Just beyond the west gate of Mount Robson Provincial Park is a small BC recreation site called Little Lost Lake. This area includes two trails: one to a small lake and the other to a waterfall. The hikes start from the same point and branch off after about 1 km on the trail.
We completed the Little Lost Trail hike on my visit to the Mount Robson area over the August long weekend this summer. It was a great, short hike through lush forests, over mossy hills, and through wetlands. The weather during our visit was on-and-off rainy, so this 2 hour trail was perfect to fit in while we got a reprieve from the rain.
Little Lost Lake Hike Summary
- Difficulty: Easy
- Distance: 5.1 km round trip
- Elevation: 214 metres
- Trail type: Loop
- Time: 1.5-2.5 hours
- Trailhead: Little Lost Lake Trailhead
Finding the trail may feel a little tricky, especially as there is no cell service through this stretch of highway 16. If you are driving from Mount Robson, continue west on the Yellowhead Highway for about 10 minutes (15 km). You’ll pass Rearguard Falls on the left and continue for about a minute to a pull out on the left hand side, just after a gate. You likely won’t see the trailhead sign until you park.
If you are driving from Tête Jaune Cache or Valemount, the trail will be about 5 minutes from the junction between highways 16 and 5. The trailhead is located at the pull out immediately following the Tête Jaune Cache Inspection Station, on the right hand side.
To reach the trailhead, you will need to carefully cross the highway.
Detailed Trail Description
The hike to Little Lost Lake is short and easy, with a couple of sections of elevation near the beginning. The trailhead starts across the highway from the parking area and is clearly signed.
Follow the well defined trail as it brings you through the forests. The early section of the trail is a dry montane forest characterized by white birch, aspen, white spruce, Douglas fir, Douglas maple, and lodgepole pine. We also saw a cluster of Ghost Pipe flowers here, a rare wildflower that is completely white, doesn’t have chlorophyll and uses a parasitic process to gain nutrients from surrounding trees and photosynthesizing vegetation.
The trail begins to level out just before we passed the well-signed junction between the lake trail and the branching trail towards L’Estrange Creek Falls. We continued straight towards the lake.
Around this part of the trail, there is a shift in vegetation and the environment has increased moisture. Here, plants such as the Western red cedar, Western hemlock, and Devil’s Club. As you continue walking, the vegetation becomes denser, with fewer large trees and more shrubs and small trees.
There is some informative signage in this dense, brush-dominated area. It explains the plant life, geology, and history of the area. Very soon after this sign we reached the lake.
Hiking around Little Lost Lake
At the edge of Little Lost Lake, we found two picnic tables and a pit toilet. There was a group who had hiked rafts out to the lake that were fishing on the far end. During our descent, we passed another group with fishing rods, so that seems to be a popular activity here.
We took some photos at the lake shore, then followed the trail around the lake in a clockwise loop. The trail includes some boardwalk sections over soft ground and an increasingly narrow trail along the hill of the south side of the lake.
The ground on the south side of the lake, where we followed the trail that cuts across the hill, is very mossy. About halfway to the end of the lake, we realized that this moss was prime habitat for some very tiny frogs. We watched the frogs navigating their miniature forest of mosses for awhile, some incredibly camouflaged and others more visible. We counted at least 8-10 frogs between our group of 4, so definitely keep your eyes out!
As we continued around the lake, we passed some Saskatoon berry bushes, holly, and patches of snake grass (Equisetum hyemale). We also heard a red-tailed hawk as it flew over the lake. Initially, we were planning to hike the waterfall trail as well; however, as we finished the loop around the lake, rain clouds were descending upon us once again.
Completing the Hike
Due to our very rainy hike out of Kinney Lake the previous day, we weren’t overly enthusiastic about hiking in another downpour. We decided to hike back out to the car, and made perfect timing as the rain began as we got back on the road.
The hike took us 2 hours, with 1 hour and 40 minutes of active hiking time. Altogether, the hike was easy, beautiful, and full of amazing plant and animal life. It was a great trail to slow down and appreciate the details.
