Hermit Meadows

Elevation: 2120 m
Elevation Gain: 820 m
The Hermit Meadows are located on a high alpine bench within the Hermit Range. The name “Hermit” was first applied to a prominent peak north of Roger’s Pass by H. A. Perley who managed nearby Glacier House Hotel. Perley named the peak for a prominent gendarme along its west ridge which, when viewed form a distance, appears to be a solitary figure. Surveyor Arthur O. Wheeler later changed the peak’s name to Mount Tupper and a larger but less impressive peak further to the north was christened Hermit Mountain. Today, the meadows are home to a backcountry campground and are easily accessed using the official “Hermit” trail. Header photo courtesy Matt Clay.
My Ascents:
September 20 2019
Trailhead: Hermit Meadows Trailhead
GPS Track: Hermit Meadows

For the past 4 summers, our family camping trips have usually involved sharing a tent with a cold baby or toddler. While effective, this arrangement is not usually pleasant and tends to exacerbate our, seemingly, perpetual sleep-deprived state. As an investment in our future family happiness, Brianne and I, therefore, elected to buy a new “toy”: a lovely little camping trailer!

While late September isn’t exactly prime camping season, we were, nevertheless, eager to play with our new “toy.” Fortunately, Brianne’s sister is an apt mind-reader and booked an extended family camping trip for us (without even being asked to do so)! Once we’d been told where to go (West Kelowna), we eagerly set out with our new “toy” (literally) in-tow!

About halfway to our destination, the 8-hour-drive began to wear on us so I suggested a stop to “stretch our legs” near Roger’s Pass in the beautiful Selkirks. Noting that the “Hermit” trailhead parking was empty (and therefore easy to manoeuver a trailer about in), we pulled off the highway and set off along the beautiful trail. What better way to stretch our legs than on the “steepest trail in a park famous for its steep trails?”

Thanks to an early start and trailhead temperatures that were fridge-like, there was plenty of room to manoeuver our new toy around in the “Hermit” parking lot!

LEFT: After leaving the parking area, the trail wastes little time gaining elevation in a wonderfully lush old growth rainforest.
RIGHT: Moody mountain views through the woods.

The official Parks Canada description of the trail as “steep” certainly proved accurate! The “Hermit” trail ascends over 800 m in a distance of about 4 km making it twice as steep as the average official trail in nearby Banff National Park. The hike also starts with a “bang” – my GPS recorded grades in the range of 40 – 50% on a few occasions! Fortunately, the trail is very well-maintained and, still-steep, switchbacks serve to ease the grade a little.

As the trail’s grade abated somewhat, the old-growth forest transitioned to more open subalpine. Despite a weather forecast that called for a mix of sun and cloud, we began to suspect that we were in store for more of the latter as a light mist surreptitiously soaked us.

An astonishingly vibrant fungus certainly appeared to be benefiting from the unforecast moisture.

Despite the thick cloud, fall colors were on display – you just had to get really close before you could see them!

Penny and I cross a rocky bridge. Once you reach the subalpine, pleasant creeks and waterfalls are a near-constant companions on this hike. On a clearer day, I imagine that grand mountain views might be welcome companions as well!

Continuing up into the alpine on a carefully crafted stone staircase. These wonderful steps were very effective at preventing trail erosion and, more importantly, allowed us to keep our boots mud-free.

LEFT: Nearing the end of the official trail, Brianne tackles a small pile of rocky debris. Ahead a small cairn marks the official backcountry campground.
RIGHT: A small stream weaves its way through the piles of moraine debris amongst which the campground is located.

Well, I suppose that’s that! Knowing that this was among the most scenic spots in the Selkirks, I had been intent on exploring the beautiful alpine surroundings beyond the official-end-of-trail but, with weather like this, there was little point.

LEFT: At least Penny didn’t seem to mind stopping here! Of course, she'd probably be happy to stop just about anywhere provided that we feed her leftover pizza for lunch.
RIGHT: An ephemeral clearing demonstrated that there were actually mountains here. We just weren’t going to see them today!

Brianne forces a smile despite less-than-ideal conditions and a brief domestic relating to the hike's "advertized" length (it's longer than Parks Canada says it is!).

The “as good as it got” panorama. Even with the clouds, the vibrant alpine meadows were beautiful but any views that we got proved to be only a tease. Click to see larger.

Mere seconds after the above panorama was taken, we watched helplessly as a wall of cloud moved up-valley and reduced visibility to about 50 feet. In the eerie, viewless silence we started to pack our gear back up to return to our “toy” below.

Passing by the campground's “crapper in the clouds”. On a day filled with sh*tty views, this seemed like a fitting final photo to take before descending!

Following the trail down into the ominous meteorological void.

LEFT: Brianne navigates down alongside an unnecessary fixed rope.
RIGHT: Penny, however, insisted that I make use of the extra handhold! Even with a 30 lb toddler on my back, it really wasn't necessary though.

LEFT: As alpine meadows transitioned back to subalpine forest, we finally began to descend below the cloud ceiling.
RIGHT: Mount Macdonald makes a welcome cameo beyond some scrubby subalpine spruce. I’m not sure that these conifers are spruce but I can't resist any and all amazing alliterations.

A rather damp looking trio pausing for a selfie with the day’s best view.

An enchanting interplay of light and cloud on massive Mount Macdonald. Of course, the whole thing disappeared back into the mist mere moments later…

LEFT: Smiles amidst the old-growth forest. On this day, the views proved massively disappointing but the hike was surprisingly lovely. We both agreed that we’d return (on a nicer day) to repeat this trail (and finally see what we missed).
RIGHT: 4 hours after we set out on, what I promised would be, a 4-hour-hike, we made it back down to our new “toy” and treated ourselves to some well-deserved Smile Cookies.

Having sated our collective sweet tooth and (more-than) stretched our legs, it was time to pile back into our car to tackle the remaining drive to Kelowna for our first family camping trip as trailer owners!

PS: In case anyone's wondering, we didn't leave Mera in the trailer all day while we hiked! 😂 She hitched a ride out to Kelowna with her "Nannie" and "Papa"! 🙌