Helen Lake

July 23, 2015

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

Bow Lookout

July 22, 2015

The weather was unsettled so we took off fairly late to do a short hike up an old fire service road to a lookout over Bow Lake.  The beginning of the walk is another tourist attraction with a paved path to a viewpoint of Peyto Lake.  One tourist described the colour of Peyto Lake as that of a mint milkshake.  After the viewpoint, another paved path, which is part of an interpretive loop, takes you to the old road.  The tourists essentially vanish at this point and we had the road to ourselves.  Once we were at the end of the trail, a few people came up but it started to pour rain so we headed back down.  This was not a stellar walk, but good for a rainy day and good short hike to allow our legs to recover from yesterday's 22 km hike.

Peyto Lake from viewpoint

Bow Lake from lookout

Rain on its way

Molar Pass

July 21, 2015

The trail head for the hike to Molar Pass is directly across the highway from the Mosquito Creek campground, so it was very handy to just pop across the highway to begin the hike.  This was our longest hike at 22km and it was glorious.  Very few people hike to Molar Pass so we had the whole place to ourselves until we were coming back through the pass, where we met two other people who happily mentioned that they did not encounter any other hikers.  Later on we met a few more late hikers while we were hiking down.

The scenery is stunning once you gain the ridge and view the expanse of meadows and wonderful mountains.  We sat in the warm sunshine on a rock out of the wind and had our lunch.  Then we wandered through the meadows on a small trail until we decided to head back as it was a long hike.

Molar Pass was our favourite hike this year as the trail generally follows the creek, which you must cross numerous times.  The walk through forest is really pleasant and after a short boggy section, one emerges from the forest and the views open up, especially after getting up onto the pass.  The meadows, which were in full flower, are serene and the nearby mountains are very scenic.

Mosquito Creek

From the top of Molar Pass, looking back

After crossing these meadows

Molar Mountain from beyond Molar Pass

Plain of the Six Glaciers - Lake Louise

July 20, 2015

As our hiking guide book states, to many tourists, Lake Louise IS the Canadian Rockies.  This is borne out by the absolute masses of meandering tourists from all over the world who visit Lake Louise.  It had been years since we visited Lake Louise and the reams of visitors have resulted in the construction of three levels of parking near the lake.  It is a bit of a trial to escape the throngs as you must navigate through them on the lakeside paved pathway.  One tourist asked us to take her photo as she posed along the lakeshore.  After a while, the numbers thin out and it gets better.  However, there is a tea house en route to the Plain of the Six Glaciers and the trail is busy with hiking groups and horses and whatnot.  After the tea house, which we did not actually see as it is back in the trees, the numbers dwindle and the hiking is pleasant to the trail’s end.

We sat on a rock up the scree slope and had our lunch while taking in the tremendous views of mountains and glaciers.  We chatted to a guy from Australia who was visiting his daughter who is in Canada on a work visa.

Lake Louise

Mt. Lefroy on left, Abbot's Pass, Victoria Glacier is top right 

Abbot Hut atop the pass

Local critter (Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel)

Looking back down to Lake Louise

Fireweed

Lake Louise with Chateau Lake Louise resort at far end of lake

Canadian Rockies: Banff National Park

July 19, 2015

This was our third annual journey to the Rockies for a bit of hiking.  As usual, we drove to Calgary and spent the night prior to driving to our camping area the next day.  We chose Mosquito Creek, which is approximately 27 km north of Lake Louise, on the Icefields Parkway.  Mosquito Creek is more of a transient campground with many trailers and such coming in the evening for a one night stay before moving on.  The campground was full every evening and many had to drive on to find a site somewhere else.  There were only a few of us there for a longer period.  Mosquito Creek is a very good campground with a lot of nicely treed sites with a lot of space between them.  For the most part, the place was quiet, with the exception of some traffic noise from the highway and a group of loud young men on our last night, who slammed car doors and bellowed until the early hours.

The Rockies are quite a draw for international visitors.  We encountered a lot of Germans, Dutch, Americans and some Swiss and locals, of course.  The Americans tend to be the most friendly and happily gush about the splendour of the Canadian Rockies.  The majority of people rent motorhomes and seem to spend a lot of time inside of them rather than out.  And we think we have a lot of gear packed into our small car, but then we are continually astonished at the monstrous motorhomes and trailers that pass through.

Bow Glacier Falls

By the time we got our tent set up on Sunday, we didn’t have much time for a long hike so we went on a short hike to Bow Falls, just up the highway.  The national parks are loaded with tourists who meander along at a snail’s pace.  We had to spring past them for only a short distance as they generally do not go very far before returning to their tourist buses.  The walk to Bow Falls is very short and very easy, we found a nice rock to sit on near the falls and had our lunch before returning to our campsite for dinner.  Please feel free to click on the pictures to enlarge....

Bow Lake with the falls and Bow Glacier in the distance