Hiking the Canadian Rockies, July 2013

We visited Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta Canada.  The Canadian Rockies are incredible, and very different from the US Rockies.  Hiking is an adventure, always need to carry (and know how to use) bear spray, decent camera, sunglasses & sunscreen, bug repellant, rain gear, and plenty of water & snacks.  And need to be prepared to deal with aggressive hikers, uninformed/unprepared tourists, and horse do-do on the trail. Some of the best trails were closed for bear (black & grizzly) 'browse'; they're munching buffalo berries by the ton (literally) in preparation for hibernation.

This is a long blog, but we want to share the beauty of these delightful hikes we enjoyed.  This first series of pictures is from Lake Minnewanka near the town of Banff.

We left our camp near the town of Banff and traveled north to just south of Jasper.  We absolutely LOVED the town and the area and wish we had much more time there -- we only had 3 full days, but we got in some great hikes. The first hike was just outside town, on the Overview Trail, which indeed had great views of both the town and the lakes in the valley; it was a pretty good climb from the valley floor to the view points.  Getting rained on was becoming the norm; you can see the clouds moving in in the pictures.

Over looking Jasper town

Looking down on the lake

The second day took us to Maligne Canyon, a very popular and busy hike but well worth dealing with lots of people on the trail.  It's an absolutely gorgeous canyon!

We then went up-canyon to Maligne Lake, the headwaters of the river that runs through the canyon.  The beauty surpassed our expectations and we were so glad to have taken the extra time to go on up; it was a LONG day!

That was our second day in the area.  The last day we did the Valley of Five Lakes hike.  This is five pristine, turquoise lakes that are all connected, each draining into the next as the valley runs downhill.  Every lake was a treasure!

 

 

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

 

 

Number 4

Number 5

We left Jasper and headed back south to Lake Louise, a tiny and popular tourist town.  We were lucky to snag a campsite in the NP camp there, as we did all through the Canadian Rockies.  They're just fine camps and inexpensive, and also in high demand -- I never dreamed how many RVs are out there & in Canada the rental RV business must be huge.  We only had 2 nights/1 full day at Lake Louise so we made the best of it by hiking around Lake Louise and up the Plain of Six Glaciers trail to almost where the glacier valley begins.  This was another breath-taking hike, with frequent weather changes -- hot & sunny, cold & rainy, too many horses & their do-do to avoid, and a fair amount of hikers.  These pictures are illustrative of the trek, bottom of the trail to near the top.

from the trail around Lake Louise - heading to the snow field at the top

rugged terrain

stream flowing off a glacier

me, still smiling!

more clouds moving in

Lake Louise from high on the trail

And that was that.  We had to leave the Canadian Rockies and start our trek back south.  Next stop: Skoomkumchook in the Kootenay River Valley in southeastern British Columbia.