We had been intent on hiking to Helen Lake for the past three years and finally got to it on this trip. This is a popular hike but the vast majority of people stop when they reach the lake. The views are much better 1 km on when you gain the ridge. Even better would be the trek up to the top of Cirque Peak, but we decided to leave that for another time as the weather was dicey and we were too lazy, as it is an additional 1600 feet of elevation gain. This is a fairly spectacular area but it was windy and cold up on the ridge so we donned our down jackets, gloves and toques and sat out of the wind to have our lunch. We thought for sure that we were going to get rain as the clouds kept on coming through but we were lucky and the rain went south of us.
It was really cold at night and our last night was very cold and damp. We had enough tenting by this time but would have loved to hike for another week. Just when we get into hiking shape, it is time to go home. We drove back to Calgary and spent the night and then we drove home on Saturday.
Please click on any image to enlarge.
On top of the ridge above Helen Lake
Helen Lake looking back from the ridge
Katherine Lake looking forward from the ridge
Meadows in full flower
Cirque Peak
Crowfoot Mountain and Glacier, with Bow Lake
No comments:
Post a Comment