Backpacking The Rockwall Trail: The Ultimate Canadian Adventure

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Scott and I return weeks after our Athabasca Pass adventure to tackle this iconic trail in MID OCTOBER. Stunning weather with short days, long nights and empty campsites made this hike one for the books!!
The Rockwall Trail is a 54 km hike traversing three alpine passes through subalpine meadows and impressive hanging glaciers. The trail's naming feature is a single, massive limestone cliff, towering in some locations more than 900 m (2,953 feet) above the trail below.
00:00 Intro
09:39 Day Two
22:26 Day Three
42:10 Day Four
1:03:42 Day Five
1:21:26 Day Six

[@jjinthemountains369]

Howe's the HITCH Hike" ... love it. Lol. That walk down the Floe Creek valley brings back memories of hiking there in the 80's ... there had been a grizzly in the valley for a month feeding on berries, a park warden had posted a sign the day before at Floe Lake and we'd been warned by wardens when we picked up our hiking permit. We were walking down from Floe Lake toward the highway and stopped to look at claw marks way up on a tree right beside the trail, and heard what we thought was bark being ripped off a tree just above us in the forest. We proceeded to run - full speed - for about 10 minutes, down the trail. Fun times.

[@HowestheHike]

Haha - yes - I can't help myself with the "Howe's" stuff.... What a crazy story! Yes, that would scare the crap out of anybody, especially if you're hiking in the fall has the Bears are trying to finish up for winter! And I guess you're heading out there very soon, so I hope you don't get a repeat :-)

[@leannalovesmountains4949]

Great video! Thanks for taking us along!

[@HowestheHike]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@aecsummer]

Hey man! Finally remember to track this video down, its Andrew and Alanna! ✌️✌️

[@HowestheHike]

Hey! So great to hear from you! Hope all is well that you have a great 2024 :-) Keep in touch!

[@tangenttrails]

Still catching up. This was a good one!🙌

[@HowestheHike]

Thanks, that's a heck of a trail! But oh my goodness the constant ups and downs :-) it was awesome to hike it in a very warm and sunny October, as we had the place basically to ourselves. Otherwise it's one of the most busy trails in the mountain parks.

[@ellenderee350]

Really enjoyed your video again, thanks!

[@HowestheHike]

Thanks so much!

[@mikewanders]

Man this is an AWESOME backpacking trip

[@HowestheHike]

Yes it is!

[@neethewondercat]

Fantastic hike Stuart. Looking forward to watching your hikes this summer ☀️

[@HowestheHike]

Thank so much. More to come!

[@HankVlietstra]

What a great video, loving it!

[@HowestheHike]

Thanks!!

[@williamdechant6234]

Thanks for sharing! Looks like your timing was great.. no rain , no heat and good trails! Really impressed with nice open mixed trails for enjoying the views in that area. Cheers

[@HowestheHike]

Yeah, we got super lucky with the weather. But, we planned this at the last minute, and the weather was the deciding factor. That, and I had my interview with Brian Patton from the Canadian Rockies trail guide a couple of days earlier. So I was able to do a couple of awesome things in one trip. Glad you enjoyed it! I sure did.

[@barryparris91]

Good to see you out on the trail again.

[@HowestheHike]

Thanks 👍 More to come!!

[@ricklarry4212]

Glad to see you and Scott were able to complete this trail hike, Stu after the aborted Athabasca Pass trail due to an inaccessible high water creek and no bridge. Surprised by the time of year you took the hike as I would have thought there would have been snow by this date, although I'm sure it was cold. Glad the weather gods smiled on you. Next time don't forget your extra layers. Fall colors looked impressive. Floe Lake was beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

[@HowestheHike]

Thanks! YEs, it was frosty and days were short, but we basically had one of the most popular trails almost completely to ourselves. That's pretty rare!

[@stephenbouchard8075]

Great video Stuart and Scott.

[@HowestheHike]

Thank you!

[@johnversluys]

NIce hike, Stu. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Helen and I tried it a number of years ago from the south side and ended up bailing at Numa Creek. Couldn't believe the amount of climbing and descents required on this hike. Congratulations on finishing it!

