Leaving Montana, USA and entering British Columbia, Canada (at Roosville, on the north-west side of Glacier NP)
Our first hike in the Canadian Rockies: Johnston Canyon (all signs are in two languages in Canada: English and French). This is north of Banff - the well-known resort town in the Can. Rockies. This canyone has two beautiful waterfalls.
On our way to the lower Falls; to get there they constructed a “cat walk.”
The Lower Falls and…..
…. the Upper Falls.
Us at the top of the Upper Falls
After a few more kilometers of hiking up the mountain, you get to so-called Inkpots. These are ponds with water of various shades of blue caused by sediments in cold water that bubbles up from the bottom.
One of these Inkpots
My attempt to take a photo of water bubbling up from the bottom
Banff: the Bow Falls (in – you guessed it - the Bow River)
Lake Louise another well-known area in the Can. Rockies, some 60km north of Banff. We tried biking for a change (and that in rainy weather); plus, we had to climb in low gear for 4km to reach the lake…..
But we are not faint-hearted and biked another 13km and climbed another 350 meters to Moraine Lake. As the name implies, it was created by rocks deposited by a glacier, eons ago. This created a dam in the river and thus the lake. Above you see that natural dam.
In front of Moraine Lake at about 1850m above sea level. The mountain view in the background was used on the Canadian $20 bill.
Looking back for another beautiful vista of the mountains around Moraine Lake; we were now descending, easy but cold, especially our hands
Lake Louise again, the following day; this time at the start of our hike to the Victoria glacier, seen in the distance in an area called Plain of Six Glaciers. The lake is at about 1700m; the viewpoint close to the glacier is at 2200m. The distance one-way is about 6.5km. So it’s a pretty good climb.
On the way, we saw rock climbers at work; this is not for us…..
It’s June 24, summer is 3 days old, but there is still snow on the trail at 1900m.
The great reward for making it to the glacier viewpoint: a tea house at 2100m that serves delicious chocolate cake. Very civilized (it reminded us of Austria and Switzerland).
Sitting on a pile of moraine (rocks left behind by the glacier during the ice age) for a good view. The Victoria Glacier is the one at the top of the picture. You can see the ice wall from which large pieces break off and tumble down. We witnessed one and heard another. This is as close you can get to it by using the trail which ends here. We are at 2200m. Pictures of just 70 years ago show that there was a lot more snow in this area……
Looking in the opposite direction: Lake Louise in the distance; fed by the melting snow from various glaciers
Clark’s Nutcracker is the name of this bird. (Named for Clark, of the Lewis and Clark discovery expedition of the early 1800s, mentioned in one of my previous blogs.)
Crossing another snow field on our way down
And more rock climbing; always fun to watch.
Total hiking time, including our break of chocolote cake: 6 hours….
June 25, still around Lake Louise: Mirror Lake, on our way to the second teahouse
The weather could have been better….
After climbing almost 500m to the tea house at 2150m, our reward: soup and sandwich
Lake Agnes (next to the tea house)
Our final hike in the Lake Louise area: climbing over the moraine dam by Moraine Lake on our way to Consolation Lake (we don’t make up these names)
Consolation Lake reached in less than one hour as there was little climbing involved
A visitor looking for hand-outs: Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (it looks like a chipmunk but it’s larger and has stripes only on its sides, not on his back….
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