A mad dash to a breathtaking pass and an iconic trail.
September 19 – 20, 2025.
Day 1 September 19, 2025, Takakkaw Falls Parking Lot to Little Yoho CG, 9.8 km, 560 m elevation gain, 30 m elevation loss, 2 hrs 18 min.
Since we adopted Margaux and she completed her first backpacking trip on the Iceline Trail in 2022 Margaux has hiked in Yoho NP and on the Iceline Trail specifically at least once a year since and twice in 2024. In both 2023 and 2024 and then on this trip in 2025 the trips were last minute bookings in the fall. I feel that three occurrences makes a tradition so this is now our Traditional Fall Iceline Backpacking Trip.
I was only able to get Little Yoho Campground on Friday night so the trip ended up being just two days of hiking. This worked out well because some of the players on the senior volleyball team at school who where in my class wanted me to come and watch their game on Saturday if they made the finals of the tournament being held at our high school. This meant that I had to try and be home sometime around 4 pm if I wanted to shower before the game.
The big challenge for the trip was that as autumn was approaching sunset was quite early at about 7:30 pm. Getting out of school at 3:30 pm, heading home to get Margaux and then driving the almost 90 minutes to the trailhead meant that the earliest I could hope to start the hike would be 5 pm. This schedule would have me arriving at the campground just before sunset. I was happy with this plan since I would not be hiking in the dark. Surprisingly on the day of the hike the itinerary worked out almost as I had planned.
Our start on the trail was delayed slightly since I gave Margaux her dinner before we set off. We feed Margaux her dinner at 5 pm and since we arrived at the Takakkaw Falls parking lot at about 5 pm I decided that I may as well pause for her dinner before beginning the hike.
It was a quick hike to Laughing Falls CG over a mostly flat trail. There is one decent uphill section but being fresh we soared up and over the hill and continue our charge down the trail. Laughing Falls is about halfway to our destination. Leaving Laughing Falls the following 3 km of trail alongside the Little Yoho River was slower as we had to climb the bulk elevation for the trip, 420 m. It would take us 1 hr 15 min to hike the remaining 5 km which was still a pretty good pace.
Margaux as always was a star on the trip. Just after we arrived a group of three young women arrived and set up near our site just through some trees. As I was finishing up setting up our tent one of the women came over and asked if she could pet Margaux. Pretty soon Margaux was was getting cuddles from all three of them. They had arrived from England the day before and had hike from the trailhead up and over Twin Falls and across the Whaleback before arriving at the campground. This was a huge hike without even taking into consideration jet lag or the huge in elevation that they went through traveling from England to the Canadian Rockies.
They did ask if I had any thoughts of the hike over the Iceline and back to the car. I took the opportunity to encourage them to hike up to Kiwetinok Pass. Kiwetinok Pass is about a 6.5 km round trip hike that takes between 2.5 and 3 hours from Little Yoho CG. Not a lot of people go up to the pass and I think that is a real shame. The pass has a very austere beauty and when you head all the way to the viewpoint at the head of Kiwetinok Valley the view over the mountain ranges in the distance is breathtaking. The women said that they were staying Saturday night in Canmore, Alberta, my hometown. When I said I was from Canmore one of them asked if I knew of place that served poutine, a little taste of Canada eh!. I said that I did not but I would text my wife and ask if any of our kids knew of a place. I was able to relay the message from my wife to them when I met them on the trail the next day, me heading down from Kiwetinok Pass and they heading up, that Iyycberg restaurant in Canmore had the best poutine.
After dinner we had a quick walk around the area to stretch the legs before heading to bed.
The sky was clear and it was looking like great night for viewing the stars. I did end up chickening out of getting out of my sleeping bag to check out the night sky. I made the excuse that I did not want to disturb Margaux but it was more about that I was being lazy.