I’ve been wanting to do this hike for awhile. I tried in winter once before but failed. It is just 0.7 miles (1.1km for my sister) but gains 1300 ft. in elevation (396m for my sister). It is no joke. It is also not Journey friendly. So I got up early and drove out to the trailhead by myself.
There’s no parking along the road so I had to drive an extra half mile to a turnout. Not a big deal.
The trail climbs steadily for the entire hike. However, it wasn’t so steep that I was on all fours. It reminded me of the hike up to Ribbon Falls but that one was much harder.
The lower part is fairly easy and the trail is well marked with cairns. Then you come to a talus field to cross. This is the part that would be too difficult for Journey. I think she could have done it if we were careful but she definitely wouldn’t have liked it. After the talus the cairns disappeared. I was not sure which way to go so obviously I went the wrong way. Other people had certainly gone this way but I ended up on the wrong side of the creek. I crossed it and climbed up the steep bank on the other side. All of a sudden, the ground started to give way under my feet and I started sliding down and off the cliff. I caught myself just in time. It was only 20 feet so it would not have killed me but it probably would have hurt. I did end up getting a big cut on my hand as I scrambled to catch myself sliding.
I found the proper trail and continued to the waterfall view point. Maryanne Falls is 45 feet high and it is a beauty. It is bigger than I expected. It looked too difficult to get to the bottom so I did not bother but I enjoyed the view point and flew the drone a bit. Then I scurried down the mountain and back to the house to get coffee. My wife and Journey were still sleeping. It was a perfect morning on Day 4 of the Canada road trip in the East Kootenay of British Columbia.
This is Castelnau Falls, 770 ft. high. It can be seen right beside Petain Falls.
A thunderstorm rolled through in the night. It rained pretty heavily for quite awhile. We were dry but I’m not feeling too keen about the new tent: the Big Agnes Tiger Wall. I had to buy a new tent for this trip because the Durston is not big enough for two people plus a dog. This new one was put through a trial by fire (or water). The problem I have with it is that when you enter or exit the tent the wet fly flaps into the inside and water gets in. We also had this problem on the first night when it did not rain because the fly was wet with condensation. You have to be very careful which is basically impossible. The Durston is miles better in this regard.
In the morning I checked the forecast. It was going to start raining at 10am and essentially rain all day.
It was now impossible to go up to the basin and upper falls. This was a huge part of my planned itinerary but I certainly could not be up in the basin in a thunderstorm and heavy rain. I was very bummed about it but the weather just didn’t allow me to complete my goals. The weather always wins. That’s the problem when you have to make plans months ahead of time. The weather can make or break the trip. At least I made it to the lower falls.
Tara did not even make it to the lower falls. I gave her the choice. We could do a day hike to the waterfall and stay another night. Or hike out today. She decided to retreat and hike out. It was unfortunate but I think it was the best decision. In addition to the rain her sleeping pad had a leak. It was perfectly good the night before but all of a sudden it now has at least three holes in it. What the heck? She would have had a cold night.
It was gorgeous in the morning when we woke up and we had a wonderful breakfast beside the creek. Then we packed up the wet tent and then started the hike back. It started raining at 10am as scheduled. It was light at first but eventually became quite strong. I was perfectly fine with my rain jacket and waterproof gloves but Tara was hiking in a t shirt. She did not have a proper rain jacket with her. Another good reason to not stay another night.
We got back to the car at noon and started the long slow drive back on the horrible road. I swear the drive took a lot longer this time. Along the way we came across a herd of horses and mules blocking our passage on the road. Not wild but free ranging. It was rather interesting to see them. We drove back to my sister’s place in Cranbrook where we would spend the next few days. It was a cold and rainy but still very beautiful Day 3 on the Canada road trip in Elk Lakes Provincial Park.
The road from Elkford to the Elk Lakes Provincial Park is 40 miles of dirt road. 40 miles of hell. The potholes were horrendous. It took 1.5 hours to drive the 40 miles. Tara said she enjoyed it. What? Ok dear, next time you are driving. Along the way we saw a moose and also picked up a hitchhiker, a through hiker who was doing section B of the Great Divide Trail. I knew the GDT ran through here but did not know it went along this road. He was grateful he did not have to walk the very boring road.
We finally made it to the trailhead and started the hike. It was an hour later than I wanted. I gave the GDT hiker one of my Cokes and we parted ways.
There are plenty of park signs along the trail pointing the way to Petain Falls or Petain Basin or similar. Some of them are scratched out. Some are not scratched out. Why are they scratched out, you ask? Well let me tell you! There are five namesakes in this area: Petain Mountain, Petain Glacier, Petain Creek, Petain Basin, Petain Falls. They are (were) named after General Phillipe Petain, a commander of the French Army in WWI. In WWII, he collaborated with the Nazis and was convicted of treason in 1945. The landmarks were named in 1918 or 1919 by the British Columbia government. The name was rescinded around the year 2021.
There are two really stupid things about this: Firstly, why did it take 75 years for the BC government to figure out that Petain was a Nazi ally and revoke the name? Really? They did not know before 2021 that Petain was a Nazi? It is all because of the idiotic wokeness in the world today that they finally decided to rescind the name, I am certain. Ok so great, they rescinded the name. Here is the second stupid thing: give these major landmarks a new name! Don’t just say they are “unnamed” (which is what they did). This is a major mountain, major glacier, and a major creek and they are all now officially “unnamed”. Well … the (reliable) map I am currently using still says Petain Creek (though it does say the mountain and glacier is unnamed). If the creek is still Petain then the waterfall is still Petain Falls. I am going to continue calling the waterfall Petain Falls until the BC government wakes up and gives it a proper name (it might be a long time).
