Hiking in Yoho: Day 3 (Heading home)

On Sunday we woke up to a third chilly morning. We were still cold after breakfast, even with multiple layers of clothes on (the sun was taking it's sweet time to creep over the rim of the valley and the clouds weren't helping either), so we decided to hike up to Twin Falls again to warm up and catch the light hitting the Falls better.

To be fair I had to let Tom take a funny pic of me too... A couple shots of Twin Falls... not as twin looking in the morning since the cold kind of put a damper on the amount of melting:

On our way out from the little lookout trail we passed the Twin Falls Chalet. Apparently you can have lunch and tea here, and if you book ahead of time stay in this comfy lodge instead of in a tent on the ground.

After we got back to camp, all toasty at that point, we broke down the tent and packed up our stuff for the hike out. We paused again at Laughing Falls...

Tom had to clamber along this slippery log to get to and back from the rock in the above shot... that's my monkey man!

... more trail shots on the way out

This was the lookout at Lace Falls - Tom is strategically placed to block other people viewing the falls.

From there we stopped off at the Angel's Staircase Falls, although they weren't looking too impressive this early on a chilly day.

There was a brief glimpse of sun so we sat down on the river's edge for lunch. The sun soon disappeared though and the spot became a bit too cold to hang around long so we cut it short and hit the trail again...

Still no sun as we got back to Takkakaw Falls... but the car was warm!

The sun came out again and it warmed up on the drive back to Hwy 1... we stopped off at this lookout to see the Spiral Tunnel and finish our lunch in the sun.

It was impossible to see where the track and tunnel was at first but we were lucky enough to be there long enough for a train to come by so we could see it on two levels.

From here we just headed back to Calgary, got in around dinner time and picked up our pups from their fun weekend hanging out with our friends and their pup. Needless to say, excellent weekend! (especially since we did find the GPS at the end!)

Hiking in Yoho: Day 2 (Twin Falls and the Whaleback)

We woke up Saturday to another pretty chilly morning... good thing for hot oatmeal, many many layers of clothing, and a warm car ride to the trailhead! While Tom was cooking breakfast (and adding some zip to his coffee) I snapped a few shots of our "restful" camp-site in Lake Louise.

This was our site... surrounded by many other tents...

And backing onto the road that looped the camp-site. In the background you can see a yellow line that marks the top of the electric fence that encircled the tent/tent-trailer portion of the campground to keep bears out... and through the night you could hear the sound of trains and road traffic. VERY restful...

For this part of the hike we started from the same parking lot as the Burgess Shale hike at Takkakaw Falls but headed north along the river instead. Since we got back in rain the night before our stuff just got tossed into the back of the car, which led to us misplacing our GPS (we found it when we unpacked at home but there are unfortunately no tracks for this part of the hike... although if I get ambitious I'll scan the map).

Most of the initial hike to our camp-site at Twin Falls was along very easy trails, with only a small section of only slightly less smooth track (kind of nice with full packs on and after having already done one day of hiking).

Part way along the hike we dropped our packs to explore some lookouts along the river =o)

Resuming the hike:The bridge to Laughing Falls (another of the back-country campsites). Laughing Falls: The slightly more rugged trail leading onward to Twin Falls:

This part of the river was pretty neat because there were a lot of these bowls carved out along-side the river where it was under-cutting the rock.

Our camp-site at Twin Falls! There were only a hand-full of tents around, and instead of traffic we got the pleasant sound of rapids! We stopped here long enough to pitch our tent and enjoy lunch in the sun by the side of the river...

After lunch we decided to tack on another 10 km or so loop that took us up to Twin Falls proper, across the boulder field that bordered Marpole Lake and a cliff-face, then up over the Whaleback to the very top of Twin Falls and then back down to camp for dinner! We decided to leave our packs here and just took a light bag with some water and a snack for this part.

Twin Falls at a fairly peak flow (late on a warm day = lots of glacial run-off!):

Pan from the bridge that crosses the river leading from Twin Falls to Marpole Lake. Twin Falls is on the extreme left.

