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Published: July 31st 2011
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We spent a week in the Rocky Mountains after the Calgary Stampede, sometime from about the 18th (?) July – Banff, Yoho and Jasper sections. After exploring the townsite of Banff (including all 4 or 5 fudge/candy stores!), skulking around the Banff Springs Hotel, checking out the Bow River Falls and the Hoodoos, we headed for the Bow Valley Parkway. Here we spotted our first elk of the journey.... as the heavens opened up and thoroughly started soaking us!
The rain was relentless for the next day or so. We checked out Johnson Canyon and all the interpretive signs along the parkway (surely taking photos of these counts as business research so I can claim parks entry fees on tax right?). We fought RV’s galore for a site at the Lake Louise campground, then headed up the hill to check out the lake in the rain! A short jaunt inside the chateau and staff lodgings to show Brad my old hang out... complete with monster cookies and chocolate covered banana bread – ahhh a trip down memory lane. Up to Moraine Lake we were the only visitors so late on a rainy evening. The skies cleared and the Valley of
Ten Peaks was revealed – great timing to see this beauty spot!
The skies stayed clear the next day long enough for us to hike the Plain of Six Glaciers trail, which affords magnificent views over Lake Louise and up to glaciers on Mt Lefroy and Mt Victoria. Everywhere as we have travelled in Canada, everyone comments on the ‘lateness’ of summer due to a very wet, cold spring. Lucky for us, there were TONNES of wildflowers out beside the track, including ‘shooting stars’. After a spot of lunch with a view of the Arthurs Pass ACC Hut, it promptly began to snow (this is summer in the rockies!), so we tramped back down the trail and took a highline trail to Lake Agnes under the big beehive. After dinner we were headed back to our free campsite for the night (Lake Louise carpark – hey why not?) when we saw a MOOSE and calf on the side of the road! Brilliantly we watched them for 10 minutes or so before Parks Canada came and broke up the party. Funny enough, the moose was at the same spot that I saw a moose in 2004 after buying my plane
ticket home (I swore I would not leave Canada before I saw a moose, so it was a fitting moment in 2004).
Another rainy day and we headed toward Yoho National Park, stopping in at the info centre to see if we could get cancellation spots onto the day bus into Lake O’Hara. Lake O’Hara had been rumoured to me to be the most magnificent spot in the Rokcies... if you can get in. To protect this lovely spot, Parks Canada have closed the road into the lake, you can walk in if your keen enough, otherwise visitor numbers are capped to 40 day visitors bussed in, lodge guests and 30 campsite visitors. You need to book 3 months in advance to get a spot! Lucky (again) for us, they had a number of cancellations in the campground over the weekend when the weather was forecasted to be clear; when we said we didn’t have a tent (our tent fits Brad on a diagonal without me!) or warm sleeping bags the response was ‘Sure! No problem, we’ll lend you our loaner tent and 2 brand new sleeping bags’. Canadian hospitality, eh?
We spent two quick days taking in
Yoho including Emerald Lake and Takkakaw Falls, then the Icefields Parkway. Bow Summit/Lake Peyto at 7pm proved to be fantastic, barely another soul and amazing displays of wildflowers... not to mention the gorgeous view up the valley from glacier, to lake and beyond! We met some very keen cyclists in the campground cooking shelter, one doing a trip to Jasper, one coming from Jasper to San Fransisco, others from Oregon to Alaska – inspiring! Waterfalls, glaciers and black bears and mountains.
The morning we headed into Lake O’Hara we were panicking about making the 8.30am bus, wondering if we should be on mountain or pacific time?! Perhaps it was they 1°C temperature freezing our brains! There are simply no words to describe the absolutely beauty of the Lake O’Hara valley, it was absolutely breathtaking. We hiked the Lake O’Hara, Lake Oesa, Yukness Ledges (the highest point we’ve hiked so far) to Lake Opabin, Mary Lake back to Lake O’Hara circuit. Stunning clear blue glacial fed lakes, some still with ice, surrounded by enormous mountains and best of all, clear blue skies, the best day they’d had in weeks. Back at the campground we exchanged hiking routes and travel stories
with other campers until it was time to head to the Le Relais lodge for a talk on the ecology of bumblebees by Dr Roger Cartar from University of Calgary. What better way to top off a perfect day than a healthy hymenoptera conversation! The following day we hiked to Lake Mac Arthur, then caught the bus out and headed on our merry way. Huge thanks to Loraine from Parks Canada (she so sweetly talked us into the camping idea and organised the tent) and Chad from Banff, who loaned us a back-up tent, just in case the PC tent didn’t make it through the mudslide from Field.
Soundtrack to the Rockies? Sunnie Coast sensations OKA. Will load some photos in time. From the Rockies, we made our way onto the Prairies....
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bree and rebecca
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Rosa acicularis !!!
truly beautiful - we read the coyote eat the hips.