Yo Ho Ho! -- It's Yo Ho National Park

Yo Ho Ho! Hurray for Yoho - National Park!

Thurs Sept 10-Fri Sept 11: Though we began our stay at Yoho with another early night, listening to the rain on the roof of the van, the next morning was magic as the mist rose off the surrounding mountains and we saw what a stunning place we were in. Looking up we saw rugged mountains all around us, including Cathedral Peaks and also a glacier just above our very site!

At Yoho we first encountered the “bare campsite” policy. We were instructed by the ranger at the entry gate that we mustn’t leave any food or food containers out at our site if we weren’t there. In fact, it turned out that it was a recognized and punishable offense to do so, and if a ranger found anything of the sort at an unattended site, s/he could confiscate it.

The aim of this policy was to keep bears from finding the campsite a place where they could source food and thus become problematic. The rubbish bins were in bear-proof bunkers that bears (and I) couldn’t figure out how to open. Luckily I had the advantage of being able to read the instructions, thanks to my first grade teacher, Mrs. Kellett, who also sent me the first piece of mail I ever remember getting—a postcard from her home state of North Dakota, on which she wrote “How Kola. This means Hello Friend in the local Indian language.” I was 7. Yes, we carry our teachers with us, for good or ill, throughout our lives.

Takakkaw Falls

On our first new day at Yoho we went out the road to Takakkaw Falls (which means “magnificent” or “marvellous” in Cree). Anyway, you get the gist, and so it is that a phrase from 54 years ago is more firm in my memory than the very recent. Oh well.

We saw the falls from a distance, but got distracted into first taking a short hike from the hostel parking lot up to “Hidden Lakes”. The sign said it was .8 km to the trail junction, and then it turned out that it was another .4 km to the lakes. Nowhere did it say that the trail was nearly vertical! But we persisted, lured on by the promise of hidden beauty. The beauty was indeed hidden, as were the lakes!!! I guess there are some costs to hiking in the autumn, when water levels have receded.

One benefit of the little hike, though, was the two women we met on the trail, who told us about PIT, Projects in Time. Google it if you’re interested. These are opportunities to do voluntary work on archeology and restoration projects. You get accommodation and sometimes food as well. They had met at a project the previous year, restoring a historic ranch in Montana, and loved it so much they were headed out again, this time to be gathering artifacts at Spirit Lake in Idaho.

We did eventually hobble down the path to the big waterfall, later in the day, and they were indeed “takakkaw”.

Field

Field is the tiny township adjacent to Yoho, where we went looking for a post office and some icecream. That’s where we ran into Monty and Annette, some very friendly older New Zealanders from the North Island, who were spending 2 months looking after a guesthouse.

They were looking forward to a visit from their daughter and son-in-law who were arriving soon from a teaching post in Brunei, which they’d done after working a few years in China. Isn’t it amazing how people get around!
And how wherever you go you run into surprising folks.

But wait, there’s more. At the well-populated picnic ground at Emerald Lake the next day, we asked to share a table for morning tea with another couple who, it turned out, were from Australia. Not just Australia but from Sydney, in fact from Coogee, from Arden Street, from exactly the house next door to Phil’s father!

Natural Bridge

We arrived at Natural Bridge at the same time as a busload of senior tourists, so we all scurried down the path and across the manmade bridge to look up the river and take pictures of the bridge the river made itself. I couldn't help wonder how many zillions of nearly identical pictures get taken at such sites! But we only ever see the one we take home, so it's unique to us and our friends.

Emerald Lake

Emerald Lake had the beautiful coloration that lakes and rivers do when they’re glacier-fed and thus mineral-rich. We took the walk all around the rim of the lake, reading the plentiful and instructive signs, and seeing how the vegetation on the eastern shore (usually in the shadow of the mountain range) was much damper and denser than that on the west side of the lake.

The Emerald Lake Resort was very inviting, but well beyond our means. It also had an excellent restaurant, specializing in meals of game.

We had noticed large patches of maroon trees on the mountainsides as we drove toward Yoho, so we enquired about this of the volunteer park host who came around in the morning to make us welcome. He enlightened us about the Mountain Pine Beetle. This beetle isn't new, but 80-90% of its larvae used to die off in the very cold winters. Since the winters haven't been so cold lately, only about 10% of the larvae have been dying off, so there's been a terrible infestation of Mountain Pine Beetles, which have killed off millions of hectares of pine trees, badly affecting the forestry industry in Canada. The first year the beetles are in the tree, it's green. The second year it's maroon because it has died, and later it's grey because all the needles have fallen off.

---

---