Day 8 – More Lake O’Hara

Posted on August 23, 2018 by Dave Hodson

Today we’re heading back to Lake O’Hara. Unfortunately, the skies are starting to get smoky again, so it’s a good thing we did an alpine hike yesterday when the views weren’t too bad.

Arriving at the Lake O’Hara parking lot, we got checked in for our bus ride up to the lake.

We decided to do a lower elevation hike where the lack of clear skies would be less of a problem. Therefore, the plan was to head out to Schaffer Lake. Our plan was to head up one trail and back via another, so we could see as much as possible.

Below is our route map. We thought we’d start by heading out toward the West Opabin Trail, and go as far as Mary Lake for a quick look. We would then backtrack a short ways, and pick up the Big Larches Route to Schaffer Lake, where we would stop for lunch. On our return, we would take the Alpine Meadow Trail, which takes us out behind the Elizabeth Parker Hut and then to Le Relais.

The trail started out through the forest toward Mary Lake.

We followed this giant Raven up the trail for a while. He bounced along the trail, seemingly unconcerned about our presence behind him.

Arriving at Mary Lake, it became clear that the skies are smoky today, and that the smoke just seems to be stuck in this area, perhaps contained by all the large mountains around us.

We headed up the Big Larches Trail, which mostly hugs the edge of the forest, but remaining in the open, heading up a slope of large rock. It has also be come very evident where this trail gets its name. This trail is just filled with Alpine Larch trees. I expect this will become much more beautiful in another month when they start to turn a golden yellow.

Here we are all gazing back at the view behind and below us. I can see this would be quite beautiful on a clear day.

A little over 3 km into our hike, and we came across this massive Alpine Larch tree, far larger than the others in the area.

At close to 4 km into our hike, we arrived at Schaffer Lake.

We found a nice spot to sit down and break out our lunch. After a nice rest and a bit of bird watching, we headed back toward Lake O’Hara. I suppose we could have pushed on to Lake McArthur, but with the skies all socked in with smoke, it made more sense to just head back.

The Alpine Meadow Trail back, is also as the name suggests. It was often in the forest, but with nice clearings of wildflowers.

Arriving back at Le Relais shelter around 1:15, we relaxed and waited for the 2:30 bus out.

As we waited for the bus, a rather large family of about a dozen people came by to wait. As it turns out, they didn’t have bus tickets and had walked in. Basically, they hiked the 11 km up the fire road, and then did a quick loop around the Lake O’Hara Lakeshore Trail. I couldn’t help but think what an awful waste of time and energy that must have been. To spend hours hiking up a very boring dirt road, only to do a quick look around, and then try for a spot on an outgoing bus. I’ll never understand why they did it, but to each their own, I suppose.

Below are some satellite images made from our GPS tracks recorded during the hike.

For those of you who would like them, I’ve uploaded our GPS track files here for download.

Here are the tracks on a flat topographic map along with the elevation profile.

It was a short hike at only 5.3 km. Max elevation was 7,124 feet and minimum elevation was 6,592, for a net gain of 532 feet. Total ascent/descent was 714 feet.

Back at the parking lot, it was still early, and since we’re already so close, we headed over to Takakkaw Falls.

Feeling like Italian for dinner, we called the Chateau Lake Louise and got a table at Lago for this evening. Our meals were great, as usual, and I think I had just enough pepper!

Day 7 – Hiking at Lake O’Hara

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Dave Hodson

Lake O’Hara has a reputation for being one of the best hiking destinations anywhere. The area consists of several glacial alpine lakes, set up high in hanging valleys, surrounded by glaciers and waterfalls, with Lake O’Hara as the central point. A beautiful network of hiking trails interconnect these destinations, resulting in some scenery overload. Experience the power of positive change with antabuse – your partner in breaking free from the cycle of alcohol dependency. Take the first step towards a brighter, healthier future today.

Lake O’Hara itself is at a fairly high elevation, which means you don’t need to hike that far up to get above treeline and into some fantastic views. However, it is a very fragile area, with an extremely short growing season for the plants, so to minimize human impact on the area, Parks Canada sets strict quotas on the people that can access the area every day. Getting to Lake O’Hara requires either tickets to the Parks Canada bus, or a boring hike up an 11 km dusty old fire access road. Bicycles and private vehicles are not permitted on the road. For most people, it’s not practical to spend much of the day hiking in (and possibly back out) before you can even get to start one of the amazing hikes, which all begin at Lake O’Hara (although some keen hikers do make the trek in). For the lucky few that get bus tickets, you get an experience that feels like you’re in the backcountry, with very few other hikers around, surrounded by only nature and great views.

