pots/ochre beds - clay deposits that were traditionally used by the Indigenous people in the area.

Today’s hike was spent walking along Ochre Creek and then Helmet Creek.

Our first glimpse of…something. I’m not sure if this was the Rockwall but it was exciting after hours of forest and bushes.

Much fun was had on this bouncy bridge.

The highlight of my day was the chance to walk right up to Helmet Falls. I felt the mist from the falls long before I reached them! At 350 metres high, Helmet Falls was pretty majestic.

Boys sure like to throw rocks.

Day 2 - Helmet Falls campground to Tumbling Creek campground

We started the day off with with this view (no complaints) from the eating area. Then followed the climb to Rockwall Pass and the Wolverine Plateau.

This was our stunning first glance at the rock wall along which we would be walking for the rest of the day.

We also peeked at Wolverine Pass but the views there weren’t as great as what we had left behind.

Tumbling glacier.

Probably the nicest backcountry campground I’ve ever stayed at.

Day 3 - Tumbling Creek campground to Floe Lake campground

This was our most strenuous day and everyone did well on it.

The day begun with a climb up to the incredibly scenic Tumbling Pass.

One of many stream crossings on the third day.

We had lunch at Numa campground and were glad we were not staying there for the night - it was the least impressive of all the campgrounds we had seen so far.

A thunderstorm passed over us as we approached Numa Pass. A few of us took cover in the valley below the pass and were briefly pelted by tiny hail. After the storm, we were treated with radiance all around us.

The approach towards Floe Lake - probably the highlight of the third day for me.

The wildflowers heading down to Floe Lake were a sight to behold!

Floe Lake was the only campground this trip where we had to use our head nets (a lesson learned from Skyline last year). The views from our eating area were incredible but there were a few too many mosquitoes and hills for me to rate it better than Tumbling Creek.

Day 4 - Floe Lake campground to Floe Lake trailhead

Our quickest and most boring day. The hike down was scorching hot and filled with endless switchbacks through burnt forests and flourishing fireweed. I’m glad I was heading down instead of up!