Mountain Trail - Rock Lake to Summit Cabin

Dogs Leashed

Features Commonly Backpacked · Fall Colors · Historical Significance · River/Creek · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

There are many good trail camps along Mountain Trail.

All trail camps are user maintained. Make sure to practice Leave No Trace Principles. Please leave everything better than you found it. This includes packing out all your garbage.

Mountain Trail goes from Rock Lake Provincial Park to Grande Cache. This description is for the southern 24 miles of Mountain Trail - Rock Lake to the historic Summit Cabin. The southern trailhead of Mountain Trail is found at the staging area near the west end of Rock Lake in Rock Lake Provincial Park.

Mountain Trail and many other trails in Willmore Wilderness are popular with horse packing parties. None of the creeks/rivers are bridged.

Mountain Trail begins in the forest and shares its first mile with Willow Creek Trail. For about the first eight miles, Mountain Trail is a forest trail. At the 2.7-mile mark, the trail reaches and crosses the Wildhay River. Although horses can ford this river in high water times, such as spring melt, it may not be fordable for hikers. Hikers can use Jackson Creek Trail to avoid this ford - see signs at the trailhead. By mid August, this ford is typically manageable for hikers.

Still in the forest, several smaller creeks are crossed - Seep Creek, Fortyone Mile Creek, and Carson Creek (7.5 mile mark). After Carson Creek, one notices the forest thinning and views of the Persimmon Range mountains to the southwest appear. The trail now travels through meadows as well some forest still.

At about the 10-mile mark, now out of the forest, the trail passes the Eagles Nest Patrol Cabin and enters the Eagles Nest Area. This is an area of widely spread out great trail camps and good options for day trips. Veering southwest, the trail crosses a smaller version of the Wildhay River and travels through the Eagles Nest Area for about 2 miles.

Leaving the Eagles Nest Area behind, the trail heads for Eagles Nest Pass that crosses the Persimmon Range. Cathedral Peak ahead is a stunning, prominent peak as one approaches it and Eagles Nest Pass at its base. The Pass is forested at first and then breaks out into beautiful meadows. Descending the pass, the trail enters the forest, veers northwest and then breaks out into the most expansive mountain meadows that one has probably ever seen.

Rock Creek runs through these meadows that are dominated by willows. The Starlight Range defines the southwest side of this willow meadow creek valley, with the Persimmon Range on its northeast side. The trail runs up these meadows along Rock Creek all the way to Summit Cabin Spur where this description ends.

Areas of conifer forest with thick undergrowth. Expansive meadows of willows and grass, but mostly willows. A lot of big wildlife - moose, elk, deer, wolves, grizzly bears, and sheep.