Yoho and Banff National Parks

Mount Stephen from the Yoho Valley Road

Kathy and I spent our first day in the Canadian Rockies visiting Yoho National Park. Yoho is a 30 minute drive from Lake Louise.

Our warm-up hike for our visit was up the Iceline Trail.  We started at 5000 foot elevation and climbed to 7400 feet.

This trail took us up to some small glaciers and clearly above the tree line.

The elevation gain was a little aggressive for a first day in the mountains hike.  Fortunately for me Kathy was still smiling as we prepared to turn-a-round for the trip down. In the background is Takakkaw Falls.  The third tallest falls in Canada.

Space alien on Iceline trail.

A better view of Takakkaw Falls and the glacier that feeds it.

After lunch we traveled to the Emerald Lake Road.  Our first stop was the Natural Bridge.  Before the river cut through the rock this was a water fall.  A daring soul can walk across the natural bridge.

I like the contrast between the patterns in the rock and the movement in the water.

Easy to see how Emerald Lake gets it's name.  This lake wasn't near as crowded as Lake Louise or Moraine Lake in Banff.  There is a nice level three mile hike around the lake. 

Emerald Peak shot from the Emerald River.

We spent our second day in Banff.  Our first hike of the day was at Sunshine Meadows.  We road a bus from 5000 to 7200 foot elevation. Beat the three mile hike of the first day to get to 7200 plus elevation. There were lots of wildflowers in the meadows and three nice lakes for reflections.  Since we caught the first bus of the day there weren't many people here yet. This is Rock Island Lake.

Looking for a handout.  The fines are very steep for feeding animals in the National Parks.  As Kathy and I went through customs we were warned not to feed the animals or speed in the parks.  He should have talked to his country men about the speeding part.

A pink Indian Paint Brush.

More common Indian Paint Brush.

I liked the composition.

This was Bear lake. Fortunately we didn't run into any bears while we were out hiking.  Kathy has her bear bell and both of us were carrying bear spray.

Mid-morning reflection.

There were lots of insects in the meadows.  Almost every flower has some insect looking for nectar.  We like these insects much more than the mosquitoes and horse flies that weren't looking for nectar.

After a great lunch in Banff we headed to Johnston Canyon.

Johnston Canyon is a hour drive up the Bow River Parkway from Banff.  This canyon can be quite crowded from 10:00 to 4:00.

There are lots of pretty waterfalls along the trail.

There are walkways along the canyon so you are never too far away from the water.

I used my variable neutral density filter quite a bit on this trip to get slower shutter speeds so I capture the swirls in the water.  For the non camera folks a ND filter reduces the amount of light that a camera sensor sees so the shutter stays open longer.

Another water fall.

We finished our hiking for the day having walked about 9 miles but most of it was on level ground.

The next blog will cover the Icefields Parkway and Jasper National Park.