Marpole Lake:

The trail through the boulder field... mostly well marked, but easy to lose if you're not paying attention!

Once we got off the Marpole Loop intersection we had to make a decision whether to back-track, head up over the Whaleback, or to head down to Laughing Falls and then retrace our steps to camp. We were a bit concerned about the time and getting back before dark because we were getting conflicting distance estimates. At one point we met a lady coming of the Whaleback and we asked her how long it had taken her from Twin Falls... she said 5 hours! ... after a bit more discussion we realized that she had gotten the falls confused and the 5 hours had been from the start back at Takkakaw Falls so we forged on ahead over the Whaleback.

We had an excellent view of the mountains across the valley and the big moraines along the edge of the remnant glaciers:

At the top of the Whaleback there was this marker: I don't think we had anything to worry about during our hike though... A few pans from the Whaleback... unfortunately the sun didn't completely cooperate so the pictures are a bit patchy for light.

The trail down, leading towards Twin Falls. There was still snow packed around parts of the river where it would have been shaded for much of the day.

The top of Twin Falls:

From here the trail wound down the cliff in a series of switchbacks... a bit longer than we had expected, but that was probably because we were getting tired and hungry! Still made it back in time to have enough light for dinner (mmm... chili and cheese bannock), and then off to bed for a good night's sleep!

Hiking in Yoho: Day 1 (Burgess Shale)

Last weekend was a long one for me so Tom and I went hiking in Yoho National Park, B.C. It all started when a friend of mine from work decided to organize a trip to the Burgess Shale, but we decided to tack on an extra night there. We drove out to Lake Louise on Thursday night (stayed in the campground there Thurs & Fri nights), hiked the Burgess Shale on Friday, then backpacked into Yoho on Saturday and out on Sunday.

The hike started from Takkakaw Falls, North America's second highest waterfall. The hike was something like 24.7 km and an elevation gain of 740 m (I have a track and profile that I'll add later).

The morning was quite cool (about 5 C or less...) but we warmed up fairly quickly heading up this slope, although since it was a guided hike there were many stops so the whole thing was fairly leisurely. Lake Yoho:

Beyond Yoho Lake we entered Yoho pass where we saw this sign warning people they aren't allowed in the Burgess Shale quarry unless they have a guide with them (although everyone is allowed to hike along the trail that goes past it, just not the turn-off up to the quarry).

Panorama of the area... The falls to the right are Hamilton Falls on Hamilton Mountain (Emerald glacier on top and behind that mountain), and you can just see the tip of Emerald Lake in the centre.

Pan of Emerald Lake:

We stopped for lunch at what must have been a popular lunch spot because the chipmunks were obviously used to people - here's one munching up some crumbs that Tom had dropped from his lunch:

Probably a common shot for people hiking here... this is the turn-off to the Burgess Shale quarry... although the quarry isn't up at this mountain, just around the far right of photo.

The quarry! The guides have a bunch of representative fossils they keep in the green cabinet so they can whip them out to show people... of course the fun part is sifting through the scree to find your own (not that you get to keep them). Unfortunately we didn't get to spend too much time here because the hike was kind of leisurely and then we had to get back for a specific dinner reservation that Tom and I ended up missing anyway.

Of course we saw some neat fossils, some of which would definitely not been obvious to me me so I'm just showing a few that actually look like something people might recognize... like this trilobite!This is the jaw of the critter shown to the left... the name of which is completely escaping me at the moment (starts with an O anyone?)... I'll update this once I remember.

This is a crab-like critter named Waptia:

Marella, the lace crab: The group, mostly consisting of co-workers, co-worker spouses, and a couple friends of co-workers:

From here we got to descend at our own pace (Tom and I were in the lead and didn't really see many people from the time we left the switchback out of the quarry until we got to the parking lot). When we were about 15-20 minutes from the parking lot it started to pour, but after a bit of debate since the car was so close we pulled out our rain gear (not wanting to have to dry stuff in a tent).