Falls of the Pool

Falls of the Pool is located along the Berg Lake trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park. From the junction of Highways 5 and 16 in Tete Jaune Cache, follow the Yellowhead Highway (16) east for 16.3 kilometers to Mount Robson Meadows and turn left onto Kinney Lake Road, then follow it to the trailhead at its end in another 2 kilometers. Expect to encounter a crowded parking area, the Berg Lake Trail is the most popular hike in the Canadian Rockies. The viewpoint for Falls of the Pool is encountered at the 13.4 kilometer mark. The first half of the hike to Kinney Lake is relatively flat and easy, but after the second crossing of the Robson River at Kinney Flat it gets more difficult, and after the fourth bridge at White Falls the grade increases considerably. Day hiking to the falls is possible, but camping at one of the backcountry campgrounds in the area is the recommended course of action for those wishing to proceed past White Falls.Falls of the Pool is the second of the major waterfalls along the Robson River as it descends down the aptly (though obviously hyperbole) named Valley of a Thousand Falls in Mount Robson Provincial Park. The falls are made up of two distinct tiers, first a sheer plunge of 141 feet which drops into the small cerulean pool for which the falls are seemingly named, and then immediately cascading another 35 feet from the pool into the depths of the canyon out of sight from the trailside viewpoint. Because it's not possible to see the bottom of the falls from the viewpoint due to the depth of the canyon, the measurement we obtained may not be 100% accurate, but we feel it's fairly close. The geology which is responsible for the formation of Falls of the Pool is perhaps more interesting than the waterfall itself. The Robson River had long in the past carved out a deep canyon in the hillside which runs from near the base of Emperor Falls all the way down to the top of White Falls abut 1.2 kilometers further downstream. The bedrock at the base of Emperor Falls however seems to have proven to be weak enough that the water eventually carved enough of a depression which allowed the river to divert away from the canyon and flow parallel to the length of the canyon in a shallow trough, in some places just meters away from the edge of the cliff. The river follows this trough for about 8/10 of a kilometer until it was able to breach the edge of the canyon, where it now plunges back into the canyon proper as Falls of the Pool. Should the height of land at the base of Emperor Falls ever erode or cleave away, the river may ultimately re-occupy the canyon and cause Falls of the Pool to case to exist. We have been unable to find stream flow data for the Robson River, so our estimated volume for this waterfall is purely a guess based on visual comparisons to other rivers which we have a better grasp on flow rates for. Given that at this point in its length the Robson is fed by three very large glaciers, the volume of the falls should be assumed to be consistent and heavy for the entire season in which it's accessible.The name Falls of the Pool as been attached to this waterfall for as long as we've been able to determine. However we've recently found old photographs which date back to at least 1914 which label the falls as Moose Falls, so this suggests that the name Falls of the Pool may not have been adopted at that time.