Bus tickets went on sale on April 20 at 8AM mountain time, and the entire allotment for the season was essentially gone in less than a minute. While tens of thousands of hopeful hikers were disappointed, we managed to luck into not one, but two days of tickets! Today is the first of our days here.

Not wanting to take any chances at missing our bus, we had an early buffet breakfast at the Poppie Brasserie at the Chateau, had the valet bring our van around, and we were on our way. It’s not a long drive to the Lake O’Hara parking area, but we planned to arrive about 30 minutes early, since delays from highway construction and long freight trains do happen. We checked in on arrival, and sat on the bus for about 20 minutes of bumps before reaching the Le Relais Day Use Shelter at Lake O’Hara.

The skies are still hazy from the BC fires, but at least the smoke isn’t as thick as it was earlier in our trip. Since there was a chance of views, we wanted to do one of the alpine hikes. Our plan was to hike up to Lake Oesa, passing a number of smaller lakes and waterfalls along the way, and then have lunch there. The next section of the hike was to take the Yukness Ledges Alpine Route around to the next valley, and emerge at Hungabee Lake. From there, we would take the East Opabin Trail back down to Lake O’Hara, and follow the Lakeshore Trail back to Le Relais where we would meet the bus back to the car. I’ve highlighted our planned route in orange on the trail map below.
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We crossed the bridge at the outlet stream from Lake O’Hara, and followed the Lakeshore Trail around.

About three-quarters of the way along the far side of the lake, the trail to Lake Oesa branched off to our left, and started to climb.

There were lots of places to stop for photos, with great scenery in all directions.

Here we are, pausing for a short break.

The trail building here is really a work of art. The trails are easy to follow, and built into the surrounding nature using the natural stones along the way.

There were several waterfalls along the way, as the water flowed from one lake to another. This fall is coming down from Victoria Lake and toward Yukness Lake.

It was another nice spot to stop for a photo.

Here we are, arriving at Victoria Lake.

You can see on the other side of Victoria Lake, the Yukness Ledges alpine route we will later follow, but we will arrive at it from the other side of the lake, after we visit Lake Oesa. But, there is a shortcut trail that we could take here, if we wanted to skip Lake Oesa and trail of scree at the start of the alpine route.

We continued following the trail up to Lake Oesa, which isn’t much further from here.

About 3.8 km into our hike, and about 830 feet above Lake O’Hara, we are arriving at Lake Oesa.

Up here at Lake Oesa, it seemed to be very hazy. It’s like the smoke blows into the valley and gets stopped by the wall of mountains at the back of the lake, and the haze just sits there!

We rested here for a bit, had some sandwiches for lunch, and then continued on our way.

Shortly after leaving Lake Oesa, we dropped down to cross over the outlet stream below the small falls exiting the lake.

Apparently, there’s a lot of photo opportunities here!

After a short climb down to Lake Lefroy, we started back up again, but this time, up a scree slope toward the Yukness Ledges.

This is looking across to Lefroy Lake, which is the small lake below Lake Oesa but above Victoria Lake.

And continuing up the scree…

After leaving the scree and turning to large rocks, the trail passed the shortcut back down to Victoria Lake. It then turned left and followed a series of ledges around Mount Yukness. Here’s Yukness Lake immediately below, with Lake O’Hara further below in the background.

We continued following the trail, which contoured up and down, and varying from scree to rock ledges to large boulders.

Came across a pair of hoary marmots on the rocky slope below us.

At this point, we’re getting close to Hungabee Lake, and are on the other side of Mount Yukness from Lake Oesa.

You can see Hungabee Lake coming into view just ahead and below us.

From this spot on the trail, we have a nice view of the moraine on which Opabin Lake sits, just above Hungabee Lake. We visited Opabin Lake last year, coming up the West Opabin Trail, and stopping at Opabin Prospect and Moor Lakes on our way, before descending to Lake O’Hara by way of the same trail we plan to take today.

Now we just have to descend the boulder field to get to Hungabee Lake.

We rested for a bit on the rocks beside Hungabee Lake and had a small snack. Here is Nadine cooling off her feet in the lake.

