James Walker Creek and Wild Flowers

A couple of weekends ago Tom, Breanna, and I hiked the James Walker Creek. This trail (green on the topo map) is just a canyon south of the Headwall Lake/Fortress/Chester Lake hike (blue) I posted back on July 4. It was 18.1 km round trip with 664 m elevation gain.

It was a bit hazy out for most of the day so some of the mountain shots aren't that spectacular. Here's looking back on the overgrown trail at Breanna as she fiddles with her camera (she only brought one this time). In retrospect the haze was probably from the fires around Kelowna.

It was hazy enough that there was a nice halo around the sun. The first tarn in the James Walker Creek valley:

We came across a number of cascades along the hike - most of mine didn't turn out very well, but here's a shot of Breanna making some attempts. Hopefully her's came out better!

One of the few waterfall shots that worked... had to do a bit of a panorama stitch to get it though!We stopped in a clearing at this waterfall for a group photo. Like the straw cowboy hat? I picked it up after stampede for $10 and figured I might as well wear it since it's a lot cooler than my oilskin hat... and it's hilarious!

After the brief photo op continued the trek up the debris slope...

View up the left fork of the canyon towards Mt. James Walker: Tom checking out the bedding dips:

View of a fold from an upper tarn. The moss was an amazing green here!The creek feeding this tarn was still edged in ice and Tom couldn't resist taking a few shots of it... kind of reminded us of summer in the arctic!Tom & Breanna's victory pose:

To go further up the valley we had to skirt the edge of the tarn by crossing some snow - fortunately it held up and nobody got wet... although Breanna thought it was a perfect time to toss snowballs.

A bit further up the valley we realized we had gone a fair bit further than the trail indicated, and since the "path" we were on was getting impassable due to sketchy snow across the creek, so we headed back down to check out the other canyon fork... Tom again leading the way on his make-shift toboggan...

Back down at the upper tarn... haze finally starting to lift to show some lovely blue sky.

Crossing James Walker Creek: The view from the forks down the valley: Tom couldn't resist having a brief nap in the moss... I was jealous.

I took a panorama in the right fork valley, which lead towards Mt. Inflexible (right edge of pan). We didn't go too far into this one because we were short on time and we could already see the end of the canyon from this point. If you look closely you can see Tom & Breanna.

Back at the lower tarn - the lake was beautifully still with a vivid blue sky so I couldn't resist snapping a few (okay, Breanna also demanded that I do this since she was using black & white film at this point).

... okay, on the botany lesson. On the Mt. Allan hike I was inspired by the beauty of the wildflowers so I picked up a wildflower book and decided to take the time to photograph some of the flowers we saw:

Okay... so this one isn't in my book, but it looks like it's part of the Aster family.

I think this one is Roseroot, a succulent that is supposed to have edible roots and leaves (although I think I need to get better with my I.D. before I eat it).This is a Prairie Crocus - they tend to be quite common on the hikes we've done, sometimes with a pretty purple hue.

These cute little flowers are Mountain Forget-Me-Nots.

This hike was the first time I noticed these pretty Alpine Lanterns.

Streamband Groundsel, part of the Aster family:

Scarlet Paintbrush, a relatively common flower on our hikes:

This was the first time we saw it in vibrant pink and purples though:

Okay... I don't know what this one is either - it doesn't look like any of the ones in my book. If somebody can identify it please let me know.

This one is Blue Clematis, aka Blue Virgin's Bower.

Mt. Allan

Last Sunday Tom & I decided to push our elevation gain by hiking Mt. Allan. Our guide book boasted this hike as having the biggest elevation gain in the Canadian Rockies with a supposed 1.7 km vertical combined with 14.4 km out & back. Our GPS pegged the hike at only 1.5 km vertical and 17.6 km hike. It was a bit of a slog to start with, the scenery not as nice as last weekend, but once we hit the sub-alpine zone the wild flowers were amazing! Still made for an excellent day.

The route:

The profile:

The trail started off on a nice wide trail, ironically called "Hidden Trail" despite it being incredibly obvious. The trees were fairly thick around the trail, blocking the wind. We were thinking we'd be running out of water before the trip was done, but thankfully once we got a bit higher out of the trees it cooled off to a perfect hiking temperature.

Unfortunately this was pretty much it for snow on this trek... just a dirty pile amongst the trees on the side of the trail.

This is the top of Mt. Olympus, a little bump really half way up to Mt. Allan.

Once we got up this ridge we got our first good view of Mt. Allan (other than from the highway). .. and this is where the hike started getting good.

Apparently this is where they do the weather measurements for the Kananaskis recreation area... There were two stations set up here, and a partial one on Mt. Allan.

... and also the top of the chair-lifts for the Nakiska ski resort.

Most of the hike was through Cretaceous conglomerates (I'm pretty sure they're equvalent to the same stuff I found dinosaur tracks in during my work field trip that I posted back on June 30). In this spot the conglomerates were all turned up on end forming this palisade wall and some of the rubble blocks had slickenslides.

From the top of Mt. Allan! Yay, victory!

Pan from the top:

There was a cement block on the very top with this survey marker:

We also found another little bit of interest up here... a small plaque stuck to a precarious rock (black rectangle on the rock to the far right of Tom).

Here's a close-up of the plaque. Tom & I thought this was a really awesome idea and hope we can have a similar memorial on our favourite hike some day (although we have to check out many more hikes so hopefully not any time soon!).

This is the view on the other side of Mt. Allan. If you want to turn this hike into a shuttle trip you can follow this trail down to the valley and head out to Hwy 1.

This is the gentle part of the ridgeline back towards the trailhead.

View of the ridge of conglomerate on the way back.

I stopped to take some pictures of the wild flowers on the way down. I don't know what they are but I think I'm inspired to head out to the bookstore to find out.