This hike begins with a short walk along an abandoned section of road, followed by a steep climb up an old trail restored several years ago by local horse riders with the co-operation of the BC Parks Branch. As soon as you leave the parking area you are entering Mount Robson Provincial Park. The chances of encountering a group of horse riders on any given hike is fairly low, but if you do, please give them plenty of room and remember that this trail exists solely because of the hard work of local riders.

The trail soon becomes less steep and then contours into Swift Current Creek Valley. About 3.3 km from the trailhead a long, winding boardwalk descends through a marshy area. Just beyond the end of the boardwalk, the horse trail enters Swift Current Creek's alluvial gravel flats and begins crossing and recrossing various creek channels (without bridges), as horse trails in the Rockies often tend to do. To avoid this while hiking, find a flagged and partially cut-out route branching off in an upstream direction near the creek bank at the foot of the boardwalk. This route continues up the valley through boggy areas, forests and brushy meadows with occasional sections on the gravel flats. The hiking route is not always easy to follow and the creek has cut into it here and there, so a little bushwhacking may be required. Eventually, after crossing a tributary stream that comes from a chain of ponds and marshes, you come out onto an area of the gravel flats which at this writing has very few active river channels on the east side where you are walking. At low-water times of the year, you can hike on the open flats from this point with fewer detours into forests and wet meadows.

If you wish to explore upstream along the whole length of the Swift Current Creek gravel flats, watch for flagging and evidence of trail cutting as the route ascends along the east side of the flats, entering and leaving patches of forest, brushy meadows and the flats themselves as required depending on which side of the flats the creek has decided to locate itself in any given year. If you decide to cross Swift Current Creek at any point, be aware that this stream comes partially from a large glacier which can melt vigorously on hot summer days, causing increased flow in the creek in late afternoon and evening.

Nestled between the east branch of the creek and a rocky cliff at the very end of the gravel flats, on the West side of the creek and inaccessible in high water, is a small cabin built originally by former residents of the area. BC Parks at one point put a steel roof on it but it is not routinely maintained. The cabin is difficult to access from either side of the creek. A vertical cliff currently drops straight into a turbulent section of the creek just downstream of the cabin, cutting off access to it unless you climb up into the forest behind the cliff and then descend a fixed rope to the cabin.

For the more adventurous, there are more gravel flats and a spectacular headwall further up the valley beyond the end of the main flats. Two sizeable ridges of Quartzite reach out from the East side of the valley all the way to the stream bank and must be scrambled over to access the upper valley and headwall. Each ridge is lowest (and theoretically easiest to climb over) adjacent to the mountainside on the East side of the valley. However, in the case of the first quartzite ridge, this low point has a lot of devil's club and other brush to get through while crossing over it. If all the prickly devil's club plants and underbrush become a bit much, you can escape these obstacles if you move West a little and ascend to a higher portion of the ridge until you are largely free of them (you'll have to head right back down again after you have crossed the quartzite ridge).

The second ridge has a strip of more or less open boulder fields that you can follow to cross the ridge at its lowest point (adjacent to the East side of the Swift Current Creek valley). The boulder fields create a usable hiking route if you are comfortable with doing some "boulder-hopping" and have the expertise to travel safely through this type of environment which is encountered quite often in the Rocky Mountains.

Except when crossing the two quartzite ridges, the easiest route up to the foot of the headwall is to generally stay quite close to Swift Current Creek. Proceed upstream through increasingly open streamside areas to the headwall where the creek cascades down from high above, tumbling over the harder layers and carving a deep slot where the rock is softer.

It is possible to visit the toe of the Swift Current Glacier (part of the Longstaff Icefield) and a sizeable lake on top of the headwall if water levels are not extremely high. Cross the creek at the foot of the headwall if safe to do so, and ascend a lightly timbered slope on the left side of the headwall. At the level of the top of the headwall, it is possible to hike back over to the creek, glacier & lake. At this writing the glacier is melting at a very rapid rate and you may find that it has retreated far up the valley.

Follow highway 5 north from Valemount to Tete Jaune Junction, then continue on Highway 16 east to Swift Current Creek, the first bridge on Highway 16 east of the junction at Tete Jaune. Just past (east of) the bridge, take Howard Road to the left. Continue to the end of the road where you can park and sign in at a BC Parks kiosk.

To the upper end of the main Swift Current Creek Flats & back should take a good hiker about 8 hours. Hiking to the headwall and back would make for a very long day.

It might be advisable to camp overnight at the head of the flats opposite the cabin and start out for the headwall in the morning. And if you plan to climb to the glacier above the headwall it might be a good idea to spend a second night at your camp on the way out, and hike out on day 3.