Doing a quick time check, we decided to get going back down the East Opabin Trail to Lake O’Hara to try to make the 4:30 bus out. I would have preferred to take the west trail, which I consider to be far more scenic than the east, and make a detour over to Opabin Prospect, but we probably would have had to wait for the 6:30 bus if we went that way.

After hiking the gentle trail down the Opabin Plateau, we soon entered the trees and followed the switchbacks down through the forest.

Arriving at the shoreline of Lake O’Hara, we turned left and followed the lakeshore back to the trailhead.

You can see the Seven Veil Falls across the lake, which we went up at the end of our hike last year.

This seemed like a great spot to rest!

And here we are back at the beginning of our hike. The photo below shows the cabins of Lake O’Hara lodge in the foreground on the other side of the little bay in front of us. At the back of the lake you can see the Seven Veil Falls. In the centre of the photo is Mount Yukness, which we hiked around. We went up the valley on the left, where Lake Oesa sits. On the right is the Opabin Plateau, where we returned from.

And a few more perspectives of the same…

This is the Le Relais day use shelter, where they have some really nice carrot cake to enjoy while waiting for the bus.

We took the bus back to the parking lot, and drove back into Alberta and up to Lake Louise. After getting cleaned up, we enjoyed another nice dinner in the Lakeview Lounge.

With every hike we take, I like to keep a GPS track recording so I can later visualize where we went. Here are some images of GPS track, starting with an overview of the entire area.

Below is an overview of the entire hike, but zoomed in on the area covered.

Following are some zooms of various sections of the hike.

For those of you who would like them, I’ve uploaded our GPS track files here for download.

Below is our hike overlaid on a topographic map of the area a corresponding elevation graph below.

Our total distance covered was 10.6 km. Our minimum elevation was 6,614 feet and maximum elevation was 7,579 feet, for a net elevation gain of only 965 feet. Total elevation gain and loss was 1,444 feet, after accounting for the various sections of going up and down.

Day 6 – Banff to Lake Louise

Posted on August 21, 2018 by Dave Hodson

We’re now at the mid-way point of the trip, and it is time to leave the Banff Springs Hotel, and make our way up to the Chateau Lake Louise!

After getting packed and checked-out, we headed west on the Bow Valley Parkway. The skies are still hazy, but clearer than they were when we last drove this road up to Johnston Canyon a few days ago.

Passing by the Castle Mountain viewpoint, we stopped to stretch our legs and look around. At least you can see there is a mountain there today!

When we arrived at Morant’s Curve near the top of the parkway, it was clear that a lot of work has been done here, improving the road and the parking area. I remember this section of road being closed when were here earlier this year, and I’m guessing this was why.

This scenic stretch of railway has been used many times in promotional images for the CPR. In the background, you can pick out the famous mountains Fairview, St. Piran, Niblock, Whyte and Aberdeen that surround Lake Louise in the hazy background.

We continued up the road and into the Village of Lake Louise, stopping for a bit of shopping at Wilson’s on the way, and then continuing up the hill to the hotel. It seems I end up buying things here on every trip. Pulling into the driveway of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, the valet had our car unloaded quickly, we received our room keys, and were on our way to get settled.

I have to thank Alex at the Chateau, who never disappoints, and hooked us up with a great room. We had booked a Two-Bedroom Lakeview Suite, and he put us in 659/657/661. The suite consists of 3 different room numbers, but they all open up to form a single suite, as seen on the floor plan below.

I’ve drawn a yellow circle around the 6 large windows that comprise our rooms on the hotel photo below.

We were welcomed by this nice surprise in the room, in addition to a nice plate of local game meats and cheeses.

The suite consists of a main salon area, with great views out in all directions.

Off the main salon, are 2 large bedrooms, also with a great view of the lake. Here are some photos of the master bedroom, with King bed and a large bath.

The other bedroom was set up with a pair of Queen beds, which could be good for larger families.

In addition to a full bath off of each bedroom, even the main salon had it’s own full bath. We have everything we need!

After getting settled, we headed down to the Lakeview Lounge for lunch, and got a nice table on the patio, with a pretty great view!

We finished lunch, and decided to walk the lakeshore trail to the end of Lake Louise and back. There’s no need for a large hike today, as we’re scheduled to go to Lake O’Hara for the next two days!

Here’s Brian taking a rest.