This week we head to Joffre Lakes Provincial Park to see the three Joffre Lakes. I went on this hike way back in the summer of 2017 during forest fire season, so there was quite a bit of smog/smoke in the photos. But the lakes and views were still quite visible. Over the years, Joffre Lakes had become more and more crowded year after year due to social media, so since the covid years, the government had rolled out a reservation system and limited the number of visitors allowed to visit the park during peak summer season. When I visited when my friend, we left home extra early and got to the park early, so parking was not an issue for us. But had we arrived later in the day, it would be impossible to park at the park's parking lot and we would have to resort to the overflow parking.

The first lake at Joffre Lakes Provincial Park is very close to the parking lot, a short five minute walk away. We visited the first lake, took our pictures, and quickly moved onto the trail towards the second lake. The trail to the second lake is moderately difficult, with about 300m elevation gain and approximately 3km away from the first lake. After taking in the view at the second lake, continuing on trail brought us to a waterfall with a good amount of water rushing down. As we continued on trail, we eventually reached the third lake, located about 1km away and 100m higher than the second lake. The third lake is the largest of the three lakes and it sits right below the Matier Glacier. There is also a backcountry campground at the far side of the lake, opposite to the viewpoint. We decided to continue on to checkout the campground and also to try to reach the glacier. As we went higher, the air around us cooled rapidly. Before long, we were traversing patches of snow and were standing next to large chunks of ice. Since it was the middle of summer, there was also a lot of snow/ice melt, and numerous streams were flowing down from the glacier feeding into the lake. When we turned around to look back at the lakes, we were able to see all three lakes at once, even though the smoke from the forest fire was slightly impeding our visibility. Although the full hike was rated 9.4km out-and-back with 490m elevation gain, hiking all the way to the glacier made the hike to 12.7km out-and-back with 1200m elevation gain.

We got to the park early. There were plenty of spots and many cars were cars of campers parked here overnight.

Info board showing maps and stats of the trail.

First lake just a five minute walk away from the parking lot.

Smog/smoke from forest fires affecting visibility.

Stream flowing down next to the trail. I believe these originated from snow melt at the glacier, then the water went through third lake, down to second lake, then down to first lake.

Reaching second lake.

View at second lake.

Someone made a carving on a dead trunk/stump. This is a raven?

Waterfall just past the second lake.

Another stump carving. This one is a bear.

Reaching third lake.

View at third lake.

We saw many of these small streams flowing down the mountain from the glacier. The whole lake is fed by melted water from the glacier.

We continued up to try to reach the glacier. We looked back at the campground and third lake right next to a stream.

Reaching snow patches and ice chunks. The temperature dropped rapidly as we approached. One great thing about the temperature drop is that the mosquitos that were bothering us earlier were instantly gone.

More snow, more ice, in the middle of summer.

More water streams from glacier snow melt.

Panoramic view high up next to the ice.

Looking back at all three lakes all at once from high up. The smog/smoke is making it hard to see the first lake, but you can still make out its shape just beyond the trees.

Stats from the hike.

Check out my previous hikes: