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July 25, 2014

We got up and packed up our camping gear so we could catch the first bus out at 9:30.  We spent the night in Calgary before driving home the next day.  East of Swift Current, a poor mom duck and her little ones were trapped in the middle of the highway, unable to cross.  She was sitting right down on the middle line with her ducklings sitting as well.  We watched cars swerve past them in our rear view mirror.  Unfortunately she was crossing too close to Swift Current before the traffic tends to spread out, we hope she made it across.

This was such a great hiking trip with amazing mountain views.  The Iceline is incredible and the Lake O’Hara region is the most beautiful place we have ever been.

We walk the prairie a lot and have become so accustomed to the sky, we don't really appreciate it.  After spending some time in the mountains, which we truly love, we really took note of the prairie sky on the drive home, beautiful.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

The Prairies:  all about the sky

Opabin Plateau and Opabin Lake

July 24, 2014

It was cloudy and drizzly so we put on our rain gear and took the East Opabin trail to the Opabin Plateau and Opabin Lake.  The rain held off during the hike but we needed toques and gloves.  On the return we took the trail to Opabin Prospect which affords nice views over Lake Mary and Lake O’Hara.  We then descended the West Opabin trail and ended up back at Lake O’Hara.  This was an easy meandering hike through lovely meadows with small lakes.

It was really cold again so we ducked into one of the shelters late in the evening to warm up, this was just the thing we needed as it took the chill off.  We chatted with other hikers then headed to our tent.  As usual, click on the pictures to enlarge....

Trail to Opabin Lake

Opabin Lake

Opabin Plateau, green oasis in rock

View of Mary Lake and Lake O'Hara from Opabin Prospect

Lake O'Hara from West Opabin Trail

Lake McArthur

July 23, 2014

The sun was shining today so we took off for Lake McArthur.  We took the trail past Schaffer Lake, then opted for the high route to Lake McArthur.  This is a very good approach, as you walk up a small knoll, this stunning lake is revealed, the view made us gasp.  The water was completely still, the mountains reflected perfectly in the lake.  We had lunch on the rocks above the lake, soaking up some warm sunshine while marvelling at the views.

On the return, we took the low route and then headed down the Big Larches trail.  This trail offered some superb views of the Huber Ledges and Wiwaxy Gap.

It rained in the night and there was terrific thunder which echoed in the mountains.  It was really cold and we woke up to snow on the ground.  Of course, I left our fleece jackets hanging in the closet at home so we had to make due with a hiking shirt and a mid-weight layer under our rain jackets.  The smart people were wearing down jackets.

Schaffer Lake

First glimpse of the gorgeous Lake McArthur

Too much reflection, shooting directly into the sun

Water was very still

Schaffer Lake

View to trail up to Wiwaxy Gap from Big Larches trail

View to Huber Ledges from Big Larches trail

We were thrilled to see the loon on Lake O'Hara

Lake O’Hara

July 22, 2014

It takes pre-planning to get into Lake O’Hara as Parks Canada restricts the number of visitors.  You have to call the office in Field three months in advance to the day you want to go to Lake O’Hara.  The phone lines are jammed, last year, by the time I got through, no space was available.  This year, I decided I would hit re-dial for an hour, luckily I got through in 45 minutes and was able to book a ride on the bus and three nights camping.  I booked the 8:30 a.m. bus so we had to get our gear packed, hauled out to the car and drive to the Lake O’Hara parking lot, thus we got up at 6:00 a.m. to get underway.  It was really damp at Takakkaw so our tent and everything else were soaked.

When we got to the bus stop there were a lot of day hikers who had not booked a seat, they were hoping for no-shows so they could claim a seat on the bus.  Unfortunately, everybody showed up so the day hikers were out of luck but they had the option of hiking the 11 km road in and could get a bus back out at the end of the day.

Parks Canada uses a couple of school buses to take day hikers and campers into Lake O’Hara.  There were only two other people on the camping bus besides us.  When we got to the campsite, we dropped our gear, picked a site and then set up our tent.

We needed to let the tent dry out before we could set up our mattress so we headed to the communal cooking area to make tea.  You are not allowed to eat or cook in the tenting area so there are bear-proof food lockers, picnic tables and cooking shelters in the communal area.  The communal cooking area is great as it provides ample opportunity to meet people and chat.  We met many wonderful people at O’Hara and had fantastic conversation.

After tea, we set up our mattress and sleeping bags and then took off on foot down the road to Lake O’Hara, the camping area is about a km from the lake.  The lake is stunningly beautiful.  We walked the trail around part of the lake to the trailhead to Wiwaxy Gap.  Then we started the relentless climb to Wiwaxy, it was brutal.  Luckily the Iceline did not completely trash our legs as I had anticipated, so we were able to trudge up to Wiwaxy Gap.  The views from the gap are spectacular.

The clouds rolled in as we reached the gap and there was a cool wind so we sat on the rocks on the backside, out of the wind, and ate some of our lunch.  We put on our jackets and headed for the trail across the Huber ledges.  This is a great trail, you wonder how on earth anybody picked out a trail across the ledges, for when you look at the Huber ledges from the bottom or from across the way, you cannot imagine it is possible to traverse them.

The trail ends up at the gorgeous Lake Oesa.  We relaxed on the rocks at Lake Oesa and ate the remainder of our lunch.  I really wanted to hike the Yukeness Ledges, but we decided to head back to camp as it was threatening rain and we were fairly bagged after hiking the Iceline the previous day.  I had hoped to hike the ledges in the next few days but we never got the opportunity, so we should have hiked the Yukeness ledges right away.

Lake O'Hara

Lake O'Hara from Wiwaxy Gap trail

Trail looks freaky but it isn't

Looking toward Lake Oesa

Lake O'Hara from higher up Wiwaxy trail

Other side of Wiwaxy Gap

Trail to Lake Oesa across Huber Ledges

Looking back at the Wiwaxy Gap

Lake O'Hara from Huber Ledges

Yukeness Ledges

Lakes in the hanging valley beneath

View back across Huber Ledges, what an excellent trail

Lake Oesa

Beautiful mountains and rock, this place is amazing

Lake Oesa

Hiking down to Lake O'Hara

View up to Wiwaxy Gap, steep hike up there

Iceline trail

July 21, 2014

It was really cloudy and it rained a little so we dithered about what to do.  At noon we decided to hike the Iceline trail.  Rather than taking the usual route from the trailhead at the Whiskey Jack Hostel, we opted to take the Yoho Valley trail, then intersect with the Iceline up top.  This route tacked on an additional 4.5 km but was a less steep ascent.

After what seemed like forever, we finally emerged from the trees and were surrounded by stunning views of mountains and glaciers.  We connected to the Iceline trail at the top and proceeded to the high point which was another .7 km.  We had the whole place to ourselves as it was late in the afternoon, around 4:00 p.m. we stopped for lunch.

The clouds continued to roll through and it was cool so we had to put on our toques and gloves.  After a short lunch break we headed down the Iceline, marvelling at the peaks, the Emerald glacier and the moraine.  The hike was ~19 km and took us about seven hours.

Yoho River, interesting milky white colour

Small lake en route

Lake Celeste

Expansive views at the top

Emerald Glacier

Glacial Moraine

Takakkaw Falls

The green in the Rockies is vibrant this time of year

Daly Glacier which feeds Takakkaw Falls

The Trans-Canada Highway is way down there

Takakkaw Falls from above

Yoho Valley

Canadian Rockies: Yoho National Park

July 20, 2014

We stayed in Calgary the previous night and drove to the Takakkaw Falls campsite in Yoho National Park in the morning.  The camping area is a walk-in only, but Parks Canada provides really good two-wheeled carts to transport camping gear.  We parked in the busy and huge parking lot, the Takakkaw Falls is a major tourist attraction in the Rockies.  After checking out the entire camping area we picked a site, self-registered and then brought in our gear in one of the carts.  The camping area was not very busy so we had a lot of sites to choose from, we chose a site that had a great view of the falls.  There is a constant roar from the falls which muffles the noise of fellow campers.  Takakkaw Falls campsite is very good, it is well maintained and the tenting sites are within the trees.

As it was our first hike of the season, we selected a relatively easy hike to Emerald Basin.  The hike begins at the beautiful Emerald Lake.  The tourist hordes were there in force, but once we hiked past the lake, we did not meet many other people.  We were inhaling that incredible alpine scent as we walked through the Douglas Fir and cedar forest.  When we reached the basin, a natural amphitheatre hemmed in by mountains, we had lunch on the rocks with a few marmots standing by.  The hike only took about three hours round trip and was a really good hike for our first day in the Rockies.

Click on the pictures to enlarge....

Takakkaw Falls

Emerald Lake

Emerald Basin

Marmot

Our Campsite