Sherbrooke Lake, in Yoho National Park, is an excellent hike for a hot day. For a long part, the trail winds through the shade of the forest. It’s only really when you almost reach the shoreline at the front of the lake that the trail begins to open up.

Getting out of the forest and the trail levels off

The trailhead is at the Wapta Lake Picnic Area just down from the Great Divide Lodge at Wapta Lake (the turning for the picnic area is very easy to miss!

A board walk leads part of the way to the lakeshore

Another good point about this hike is that the majority of the elevation gain is done at the start of it (it’s only about 170 metres elevation gain in total). And this is done in the shade of the forest.

Reaching the shoreline at the front of the lake

Patches of snow remaining on avalanche slope areas at the far side of the lake

At the edge of the water

A couple of waterfalls on the far side of the lake (not the ones I went to)

Looking back whilst on the unmaintained trail to the back of the lake

The trail is maintained as far as the front of the lake, however there is an unmaintained trail along the shoreline of the lake which goes pretty much as far as you like! I went to the waterfalls at the back of the lake as I didn’t have the time to go any further. The weather was so hot the day I did the hike I was so tempted to go for a swim!

The far end of the lake looking back

The waterfalls at the back of the lake

In all the return distance from the trailhead to the end of the maintained trail at the front of the lake is approximately 6.3km (roughly 4 miles) with an elevation gain of around 170 metres (560 feet). If you carry on along the shoreline you will need to be prepared for travelling on an unmaintained trail as it was very muddy in patches and in some places a little overgrown.

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