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| Suspension bridge at KM7 over the Murray River |
At times hiking along the Monkman Trail you can see where the "highway" pushed its way through the bush over 80 years ago. The walking trail is a narrow strip flanked on each side by smaller trees and undergrowth. If you imagine hard enough you can picture an old Model T truck being pushed, pulled and dragged along this route in an effort to prove a highway to the BC interior could be built from the Peace Country.
We had cached our backpacks in the bush near the junction of the trail that lead down to the camp site at Devil's Creek and decided before we started heading back to the trailhead to take a walk up to Monkman Lake. We hoped for some clear skies as the last couple of days had been pretty cloudy and rain fell periodically, not enough to drench us, but it was enough to keep a general dampness about. The mountains around us were enveloped in a layer of mist most of the week and had made us hesitant about a planned day hike up to the Monkman Tarns. Instead we had chosen to spend a day exploring the waterfalls in the area, as this was the main attraction that had brought us out here.
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| View to the south from the limestone ridge around KM10 |
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| One of the markers along the trail |
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| At Monkman Lake |
When we were hiking in on the second day, having spent our first night at the Murray River camp at KM 7, we ran into a few people heading back to the parking lot. They informed us that there was a party of about 15 people staying at the camp site at the Cascades. We pushed on however and when we got to the turnoff that would lead us to the Cascades we ran into some people who had been exploring the area. They informed us that the other camp site at Devil's Creek was empty and was pretty nice as it was at the junction of the creeks. We decided we would go there instead.
All the campsites we came across were well set up with fire pits, toilets, bear caches and even waste water disposal pipes for dish water. The only site without a bear cache was the one at Devil's Creek but there were plenty of suitable trees for us to rig up our own and stash our food.
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| Jayne at Brooks Falls |
This was my first time hiking the Monkman trail and so I had come up with a rough plan on how the seven days would pan out which was open to adjustment based on time, weather and how we generally felt:
- Day One Saturday: depart Kinuseo Falls hike to campground at KM 7 or14 depending on conditions and how late we start.
- Day Two Sunday: Hike to falls campground at either Devils Creek or Cascades at KM22
- Day Three Monday: Hang around the falls
- Day Four Tuesday: Hike to Monkman Lake and camp at KM25
- Day Five Wednesday: Day trip to Monkman Tarns.
- Day Six Thursday: Hike back to campground at KM7
- Day Seven Friday: Get back to trailhead
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| Monkman Falls |
We ended up starting later in the day as we decided to drive from Grande Prairie that morning. Once we reached the camp site at KM 7 we decided to stop there for the night to ensure we were not racing against darkness. We were not familiar with the route so though the hike to the bridge over the Murray river is relatively flat and easy we were unsure how strenuous the next seven kilometres would be to the Trot camp at KM 14. The following day we hiked to the camp at Devil's Creek which is about 14 km from the Murray. This made for a long day and offered up a few steep climbs and a couple of switchbacks. Our time getting there was about 6 hours. The final km took us over a rock field as we took the Cascades turnoff and then took the path to Devil's Creek from here as opposed to continuing down the main Monkman trail to the Devil's Creek turnoff. The rocks offered a nice open view and were well marked however proved to be slippery when they were wet as I discovered when I lost my footing and went head over heels. I was pretty lucky that I didn't break my neck or some other valuable limb.
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| McGinnis Falls |
The 14 KM day proved a little hard and so we revised out plan to remain at the Devil's Creek site as opposed to moving our camp to Monkman Lake on Day Four. This we thought would leave us two epic hikes to get back to the trailhead at the end of the week and at this time we were still not sure what the trail would be like. The next day myself and Dave took a walk up to Monkman Lake although the day was dreary. The trail was actually not too bad at all apart from a section where it negotiates a small gully of boulders and rocks that have been dubbed "Hell's Half Acre". Once through this the trail is relatively flat and crosses through a couple of marshy places on the way to the lake.
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| Having supper at Devil's Creek Campsite |
The lake itself is quite nice though it would have probably been better on a sunny day. We could see some of the mountains in the distance but most were hidden by cloud. There was a very good campsite set up at the lake that could probably accommodate a good sized party. There were also two toilets, one an outhouse and the other open air as well as bear caches and even a couple of picnic tables. From here you would follow the lake around to head out to the Tarns area.
The following day we spent our time exploring the falls. There are five named ones and we all found Brooks Falls to be the most impressive. It is close to the campsite at Cascades so very easy to look at. There is also a side trail that leads up to a ridge that looks back toward the falls. Up there the Brooks family had laid a cairn dedicated to the man they are named after, one of the men who worked on the Monkman Highway project.
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| Chambers Falls near Devil's Creek |
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| Looking downstream from Chambers Falls |
On Thursday we decided we would break up the hike back into three shorter hikes. We began the day with a trip up to Monkman Lake again after packing up our camp at Devil's Creek and stashing our gear. The weather was a little worse that day and the mountains that had been visible a couple of days before were now hidden.
We then went back, picked up our gear and hiked to the Trot campground at KM 14. In retrospect this was a pretty doable hike and I thought that we could have stuck with our original plan of moving camp to Monkman Lake and then doing a full day hike to Km 14.
The next day we hiked back to the Murray campsite in about two hours, stayed there another night got up early Friday and were back at the trailhead by about 11 am.
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| On the viewpoint above Brooks falls |
I was pretty happy with what we accomplished over the week but think we could have made some better use of the time. This was tough to plan for originally because no matter how many guide books you read you never know what you are in for until you are actually walking that trail. Seven kilometres of flat cleared trail is quite a bit different to seven kilometres of switchbacks and heavy underbrush. That being said, the trail was very well maintained and marked. There are plenty of signs pointing you to the camps, trails and falls. There are kilometre signs posted in the trees so you can mark your progression. I referred to Charles Helm's book "Exploring Tumbler Ridge" when planning this trip.
Having hiked it I would revise my plan to take better advantage of the time while still making the hikes manageable. Plus having seen the falls I may next time give them a miss in order to hike further into the park and see the Tarns:
- Day One Saturday: Hike to campground at KM 14 Trot Camp.
- Day Two Sunday: Hike to Monkman Lake at KM 25
- Day Three Monday: Rest Day
- Day Four Tuesday: Hike to Monkman Tarns
- Day Five Wednesday: Daytrip to Cascades (or move camp to Devil's Creek)
- Day Six Thursday: Rest Day
- Day Seven Friday: Hike back to campground at KM14
- Day Eight Saturday: Hike back to trailhead
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