[@HowestheHike]

John - great to hear from you! Miss you guys from so many years ago and hope I see you again at some point in the future. Great memories :-) yes, this was a beast. I will have to admit that I’m not sure what the appeal is for it to be so so so popular. But I suppose if you don’t hike a lot of different places, this trail ticks all the boxes for a trip. And of course there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that right? Hike your own hike! But she is a tough beast, and there’s not a tremendous amount of payoff. I was VERY glad to finally do it however. Anyway, please keep in touch. I’d love to see you guys again sometime soon, really!

[@northernbeadle]

Just watched it again. I didn't mention in my other comment but ALL my footage and photos of the hike were "lost" somehow.. just killed me as I do my own videos of my hikes and enjoy going back to rewatch and "experience" my hikes. Really appreciate getting to do that through this video until I get back on the trail again to fully complete it!! Have a great New Year!

[@HowestheHike]

Ugh - that's terrible when that happens. We lost part of the Sawbuck Circuit once, and I've had many times my GoPro failed me. It is why I now use both a GoPro AND my iPhone for every single shot. Hope you get back out to do it!!

[@northernbeadle]

I had this booked last year and got two days in with a friend when the weather (so much rain it flooded our tent pad) and a foot injury for my friend caused us to have to bail early, so we only got the keyhole short loop in and weren't able to make it to Numa or Floe.... so it's back on my list to get done again, but awesome video to show the possibility outside of the normal season!!!

[@HowestheHike]

Oh no! That's not great luck at all. Hope you return this year! And yes, late autumn can be perfect depending on the weather pattern. Only issue was the very short daylight hours - but it was fun to adapt to that too!

[@bryanhryciw]

Excellent! Been hoping to see this hike on your channel. On my short list for next summer.

[@stephenbouchard8075]

Looking for someone to tag along? lol

[@HowestheHike]

It's a workout - but a great trail!

[@LordBobCanada]

Great video. Great trail. To solve your Tumbling Creek mystery, there are basically two separate campgrounds next to each other. If you hadn't forded Tumbling Creek, you would have seen the other half on your way out. It was funny hearing you have the exact same thoughts about how far down Numa Creek looks from the trail. It's exactly as far as it looks, ain't it?

[@HowestheHike]

Ah - got it! The ford was the culprit. Thanks for pointing that out! and yes, Numa is WAY WAY off from that vantage point. Trail to it never seems to end!!!

[@andrewduncan7643]

Man did you guys get great weather for that. Guessing it was a bug free zone too. I've never seen a video of that trail without any people on it. Still haven't been able to score a permit for that one but most likely will give it another try whenever they announce the release date for backcountry permits for this year. Aiming for a late September larch march hopefully. Oh, where did Scott find that sweet gizmo and how muchie?

[@HowestheHike]

Excellent weather and ZERO bugs. Aim for fall and availability opens up. When we booked this (a couple of weeks prior based on weather patterns) we could have booked ANY campsites in Banff, Kootenay and Soho - as they ALL had ZERO bookings. We could have had 3 parks to ourselves!

[@chadpolski5987]

What tent are you using?

[@HowestheHike]

On this trip, I used my Zpacks duplex. I debated using my Tarptent aeon LI but wanted the extra space in the tent in the vestibule to to the time of year and the amount of time I knew I’d have to spend in my tent. Hope this helps!

[@headinthemountains1666]

Did this hike in opposite direction with my daughter this summer. You got some great weather. I am guessing you had no trouble getting permits for this hike??

[@HowestheHike]

Awesome for you guys - congrats! NO issues for us with permits. There were ZERO reservations of any kind when we made ours. We had the trail and campsites basically all to ourselves. Maybe saw 5-8 ppl some of whom were day hikers near Floe Lake. It was EPIC!

[@headinthemountains1666]

@@HowestheHike Jealous......it was nip and tuck obtaining permits online for summer dates. Thanks for the reply and as always thanks for sharing

[@HowestheHike]

I know - it is super popular. But we were mid October with. silly stretch of sunny weather - so that's why we had not issues. BUT - super long nights!! Enjoy it - it is amazing!

[@xnilesx1]

O mercurio out of the oven onto the rocky, reverse Marty trail. Stratigraphic spruce goose, sunshine autumnal spent plants frost trail measure unicycle, traffic Stoppers anonymous, David Thompson and the rest.

[@HowestheHike]

Well done - again!