Enough of that dumbness, let’s get to the hike now, shall we? This is Grizzly country. I read multiple reports that people had seen grizzly bears on this hike. I have never backpacked in Grizzly country before. I remember I did one day hike in Alaska where there was a mother grizzly in the area with a cub and the mom had been reported to charge some hikers. I did not have bear spray then but I did the hike quickly and did not see anything. We all had bear spray for this hike. I felt that it was safe enough for Journey to be off leash for the most part. She hiked right beside Tara or myself or in between us for 100% of the hike. She never strayed off the trail. There was just one section where I put her on leash because it was quite a brushy area. Other than that, she was perfectly fine. It has been annoying me recently when I hear non dog owners tell dog owners what to do. Your dog must be on leash! Don’t be a schmuck. I am a responsible dog owner and I know my dog is perfect off leash and deserves to be off leash. The other thing that is apparently abundant on this trail is porcupines. I read that some people saw as many as six porcupines on this trail! I certainly did not want Journey to get up too close to one of those. Yikes. Did we see any porcupines or bears? Keep reading.
Tara’s pack was only 20 pounds or so but she was struggling with it. Lynal offered to carry it for her. It was incredibly nice of him but in a way I wish he hadn’t. They hiked on ahead of us to the waterfall. Tara did not make it. We found a lovely spot by the creek and decided to camp there. But Lynal had her pack. I ran up the trail to find them, almost all the way to the waterfall. They were just on the way back down. We walked back to camp and I set up the tent and we made dinner. We filtered water from the creek. The water from the Elkford campground the night before was horrible but this 4000 year old glacier water tasted amazingly good. After dinner, I hiked back up to the waterfall by myself. I could have (should have) taken Journey but decided to leave her with Tara at camp.
Petain Falls is 305 ft. high and it is absolutely massive. There is a great overlook for the waterfall. You can also go right up to the base of it as well (which I did of course). The mist was tremendous, making it difficult to photograph from up close. Other waterfalls were pouring off the cliff as well from different glaciers. Crossing the creek was not possible. It was absolutely roaring. All of this from glacier melt. I wanted to cross because it’s the only way to see the upper tiers of the falls (it’s over 1200 ft. high in total). I was bummed about that but I expected it. I did walk back along the ridge as far as I could and was at least able to glimpse the upper tiers.
On the hike back to camp I saw a porcupine. This was very cool. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before. No grizzy bears though. It was a remarkable (and prickly) Day 2 on the Canada road trip in Elk Lakes Provincial Park.
Canada road trip! I’ve wanted to do this backpacking trip to Petain Falls in the Canadian Rockies for a long time. I had a great plan to backpack here with my wife Tara and my sister and brother in law. Tania and Lynal did not want to backpack but they said they’d do it as a day hike. We met up with them at the campground in Elkford for the first night.
There were a lot of fire trucks on the road to Elkford. At least I thought they were fire trucks. There was smoke on the horizon. Was there a new fire in the area? It looked pretty thick up ahead, the exact location where we would be hiking the next day. This would completely ruin the trip. Well I found out they were not fire trucks but mining trucks! There is a huge coal mining operation here and they work day and night, seven days a week. The traffic is constant 24 hours of the day. That certainly explains all the noise throughout the night in the campground with cars driving back and forth, and drag racing in the night as well! Argh!
After setting up camp and eating dinner I took Journey on an evening hike to Josephine Falls. Everyone else was saving their energy for the next day so it was just the two of us going on this five mile hike.
I would likely never be back in Elkford again so I wanted to do this hike while I had the chance. I was not sure where to start the hike. It should be obvious but there was no place to park and there were no signs. Although I’m sure my planned route would have worked fine I was at the wrong location. A ranger happened to be there and he told me where the proper trailhead was located. Perfect. Thank you sir.
It was a pretty easy to hike to the main waterfall. Josephine Falls is 73 ft high. It is a gorgeous drop on the Fording River. You cannot see the falls from the fence along the cliff so I had to cross over it and scramble down to a spot where I could photograph it. It was too sketchy for Journey so I left her up at the fence line. She waited perfectly for me as usual. There’s also a middle and lower falls which I went down to. The middle falls was a smallish 47 ft. drop and unfortunately there was no view of the lower falls. We hiked back up to the car, drove back to the campground, and went to bed (or tried to!). It was a beautiful Day 1 on the Canada road trip in the Canadian Rockies.
Our whole family was sick before we went to Canada. Tara and Jadon had the flu, Nekoda and I had colds. My wife claims our colds turned into bronchitis or RSV or something. I don’t know but I had a horrendous lingering cough. We were getting over it and not contagious anymore by the time we started the trip but we still had those horrible coughs.
My energy was non-existent as well. I did not do much hiking up in Canada as I had wanted to. I took Journey out on some easy hikes in the snow. She needs exercise every day. I did not do anything difficult. The only waterfall I went to was Marysville Falls which I go to every time I am up there. It is a very easy hike. We continued on down to the river which also is an easy hike but coming back up the hill was a monstrosity for me because of my lack of energy and sickness. It did me in for the rest of the day. Journey had no such troubles coming back up the hill. She was not sick, thankfully.
Marysville Falls was almost completely frozen. It is always interesting to see what it will be like in the winter. How frozen will you be this time, my dear Mary? I think they have had a fairly warm winter up there so far. Only in the week or so before we got there did it get cold and they got some snow. I guess it was enough to freeze over the waterfall. I was surprised. It was a nice easy hike to dear Marysville Falls.
